Feb 28, 2010

Today complete's 2 months of walks. 59 walks so far, and still going. I'm pretty proud of that so far, but there is the journey to think about. Today I was enjoying a walk down Bayshore Blvd. with one of my best friends ever. This is Barb. She makes me laugh. We share great times together, and she has always believed in me, so it's surprising that she hasn't been a part of this journey so far. Well, I mean other than in her heart. Today, we'll put her and Brinkley to work. Who's Brinkley? Read on...

Here's Brinkley. He's a golden-doodle and is a ball of puppiness and energy. He was a good boy today and let Barb think she was walking him, but we both knew he was actually walking HER.

Sometimes you gotta take advantage of your surroundings.

Enjoying a moment on Bayshore Blvd. I have to work on that gut. Or my posture. Or something!

Barb and Brinkley. Cuties, both of them.

If this doesn't make you laugh, nothing will. Brinkley looks like the floor was about to drop underneath him, and he jumped up to hold on for dear life. Thanks you guys, for a memorable 59. On to month #3.

Feb 27, 2010

Today was one of those rare journey days. I got together with my friend Marcia, her husband Bill, sister Sasha and we went here, to Royal Palm Cemetary in St. Petersburgh. Marcia knew about a bald eagle's nest that she wanted us to check out.

We met this man, Jim Gray. He's a nice gentleman, and a talented photographer. He shared some of his work with us. Just fantastic pictures taken by a truly gifted photographer, using pretty damn good equiptment. Fantastic.

This is the nest we came to see. You can't tell it by the picture, but this nest was about the size of a king-sized bed. Momma eagle is up there, tending to her baby.

This is what we came for. Nice moment captured on film. Or SD card! This was one of my best "wow" moments ever. I couldn't believe what I captured.

Friends for life! Marcia, Sasha, Bill and me. What an amazing day. What amazing people.

Road warriors walking it up in the cemetary. Most people would think I was nuts for wanting to walk in a cemetary. These people ARE nuts. But an assorted blend that just fits right! I love you guys. More than you know. Thanks for one of the best days ever.

Feb 26, 2010

Walking today with Lynne Austin out on Dunedin Causeway. Catching up with an old friend (pardon the expression Lynne). We talked about that. Getting older. How it sucked that you can't keep up with your mental age anymore. And we walked...

We walked from bridge to bridge along the Dunedin Causeway on a beautiful cold, sunny Florida winter day.

Lynne gave me advice on the women's perspective of aging, and relationships. Free advice! Who can turn that down?

Very little time was spent talking about the past, and what we did. It was mostly about the now, and where we're going. Candid and refreshing conversation. And we saw this guy out there enjoying his time alone.

Nothing beats getting together with friends from your past. Thanks to this walking thing, I'm reconnecting and making the positive steps I should have made all along.

Walk on Lynne, walk on!

Feb 25, 2010

Tonight's walk was purly "functional" in that it get's me to the next walk and continue's the streak. Put in some minimal effort to be honest, but still keeping to my commitment, and that's what it's all about.

Yes, the trademark shorts are in effect on a "below 50" night. A lot of people are finding it hard to believe, but I'm a shorts guy, and I'll always be a shorts guy. Freezing weather, or the hottest of the hot, you'll see me in shorts, whenever possible. See you tomorrow for walk 57 with Lynne.

Feb 24, 2010

This was one of those nights that walks just weren't supposed to happen. It was cold, rainy, windy and dark. That being said, I pushed myself to do a walk that was longer than I was really intending to take. I did a full 2 miles, and even made it through the elements. The silver lining is that I learned a little more about how to do a nice night photo with my camera settings. See? There's always a positive!

I told you it was cold! Yesterday we had jackets off, and were talking about how Spring might be right around the corner. Tonight and tomorrow, we're having freeze warnings. What the heck is this? Like I said though, there will come a day when these temperatures will be missed!

Standing out on Walsingham Rd. about 7:15pm. It's such crappy weather, a lot of the cars normally out here aren't even on the road. Better for me though. Walk 55 is in the books. Coming up on completing two full months in about another week. Major accomplishment.

Feb 23, 2010

Tonight, took a walk with Lindee and we hit the bricks in the neighborhood. It was cooler than it's been the last couple of days, and soon enough we figured out why.

If you look close but off in the distance, you'll see the tail lights of the cars are blurred by the incoming sea fog. This is a unique phenomenon that rolls in around this time of year, and sometimes it causes me to lose my voice. Not tonight! We're in full talkin' mode.

Just another look at the sea fog coming in on Walsingham. The next light down the road will take you right over to the Gulf of Mexico, that's how close we are!

Feb 22, 2010

Today is walk 53 and what a special walk it was. I'm beginning to think this little journey is becoming infectious, and I am truly honored by the people that want to become a part of my journey. This is Greg Billings, an old friend of mine who's best known as the lead singer of The Greg Billings Band, and Stranger. We go WAY back and I was just blown away when he said he wanted to get in on a walk. We met at Kapok Park in Clearwater, and put in a solid hour. Talking about old times, old friends, and where we are in our lives now. This is a great way to catch up with friends.

