Just Around the River Bend

I'll admit that it's difficult, even for a born walker, to walk miles in this heat- this supremely humid weather with (still) no rain. Where on earth (or up there) is the rain....?

So, I do what I can with physical activity, walking in shorter stints. I drink water left and right. It has been so hot during the day this week. The kind of heat- thick and wet- that feels like it pushes the sweat back into your pores before it can get all the way out, so you just feel heavy, weighed down. That's where diet comes into play...and those lukewarm showers and wading in the river.

Not long ago, I had my third small meal of the day: a colorful salad with spinach, black beans, tomatoes, onions, carrots, and cucumber slices. I throw a little Light Asian Toasted Sesame Dressing on that bad boy, and it's all I can do not to say, "Mmmmm....", so I do, quietly, with Janis adding the soul to my salad in the background. Breakfast was a bowl of Smart Start (my favorite cereal) with light organic soy milk, and for lunch, I had an everything bagel with roasted garlic hummus and some baby carrots dipped in said hummus. Delicious. Nutritious.

The air is significantly cooler now to the skin than it was hours ago, though it's thickness remains. A hot week indeed. The gnats seem to find my laptop screen to be the perfect setting for their nighttime gathering, and it may be coincidence, but one of them appears to following the blinking cursor as I type this paragraph. (He hopped away two words before the end of that sentence).

Mark, the kids, and I had a really super time at the river earlier this evening, and I've put pictures from that adventure, as well as Evan eating his all-green meal, in Galleries. There was stone skipping, splashing, giggling, sending an eagle (goose) feather down river,  a little falling in, and cool water on a sweltering day. Family time. Excellent. I will say this, however: a once clear, beautiful river has turned into a drying, stream of crap. Between this drought and the countless polluters, the main flow of the river is still as lovely as ever, but the river beds are absolutely disgusting.

Oil, trash, chemicals. Not okay. Between the rocks is a shallow pool of orange slime, shimmering like it thinks it belongs there somehow. Rainbows belong in the sky- not in rivers. Take your iridescent sludge and shove it. Have a little respect for what natural beauty there is left on this planet, and leave us some of it. Please and thank you.

The time has come for some very necessary rest. Thank you, Evan and Ayla, for making us laugh and giving us cuddle bugs- even grown ups need some of that.

Until tomorrow's adventure begins, sleep well...be well.