Yesterday’s kaboom event plum tuckered me out, so I was tucked into bed by 10:00 p.m. However, it was rather foolish on my part to think I could recoup those ZZZZZZs I was deprived of due to Saturday’s 3:00 a.m. natural gas blast.  Why?  Because at 10:01 p.m., the fireworks in the ‘hood began in earnest.  Sleep eluded me, so, finally, I got up and jammed Kleenex into each ear canal as the booms and whistles from pre-holiday fireworks persisted.  The local dogs didn’t like it much either, as evident from the howling and barking as each firecracker sizzled or crackled while it sailed through the air.

I set the alarm for 5:00 a.m. today, and, just as soon as the buzzer sounded, I promptly shut it off with a little groan. “Just a few more minutes I told myself” as I snuggled down and got comfortable once again, and soon I drifted off … bigtime.

Eventually the sweet tweets of birds on the windowsill behind my head, coupled with the sun streaming through the gap at the bottom of the blind, caused me to emerge from dreamland. I did not need to be an egghead to know that songbirds aren’t nocturnal and these weren’t owls.  Hmmmm.  I opened my eyes slowly and it was light in the room.  “Well great … just great!” was what I muttered under my breath.  I grabbed the alarm clock and peered at it – 8:15  a.m.  I guess the yolk was on me for turning that alarm clock off … what I needed was a three-minute egg timer!

But, I scrambled out of bed in record time, got dressed, laced up my shoes, grabbed my gear and got goin’.

It was a sunny Sunday – in fact, that sun hovering in the sky reminded me of a sunny-side up egg … bright yellow and perfectly round.

On this middle day of the long holiday, I saw just a handful of folks out and about – a few people walking their pooches and couple of joggers, but that was about it.

I walked to the tracks and back, surpassing my 350-mile walking goal for Independence Day and then set a lofty goal for Labor Day of 500 miles. I think it is doable – we’re supposed to have a very hot summer, with little rain that will spoil the daily walk.

So, unless I melt away first, here’s to 500 miles by Monday, September 5^th.

[Image by Alexas _Fotos from Pixabay]