I LIKE IT

We have been going for daily walks for some time now since we feel much better and it is warming up, less snow and ice on the ground, fewer rain drops to dodge, less traffic on the roads and it is actually kind of nice to walk down the streets and through the local nature trails and greet people who are also out walking, strolling and ambling. What is most unusual is the sheer number of families with small children who out walking or biking together. They're everywhere here in Shaker Heights and probably in most other areas that don't have democratic misrule and abuse.

I myself don't know what happens to the chinese virus once it gets six feet away from it's mouth/nose of issue but that seems to be the commonly accepted distance at which point the virus all either slam to the ground at warp 10 or explode in tiny little puffs of harmless dissolution which brings peace, satisfaction and a sense of great tranquility to all who also believe in the Easter Bunny and Tooth Fairy.

It's nice to get out and watch the bald eagles soar overhead alongside the blue herons, red tailed hawks, red-wing blackbirds and a host of ducks and geese and other adventurers we seldom see as we drive between one place and another. They're a lot more visible when we both take it slow.

I've never tried to keep a birding book but I could be tempted this year. I now walk with someone who doesn't automatically label everything with wings as either a robin or a duck and knows every bird by name except the more exotic woodpeckers we have around here. They're a flighty bunch and tend to hide on the far side of the tree when they do land in the forest.

It's about time, just need a little bit of warmer weather, to make the trailer hitch lights in my car work again and then perhaps finally trailer the boat down to the river or lake and launch the Indefatigable here in its new home port and perhaps sail up the river and try to argue with an 880 foot long Lake Freighter about right of way in the narrow winding waters of the lower Cuyahoga River. Sailors tend to think from a young age that they always have the right of way in any collision with machine powered vessel. They are so often wrong but seldom live to learn from their mistakes. I'm a somewhat older sailor and have had that nonsense beaten out of my system. On the gripping hand, I also have a pirate flag around here somewhere....