Welp, last week was not a good walking week, meaning progress is slow on my way across New Mexico. At the moment I'm on Highway 26 about halfway between Deming and Hatch.
Interestingly, this is a road I've driven many times on my way to and from Albuquerque or Santa Fe, so I can actually picture the landscape as I "walk" along. My most vivid memory is seeing raptors perched on every 3rd electrical pole or so, waiting for dinner.
Since I'm kind of in the middle of nowhere with no destination to research (I'm sure if I dug deep enough I could find out more about this stretch of highway, but I'm just not up to it at the moment), I thought I'd touch on why I don't just walk out my front door and go for a walk like a normal person instead of pacing around my backyard like a caged animal.
Here's why:
Around the time Arizona started to isolate back in March, a dust devil blew through our backyard and tore off hundreds of palm fronds from this tree:
This led my husband to use them in this way:
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| I'm wondering about the inner tubes, too |
While the rest of our yard looks like this:
Meaning:
a) The backyard is completely private, ergo the dress code is, shall we say, relaxed (an important consideration in 100+ degree F weather)
b) The backyard is completely private, ergo I can zone out and listen to podcasts without any worry about safety
c) The backyard is completely private, so there's no risk of running into someone with covid and no need for masks
d) The backyard is well shaded (an important consideration in 100+ degree F weather)
e) We have a stupid number of birds and lizards in the backyard this year, plus rabbits, mice, rock squirrels, and our two desert tortoises, so it's a wildlife extravaganza with every lap
f) Did I mention it's completely private? Yeah, that's worth bringing up again
I figure people walk on treadmills all the time for many of the reasons above, so it's kind of the same but better I think, since I'm outside getting some vitamin D, all the while acclimating to the extreme temperatures that otherwise feel miserable if you're stuck in air conditioning all day.
It's also made me realize how lucky I am to have a yard like this -- up until the pandemic, I took it for granted and thought I might not even need a private outdoor space like our yard in favor of public outdoor spaces that we don't need to maintain. Now in full-on pandemic lockdown for almost five months, I know I'd have gone (more) crazy without it.
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