I changed my plans to hike the entire Trinity Trail, so that I might walk the paved sidewalk around McKinney's Towne Lake Park. I promised myself I would take a longish walk, and I was bound and determined, wet or dry, to get my exercise.
I stopped on the way for a cinnamon roll, which, surprisingly, can be substituted for raisin bran without undue agony under my eating regime. Then I drove to the park.
Little sheetlets of fog rose from the water as I began to walk. In the back parking lot, just a short way from the trail, two hot air balloons were readying for imminent departure. As I walked, I listened to my mp3 player, using the 10 dollar old-fashioned headphones I got from Radio Shack. These headphones feature the Cadillac-like feature of
independent volume knobs for each headphone, which leads me to imagine, somehow, that they deliver a Stereo Review type of audiophile experience, as if I were wearing Klipsch horns, the winsome audio wonders from Hope, Arkansas, on my ears.
On my second navigation of the 1.2 mile oval, the first of the hot air balloons went from making fire-breathing dragon sounds straight into actual launch. It bore no dorothys or wizards, but instead a thirty-something couple and a man. The woman bore a rather not-up-to-Tyler-rose-quality bouquet of flowers, which made me wonder if dawn nuptials were the order of the day.
The balloon slowly ascended, and flew right over my head. I wished I had changed my camera's batteries for this Polaroid moment. I watched as the balloon flew over the very small lake, averting as if by design a close encounter with the rather flow-diferous fountain in the middle of the lake. Soon that balloon and the second were clearing the electrical wires and disappearing towards Kansas.
I noted with satisfaction that the parks maintenance people not only picked up the trash, but also gathered the sad little muscovy duck who had anticipated the fate of us all on this cool day. I kept on walking, noticing that I got a real spring in my step when the uptempo electronica came on, just as ambient music makes me what my mother would have called "right thoughty".
I did not rest. I did not waver from my goal. I walked around the lake five times, for a total walk of six miles. Then I headed home, took a nap, and then began to comb my car for my keys. I had narrowed down the keys to a few places. I looked, and cleaned, and looked some more. The keys have not yet turned up, but my life is perhaps scrubbed a bit better.
We went tonight to the Clay Pit in Richardson, a charming nouvelle Indian restaurant we like a good bit. I had a baked salmon which was divine. Then we called it an early night ,and headed on home to relax.