A Cautionary Tale

A week ago Sunday I took this photo. Nothing spectacular, it never even made it to the blog, until now. To take it, I knelt on my left knee next to the edge of the dune to get the arty 'through the asparagus' effect. In the process, I (unknowingly) planted that knee on top of some poison ivy. Later, given the evidence, I apparently crossed my right leg over my left leg, transferring the poison ivy to the inside, bendy part of the back of my right knee.

I am, as you may know, allergic to poison ivy. I have an ugly blistery rash on both legs -- the one behind my right knee being the most annoying, as well as limiting. It is not fun to bend that knee much at all. (In a bit of an ironic twist, when I was describing my radiation burn to my surgeon, I described it as feeling like poison ivy on top of sunburn. Pretty accurate, as it turns out.) 

That's a long story to explain that today's outing was on foot. Plus winds are upwards of 25 mph, gusting around 35.  My pedometer battery died, so I don't know how far I walked, but I did take the back way to Tunnel Park as well as doing some wandering around my neighborhood.  The tunnel makes a good wind funnel -- I got sand blasted while taking the picture above.  Except for the wind, it's a pretty nice October day here.  (I accidentally checked Grand Rapids, MN's weather forecast, instead of Grand Rapids, MI.  I was horrified to see snow showers predicted.)

One of the things I like about walking is that I notice different things than what catch my attention on my bike.  The red berries, above, are along the hill that leads up into our neighborhood.  I did not put a knee down to take this photo, and no poison ivy was involved in the process.  GOINFS.