1. The Deke and I are working steadily at trying to get all the business taken care of related to living at a new address, helping out with Mom's business, and continuing to make decisions about the house itself. We made progress today -- more address changes in the mail, added more tasks to our list, worked more on figuring out the finances of being retired. We keep encouraging each other that we'll get it all worked out and done. Slow and steady. That seems to be the key.
2. The Deke and I took a walk on this golden and scarlet autumn afternoon down to Cattails Antiques just to look at stuff -- like cast iron products and then we popped into the newly remodeled Sunnyside Drug where I looked at more cast iron products. We found the mailbox outside Stein's and mailed out a stack of address changes, post cards for the grandchildren, and our electric/gas bill and returned home. Neither of us has been out walking much in the past few weeks. I know all my exercise has been from loading boxes, gathering Mom's belongings, and filling garbage bags and hauling them places. I've doing this since late July when we started dealing with Mom's basement and garage and the many weeks have put a strain on my back. The good news is that walking helps ease that strain -- I'm sure flopping around at a pool would, too. We didn't take a long walk this afternoon, but it was a gorgeous stroll and physically therapeutic.
3. In fact, I enjoyed that short walk so much, I took a longer one this evening. The Deke meets up with other women in the Valley at Radio Brewing for beer, conversation, and a class on the subject of beer and at about 7:30 I strode out the door and walked the quiet streets and the many lanes of memories of Kellogg. It's about a one mile walk with a hill to climb from our house to Radio Brewing. It's essentially the same walk I used to take many mornings and evenings to Kellogg Junior High and back. It's essentially the same walk I used to make to go to the YMCA. This evening, however, I wasn't carrying my baritone horn case nor my books and homework papers nor was I carrying a gym bag. What I did carry, though, is the same thing I carried uptown as a teenager: my thoughts. When I was in junior high, I had a lot on my mind and I usually walked to school and to the YMCA by myself and I thought about a lot of things: friends, life at home, sports, where I fit in, my fears of failure, who I feared, who were my buddies -- and I dreamed a lot about playing basketball and baseball -- I imagined a lot of heroic moments. I didn't dream about being a sports hero this evening. Those days are gone. But, I thought a lot about the Deke and me and this huge change in our lives and continued to believe that we'll figure things out and, possibly, before too long, have a bed of our own to sleep in.
This walk was also good for my back.
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