Today went just about exactly how I wanted it to go. I woke up before the alarm, and spent a little time lounging in bed. I didn’t really remember any of my dreams from the night before, but for once I woke up feeling rested.
Next on the list was breakfast. I went with cereal and milk plus two boiled eggs left from the week. After I had those two eggs crack last week, I didn’t eat all of them. I actually still have one left to eat, but I’ll probably just do three eggs tomorrow. I followed breakfast with exercises, and then it was just about time for family zoom.
My dad showed off a bunch of pictures that he’d scanned from our old house in Winfield. That was pretty much the entire hour, no time for updates on current events. I enjoyed looking at the pictures, but I wanted to catch my brother up on what was going on so I asked to be made host when my dad left so I could talk to my brother. He’s knocking on wood for me to have my petition granted now that he knows about it.
Then I went for a hike. I was pleasantly surprised by the amount of snow on the road to the Brownlee Campground. Out of an abundance of caution, I decided to park at the campground and then walk up towards the trailhead. The walk is a little less than a mile from site 8 (which is next to the privy). I might try camping there some time and doing an early morning start to hike Brownlee Mountain.
I had to walk carefully because I hadn’t brought my traction devices, and the snow that had been compressed by tires was quite slick in places. I had one slip on the way to the privy that taught me that lesson real quick. When I arrived at the trailhead I was surprised to see a vehicle parked up there. Even more surprising, when I started to hike along the road, I saw tracks. A pair of boots and a set of paws heading up the road. No prints heading back. I wondered if I’d meet up with the owner of the boots. I guessed that the owner was a woman because the tracks were hardly larger than my own boots. Not like Ambrose’s, which were a lot bigger than mine.
The road didn’t climb very much after the switchback at the trailhead. I had a good pace going on. I figured I’d hike out two miles or so. There were some great views of the valley back towards 71. And I spotted my loop on the other side of the campground road, where the trail met the road. As the road climbed, I saw the other hiked in the distance coming down, along with one dog. I had thought by the number of paw prints that there might be two dogs, but there was just one.
When we got closer, I could see the dog was a beautiful German Shepherd, and the woman was well outfitted for the weather. She held her dog back from greeting me with too much enthusiasm, and we chatted for a bit. When she learned I was also from Cambridge, we decided to exchange contact information. It’s always nice to have a hiking buddy. I like hiking in solitude, but maybe I don’t have to do that all the time.
I was quite cheered to have met another woman hiking up here. And a local one, too. It gave me renewed energy, and I ended up turning back at about 2.5 miles. Even with having to watch my footing, I made very good time going back down, with only a few near slips – no falls.
When I got home, I showered and then got right to work. First up, a load of laundry, including the hiking clothes. Then I chopped up vegetables (yellow onion, orange bell peppers, jalapenos) and mushrooms and started my week’s eggs boiling. Once all the veg was chopped, I dumped it into a pan with some olive oil to cook a bit. Not thoroughly, but just a bit. Then I sliced up a can of Spam, and started the oven pre-heating.
I found that I had just enough oats for this week, which is good because the next box of oats won’t be here until Thursday. I used chia seeds this week, and I chopped up some variety dried fruit instead of using raisins for a change of pace. Once the oven was heated, I set up my tortilla-pizza. One whole wheat tortilla, a spread of pasta sauce, 100 grams of veggies, 56 grams of Spam, almost 50 grams of cheese (mozzarella, parmesan, and cheddar). Into the oven for 5 minutes.
I wasn’t quite done prepping the oats when the timer went off though, so I let it go another three minutes and then turned the oven off and let it sit while I finished breakfast prep. Once I got all the oats in the fridge, I settled in to eat my pizza. It was quite tasty, though I think I’m going to try doing it in a frying pan tomorrow to see if I can get a crispier crust. The edges of this one were crispy, but it was very soggy in the middle. I needed utensils to eat it.
After I ate, I loaded the dishwasher with all my prep dishes and got it running. That felt so good, that I then went and scrubbed my bathtub. And, after a short break for some video games, I finally got around to getting all the little rocks off my kitchen and entryway floor. I’ve just been stepping on and around them for weeks now. It was time. I vacuumed the floor and took my rugs outside for a little beating. And then I put up the now clean and dry laundry before getting a little more writing done on Day 3.
All in all, a very productive day. I am still grieving. Still learning what it means to be by myself and without him. But I am able to move better now. To navigate these waters. To breathe and keep swimming.
