New Year's Day in Pittsburgh

Jan 1, 2009
I started 2009 by waking up at 4 a.m., my husband lightly snoring next to me, his reading light and glasses still on. I shook him to take his glasses off. “Too hard” he mumbled through his sleep. I didn’t get mad. I took off his glasses, grabbed my comforter, turned off his light and went upstairs to the guest room.
After a lazy snooze and bizarre dreams (about a water park visit with my sister Elizabeth, giant, mutant hydra headed crocodiles and lunch at a floating restaurant, where on earth does this stuff come from?) I woke up around 10 a.m.
A gorgeous day, and very cold. Coffee in the living room with the sun streaming in the picture window, the brindle greyhound stretched out on the carpet. I love the quiet of the morning house, especially on a sunny day with a good cup of coffee.
Carl was still asleep when I bundled up and took the dogs for their morning walk. Despite the cold, I didn’t put their coats on since the sun was throwing up a lot of heat from the asphalt pavement of the street. We walked down to Cedar to Bird Park, through the park up Youngwood and back down Mayfair. Almost an hour. Its never much of an exercise walk with the greyhounds, as their long noses pick up some fascinating scent or another every five feet. Some mornings if I’ve slept late, this irritates me and I hurry them along. I know they don’t get it and then I feel guilty.
Came home, let the dogs out back to run off some energy and had another cup of coffee in the living room. Carl still sleeping, but I decided to get started on breakfast. Left-over ham inspired me to fix a brunch of ham and cheese omelet, toast, hashbrowns and cut up apples and pears. We had champagne, too, and as Carl was cleaning up, we christened the new year by breaking one of the champagne flutes. Somehow, it seemed like a good sign.
I took a long “me” walk after breakfast, picking up bits of trash along the way. An empty pack of Marlboros. A lighter. A plastic milk carton. An empty can of Coke. Some of it scattered no doubt by the fierce winds earlier in the week but some of it you know is just carelessness and ignorance. That really bugs me.
But it was a nice walk. The side streets so quiet. Smell of fireplace logs burning. Beautiful bare deciduous trees and stately evergreens. I love the pines that resemble Joshua trees, with their coarse bark and stately horizontal architecture. I love to feel my feet pounding and my heart beating hard, and the sight of the brushings of white snow that we’ve had gleaming the slanting winter sun.
A walk, like a good swim, is so good for thinking. Sometimes I wish there was a way I could attach a recorder to my brain and capture my thought train. My mind does wander, but it’s a purposeful, problem solving wander. How to improve my backyard. Ideas for making the paper better. Or sometimes just taking deep breaths and being present to the moment.
Carl was napping when I came home around 3. I’d been out for an hour. The daylight already is starting to fade and I’m glad of having had the chance to spend a day pretty much doing nothing. There’s a whole year ahead of us – time to around to a few things on my mental list of plans. Time for plenty of walks too, and mornings in the living room with the sun shining in and a greyhound or two at my feet.