Friday, March 17…Just My Imagination (Running Away With Me)--- (The Temptations)

   Took a solo walk again; Kim stayed behind to process the images he got last night out at the telescope. He walked later in the morning.  I decided not to bust my butt with a fast and furious pace, so no stopwatch and no metronome…just me and my audiobook. I did leave the camper with my camera in hand but decided to leave it behind. I’ve noticed that I amble more than purposefully walk when I have my camera along…I’m always on the lookout for something. While today wasn’t about setting any records, it wasn’t about ambling along either, so the camera stayed at camp. Although I did allow myself to stop and enjoy a stink bug’s crazy journey across the road.

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   I encountered a car about a quarter mile down Picacho Hwy, pulled diagonally into a chained off driveway. Its flashers were on and from the angle of the car to my position I couldn’t see much but it appeared a man was in the front seat on the phone. Oh, he got a phone call and pulled over to take it. Way to play it safe, Dude. Nothing wrong with that.  However, the car was still there on my return trip, and now I had a full-on view of a pale balding man, leaning against the driver side window, facing the full sun with his eyes closed…my conclusion was that he was either asleep or dead.  I didn’t see any blood, which was good, but have seen enough crime dramas to be concerned. Seriously, if I was going to sleep in my car by just leaning against the window, I’d position the car so my face would be in shadow, not full sun.  Anyway, I hustled back to camp, told Kim about it, and asked him to go check on the guy. He didn’t leave right away because he wanted to finish his coffee. While we were sitting at the table discussing it, emergency vehicles with sirens blaring went speeding down Picacho Hwy. Oh, criminy! Sirens...he’s dead, I know it, he’s dead or hurt and dying. Let’s see where the sirens stop, he’s not far down the road…if they stop soon then we know the guy is in trouble. I know it, I should have called 911 instead of walking on past. Agh!  Kim walked to the driveway to see where the emergency vehicles were going and they seemed to be going past the spot where the car was stopped; however, he did agree to drive down to check out the situation to put my mind at ease.  Update:  Kim didn’t return for 15 or 20 minutes…much longer than it should have taken if the man was okay. My brain was on overload imagining the possibilities. But when he finally did arrive back in camp it was with the news that the car was gone by the time he got down there. The reason it had taken him so long was that he had driven down to see where the emergency vehicles had gone…they were at the end of Picacho Hwy surrounding some farm tankers.  Don’t know what was happening with the tankers but as far as I know, no one in a black car died on Picacho Hwy today.  Whew!

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  Didn’t do much today after my walk…we had planned on riding the bikes into Tucson to get our race packet for tomorrow, so we hung out at camp until it was time.  But when it came down to it, we took the truck.  And since we didn’t get back until after dark, that was a wise decision.

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   When people realize that Kim is out at the telescope, it’s common for them to walk over to see what he’s doing.  Usually he hears comments like “Well, we saw this out here today and wondered what it was for” or “We wondered what was under the bag”. (He usually has a large garbage bag covering the scope during the day.)  Anyway, today he told me his idea of making up a photo album that could be left on the picnic table by the scope for people to browse through so they could see what’s going on over in the corner of the campground if he wasn’t around to talk to them. He thought it would be a good afternoon project.

   He found some pictures he’s taken over the years and had me submit an order for 5x7s from Walgreen’s.  Then we took off to get the race packet, took the Tom Mix highway into Coolidge to pick up the pictures, and finished getting what he wanted with a stop at Wal-Mart.  The afternoon project extended into the evening.  On the way back to camp, the sky cleared and he was torn between working on the photo book which would allow him to get to bed early or imaging which would not allow him to get to bed early. Looked on the map to see how much time was needed to get to the race, figured out what time we should leave and then what time we needed to be up. Getting up at 6:30  and being on the road by 7 would give us ample time to get to the race and still work the kinks out of our ankles, knees and hips before the starting horn went off. Then I offered my two cents by encouraging him to image because too many nights have been cloudy, and he should take the opportunity when it’s there. Plus, he could work on the photo album tomorrow afternoon...we have nothing planned.  But it was his decision to make.  By the time we arrived at camp, the clear sky had won him over. 

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40 Days of Lent challenge (opportunity): Call someone you have not talked with in a month or more. I don’t talk to Tick very often…he’s just not a phone talker. I decided to call him but before I did a little voice told me “If you’re going to call one, you might as well call all five.” So, I called all five of my kids even though I’ve talked to three of them recently.  Had to leave message on a few but eventually got to talk to four of them. It was a good way to spend the day. 😎 And I’ll catch up with the fifth one soon.


 

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