Say what? Tell stories? Might as well. I have been a bit off track. I gained a couple pounds but that ain't too bad when I think about it. I did get down to a twenty year minimum a few days ago so it isn't like I have established a new "trajectory." I will probably be on track today.

Heh. I am always thinking about my little buddy. Yeah, you know the one. I don't know if you guys have ever watched the movie "Little Boy." It is on Netflix. My little buddy looks kind of like little boy only he can't walk and he can't talk. I miss the little guy. School has been out for a week so I didn't get to see him.

My wife and I ran into his mom at walmart a few days ago. I was telling her the walker walking story, you know, incorporating additional detail about how "Buddy" found her in the library when she was doing the Book Fair. I didn't tell her much about it right then when we were actually in the library.

Walker walking, you guys remember the walker walking story right?

But anyway Buddy's mom didn't seem too surprised when I told her about how buddy could find her in a somewhat complicated of architecture and how insistent he was about going to see her. Of course his insisting was the body language of him pulling me away from the route I normally take him on.

But his mom told me that they always take him with the when they go to Home Depot. You know, for some walker walking. When you think about it, Home Depot has nice wide unobstructed aisles and is kind of a maze but with a nice predictable geometric order to it.

But anyway Buddy has some siblings, sisters I think, and I guess one of the sisters will accommodate Buddy's meanderings in Home Depot until she figures it is time to go. Then she tells him, "where is mom? Let's go find mom." So I kind of think that is where Buddy gets his talent with respect to spatial orientation.

I always like thinking about that little guy. He keeps my thoughts from meandering down my usual cynical pathways.

Think about this. Hey, what are you going to think about when you are exercising? Music is nice. You gotta have an IPOD pushing songs into your brain to kind of occupy it but that doesn't stop you from thinking. For my exercise I always go climbing. I get up before it is even light, put my mountain bike on the roof of my car and drive for about twenty minutes. That gets me to a place where not many people go. It is a scrabbly dirt road that mountain bikers don't even like. Your legs have to be strong enough to where you can mostly hold yourself away from the saddle. It is rocky and rutted. You don't want multiple hours of that kind of repetitive stress punching into your tailbone. And it climbs, climbs, climbs. I usually only do 2,000 feet. But if I am feeling ambitious there is an option for another 2,000 feet. I don't do that full ride all that often though.

But there ain't nothing to do but think when you are climbing.

So I thought about this. Why is it that guys like climbing up a big hill and then going down it? Is that like archetypal or what? (I always wanted to use archetypal in a sentence or a story.)
Think about all of these pastimes that involve going up a hill then enjoying some creative and fun way of going down it. Skiing, skateboarding, bicycling. Skydiving, heh, now there is a hill for you.

Guys? I am mistaken when I say guys because what otherwise comes to mind is a little girl. This little girl is like five years old and she is so tiny. I never weighed her but I think maybe she weighs twenty pounds. I have caught fish bigger than her.

She can't walk. She can't talk. But she has a sound that I associate with her. She hums. You know, I think she is kind of singing to herself. I get it. Think about this. When you hum you can kind of create a sensation or vibration in your body. You know, kind of like those yogi gurus saying ommmm.

But when the little girl does it she sounds like a bumble bee. If I was to give her a nickname, I would think, she is my little bumble bee.

But like anyone, she likes to go outside. So I put her into her wheelchair. It is kind of a tiny wheelchair but she is even tinier so she sits cross legged in it rather than how you would expect. I fix her to it with seat belt and shoulder straps. We go outside.

I push her out to a place where there is a little stretch of playground blacktop. I let her go where she wants. She can wheel herself around pushing on those wheels, you know just like those wheelchair guys do. I watch her and stay close enough that she doesn't go off of the edge or get stuck or anything.

But watch what she does. She found a little slope in that blacktop. I think there might be an eight or ten inch rise in about a fifteen foot stretch of that blacktop. Look at her! She wheels herself up that little rise, turns around, and gives her wheels a gentle shove and she glides down that gentle slope, smiling, humming like a bumble bee.

I always stay a few feet in front of her so that I am between her and the edge or any irregularity in the blacktop, so she is always coming to me. She gets to me and smiles a victorious looking smile and sticks her hands up as though she wants to be picked up. But that ain't what she wants exactly. It is part of her expression of joy. She turns around and pushes back up the little slope.

My little Bumble Bee.

NOVEMBER 27
I, too, am off to bed as soon as I get this soup cooled off enough to put in the fridge.
- Exercise - Yes - 2.79 mile Greenway walk, with a bit of s l o w j o g g i n g mixed in.
- Tracking - Yes
- Calories - Yes - 26 to spare

@bocasdelbob - thanks for the stories about your buddies! I like to listen to music when I run, and have also been listening to a lot of podcasts. A few times recently, I have put on a Netflix standup comedian's special and listened to that. I may be quite the sight, laughing out loud as I run along.

Welcome home @RangerRickL. Nice choice of pics. You have been to some great places, but it is always wonderful to come home as well.

Got in some walking today. Set my ankle back with my skiing adventure this week, but I will heal. Will have to spin tomorrow.

Food ok today.