Rewards of going outside

I've gotten in the habit on Sundays to sleep in as much as possible, drink as much coffee as possible, stay on the couch reading the paper as long as possible, and generally be as lazy as humanly possible. My one goal is to kick myself out of the house and go to the gym for a long workout unrestricted by a busy workday schedule.

This morning I gloated a bit as I watched the rain pour buckets outside and I thought of the other girls going on a bike ride at 9 a.m. Ha! I'm inside, being lazy, eating a stack of hot pancakes, and cozy warm in my pjs. A few hours later it was time for my trip to the gym. I pulled on my fancy Patagucci water-resistant climbing pants, my big yellow rain jacket, and got my backpack ready for the urban hike. I made it out the front door of my building and the top of the stairs and stopped. It was pouring buckets. It was cold, or at least much colder than my cozy home. For 5 long seconds I stood there and listened to my jeep call my name. "Drive me.....you'll be warm and dry....turn around, go to the carport and drive me to the gym....you don't want to go out there....it's wet and cold.....drive drive drive...."

I shook my head to clear it of the evil talk and looked at the thousands of raindrops plopping on the surface of our swimming pool. "Fuck that," I told myself. "I'm going for a walk. There's always something new to see when you go for a walk outside, something special that people in a car never get to experience. It's the reward for going outside."

With that I continued down the steps and out the front gate. Out of the corner of my eye I saw something on the side of the building. I looked up and saw a kid's colorful mylar balloon somehow stuck on the exterior, gently bobbing back and forth in the rain. Haha! My first reward for going outside, an interesting sight otherwise missed. A mylar balloon that a great blue heron will probably ingest and painfully starve over a week or more, but an interesting reward nonetheless.

Up over the big hill and into the suburbia of Magnolia. The wind was strong from the south, but I was warm and dry in my urban outer wear. I made note of all the leaves still holding fast to their branches. It seems so late in the season for the leaves to still be around, but I'm all for it because that means less grayness until the cherry blossoms bloom in 3 months. Suddenly a hard gust blows in my face and a mass of yellow and orange Japanese maples leaves blows in my face. Their tree is shaking in the wind and releasing all those leaves I marveled at just seconds ago. With the hoard of leaves and raindrops blowing into my face and zipping by I pretend I'm in the Millennium Falcon with Han accelerating us to light speed.

Further down the hill I notice all the crows playing in the wind. One of them darts quickly around in the air and he catches a leaf like its prey, but quickly lets go when he finds it unappetizing. Other crows sit in gangs of 2 or 3 on powerlines with their heads into the wind. I imagine them gossiping or talking about the Seahawks game. Passing by Albersons there is a larger gang of 8 crows cawing at some mashed pieces of pumpkin in the street. One of the crows jumps on a fire hydrant and caws out the loudest. King of the Fire Hydrant. I bet he still has to share the pumpkin.

I go to the gym and do my thing and when I'm done the rain has stopped outside. I head back home and take in more sweet rewards. Another big Japanese maple full of colorful leaves. The Olympics looking like a ghostly apparition through the clouds. A fat gray squirrel sharing another smashed pumpkin with some different crows, he sits on the curb nibbling on the seeds. I warn him to stay out of the street and away from cars. I get back home and couldn't be happier about going outside.