A Walk In The Cold

Ben and I have been trying to get up early enough to go for a walk in the mornings the past few days.

It started Thursday morning.  We forgot to take the garbage out Wednesday evening (again!  Mom Turner keeps telling us they never remember either, but they also get up earlier than we do and do not end up racing out of bed to get the trash to the curb ahead of the truck...at least, so I assume...) and Ben had gotten up a bunch with Grandma Lila, so I got up early Thursday, got dressed, and did the routine of emptying all the trash cans and taking the trash to the curb. I had felt sort of fuzzy and headachey when I got up, but the few minutes trotting back and forth taking the trash cans to the curb cleared the cobwebs and made me feel much better.  I came in and stuck my cold nose on Ben's cheek and said, "Wanna go for a walk?"

I was half joking.  He's asked me if I want to go for a walk a couple times in the past two weeks, but he keeps asking when I'm so tired I'm ready to take a nap.  I sort of wondered if asking him the morning he was pretty tired from being up a few times would make him groan at me and say, "Go away!" but to my surprise he pried one eyelid open, grinned, and said, "Sure!"  He then got up and put his jeans and sweatshirt on and we went for a walk.  And it was very nice.  The whole morning felt much more relaxed and productive.  I think maybe we get oxygen-deprived being in the house all the time and breathing fresh air for a while makes us a little more with-it than we would be otherwise.

Since then, we've been going for a walk in the morning right when the sun is coming up.  I'm used to being out early in the summer, but I don't think I've ever been out early in the winter like that.  The weirdest thing is the lack of birdsong.  It's so quiet.  There aren't even many dogs out, so it feels almost like we have the whole neighborhood to ourselves - if we ignore the squirrels, anyway.  The other morning we saw clear raccoon prints crossing our front yard.  The disturbing thing about that, by the way, was that they completely vanished right in the middle of our driveway.  I'd really like to know where the little critter went - I sort of gingerly checked out our garbage cans just to see if it might be taking up residence in there by any chance, but no results.

One thing's for sure, though: if we maintain this as a habit - and it seems a pretty good habit to have - I'm going to have to get a hat.  Boy, do my ears get cold after twenty minutes walking briskly around the neighborhood!  I think they stay red for another hour after we get home...