Walking. Who but an imbecile?

Posted on by Live & Learn

5:00 a.m.  Glance at weather app. 10° F, feels like Hell frozen over. Wind gusts up to 30 mph.  Every ligament and nerve ending in the body is screaming, No! Stay under the covers.

But Duty calls. That magnetic pull. To what, for what, God only knows. But it pulls.

I’m sitting in the car at Cove Island Park, and, yes, the heater blows on my feet.

I twist in my ear buds and cue up Patricia Highsmith’s 1000 page diary on Audible. I’m 800 pages in and she grumbles: “Who but an imbecile would have chosen such a hard way?”

I step out.  A wind gust greets my start. Both eye balls gush water in defense. And they keep draining. Must be another one of these old age blessings, sh*t leaking oil from all orifices.

Bela called it. “It can be below zero, and I can go out in crocs if it’s dry…But if there’s moisture in the air, you can never warm up below 30F.” Yep, Bela. Here we stand.  Frigid wind (Chinook the Albertan’s call it, except wet) blowing off Long Island Sound, and it’s ripping right through my North Face gear. I’m coated with 3 layers from head to toe, except for the face which is exposed. Face-lift, no charge, God-Styling.

I walk.

I take the loop with the wind at my back. (I’m not a total imbecile.)

After ~627 mostly consecutive days on these twilight walks at Cove Island Park, I’ve sort of got it figured out.

The eyes lock on which area of the park has the best light. The brain looks for the best angle for cloud cover. And the feet try to keep the body and gear upright.  Ideal conditions include:

  • No rain
  • 25%-75% cloud cover
  • Low tide
  • Moonlight overhead
  • No humans

And today’s conditions, PRISTINE.

I walk out onto low tide, my heavy boots crack through the ice crystals. The wind is now a steady 10 mph.

And I stop.

And for a moment, maybe two, with the Moonlight coating all things Earth, there was Quiet. A stillness. A suspension of the Mind and its Machinations.

“And I must try to remember, by way of giving myself courage, that out of these terrible dark valleys and abysses sometimes come things of great beauty.” (PH)

Yes they do Patricia. Yes, they do.

Note: DK @ Daybreak. 6:27 am, January 22, 2022. 10° F (-12° C), feels like -3° F (-19° C). Cove Island Park, Stamford, CT. More of this morning photos here.

43 thoughts on “Walking. Who but an imbecile?”

  1. Beautiful. All of it.
    I am looking outside my window. The sky is an icy blue, the sun is shining. I am not fooled. Mind you, there is no wind. I just might risk it…

  2. Beautiful David! Loved, Laughed, and Lived it. I want to quote Robert Frost’s poem here:

    And both that morning equally lay
    In leaves no step had trodden black.
    Oh, I kept the first for another day!
    Yet knowing how way leads on to way,
    I doubted if I should ever come back.

    I shall be telling this with a sigh
    Somewhere ages and ages hence:
    Two roads diverged in a wood, and I—
    I took the one less traveled by,
    And that has made all the difference.

      1. So surprising as I think you have a BMW (that made it throgh a tree falling on it, while you were drving)…my older used Avalon has them and this was a very welcome, surprise…esp when driving through Idaho, MT, ND, WY in the Winter….per-pandemic when I went to the gym even in the heat of the summer blast the A/C and deploy the heated seats -helps with te back…

    2. Yeah but Jim, I think PH was talking about herself (writing all that stuff – she was like that!). I also wondered if DK got it the same way as you – not those who read this are the ‚imbeciles‘ but …. anyway, you get my drift! 🙂

      2. that makes sense, Kiki.

        I was just thinking that despite DK’s decision to go for a walk in less than ideal conditions, he can still capture magic with his photos and words… 🙂

  12. Dave, as I still haven‘t the foggiest how cold/hot your Fahrenheits are, don’t expect any commiserations from me 🙂
    But this picture is priceless and so is the quote. You are really more than kneedeep into our misogynistic wonder writer! And I think I probably could listen to her too; but I so prefer the quiet stillness which is so rare and lets me find my own thoughts, the daily humdrum does everything to cut into those peaceful moments. We NEED quiet and stillness-it heals our broken hearts, fixes the burns…. but maybe that‘s not something you need?.

  14. Reblogged this on It Is What It Is and commented:
    I don’t think I could do this … matter of fact, I know I can’t!! … “5:00 a.m. Glance at weather app. 10° F, feels like Hell frozen over. Wind gusts up to 30 mph. Every ligament and nerve ending in the body is screaming, No! Stay under the covers.”

  15. Yes, it’s often the most adverse weather conditions that grant the greatest insights and even blessings! Or maybe those blessings are always there, but we lose sight of them in the face of all the things that we don’t like, i.e. too many people, etc. I get it. And damp+cold is just fucking awful. My eyes would be flooded too. Nature’s way of keeping them alive in our heads! 😂😎👀

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