Things I Like.

I gotta tell ya.......you keep me honest. You keep me on track. I came home from a training thingy today at the District Office and I knew I had to get my walk in before it got to hot. NOT going was not even an option in my brain. And I don't think I am being highly Militant Freakshow here. It was just what had to be done today....go for a walk.

Additionally, I only even MADE half a sandwich because I knew with a side salad, I would be too full for a whole sandwich. Which, it turns out, I was right. The half with the salad and a FEW Doritos was just enough. Satisfied, full, content. Not stuffed, not uncomfortable, not ashamed at having eaten food that I knew I didn't really want.

How that does all tie to you?

Well, I thought about what I wanted to post today and I thought some views from my walk might be fun to write about. Which, you know, meant I had to actually go on the walk.

The lunch choice: well, I remembered writing about the wedding this week end and make okay choices (Especially compared to what I have done in the past at these types of events....) and that encouraged me to make a good choice for lunch today.

And finally, my nemesis.......Captain D. I DID want the zingy, the zip, the crunch......but I only had 6 maybe 7 Doritos instead of the gargantuan portion I usually take. All as a result of thinking about what I wrote a couple days ago. This was a time where I did want them and it wasn't just because they were sitting in front of me and I wasn't really thinking about what I was eating. I sure did enjoy them.

So. Here is one thing I enjoy about my longer walk. I have a short one, "in town", that I do. This longer one gets down and dirty out in the country. Well, I am still on a paved road, but you know what I mean. The corn looks really good. That's how you can tell I am country folk.

Whenever we are driving somewhere, inevitably we drive alongside countless fields of corn and soybean, and occasionally hay in various stages of growth, cutting or harvesting. You can tell we are country people, for now, because we say things like, "Boy, the corn looks good, huh?" Or, "Corn could sure use some rain, there, huh?" "Is that the second or third cutting? (Of hay)"

I grew up in the suburbs, so I think it is really cool to see the whole farming process on a daily basis. Not that I am doing any of the work or worrying for "real" about the rain or lack thereof, but I like watching the cycles of life and whatnot.

Which leads me, in a rather long winded way, to this:

I love when you can see the rows.

It makes me think of Farmer Joe, sitting on his Tractor, tilling the fields in the early spring, waiting for the field to be dry enough so as not to muck up all his gear so he can plant. The nice neat row after row. It is weird that I find it.......I don't know.......comforting? Organized? I just like it.

It reminds me of riding in the car either north to my uncles' farms or south to my grandparents' house. Sitting in the back seat of the Woody Stationwagon (But not the way back, that was where my brothers usually were), leaning up against the window, zoning out at the view outside.

When the farmers planted parallel to the road we were on, it was just solid corn that you could run into and get lost. There was something courageous about that. Not that I ever would have done it, but it would have been creating you own private space int he middle of a corn field. Of course, owned by someone else and would have gotten me into high holy hell if I had run off or messed up some one's cornfield.

When they planted perpendicular to the road, you could get lost zoning out on each row and the car zoomed by. My eyes would play games and try and keep up with each row but, of course, my eyes were never fast enough. It is one of those childhood memories burned onto the inside of my brain. That and watch the phone/electricity lines swoop and dance as the car went by.

Here is something that concerns me.

Are those leaves turning colors??!?!?