Picacho Peak Peak

Wow! Has it really been over 3 weeks since my last post? I really hadn’t intended to go so long between posts. But, it’s been a bit of a weird month, and maybe that is why. Well, then, I guess I had best get y’all caught up!

August 9 (the date of my last post) was Scott & my 17th Anniversary. Now, why did I not write about that? I honestly don’t know, now, what I was thinking. Perhaps I could blame it on the endogenous opioid inhibitory neuropeptides rushing through my system at the time. See what happens when you give me a dictionary! All I wanted to do was determine if the word I was thinking of was really what I thought it was. And, indeed, it was, but on the way to that information, I came up with the above definition of… endorphins! Yeah, I’m claiming the endorphins released by my heightened exercise caused me to momentarily forget my anniversary.

Or, maybe… just maybe… I intentionally did NOT mention it because I wanted to surprise Scott that night! Yeah, that must have been it.

My focus this month has been, it is true, on my exercise. I’ve finally started really upping my efforts. I’ve sat around thinking “I really need to follow through with the cardiologist’s order to lose weight.” And, instead, I’ve fallen back into stress eating, and haven’t lost a pound. In fact, I might have to admit to having gained a few.

And then, I started walking again. In fact, I’ve upped the ante. I now walk 2 miles every morning before work (I have to be at work at 7am). And I’ve challenged my time. I’m walking at about 17 minutes per mile. On weekends, it’s more. My goal is, to try to get my morning walks down to 15 minutes per mile… yup, 4 mph.

In fact, this Labor Day weekend, I started off by walking 5.3 miles on Friday morning (averaging 17:16)! Then, Saturday, Scott & I, and our friend Paul Barrett set off to hike up Picacho Peak. Those of my readers who know Las Cruces know what that is. To those of you who have visited us here, it’s the volcano just to the north of our home. You should remember it, because I make a point of pointing it out to visitors. And to those of you who bother to read my blog but who have not been to this paradaisical town on the Rio Grande, well, what can I say? It’s a volcano (extinct for something like 30 million years) just to the north or where we live!

One can hike to the top of the volcano on a 1 1/2 mile trail straight up the west side, or one can hike around the base for a distance of 4 miles. We chose the latter. It’s nearly 2 1/4 miles from the trailhead on the west side, around the south of the volcano, then up to the northeast corner. This 2 1/4 miles is virtually all level. Then, in the next half mile, we climb up almost 1000 feet. I thought at several points on the climb that I was going to cough out both lungs!

Eventually we made it to the top! Of course, there was another 1 1/4 mile hike back to the parking lot… all down hill! We had a blast!

Oh, and the speed? You really shouldn’t ask. Okay, I’m begging you not to ask. Oh, for crying out loud… something around 1.4 mph.

Last night we went over to Paul’s, and I have to tell you, that steak & the beer and the potato & asparagus… well, they tasted fantastic! But I’m not sure they helped with the diet!

I’ve tried to do some form of extensive walking every weekend this month.

But it hasn’t all been fun walks and hikes.

Our little family has had a little bad news. Our darling Nikki, my sweet princess,

has been diagnosed with a tumor about the size of a cabbage (seriously, that’s the size the vet indicated when she held her hands apart) in her tummy. It’s either attached to her spleen or her pituitary gland. There really isn’t a good course of action to take, except to make her comfortable. The vet thinks maybe she’ll live another month or two. It’s been over 2 weeks, now. So, I guess we’ll see. We’ve seen no sign of discomfort or pain yet. At the first sign, we’ll help her to the Bridge. Man, that is going to be so hard!