Contributed by Marilyn Bennett
It is a beautiful time of the year, the leaves are turning color and falling from the trees. My garden tells me it is finished for the year. That means that I have to get busy and start to harvest the tomatoes, even if they are still mostly green. I can either make a snack of fried green tomatoes or place them on my window sill to ripen.
The petunias in my window boxes are still blooming, but I have brought my hanging baskets inside for the winter. The geraniums do well under lights in our garage/laundry room. I particularly enjoy their blooms in the dead of the winter.
What with planting, weeding, separating overgrown plants and picking a variety of leafy things for summer salads, it is a constant pleasant activity. Summer is a time for digging new beds and buying different varieties of plants and bushes. The gardens tend to keep me in pretty good shape over the spring and summer.
Then fall arrives and I am faced with sitting around the house and contemplating what I should do for exercise this time of year. I see the joggers out on the many paved trails here in Palmer and know that jogging is not my thing. I am more of a stroller than a walker and so can't see myself upping my stroll to a jog.
It's not as if I have never jogged. When I was a kid, there was no such thing as jogging for fun. Back then running was in its proper place, as when you were late for school or running around the track at school in order to pass physical education class. Then as an adult, I have had occasion to run to catch a bus or rush to get in out of the rain. I don't think any of that running could be considered jogging, but it did have a purpose other than keeping in shape.
I did have one experience that could be considered jogging. Many years ago (in a state far, far away) a few of my friends were going to participate in a four-mile "Fun Run". We drove to the park, joined in some preliminary stretching and then we began to run.
We were jogging along and after the first mile I was confused about why it was called a fun run. By the second mile I was definitely not having fun, but my friends seemed fine so I kept on. After the third mile I was not the only one panting and sweating like a pig. Some of those friends have kept up with this kind of activity and I have been told that if I had just kept at it I would have learned to enjoy this kind of exercise, but I neglected to do so.
I elected to quit and find another "Fun" activity that more suited me. It was not easy, but I finally just accepted the fact that I was really a stroller by nature and temperament. Why would a stroller push to become a jogger when strolling is such a very fun activity.
The funny thing about being a stroller is that it seems to work well on the unpaved trails here in Alaska. I have found that walking down a trail in the woods I seldom need to make room for a jogger to rush past me. Of course, walking alone without a dog does still make me feel self conscious, so I have taken to bringing along a camera. The interesting thing about strolling with a camera is that even when I stop it seems natural. The other accoutrement that I bring along is a pair of binoculars hanging around my neck. This way, whoever notices me will deduce that I am either an avid photographer or a bird watcher.
I have no doubt that many of you would wonder why I would go to such lengths to disguise the fact that I am just a simple stroller. I must confess it is one of those habits left over from childhood, an idiosyncrasy that is hard to explain even to myself.
Now that I have gotten totally off the subject of staying in shape, you are probably wondering what is the point of this article. Well that is where you are in trouble, for you have gotten into the habit of expecting everything in life to have a point. When you reach my advanced age you will realize that most of the things you or those about you do, have little or no point.
So on that note, I will finish this post and just say that whether you jog, stroll, climb or skip this is a great time of the year to enjoy a quiet time in the woods.