Cry Havoc and let loose the cats of war.

After my brush with the realities of parkinson's on my last walk, I have been loathe to leave the house, fearing a repeat. I have been feeling fine, no tremor or balance problems so, I decided this morning to take a short walk (about .5 miles). I also decided to do it early to avoid meeting anyone. At 4:45,I left the house. I would have left earlier, but someone has hidden my idpod (no, I didn't misplace it, so who is the culprit???).

The thing I have noticed on these early walks is that our neighbourhood is overrun by rabbits and squirrels. Their influx has a Genghis Khan quality about it. These vile creatures sweep in and plunder our gardens, killing our plants that we (and by that I mean my wife) have worked hard to cultivate. Squirrels have even chewed parts of one of our cedar deck chairs. And, forget about having lighting in the trees, the squirrels will eat the wires.

Why is this happening? We are an urban area afterall.

Cats....or the lack of cats... is the reason. Citizens complained about the number of cats running loose, so owners started keeping them off the street. The result. Rabbits and squirrels.

But, I digress.

About my walk. I have decided to take baby steps and work my way back up to 3 miles. Thus, my walk was less than a mile. I felt a bit wobbly but I am chalking that up to an overactive imagination. I felt good. I met nobody. My gait was fine and arm swing normal. Totally uneventful. I was actually greatful my ipod was missing; otherwise, I might have gotten into my favourite radio drama, "Afghanada", (I have it recorded) which takes about a half hour to finish and I no doubt would have stayed walking for the duration and ruined my "baby step" plan.

The upshot of all this is, at present I remain optimistic; although, I am standing on the event horizon of the dark side and could easily be swamped by its negative forces. How am I going to fight that when I know chances are I will lose?

Perhaps I should buy a cat.