I have started the Great Ocean Road challenge, intending to walk 176 miles and enjoy the  virtual vistas along the way.  I have given myself a year to complete the hike.  Today, I managed 2.5 miles in an hour.  Thirty years ago I could have managed twice that.  I'm 70 and sedentary.  I have nothing to be ashamed of.  I have been walking one day in a row!  Yay me!!

     I got out at 8AM today.  July 30.  Warm and sunny. Yards well groomed due to the Covid 19 quarantine.  The unkempt yards stand out so much more.  At 8, the folks with power tools feel ok starting them up.  The song of the lawnmower is heard in the land, and the weed-eater whistles along.  Get the work done before the heat settles in.

     Many Black Lives Matter signs in yards and windows.  We don't have to be tear-gassed to support the movement.  But how will we know when we have succeeded?  When will it no longer be possible for someone to be pulled over by the police for driving while black?  

     Oh that thing about being tear-gassed?  Well, the night-time riots in downtown Portland have been going on for something like 60 days now.  The legitimate protesters go home about 10, and the anarchists take it from there.  We have had the wall of moms, standing between the police and the protestors, and getting gassed.  Then the dads joined them with leaf-blowers to blow the gas away. (doesn't really work.)  

     And then there was Naked Athene, who arrived on the scene at 1PM one night wearing nothing but a mask and a cap. She was young and firm and limber. She did yoga poses and ballet moves, showing the authorities the full monty.  When the authorities shot pepper balls at her bare feet, other protesters moved in with shields to protect her, but she side-stepped them.  The feds finally gave up and left.

     A number of my friends have been discussing the possibility of taking our ravaged, sagging carcasses down to do the same.  It might be enough to disgust the anarchists so badly that they leave.

     It has been a long time since I have done any blogging, or even any focused writing at all.  holding on to this walking challenge will be good for me mentally as well as physically.  Now if I could just figure how to get photos on here . . .

 
Ah ha!  A gate on a road leading down to Johnson Creek, all secluded behind a chain-link fence and Keep out, dangerous  signs.  I've lived in this neighborhood almost thirty years, and this is the first time I've seen this.
















And here's a path through that vacant lot on 32nd.  It's been vacant as long as we've lived here.  Wonder who owns it?


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