Simpson Clouds

Today’s weather shot:

The gusty winds are clearing out some of the cloud cover here in the Bogs. Once again, the snow didn’t materialize. There’s another chance for it tomorrow night and Sunday.

The clouds rolling by are those big fluffy clouds, reminding me of the cartoon clouds on the opening segment of The Simpsons. It’s nice to see some blue sky once again, even with the cold temperatures.

My blog is getting to be quite boring, isn’t it? I really don’t have much to write about these days. And the weather in the Bogs is always a big topic of conversation since it’s so contrary and changeable. Unfortunately, it’s not a terribly exciting topic of conversation.

The Spring Cleaning Fling of ’07 is coming along nicely. I finally finished the kitchen. Or rather, declared it finished. There’s always something in need of cleaning in the kitchen. That’s because we use the kitchen. Cooking, eating, and all that good stuff. I’m moving on to the dining room this afternoon.

M the Younger has gone south for the weekend, to visit his girlfriend. That means M the Elder and I have the house to ourselves. Yay. 🙂 Next weekend we’ll have a full house. Our granddaughter and her parents will be visiting. Yay. 🙂

A couple of months ago I set a goal of walking 20 miles per week. 20 miles didn’t seem like much until I actually tried to achieve that goal. It was hard going the first few weeks, especially when I was still experiencing back pain and sciatica. But I finally did it. And having done it once, I’ve continued to do it for the past 4-5 weeks or so. I’m very pleased with having met this walking goal so today I decided it was time to up the ante a little.

M the Elder and I are planning a trip to England and Wales in 2009. Part of the plan is to take a walking tour of the Pembrokeshire Coastal Path. I’ve been looking at independent walking holidays such as this one with Celtic Trails.   According to their website, they book your accommodations, move your luggage forwards, and take care of some of the other details so all you have to do is walk. And walk. And walk. From the looks of some the packages at the various websites, our daily mileage will have to be between 8-10 miles to do what we want to do.

Now that I’ve gotten my walking speed up to a reasonable level, I’m going to start working on strength (hills) and endurance (big mileage). Walking is one of my favorite things to do and with winter over (or almost over), I’ll be able to get outside and do some decent hiking and walking.

So, the new goal: 22 miles per week to start, increasing it by a mile or two when I get comfortable with what I’m already doing. While it’s good to push a little, I’ve learned that pushing too much too fast generally ends up with me giving up. This time I’m going to do it slowly. After all, I have two years to get in shape for the trip.