Day 17

Shelter-In-Place Involuntary Quarantine, Day 17:  I've stopped using the Beltline trail for walking exercise.  Too crowded - the very antithesis of "social isolation."  The Mayor even cracked down and has put hourly restrictions on trail use - 7 am to 11: reserved fro seniors over 65; 11- 2 pm: open for exercise: 2 - 6 pm: pedestrian use for reaching destinations only.  Thanks for the early hours, Mayor (that was sarcastic - I can barely get moving by 11 am, much less get my fat ass on the trail).

Instead, I just walk around the little park across the street from my house.  It's only a ¼-mile loop and if I want to get my former Beltline-level three mile walk in, I'd have to walk around it a dozen times. That would get boring, and besides, I'd lose count ("is that 9 going on 10, or 10 going on 11?").

Instead, I walk the dogs a couple of times a day.  "But wait," you say, "you have cats, not dogs."  I'm not talking canine dogs, the dogs I walk are my feet, as in "boy, my dogs are tired."  I walk my dogs a couple of times around the park a couple of times a day - no leash required, no pooper scooper (at least I haven't needed one yet).  

Picture above is Spring Valley Creek, a tributary to Tanyard Creek, along my walk.  Ironic to see the vernal return of life in this springtime pandemic season.  In a few more weeks, all that undergrowth will completely cover the creek, and the stream will slide unseen beneath all the greenery.  The azaleas below are in a neighbor's yard and are my only picture of the blossoms this year - mine bloomed and fell so quickly, I never got a chance to take, much less post, a picture. 

Zen Master Dogen once said that "flowers, while cherished, fade and weeds, while despised, flourish."  So true this year - the azalea blossoms came and went in two snaps of the finger, but this quarantine season of sheltering in place sometimes seems likes it's lasting forever.