I am waiting to board the final flight (of a 3-leg trip) home after a week in Lake Placid with family. We were up at 3:45am Eastern and land at 4:30pm Pacific. This means my sense of time is totally discombobulated. I managed to get a little sleep on the first two legs of my flight and have been mainlining caffeine in between at both the Philly and Phoenix airports. The net effect has been semi-functionality on the ground and brain-mush in the air. I actually have managed to get some work done in the Phoenix airport, which may make my recovery day tomorrow a little more manageable. Of course, I somehow scheduled 3 things (including a board meeting in the evening) on my recovery day, but that is kind of par for the course for me.
Speaking of par, one of the things I did on my week off was play golf for the very first time in my life (excluding mini golf, of course). I think I managed to do ok for my first time around. I did lose a couple of balls to water hazards (although the second time around it was somewhat deliberate to satisfy my sister-in-law’s request for a splash), but I mostly managed to keep my balls on the fairway. I am not sure golf is my game, but I would be willing to give it another try some time in the future.
I also walked. A lot. 41.7 miles to be exact. And the last .63 miles of the walk always included a steep hill back to the house. I am happy to say that the hill did get easier as the week went on and has inspired me to try the hill up to the second reservoir in Mt. Tabor park. I have a pretty daunting set of hills to get myself to the lower reservoir, so the upper one always seems too out of reach for me to try. However, I am thinking that I will give it a try at least once before I lose the hill muscles I worked so hard to achieve.
In other news I had a great time with my nieces. The younger one is an early bird like me and is usually the first up in her house. That made for some great early morning conversations when she and I were the only ones awake. There were a few days, however, where I left for my walk before she emerged from her bedroom. Those days we generally tried to sneak some time alone out on the porch while everyone else was doing their own thing.
The older one is at that fascinating stage where she vacillates between being a challenging teenager and a sweet and cuddly little girl. This is one of those times when I get to really appreciate being an aunt. I don’t have to deal with the difficulties of having a teenager day in and day out, but I do get to appreciate watching the process as she slowly turns into a young woman.
As nice as it was to spend a week in the Adirondacks, I am looking forward to getting home and seeing our cats. And sleeping in my own bed.