Slow Day

Sunday, August 13…

Nature path, early on.

I set out early, intending to attend a 9am sacrament meeting, Straightforward directions, but either I got something wrong or the construction detours messed me up. By 9:10 I was teary (I don’t handle failure well) and heading into a Target parking lot. I needed 3 birthday cards (Target has great cards!), and somehow a pair of shoes and 2 pkgs of Pepperidge Farm cookies (Geneva for Greg, Brussels for me) also fell into the cart. When I got back to the MH, Greg took the car for his errands and I took a long walk. (The park covers almost 4200 acres – even a long walk misses a lot.) I attempted to follow a nature trail, but it eventually disappeared in marshland. A sign along the way pictured the various turtles found in Michigan; apparently they were all siesta-ing today. (I wish the mosquitoes had been siesta-ing!)

None of these...

...but plenty of these!
(And the flowers were pretty. )

At home, Greg & I had the newspaper delivered every day. On the road, I try to pick one up on Sundays. Greg loves his comics, I skim the news and editorials, check out the arts section and relax (or struggle) with the puzzles. The Chicago Tribune is probably the largest paper I’ve bought, but not the priciest – that would have been the Worcester (MA) paper @$4.25. Not Boston – Worcester!!  Greg and I took another good walk after supper. Tomorrow we join the commuter rush (or slog - we'll see).

BlogThought...  So this morning's tears were the 2nd little meltdown in the last week or so. It's true that I don't handle personal failure well (esp simple things like finding an address), but the recent week in Seattle also triggered a lot of emotions. I'm not really homesick (really!), but part of me is ready to move on. I'm more of a doer than a coaster. I'm OK. My emotional side is ready to give up this journey and get back to real life, but my intellectual side will still enjoy the new places and knowledge ahead. (And we'll be home in 4 months.)

I'll close with a couple more pics from Saturday's architecture tour.

Some sort of kayaking event in the heart of the city.

This (permanently) raised
bridge is actually a piece
of Chicago public art.