Canadian Thanksgiving

It's been a few days since my last post, a period which for me has involved a lot of reprogramming, as I encounter familiar scenarios and adjust habits. My sleeping is still all mucked up. I continue to wake at three or four o'clock in the morning, run around outside for forty minutes or so, then return to bed. I've attempted to record some of these sessions, like the one from my last post, or this one here...

... but it's pretty dark while I'm out, and even the night setting on my camera isn't doing the trick to capture enough light. Some of the stuff I'm playing with during these excursions is more in line with parkour. Though I don't see myself daring to perform any forward or backward flips at my age, there are a lot of very useful elements to free running. I'm attracted to the challenges of strength, balance, and confidence required to navigate through our environments in efficient ways. Plus, it makes cardio work more interesting. I am looking forward to getting a normal routine back though. And I think it's close now. Here's my video, probably the last about the smoking cessation, covering up to day thirteen:

Tomorrow is Canadian Thanksgiving, or Columbus Day in the states. Most of these mainstream holidays are trying periods for me. I can see through the layering, the masks that have been placed over-top of indigenous celebrations, to draw our attention away from the ecology, and focus it instead upon ourselves, and our own aggrandizement. Thanksgiving, of course, is the celebration of the last harvest of summer. I was fortunate to be able to actually partake in that harvest, in my own small way, when my wife and I wrapped things up in our garden for the season. I've also taken the time this holiday weekend to break away from the rituals altogether, head into the coulees, and experience reality outside of our imaginings. In this video, I travel with a rattlesnake for nearly two hours (condensed here of course), and share some thoughts evoked by the experience:

One final bit... Kijiji is wonderful for those who don't have thousands of dollars to lay down for training equipment. I've been monitoring local ads daily, and came across one the other week for a heavy bag, asking only twenty-five bucks. Needless to say, I snatched it up and have mounted it in the basement. As I suspected though, my birds are not happy about the vibrations it produces. Ultimately, if I want to really enjoy it, I may have to take the heavy bag outside...