Battle zone

Today's walk was really challenging. It was very windy here. Gusts of maybe 40 mph. It is the beginning of fall and some trees do have leaves dropping. By itself that wouldn't seem too bad but as I shared in my last blog the grasshoppers are very abundant right now too. So when something hits me I don't always know what it was before the screaming and jumping around starts.

Then there are these black walnut trees. The black walnut is surrounded by a hard green shell. The entire thing is a little bigger than a golf ball. When they fall out of the tree and hit the ground there is a loud "THUD". So I assume these little grenades would hurt pretty bad if one of them hit me in the head. With strong winds the odds of that happening seem much greater than on a calm day. But I can't look up too long and prepare for the pending boom because these grenades all over the path, having fallen before I got there. If I were step on one of these wrong I'm sure it would mean a twisted ankle.

There also twigs and "banana shakers" all over the path too. I don't know what you really call the "banana shaker" things that is just my name for them. They look like giant brown pea pods. I don't know what type of tree they fall from and really don't care. They just look like if I were to accidentally step on one I would slip and fall like a bad episode out of the Three Stooges.

Oh and I'm not done yet. You remember when I commented how quiet it was on a few walks a while back. Well today was NOT quiet. In fact, there is one area where there is a line of what I think are Poplar Trees. When the wind whips through them the noise is deafening.

By the time I got home, between the noise, bugs, tree bombs and just general feeling of tiredness I thought about the battle zone it was out there today. Just a mess. In fact, because ground foliage is dying off I can also see litter left by others. And I even saw the half empty bottle of Gatorade from weeks ago. Don't forget about the giant mushrooms. Booby traps, I'm sure of it. Just when you think its safe they are the probably the poisonous kind.

Today's walk was exhausting, for many reasons. Life is kind of like that. You barely can make it through one day without having to dodge this or run from that. But you know what? When it is all over and you made it through, remember the words of Coach Lombardi, "It does not matter how many times you get knocked down, but how many times you get up."