anxiety, coyotes, and cars, oh my!

I have been dealing with extra anxiety lately, although all anxiety feels extra to me.   It's kind of a new issue for me, so I feel completely unprepared to cope and manage it.  That said, exercise and sunshine seem like a cure-all for most of my mental health issues.  Or at least a nice distraction.

I decided to walk to the little neighborhood park in my flip-flops because I'm a dumbass and blistered off the back of both heels so severely that I can't wear shoes now.  Sigh.

Anyway, I was sitting on the bench in the sunshine, catching Pokemon, as one does, when I saw a coyote-looking dog trot briskly by.   I looked around to see where the owner was who let their dog off-leash.  And I heard a woman with her leashed dog exclaim, "that's a coyote!"

I know they're all over the suburbs now, but I've only ever seen a dead one locally.

The woman ran her dog over to her car, leaving her elderly mother standing on the path, holding onto her walker.  I kept an eye on Mom, the daughter, the last known place I had seen the coyote, and pretty much everywhere else, while still catching Pokemon.  We all have our own priorities, amirite??

The daughter seemed to be taking a longer time than I expected, so I ambled on over to Mom and asked if she was okay.  Holy shit, she was such a sweet old lady and just what I needed to soothe my anxious soul.  She complimented my hair and told me how beautiful I was.  I was kind of a mess -- red, puffy eyes from sobbing the day before, hair blown all over creation from the wind and from not de-tangling it in the past couple days.  That didn't make any difference to her.  She reminded me to be mindful about my gratitude.

We chatted a bit about life, until her daughter came back over and thanked me.  Before you judge the daughter too harshly, she had been making calls from the car to all the local dog owners to make sure their pets were safe.  I'm guessing she saw me hangout with Mom and assumed she would be fine for a few.  It's such a dichotomous feeling when interacting with elderly people.  Treat them as the adults they are, while still acknowledging their frailties.

I left Mom in good hands and proceeded to walk home, where I almost got hit by a car because some dumbass sped through my crosswalk without looking for pedestrians.  When I'm in sneakers, I can run and dodge and play human Frogger.  However, in flip-flops, that doesn't work as well.

That reminded me even more how grateful I am that my legs work well and that my feet usually have skin on the backs of them so I can painlessly wear shoes.

what's scarier than alligators?

It had been raining for the past few days, and I had been feeling down and cabin-feverish.  I decided to go on a longer hike than I'm used to through the Everglades with a local group.  Because it had been raining, I wore my hiking boots instead of my sneakers in case of muddy trails.  That was a good call initially.  Until the first mile when I started feeling some chafing on the backs of my heels.

I've had these same boots and heavy duty hiking socks for years and assumed they would be fine.  However I don't usually walk that fast or that far.  And I was an absolute dumbass and didn't say anything or try to adjust my laces or even turn back, although I could have done any of that.  The pain wasn't that bad, although in hindsight I realize I may have a weird idea of tolerable pain.

We saw bobcats, beautiful birds, and quite a few alligators, which I would have missed if I had turned back early.  I was in considerable pain after mile 5, but there was no shortcut to the car by then, and it was getting really dark.  So I pushed on. 

Driving home was so painful that I wouldn't stop for food even though I was hungry and craving a burger.  I took off my shoes the second I was inside and holy fuck, my poor heels were just abraded off.  I'll spare you the photos of that, but I will share the wildlife photos.

large 12 foot alligator

little bit closer to get a better photo

heron catching dinner

relaxing at the beach

beach