What did I do yesterday? I froze my you-know-what hiking trudging around down at Lake Erie Metropark. MLK Day off? Yes, those slackers over at the EPA got MLK Day off as a holiday and so did I.

Some of you did community service work yesterday. I think that whole thing was a wonderful idea. It never seemed to me that giving people a holiday in the name of Dr. King knowing that many of them would drive “up north” and run their snow-mos (or ski…) was appropriate. Nevertheless, I did not do any volunteer work yesterday. Unless you count some slodging around down in the landfill dungeon in an attempt to reduce my lifetime carbon footprint. The thing is, I am all for volunteer work. The problem is that I have already done umpty-nine-thousand gazillion hours of volunteer work in my lifetime. Cleaning toilets at the nursery school. Helping kindergarten kids make art projects. Reading with at-risk elementary school kids. Sleeping (or not, mostly) overnight in musty old girl scout “camp cabins”. Running trenormous middle school science fairs. Balancing long-neglected non-profit organization bank accounts and getting their tax records in order. Talking panicky, high-maintenance theatre parents down off the ledge.

Sigh. I still don’t know exactly how I ended up with the “real” job that I have now. I really wasn’t looking for a full-time career going into it. I had to sit myself down and do some serious talking to myself. But I like my job and I even kind of like the full-time schedule and I hope that, in this age of dire economic crap, it continues at least for a few years. Except that it leaves me very little time to do other stuff. Important stuff like slodging out the long-neglected Landfill Dungeon and making rocket trips to the Great White North to check up on my octos and shoveling snow.

When I have a day off, any day off, even just a regular weekend day, what do I do? Well. If I am not rocketing up to the Great White North, I am here at the Landfill, picking and slodging away at the clutter, running errands, cleaning the Blue and Only Toilet, shoveling snow or whatever needs doing. When I am finished with all of that, you can bet that I am doing something that re-energizes my spirit. Hiking, skiing, kayaking, or maybe just slugging around. Selfish? I dunno.

I have done umpty-nine-thousand gazillion hours of volunteer work in my lifetime. I will probably do more some day. Yesterday? I had the day off and I froze my you-know-what off hiking trudging around down at Lake Erie Metropark and that’s where I got this gorgeous sunrise photo. Those boidies out there are mostly swans plus some ducks. I was chilled the whole rest of the day after that trudge but I needed to be on a Great Lake. I couldn’t get to my own beloved Superior. Erie was the only one I could get to but I love it down there and it was worth it.

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