Saturday, August 20, 2016, writing about Friday

The morning suggested we would get rain. Radar showed it close at hand. But, when I looked outside the windows at noon, the sky seemed lighter than it had an hour ago. I went outside, walked to the north side of the building, where the break room is, and got my bag lunch out of the fridge. Our building is being remodeled, and right now the middle of the building is closed to us. So we have to go outside to go between the north and south parts of the building.

Lunch eaten, I decided to risk the rain and take a walk. One circuit up and down the commercial subdivision road is a half-mile. On days when it’s not too hot I like to do a mile. In these hot days of summer, I walk less, and stay on a shorter route that has more shade than direct sunshine. But on Friday I decided to take the full route. Naturally, as soon as I get a ways away from the building the sun breaks through the clouds. I should have taken the shade route.

I enjoyed the walk, Normally I sing as I walk at noon. The sight distance is good. I can see if anyone is up ahead, and can quit when I need to. Some days I sing oldies; some worship songs; some hymns. I tend to sing songs I’ve written lyrics to. To clarify, I don’t write songs. But from time to time I’ll take the lyrics of a song and either add a verse or improve on them. I like to take secular songs I like and write Christian lyrics to them. Every now and then an idea comes to me on how to improve them, or even for something new. I guess I’ve changed or completely rewritten the lyrics on between 5 and 10 songs.

But on Friday I didn’t feel like singing. I walked in silence, my mind full of the many things I have to do in life, how some were going well, some not so well, none seemingly ever finished. A scheduling problem that needs to be worked out over the next three weeks was up front, dominating my thoughts. I was hoping another person was going to step up and take care of this, but it seems like that’s not going to happen. So the things that will need to be done presented themselves like a to do list in my mind.

I didn’t take time to sing, or to watch the birds go by, or to observe the condition of the vegetation all around me. I suppose work was going on at the large construction site right next to our office complex, but I wasn’t aware of what was going on, so all consuming was the problem I was working through.

But the sun came out more fully, about the time I was on the part of the loop farthest from any trees. I decided I’d just do a half mile. The temperature wasn’t too hot—in the upper 80s, but I still didn’t feel like doing the whole mile.

I got back into the building and immediately had a large cup of cold water, to re-hydrate. The scheduling problem wasn’t fixed. I still had a full afternoon of work at the office, with more work to do when I got home in the evening. But I felt better for walking. I’d burned a few calories, worked my brain.

So what was the point of this blog post? I haven’t added to the collective wisdom of the world. I guess I worked my brain, on a day when I was working my body with menial, occasional tasks. So that’s good.