Tuesday is library day

I got out of the house a little after one today, and it was a nice sunny afternoon well into the twenties. Boots with aggressive vibram soles but no yaktrax, which was something of a relief to my feet, and hardly missed them as most of the sidewalks are clear now. I remembered to stretch a bit standing in the kitchen before I started off, Half-Moon Pose, bending backwards and then forward to touch the floor (barely), then half a dozen Chair Pose (yoga version of squats).

Then I walked west, into the wind, across the parking lots and straight over to Wingra Drive where the bike path follows the creek and the Arboretum north to the zoo. The zoo was well-packed snow and ice, but I've got my winter legs now, and I cut through there and then along a snowy path through the park up Grant St, Monroe St and straight to the library. I only had something to drop off, picked up a New York Review of Books and New York Times Book Review for some casual reading, and was off again. Forty minutes there, and then forty minutes back, with a long break between. I stopped at Trader Joe's for a couple things (they are no longer stocking the nice candied ginger from Thailand, but I got some ginger tea to try) and then the coffee shop for a lengthy sit down, coffee and cookie and reading book reviews. Much food for thought.

It was past three-thirty by the time I left, shadows getting long, and I headed straight down Harrison and then Van Buren to the park trail just below Vilas Ave. Then south and east along the whole drive, walking mostly in the road to keep the good footing, at least as far as Midland, where I decided enough wandering and cut straight east across the isthmus between the creek and the bay. Followed West Shore and South Shore along the bay to Lowell, then south to Emerson and up the hill to Hickory and Spruce. My right foot hurt some. When I got home there was still enough daylight, and energy, to clean the floors.