Walkabout

I've been working only two days a week for the last month due to my job situation. Not to worry, I had been working seven days a week for the last two and a half years, so I'm enjoying the rest! I have to cut my spending way back, but I have lots of time on my hands. And one of the things I've been doing is taking 5-mile hikes, sort of armed walkabout, every day.

Today I walked to the bank and deposited two checks for guns that I sold last week. I sold a micro Uzi 9mm pistol and a Springfield XD-9 subcompact. I wasn't shooting them and they were in danger of becoming "Vault Queens", so I auctioned them off. So I had some certified checks that needed to go into the bank.

Then I walked on to the cheese shop. They usually have a little basket of cheeses in snack sizes, an ounce or two, and I got a couple of those for my walk. I got a Danish Smoked Gouda and a 3-year-old white cheddar.

My walk takes me by three schools and under the law I have to go around them. The only exception is dropping kids off or picking them up, and then only if you have a CHL and stay in your car. Well that clearly didn't apply to me but no worries, the detours just added more interest to my walk.

Virginia is beautiful this time of year, with azaleas, dogwoods, tulips, ornamental cherries and pears, etc., etc. The tulip is in my front yard.


I was in Fredericksburg last week, taking my mom to lunch, and I walked around the old neighborhood. There was this beautifully-detailed Victorian duplex. Look at the extravagant detail: those window treatments look like the jaws of a shark! This house would be right at home in Key West.

Next door but set back from the street was this little gem. It appears to have been a carriage house at one time but is now a separate residence. It is in the back yard of a much larger house.

And finally, I have, at last, found a hat worthy of the patch which identifies the members of our little cabal.