October 17 A Theraputic Walk In The Woods

This is the face I saw this morning, begging me to take them somewhere. It was raining and the temperature was 37 degrees. I kept saying no. But then I realized I needed to get outside. I have good rain gear, so fuck the rain, let's go hiking. The weather has been terrible all week and now I was as excited as Fluffy was to be heading out. I even did a happy feet dance like Fluff does. Originally, I was driving to Mount Baldy. But I saw a pocket of blue sky near the Route 20 exit so I decided to take advantage of it and hike at the Bailly Homestead & Chellberg Farm area of the Indiana Dunes National Lakeshore. It rained on & off with the sun shining through in between the cloud bursts. The leaves have started to turn colors and the forest animals were busy getting ready for the long winter. It felt so good hiking through the woods that I decided to lay down for awhile and just relax, enjoying the sounds of acorns falling, leaves rustling, birds chirping constantly, taking in the sights of the clouds moving across the sky, the squirrels and chipmunks stocking up for winter, the rain falling through the trees and the birds flying across my line of vision. I even saw the occasional blue sky poking through the trees. The dogs must have felt some of the same things because even Oslo sat still for almost a half an hour. On the way home, I heard an Everclear song that I loved that seemed to capture the moment, "Santa Monica". So "let's swim out past the breakers and watch the world die".

I am still living with your ghost
lonely and dreaming of the west coast
I don't want to be your downtime
I don't want to be your stupid game

with my big black boots and an old suitcase
I do believe I'll find myself a new place
I don't want to be the bad guy
I don't want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore
I just want to see some palm trees
go and try to shake away this disease

we can live beside the ocean
leave the fire behind
swim out past the breakers
watch the world die

I am still dreaming of your face
hungry and hollow for all the things you took away

I don't want to be your good time
I don't want to be your fall-back crutch anymore

I'll walk right out into a brand new day
insane and rising in my own weird way
I don't want to be the bad guy

I don't want to do your sleepwalk dance anymore
I just want to feel some sunshine
I just want to find some place to be alone

we can live beside the ocean
leave the fire behind
swim out past the breakers
and watch the world die