Jogging With A Village Creek Indian Ghost On My Shoulder Looking For An Enchanted Rock

I had myself a mighty fun run today with the Indian Ghosts who haunt Arlington's Village Creek Natural Historical Area.

I stopped briefly at the Village Creek Giant Round Mirror to take a picture of me taking a picture.

In the picture you can clearly see one of the Village Creek Indian Ghosts hovering slightly above my left shoulder.

I am being more than a little surprised at how quickly I have gotten myself back in jogging mode.

Running really is about the most natural exercise a human can do. We are engineered to run. Way back, eons of evolution ago, humans had to be able to run in order to escape from whatever was giving chase, or chase whatever one wanted to cook for dinner.

I estimate today's jogging ran for about 3  miles. I don't jog non-stop. I take walking breaks.

A couple years ago I tried to re-start jogging, but my feet were quickly sore and my knee joints were not liking it. I thought maybe I was becoming arthritic. That ailment runs in the family. So I abandoned that attempt.

I've been sort of surprised that I've had no aches or pains or strains from this new bout of running. I suspect the reason is I was already in good shape due to biking and hill hiking. But, I was doing both back when I aborted my former attempt to re-start jogging. It's perplexing.

Anyway.

When I was done running with the Indian Ghosts I sat myself at a picnic table and called my mom. I forgot to call when I got gas a couple days ago to tell mom it was $1.89. Before calling I usually send a text message to the phone my dad monitors, texting "you kids home and by the phone?". To which my dad replies "yes" or "no".

So, today I nixed the pre-ma call text message, due to being out in the bright light of the sun rendering it more difficult to see so I called the mom and dad landline directly. Mom answered on ring two.

My ma is still in recovery mode from the recent melanoma surgery, trouble sleeping, still painful, but was sounding quite chipper and perky today.

I think this is the weekend one of my PNW friends, Maxine, is hiking over Cascade Pass to Stehekin. Washington's wildfires had been wreaking all sorts of havoc with the hiking plans. But, the wildfires have died down, for the most part, so I'm assuming the Cascade Pass option was back on, rather than the back up, take the Lady of the Lake to Stehekin, option, an option with all sorts of logistic problems.

Maxine's weekly Cascade hiking tales have me thinking it would be fun to once again do the semi-mountain hike closest to my current location, that being the hike to the summit of Enchanted Rock, down south in Texas Hill Country.

In the meantime I'll probably visit the Tandy Hills tomorrow. They ain't no Cascades, or Enchanted Rock, but one takes what one can when and where one can.....