I was reading a new blog, and one of her rants was that folks spend waaay too much time bemoaning what they don't get done and not enough time and energy celebrating what they DO get done. Point made. This will be about what I have done the past couple of days.
I did buy the Jeep. It wasn't quite as smooth a process as I had hoped. For one thing, the salesman implied that the Jeep would be waiting for me when I got there even though it was from another dealer 'down the road'. Turns out, after Mom came and got me and we went all the way to Gallatin (should have read the address better...) that it was in Georgia and I had to sign the paperwork before they could get it sent up here. I could have done that the night before without bothering Mom. sigh. Well, paperwork signed, he called to get the Jeep, and it was already sold. I sat there. This was his problem to work out. He wandered by a few times asking about differnt color Jeeps, and yellow was the only one I turned down. He called and finangled. Finally, I ended up with a white Jeep. I think that the dealership didn't make as much money as the original one would have gotten them, but he kept to his original price quoted me. I got an ok deal, and drove the Jeep home that night after all.
I went running around Saturday getting more comfortable driving the Jeep. It's a 6 speed manual shift, and with 6 gears instead of 5 it shifts in odd places. Also, reverse has been interesting to find on a routine basis. I wanted a road trip, so called Nancye and invited myself up to their place to show off my new toy. For my efforts Nancye treated me to supper of home made vegetable soup. She called it 'simple' in that she apparently didn't spice it up as much as usual, but it really hit the spot for me. I don't get home made stuff much. More on that later...
Yesterday the weather looked to be the best it will be while I'm off work this week, so I got up early and headed over to the Great Smokey Mountains National Park to do a day hike. This was a tradition at one time that I did on Christmas Day. The weather had a habit of turning cold and snowing about then, and since I didn't have 4WD on my truck I couldn't get up to the trail head a few times. Now that I have a truck with 4WD, I took off. I got to the trail head a little after noon. There was snow, and I shifted into 4WD at one point, more just because I could than that I needed it. I realized just before Knoxville on the way over that I had forgotten my hiking poles, and had thought about getting some at a WalMart, but didn't take the time to stop. As I was walking to the trail from the parking lot I tripped over the curb in the snow and fell. I had enough padding on that it didn't hurt, except for my left hand, which I came down hard on. It didn't feel broken, but did hurt. I nursed it as I went up the trail.
I could tell immediately that I am way out of shape. My hiking boots didn't get much traction in the places that had hard-packed snow. I stopped every few minutes to rest, nurse my hand, moan and groan, and then give thanks that I was alone so that I could be as pitiful as I wanted and no one else needed to be inconvenienced. There was a lot of people on the trail, including small children. This wasn't some hard-core adventure experience. I decided that I'd hike an hour and take stock. I made it 45 minutes. Besides my hand, my lower GI was starting to cramp up and I was not having fun. I headed back down.
I made it to the Visitor's Center before the stomach cramps put me in an embarrassing situation, but just barely. I was in the restroom for quite a while. Feeling better, back at the truck I ate the other half of my sandwich I'd bought at the gas station on the way over, opened the gorp, and pulled out the water bottle I'd been drinking from. I decided to head to Cade's Cove since I haven't been there in about 10 years. After about a half hour, when I wasn't there yet, I turned around and decided that I was ready to head home after all. Just as I got back to the Visitor's Center, my cramps started again, and I rushed to the restroom. After that, I decided no more food until I was home to my own bathroom.
This morning, I slept in. I'm taking the week off from work, so I'm enjoying it. I am sore. Now my entire left arm is sore, which makes sense since I did come down hard on the entire arm. The soreness in my hand and arm don't keep me from doing anything, and I can obviously type just fine. I'm thinking that some Alieve will make this all better soon. Now to get back to working on the house. And, I will start taking better care of myself. Including cooking here at home. And getting out for more walks.
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