I managed to hold Keely off until around 7 am, which was nice as it gave me more time to wallow in my discomfort.
I was feeling much improved and also hungry last night, so I tried to eat a “real” dinner of solid food. This, my friends, was a mistake. While it did not make me actively ill, it unsettled my whole system and I am still, this morning, feeling a little bit wretched and lethargic.
Recovery is a bitch, y’all.
But as slow as I went, we still got our walk in. Took the 5th Ave. Loop with an extension to Duval as, by 7:45 am, traffic on Monroe was just enough to be noisy and windy. It was a chilly 42°F but by then the sun was rising so it was not cold, and was actually fairly beautiful.
That’s the glow of dawn on 6th Ave., casting the old (now closed) Bamboo House restaurant in golden tones. I love shots like these that show the beauty of dawn contrasted against concrete blocks, power lines, and graffiti. This is our human-made world where nature creeps in through the cracks, and our worst inclination to ugliness is plastered over with rays of sunlight and obliviousness.
The locals were awake by 8 am so I did not allow Keely to steer us through traffic toward Publix but instead cut back across Monroe to Lake Ella park. A few people were out walking with purpose and the ducks were bold, but it was quiet all the same. But, and here is how I know I am far from recovered from that stomach flu nastiness, I had to stop and sit down for a moment halfway around. By then we had been walking for an hour and I was beat.
I’ve written before about how all the sympathy goes to being actively ill but not recovery. Times like this, I remember the grim first half of 2012 when I was recovering from whooping cough. It took six months and thank goodness I was in my last semester of grad school or I would have very likely flunked out. I was only working part time but barely made it to work even so. I was in a mental fog the whole time and probably averaged ten hours sleep a night. It was a long, frustrating, exhausting slog back to health but hey I wasn’t actively “sick” so, by society’s standards, I had no valid reason to lag. It was hell, nonetheless.
While a 48 hour stomach flu does not quite rate on the same scale, chances are good that I’ll be taking a nap later.
Anyway, there I sat on one of those gawd-awful ugly green metal anti-homeless benches and just stared across the water, ducks busy being annoyed around me and Keely standing patiently by. The sky was a brilliant, cloudless blue by then and everything was bright and the pond was shiny with reflections. It was a nice moment, for all that I was feeling fatigued and listless.
Sometimes stopping along the way is part of the journey, I suppose.