The Long Walk

Yesterday I began the morning with a very long walk with Bonz. We walked through the neighborhoods for about an hour. My pedometer registered 6,000 steps. It was cool when we began and began to get hotter as the morning progressed. Next time I'll be sure to take a bottle of water for Bonz. It's nice walking through the various neighborhoods and seeing the homes. The association does a good job of mowing and maintaining the various common areas. It's a very pleasant stroll with lots to see. Although there are a couple of steep hills as well. I'd like to do that several times a week. We'll see.

While I was walking I called my mother to see how she is doing. We talked a long time about her yard, taking her meds, about Kerri, and stuff like that. She sounded good. Wondered if I'd talked with my sisters. I told her about working on my VITAE and that they were giving me help with that. I told her Dee is looking for a part-time job. She mentioned that my dad told her that any money she made would put them in a different tax bracket and what she made would just go to taxes. (She mentioned this every once in awhile.) So this time I said, that we benefited from having her home and were blessed because lots of kids today have two parents that work and so the mom isn't home to care for them. She liked that idea and said "Thanks for saying that."

Then, Dee and I went to Ross Park Mall. We had lunch in the food court. The Japanese Chicken over fried rice and veggies was delicious. She shopped and I began reading my new book Called For Life: Finding Meaning in Retirement by Paul Clayton

It's put out by the Alban Institute. I like much of what they publish and so I rejoined the book club recently. I ended the afternoon with a banana/pineapple smoothie and Dee had the Coffee Mocha Smoothie.

On the way home we stopped at Home Depot and bought two 2.5 gallon gas cans. (I've seen people filling their tank at the gas station and then gas cans for other vehicles back home.) Since we get these gas perks at Giant Eagle and you are allowed up to 30 gallons with each fill-up, it makes sense to get as much as you can if the price is right. We're currently going to save about 70 cents a gallon, so an extra 5 gallons will get me another smoothie some day. (We'll try it and see how it works out with the hassle factor and all.)

Back at home Dee made us two cob salads later which we ate on the deck. And I finished the What's So Amazing about Grace book. Philip Yancey is a very good read. In many ways it's a radical book about how our understanding of God is that He's a God of Grace. And most of the time we are people of "ungrace." I highly recommend it. I continued reading the Clayton book until dusk while Dee talked with Kerri on the phone. It sounds as if she's doing well. They went house hunting some during the day.