It was 10 years. Just saying.

Even though the race was cancelled this year. Even though COVID put paid to my inchoate thoughts of hosting a reunion party with triathlete buddies. It's still been on my mind lately. All those posts are here, if you've somehow missed the party and wondering what I'm babbling about.

The other blog I'd been working on, that the first bunch of paragraphs wrote themselves has turned into babble, so I'm going to let it stew for a while, and finish the book that prompted the babbling. In the meantime, Linda and I have been walking every day. Usually it's after I'm done swearing at xl for the day, and usually we go check out progress on the ring road. It was going great guns for a while, but the changes are small now. Some paint here. A bit of dirt moved there. Some guys doing obscure things with big mechanical equipment.  There's a bit under the pedestrian bridge that isn't done, but nothing has changed for some time now. It's been almost quiet at night.

The road is mostly done near Woodbine. While I don't think the pedestrian bridge is actually open to the public, the fences have been down for a while. We've been over it, as have many other people. Right now the other end is essentially still a big emptiness. The new Costco is open, but the remainder of the space between the bridge and Costco is going to be an active building construction zone for a couple years. Not that anyone would walk to Costco, even though we easily could. We've heard it's going to medical space, or a big retail commercial development. Supposedly the remainder of the road between here and Glenmore/Sarcee/highway 8 is going to be open this fall. This end looks essentially complete, but I haven't been to the other end. It's a long drive by existing roads, only 5K or so on the new one.

It's been nice walking weather. Warm, sometimes so warm we walk in the evening near sunset. But summer is coming to an end. Nearby places have had frost warnings. Linda has been cleaning up the garden in preparation for winter. The green bin is going out full every week, though some flowers are still going strong, especially the dahlias. I think they really liked the hot days over the last while.

Not this one, though. The peony itself is doing really well. It's one of our new ones, planted maybe two years, and already producing lovely blossoms. We think it's happy there.

During yesterday's walk we talked about what we're going to do for a daily walk once the snow starts flying and the ice starts hiding. Linda is really firm about not walking on ice. It seems our choices are to get a treadmill, which I hadn't needed to do in all the years I was out running in the winter, and I'm not keen on starting now. Then again, I didn't mind running on ice, and for lots of it I had great company. Not so keen on just walking, my few slips and skids came when walking before or after a run.

Or we could go somewhere we can walk indoors. I know Southcentre mall used to have a group of mall walkers, but who knows what the state of that is now? I suppose I could call and ask customer service. Even if it is a thing, it seems weird to drive a car about 12 K round trip to walk for an hour or so. We're going to have to think about this.

In fact, as I think about it, I'm trying to remember the last time I was actually inside that mall. Any mall, for that matter. Certainly not in 2020, and I don't think 2019. Not high on our destination list.

I'd thought during the COVID thing I'd get a lot of reading done. Not so much. This was a fun read, recommended by my buddy Amy. I've always been a big fan of octopuses and wrote some into the books I'm working on.

Some bird butt for Susi. The sparrows like the back yard patio. I think they're sparrows.

One of my favourite flower photos from earlier in the month. I'm not sure why it hasn't made it into the blog yet. I saw it the other day as I was reviewing in preparation for Image of the Month selection.

Of the Day
Curtis. I think this is his 'you will hear from my agent' look.

Flowers

White Peony

Driftwood