PDY

Complications happen, they’re pretty much part of life. It takes a while to accept, but more importantly, it’s how you deal with them. Today had a complication, in that there was not one available hotel room for about 25 miles from Christianburg, at any price. I was thinking perhaps a pumpkin festival or some such thing, only to learn that C-burg is home to Virginia Tech, and today their football team played rival North Carolina. Christianburg was the perfect 20 mile walk from Dublin, but nooo, college football won, and I had to deal with my complication.

So I consulted with the Board of Directors of Walk to the Park, and we came up with a plan. There was one room available for tonight in Salem, an additional 18 miles from Christianburg, not reachable by walking today, but I booked it anyway and figured I could find a way to get there. So I did my planned 20 mile walk to Christianburg and was pleased to see both Uber and Lyft coverage, and although somewhat expensive, I got a Lyft ride to Salem, and tonight am safe and sound. I will get another ride back, either tomorrow or Monday, depending on weather and body. That decision will be made by the Board in the morning. Complication overcome.

Regarding the weather, it is raining now, and is supposed to rain most all day tomorrow, Sunday. Timing might be perfect - I admit to being pretty tired after my first Virginia week, 130.34 recorded miles. But I’m also very pleased with how well I feel. Twenty miles today feels like twelve used to when I started, and recovery is much quicker. I was thinking today this might be about when my body will peak, fitness-wise, but I really have no way to measure or a benchmark with which to compare, so I’ll just go on, which I’d do anyway!

And now that I’ve made mention, please allow me to introduce you to the above-mentioned Board of Directors. You probably didn’t even know there was one, but it’s the driving force and organizing body for this whole affair. So who are we?

• Chairman and Top Dog: Peter Daniel. He does the walking, the writing, and is responsible for keeping it all together by keeping these other board members in line. He’s pretty good about listening, though can be pretty stubborn. In the end, when it comes to this board, and only this board, he’s the boss, it’s all about him.

• Laundry and Housekeeping: Daniel. Responsible for keeping clothing and equipment clean and in good order. Daniel is a very patient fellow, does his job quite well, doesn’t mind sitting in a hotel laundry room for hours, and does his job gladly, for he knows Chairman appreciates clean clothes. Also responsible for packing backpack in morning.

• Nursing and Healthcare: Peter. Responsible for overall health of TopDog. Duties include dressing skin injuries, monitoring water intake, soothing sore muscles, and electrolyte monitoring, among others. Peter believes in not taking medicine of any kind, and relies on natural solutions for the few occasional ailments. He is also incredibly good at preparing toes and feet for long walks.

• Entertainment: P-dub. Keeps Chairman happy by selecting only the best music, thousands of songs so far, Also immediately changes TV stations when things get negative, or turns TV off when there is nothing worthwhile to watch, which happens quite often. P-dub’s music range is pretty much anything, with exception of rap and heavy metal, and currently in an indie phase.

• Nutrition: Pea. Very important board member. Monitors what goes into the chairman’s body. Has learned a lot over the last three or four years after not doing very well for the previous 20! He has also learned to listen and respect what the body is asking for, and provides accordingly. Works very closely with Peter (above).

• Information Technology: PeeC. One of the smarter board members, PeeC has a pivotal role in locating and booking lodging and finding and choosing restaurants. Also responsible for logging and maintaining distances and times incurred by chairman. Has screwed up a few times, forgets to turn monitoring on and off, that kind of thing, but overall, does a damn good job.

• Social Media: pdyoungtx. This guy is pretty green still, but has come a long way since he started 10 weeks ago tomorrow morning. He’s a pretty quick study, and is focusing on video delivery. Definitely a works-in-progress. Also responsible for anything relating to waving, an area in which he excels, one of the best between Texas and New York.

• Assistant to the Chairman: Peet. This dude is basically useless, but he’s a nice guy so we keep him around. He is supposed to be taking care of the chairman’s stuff, remember to do things, write his lists, pay his bills, etc etc. Given his self-diagnosed case of ADD, he really doesn’t to a very good job. Though it may appear he doesn’t care, he really does. The upside to Peet is that when he focuses, he focuses incredibly well and gets it done for the chairman.

• Finance and Wealth Management: PET-ER-DANY. This board member, like Peet, is also less than stellar. He’s OK at what he does, but basically displays a complete disinterest in his job and finds it very boring.He would be happier if he were managing a bottomless bank account, which he ain’t. Unfortunately, he has a significant influence on the other board members’ ideas and thought processes, damn bully.

That’s our little team… we mostly agree, but occasionally there is conflict between one or more members, and all that’s left then is to work it out. We’ll sometimes invite outside counsel to our meetings, as required.

So on a much lighter note, check out this really cool walking stick accessory I recently received. I actually tested it twice today, first on a dude that didn’t wave back and again on a stupid teenager that was texting as she drove and probably didn’t even see me. Super easy, I just turned around, aimed and zapped. They disappeared immediately… poof. I’m a little concerned about whether they’ll be back or not, but haven’t gotten to that part of the users manual. I really didn’t want to disappear them forever, just for a while. I’ll keep you posted, but in the meantime… if someone waves at you, wave back, and don’t even think about texting and driving. Gottit?