I left as soon as the sun was up as I aimed to make a five-mile trek today. I had to divvy up my morning between a pleasurable walk followed by long-overdue yard work. When I left the house, the sky was a dappled, dark-gray color and it appeared as if it would rain, but the weather folks claimed the dismal-looking sky was just the result of the wildfires in Central and Western Canada. For my entire walk, it stayed hazy, and the sun kept holding back, hesitant to peek out, and instead, hiding behind those gray clouds, so it wasn’t very picturesque. I shot down to Council Point Park and found many of the regular fellow walkers already up and at ‘em. The middle-aged woman, who regularly rollerblades along the perimeter path, was lacin’ ‘em up as I passed her at the pavilion. I walked two complete loops and it was a rather unremarkable trip, save for a place where a catfight had taken place last night … oh, the fur must’ve been flying as there were tufts of thick, cream-colored fur everywhere … I wonder who won? The straggly looking weeds in the Park, growing untamed and wild with all the recent rain, looked out of place – even in this venue. I had to admit they’d rival some gargantuan weeds that awaited me when I returned from my walk. I waved or said my goodbyes to everyone standing near the parking lot, some whom I had passed at least three or four times on the trail. I walked slowly, in no great hurry to get home and tackle the grass, and my weeds. I changed to garden shoes and went out. The backyard was all abuzz with mosquitoes and bees and I kept swatting away at my face, (the only place where skin was showing), as I’d hear incessant buzzing about my head and hair and I wasn’t sure which pest it was coming from. I hoped they wouldn’t travel back into the house with me when I left their domain. It seemed that many mosquitoes were ganging up and honing in for an attack and no matter what I did, they landed and lingered with their pesky proboscis drilling right through my long-sleeved shirt. The incessant buzzing had me stopping to whisk off mosquitoes or wave away bees, and then I determined the buzzing was coming from the direction of my coneflowers. I keep hearing about the honey bee shortage nationwide this year … I’m here to tell you to look no further. The bees are back in town and they are in my backyard. A few chased me around the yard when I interrupted their breakfast and I swatted at many mosquitoes and interrupted their breakfast which was me. The yard work done, I dragged myself into the house and got cleaned up. After that, I don’t know where the day went … I looked at the clock when I came in from outside and it seemed the next time I glanced at it again, it was time to eat dinner. I perused Facebook and caught up with today’s e-mail and here I am at this late hour … well, it is a late hour for me as I am an early riser. I was proofreading this post and nodded off, awakened by a loud noise, probably a firecracker in the neighborhood. I started upright, shook my head, read faster and decided it was off to bed pronto so I may recharge and be ready to take on the world, one step at a time, in another eight hours.