Photographs: From Along the Way (1).

Have Camera, Will Travel.

To see this stylish eagle, you must stop your car.

You must park at the side of a busy thoroughfare (King Street, just east of Wellington) and take a moment out of your day.

Or, to appreciate this rare piece of local art, you have to stop walking.

You have to step off the sidewalk (south side of the street) and take a few steps around a cement support for an overhead walkway.

In my opinion, the time spent stopping to smell the roses, so to speak, is well worth it.

Squirrel Bridge. Looking east toward Downtown London.

The bridge is so named by a neighbour who saw a squirrel racing across it once.

Once across the bridge (from the opposite side, e.g., from the Downtown YMCA) I head south to the Wortley/Stanley St. intersection and head for home.

The sturdy structure is one of my favourite pedestrian bridges, and because my summertime walking regularly takes me downtown and north toward the university, I bet I cross it approx. 200 times per year.

Correction. It's also on my route to and from London Knights' hockey games and my favourite pub, so I bet I cross it about 250 - 300 times per year!

I am looking south from about the center of Squirrel Bridge. Two overpasses in the area seem to blend into one in this photo. York Street is first in line, then comes the CNR/CPR overpass that travels east-west through our downtown.

Beyond the pair of overpasses lies a trio of my favourite places - Thames Park and then Wortley Village and my home.

From the middle of the Wortley Road overpass I am 11 minutes (of steady walking) from my house. This part of my Wortley Road walking route is more familiar to me than Squirrel Bridge. I bet I've travelled past this same spot over a 1,000 times in the last 3 - 4 years.

But whose counting?

And I have likely posted similar photographs of this scene a dozen times.

Get used to it.

: )

Please link to Definitely YMCA Related (3).

GoPro Hero Photos GH

Still at the YMCA, But.... (2).

Sore Hip May Have been an Early Warning.

[Photo: I am studying "the details" to understand the larger picture*]

Remember the DEW Line, made up of radar stations in the Arctic (built when I was a child in the mid-1950s) to give an early warning if North America was attacked by the Soviet Union?

As a young elementary school student I didn't have the foggiest idea about the 'who (Soviets, Russkies? Is that a new cereal?), why, when or where' associated with the Distant Early Warning apparatus, but I do recall being told by an early-grade teacher how to hide under by desk for some reason. "Hiding under your desk" was a thing in the 1950s.

(Lessons about nuclear warfare or Soviet long-distance bombers or being blown to smithereens was not). 

Distant past memories came to mind recently after I made a decision to slow down - and stop for the time being - my pursuit to add more running miles to my fun and fitness routine. The sore hip I was experiencing in the very recent past (two weeks ago) seemed like an early warning of more problems to come if I kept running on a treadmill on a regular basis.

I'm old enough to know that there are some lines I should not cross 

So, my routine at the YMCA has changed over the last two weeks. I still walk downtown but I ride an exercise bike on a regular basis in place of the treadmill run. I don't think the change will affect my pursuit for svelteness very much at all!

March stats started with a 3.0 mi. walk and 75 minutes on the bike with a good book in hand. Totals for the week reached 40 miles by Friday, so I relaxed on Saturday. Average miles for the last ten weeks came in at 41.525 miles, and on Friday my cumulative total of reps (each, of various stretches, and situps, and sets of strength training exercises) hit 5,725. Will I hit 10,000 reps total by December 31? Odds are about 50-50, says the bookmaker.

Most of my March Journal is a blank slate at the moment but by the end of the month I will have covered many more miles and know if I want to give the running game one more try, slower, with more gradual progress.

How I will react to the idea, "I'm not a runner anymore," I'm not sure. I suppose as long as I can keep moving forward in other ways, then I should be able to maintain a positive attitude about various other fun and fitness routines.

So, I don't think the sun is setting on The GREAT Canadian Comeback!!
Not by a long shot, in my opinion.

*The top photo depicts a small portion of a mural I found on my way to the Downtown YMCA. What is the "larger picture?" More will be revealed soon.

Please link to Still at the YMCA, But.... (1).

And, stay tuned. News at 11.

Photos by GH