i covet your thoughts on this matter.

1 = i have dry hair and dry skin. partially age-related (get off my lawn!) and partially just the luck of the genetic draw. 

2 = this winter, we went hiking a couple times. very cold and very fun. upon returning to the domicile from these frigiventures, i partook of steaming hot showers. i mean, steaming. steaming hot. so hot it felt cold. (have you ever experienced water so hot it feels cold? just me? mmkay.)

1 + 2 = my skin literally falling off like flakes of snow. body dandruff. 

wups.

to repair the skin damage, my aesthetician (yes, i have one of those [not actually personally owned, but you know... mine]) recommended nivea - the nivea that's like paste in a pot. i am very familiar with this product, having slathered it liberally upon my visage since college (a couple years ago) (lol).

but i figured, if i had done this kind of damage to my skin, probably something similar had been done to my hair. simultaneouswise, target had one of those offers like "spend X dollars on beauty shizzle in the app and get a $5 target gift card!!!!!!!" so, i shopped up some cucumber + mint vegan volumizing shampoo and conditioner which is "thoughtfully made" and promises weightless clean volume and declares itself paraben-free in no less than two of the eight descriptive bullet points on the product page.

impressive.

received product. placed in shower. used. obtained benefits. (also, it smells great!)

now...i already have a 2-in-1 shampooditioner leftover from summertime when the living is easy, which had been pushed aside for the separate shampoo & conditioner procured in autumn when the living becomes more complex. with short hair, these products can last for months, so i already have three bottles (jars? containers?) of hair product in the shower, and here come two more. 

the ish is that i don't have room for all this. the conundrum is what to do with the unused portions of the previous solutions. do i put it back in the closet and pretend i am going to use it again sometime? leave it in the shower to continually shame myself for being wasteful? throw it out?

i would really like to take door number three, but can't make myself. it would be gloriously freeing and also naughtily wasteful - which combines to make it sound fantastically fun. but i just can't seem to bring myself to have that much fun.

i covet your thoughts on this matter.

perambulators perambulate

in an earlier season of my life, i hung out in an online space where runners chatted about running stuff and tossed around phrases like "runners run" - a wisdom disguised as an inanity, equal parts well durr and HELLS TO THE YES. in those days, it wouldn't be unusual for me to put in 9 miles in one lunch hour (or so) - 3 miles to the park, 3 miles speed work, 3 miles back...my job was very different then, and my running much quicker. 

my job changed. our offices moved and instead of in a secluded alcove, i was working in a glass box. that and the larger team signaled increased responsibility. i could not in good conscience take expansive lunch hours.

my ability changed. i was diagnosed with asthma, battled tendonitis, took the skin off my right knee thrice across so many years - tripped while running. the last time, there was legit doubt that i had enough knee skin (as opposed to scar tissue) to enable skin to grow back. it did grow back thank goodness because getting butt skin grafted onto my knee did not seem a promising route. 

then there was the pandemic. rather than my tediously detailing the derailing, i'll just say that job, office, running, and family were all significantly disrupted, maybe not in that order. 

during that time, though, i did discover real joy in walking. well, walking and audiobooks. this is my balm, my rejuvenation, my joy. give me 3 miles and a narrator with no goofy vocal habits. ahh.

here recently, however, 3 isn't enough. i want 4 or 5 or more. the other day i miscalculated my route and did 7.5 and loved it, no regrets. the books are still part of it - undeniably - but i can listen to books sitting on my ass. the mileage craving is a thing unto itself. 

we'll see where it takes me - literally and figuratively - but i don't care about the ends. i don't have goals at this point...right now, it's just me and the mileage. 

why? c'mon. you know why. 

perambulators perambulate. 

nose in the ayer like i just don't cayer

 yesterday whilst i was out perambulating, i noticed how fresh the air was. not "fresh like spring" but just fresh, clean, clear like a chalkboard waiting for the first day of school. 

then i noticed...

someone is doing their laundry. that hot-dryer-sheet aroma just wafting down their driveway and across the sidewalk...nice to be wrapping up a chore at day's end.

someone has coffee outside, mmm the smell of caffeine! did they make coffee outside?? maybe just did a starbucks run and carrying it inside from their car... maybe just having a cuppa on the deck, watching the evening sky.

someone is digging in the dirt, putting off a turned-earth bouquet gardening? preparing the ground for spring flowers? maybe kids digging random holes. maybe someone burying their dog*. (*dead dog)

someone had pizza last night. nice trash bin, jonses. who's keeping up with THAT?

someone needs to visit their mechanic. snuffly joe mczhausterton! tryna perambulate here, buddy! ugh, get that checked OUT.

what happened to my frosh ayer???

reset. 

reset.

ah.

someone is having italian food for supper. lasagna? baked ziti? cooking with the windows open on a cool evening - so maybe it's steamy spaghetti. smells goooood. enjoy your supper, neighbor!

someone is heating with wood, got a nice little fire going in their fireplace, burning a little hickory. mmm. yes, smells like hickory and not treated lumber. domesticated fire FTW.

and there's the freshly turn earth again.

and there's the laundry.

what happened to the coffee?

and i'm back to the car, in it, driving, home, and on with my own evening activities.

i can see why puppies always have such active noses - up in the air, down on the sidewalk, sniff, sniff, sniff - - you can learn a lot!