All things must pass. For close to 15 years now my buddy Robert Willey and I have walked around St. Mary’s Lake on MLK Day (click here.)
However, this year we didn’t make it due to some previously scheduled medical appointments in the a.m. that took precedence. So we skipped it and even though I have some mixed emotions, I’m glad we did so because I really wasn’t up for it this year.
Robert walks several miles daily throughout the year. I am not that dedicated. However, knowing that our 3rd Monday in January appointment approaches, I will usually time my walking exercises for the first of each year. I start the 1st of each January full of New Year’s resolve and do a mile or two each day and work my way up to the 5-6 mile range to be ready to take on the MLK 7 mile hike.
This year I started out ok, walking a little each day. However, when the temps got down into the teens I said, well you know what I said being from Nantucket. Then we had those rainy days last week and again I skipped doing any walking. When it comes to exercise, my catch phrase is “Je suis lazy.”
So when Robert began explaining to me the other day that he and his wife Iris had some medical appointments set for Monday that they couldn’t re-schedule, he made it very easy for me to agree that cancelling our MLK walk was for the best. I didn’t even have to be the one punching out.
Still, I kind of regretted that another tradition had ended. Just for the hell of it then I went to the Lake on Monday and walked a couple miles solo. Made it to the 2 mile pole, turned around and retraced my way back to the parking lot. Of course it wasn’t the same without Robert leading the way, but it was a pleasant hour or so spent in the woods.
Speaking of regrets and walking, did you see where John Kerry took JT with him to try and appease the French for our not sending someone higher up the food chain to their unity march? Had the tables been reversed, wonder who the French would have sent to us?
Only song I know of to ever use the word hypothetical.