Greg told me he lives near this park and regrets that he only gets out to enjoy it a few times a year. I hope to change that. We're gonna do the bigger circuit soon.

Even though the day was dreary, the park was just beautiful, full of wildlife and plant life. And hills.... oh yes, one in particulary had me working!

Greg taking in the sites!

I HAVE to draw attention to this trash heap that is visible to those of us who use the park. I will continue to point out attention to this, it's now starting to really bother me that people are mistreating their surroundings like this. What was once a nice water retension area is now a dry trash heap. Come on people, we can do better than THIS! I don't want to see your trash, and I can't believe you want to life in it. Clean up your act.

Feb 21, 2010

This is Clearwater Beach as seen from Sand Key Park. If you look to the right, that's the Memorial bridget to get over to the beach. Sand Key Park is a perfect blend of wilderness and natural white sandy beach.

This is a beautiful breakwater constructed of huge stones jutting out into the water. God, what a beautiful area we live in.

The Captain Memo pirate ship heads out into the Gulf for another tourist run. Everybody needs to do this trip once and drink the rum from a breast-shaped mug.

There's a community sailing marina right around the corner where they rent and give lessons to people. These sailors are all on a tow line behind a power boat, but I'm sure they could do this all by themselves too. Riiiight.

An egret scopes out the deep water for some close food. I think he found a little squid. Beautiful day for walk 52.

Feb 20, 2010

Walk 51 today happened down in St. Petersburg, FL at Tropicana Field, also called The Trop. I went down to FanFest, working as a volunteer for Bright House and Bay News 9 and thought it would be a great place to take in a walk. I was right.

Thousands showed up to walk down on the field where the Rays play, and take in all the sights and sounds of the stadium. There were things to buy, things to see, and autograph signings too.

This amazing display of a Ray's shirt is built entirely of Pepsi products. Although I like Coke products, I prefer this display over all the others. Impressive.

Here I am among thousands, my secret agenda: Walk 51, they don't know they're part of something special. I mean OTHER than FanFest.

My best friend Barb was there for Bright House Sports Network. We met each other working in this business 25 years ago, and here we are working in the same business, still together, still kicking butt! Thanks for being part of walk 51 Barb.

Feb 19, 2010-Walk #50

I got called back out to work tonight to check on a problem, and I thought I would be walking WAY late. I've come to really enjoy walking more in the daytime, but I took advantage of the opportunity to use the parking garage as my road course tonight. Turns out, the view from the top is pretty fantastic at night. I had a good time.

This is the course. Pretty well lit at night, sparse cars and my path lies ahead. Just goes to show you, there is NO excuse for not walking. You can walk anywhere!

Feb 18, 2010

Sometimes, a walk is just a walk. That's how I was feeling tonight. I was feeling a little anxious, didn't really want to go out but I had to keep the streak going. So I set out to take just a short walk, and something great happened. As I walked, whatever was causing me anxiety began to fade away. The cool air felt good going into my lungs as my breathing became a little more settled, and I realized that tonight I was going back to my original premise for doing these walks. Just to get out there every day. Lately I had been consumed with adding distance or time, and tonight, it was about commiting to the original goal. It made me feel good, that I had my priorities straight when I set out to do this. Get out and walk. A walk a day. It didn't have to be anything spectacular. And tonight, with that knowledge, I actually walked a little further than intended, and felt better after doing so.

I can't tell you how many times I walked this route and never really noticed this sign. It's big, and artsy. Very nice. For a sign, that is. But it shocked me that I never noticed it. I thought about how many times we walk through a day never really seeing things around us. And this made me more thoughtful about noticing things around us every day. Lesson learned. Again.

Feb 17, 2010

The cool thing about twilight walks is that there's just enough light to play around with on your photo shoots. You can make it look dark and spooky...

I thought this tree looked a little more menacing than it came out on camera. This tree is almost entirely dead, they had trimmed it all up today, but this huge remaining trunk is riddled with rot, and will probably have to come down soon.

This is looking west on a twilight walk. Love it when there's purple in the twilight sky.

I tried a little photo experiment here by using the timelapse thing. The problem was there was only one car that passed and that explains the red tracer line on the right of the picture. Now that I know it works though, I'm gonna play around a little more with it. That is, if I can sit still long enough.

Feb 16, 2010

My buddy Michael at Roadkilltshirts.com sent me a few t shirts today for my walks. He thought I needed to move down to a 3x and he was right. They fit just fine. So now I have my first official sponsor. Welcome aboard Roadkill. You're part of the journey now.

Took this picture for my friend Marcia. She raises little baby squirrels and this guy peeked around the corner to check me out on my walk. Hey there little fella!

You gotta have fun out there on your walks. This road just BEGGED to be made into a photo joke. There's always something out there. It's all how you see it, AND how you frame it.