Wednesday, September 2, 2009

Blue

This morning, to battle the blues that have chased me through the week, I woke up and decided to take Van and Reggie for a jog. Reggie doesn't have very long legs, so he does our warm up walk with us and then he lounges in the basket underneath the stroller for the run.

I used to jog several times a week in Prospect Park. The outer loop is just over three miles, and when pushing a stroller with a severe righthand veer, it's a good workout.

I've been slow to pick up the tradition here for a couple of reasons:

One, Utah is high! My dad's new license plate says "Life Elevated" and it's the truth. My little sea level lungs are taking a while to catch up.

Two, I didn't know where to go. I could run along the sidewalk and end up at a stripmall or a gas station or the freeway.

Then I thought of it--- Wheeler Farm!

I grew up playing in the wild woods at Wheeler Farm, sneaking into the hay loft (I think somewhere in there is one of my mom's electric blankets that my friend Melissa and I ditched when the farmer chased us out), visiting the little store, seeing the animals.

This was the first visit in years, and the first ever with my own little Van. It was so incredible to look at it all from his huge, curious, excitable eyes. He pointed at each animal, and giggled as the baby calf came close enough to the fence for us to feel his breath.

Be gone blues, we've got things to do.