We found these old abandoned cars on our walk. Anybody recognize the make and model? I'd say they are from the late forties...
Kylie being shy...
So this three mile loop will be my staple. With grandiose dreams of climbing Half-Dome in June, panting along today, I realized that this is gonna take a little determination.
For inspiration, I read Ed Abbey's essay last night: "A Walk Through the Desert Hills". Abbey was nuts. Without training, at fifty something years of age, and carrying only two gallons of water--he struck out by himself to walk 125 miles on a Jeep trail through an old bombing range in Arizona. There were only four places to get water, every twenty five miles or so (with no guarantee there would be water when he got there). No towns. No people. No help if he got in trouble. This was done before the age of cell phones and GPS locators. Crazy!
Walking permeates Abbey's essays. And nobody writes better than him about walking (or most anything). Abbey writes:
"But I'll say this for walking: its the one and only mode of locomotion in which a man proceeds entirely on his own, upright, as a human being should be, fully erect rather than sitting on his rear end".
Once again, he is correct.
5 comments:
allan, after an absence from your blog for the past couple of weeks it was a pleasant surprise to find you have embarked on another one. No doubt these adventures will be as interesting as your solar compound. My wife and i try to walk every day when possible, but, living up north being outside sometimes is/nt possible, so, we take to the malls, not for shopping but walking. Kinda hard walking in -30c weather with a wind chill factor taking it down to -40c to -45c. I think i'll join you, your family and lisa on your daily walks, even if its only indoors until the weather warms up here :)
Gary,
I'm glad you are going to join us on this little adventure. We can't really build anything on the solar compound right now. Too cold. So might as well walk.
Mall walking is a great indoor sport. Under-rated if you live in a cold environment. Stay warm!
allan
I just read the book that essay is in a couple months ago--has a couple good ones in there if I recall. My Abbey collection is second only to my Thoreau collection. I've been selling off things for the past year or two and have gotten rid of 2/3 of my books but there was only one of Ed's novels I've been willing to part with so far.
Green,
What Abbey novel found its way onto the cutting room floor?
His novels aren't near as good as his essays. Yet, it would be hard for me to part with any of them (except to loan to a friend).
Hi Allan, I dumped Black Sun which I guess was one of his favorites. I happened to read it for the first time after I started my thinning project so that's why it went.
I completely agree that his nonfiction is better, including some of the letters and journals which have come out.
But you have to keep the Hayduke books, and I like Brave Cowboy & Fire on the Mountain. So the only other possible candidates for selling would be Good News and Fool's Progress--I'd have to reread them before I'd consider it because it's been quite a few years.
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