My foot is killing me! And: hiking, and lack thereof

[jesse_dylan]

My left foot, mostly on the left side, is absolutely, completely killing me. It hurt a little yesterday. It was worse this morning. I had a bike ride, and it's been unbearable since.

What is it? What the heck did I do? I'm worried it's from bike riding. I hope not. If it were, wouldn't I have it on both sides?

On Monday, I went down to Fort Stevenson to hike. It was okay. It was kind of disappointing. It's basically a campground that has had hiking trails added. Did I somehow injure myself and not notice? Did I get bit by something and not notice?

I had planned, today or tomorrow, to go on another lark, overnight to the east side of the state and check out the hiking at Fort Ransom, Sheyenne State Forest, and Sheyenne National Grassland. I did not today and will not tomorrow. Maybe I still could on Friday and come back Saturday, but my foot seriously hurts. Bad.

I did not go to Glacier National Park. My original plan was to go there Monday and come home Friday, if I recall. (I can't even remember my original plan.) However, it was just too painful for me, planning, getting anxious, I am so used to having Mary with me on these big National Park and hiking excursions, but I will never have her with me again. The sorrow was more than I could handle, not to mention it was a really long drive, and I'd have been hiking in a place with bears all by myself. My parents started getting all anxious and weird about it (gee, I wonder why I'm such an anxious adult), and I gave up on it the night before.

So, I decided on baby steps instead, thus the short trip to Ft Stevenson (where I did, in fact, feel excruciatingly, painfully sad, thinking about her), and thus the longer overnight trip. Which didn't happen.

I feel like I have kind of failed on this vacation. It's not my fault that the majority of my vacation was taken up by family. The foot is not really my fault either. I have no idea how I even did it. And soon, I'll be going back to work, and my opportunities to get away and be in the wilderness will be gone. Additionally, I don't know if I'll even be able to continue my wellness activities of biking to/from work and walking over lunch due to the foot.

Comments

[zesty_pinto]

How can a place called Fort Stevenson not even offer a fort?! False advertising x100!

A shame though, I would hope that the exertion from hiking by yourself would clear your head, not have you deal with more anxieties like this. :\

[jesse_dylan]

It is a shame! I'm sure it was good for me, though. Maybe going all the way to Glacier would have been good for me too. I do think a few more short trips at least, to get me used to doing stuff alone and hiking alone, would have been good, making my own memories that don't rely on someone else. But my darn foot!

Actually, there WAS a Fort Stevenson, but it is now at the bottom of a man-made lake. Strange place! Really strange. They do have a guard house that one can tour, though! :P I erroneously assumed that was THE fort.

[zesty_pinto]

That's a fort that they should encourage scuba diving! If the water isn't really nasty down there at least...

[jesse_dylan]

I always wonder what's down there. It freaks me out. They flooded a Native town as well in order to create the man-made lake. Whole thing was a mess. The dam is enormous and frightening, too, way more scary than a big spider. It was part of FDR's New Deal, which was a fantastic program, but I don't know if the dam needed to be there, and I sure don't think the lake needed to be there. Lots of nice hyrdo power from the dam, but once our solar and wind take off even more here, we won't need it, and it's getting old, the controls are old, etc etc. Wondering if it's not a disaster 100 or so years in the making.

[zesty_pinto]

Hmm, that might depend? I know that the big thing now is trying to get water batteries set up. If solar and wind pick up enough, then they might keep the dam just to store the water as an alt power source or to use the power to store the water up. Not sure if that dam is capable of it, though, but the cost to modify the dam might be less than actually building a new water battery.

[jesse_dylan]

We are so slow on the uptake here. It's a miracle that we are a leader in wind power, a lucky miracle motivated by money. Of course, we also have ALL DAT OIL.

[zesty_pinto]

Well someone has to realize there's a pragmatic approach to everything, even when it comes to things that may favor values of the past or a progressive future. Scalable energy diversity can be profitable, but if people were more willing to look at the numbers instead of the rhetoric, then they'd understand better.

Remarks on things like coal are the best example of dumb rhetoric. I think coal will still be around, but as a power source it's not worth it; the money's not coming back no matter what decisions are made (seriously, even if the mines are fully operational, 80% of it is likely to go automated). The strength in renewables is that it creates work and is rapidly developing. It is working in tandem with the innovations market and guarantees work that won't lead to future lawsuits from collapsed tunnels or black lung. People who don't realize that are the same idiots who fail to realize that LGBTQ individuals include a majority of skilled workers with talent and income that bolsters their area significantly.

I mean, hell, even Texas gets it; that's why they're known as one of the biggest boys in the energy market by investing in wind and solar despite the rhetoric.

Bear in mind, I tend to be progressive, but I try to look at a pragmatic scale because in all honesty I know that people need to understand this doesn't kill jobs if you look at it properly. It's also why I'm curious about seeing if NC will start pushing for methane digesters once they start figuring out more efficient tech for it; all those pig farms have a waste product that can be worth a lot of money if the tech is allowed to further in that direction.

[jesse_dylan]

That's probably smart. It could help to sway people, too. Hopefully they will get it here, one way or another. I think they will. Sad as it is, I suppose money and profit will be what finally dictates a shift, not environmental consciousness.

I don't even want to buy a new car (not that I can afford one anyway!), because I swear as soon as I do, it'll be like, boom, electric cars everywhere!

[zesty_pinto]

Oh absolutely. Despite all the rhetoric that Americans run behind, we are very heavily a capitalist nation. At this rate, it will be our undoing, but if you can shift the narrative to remind people how they can save money while still proving superiority, I think you can do quite a bit. Lobbying is a different story though, as it allowed things like a radium and a lead council at one point, but if you can show that new ideas mean new jobs, then people will be willing if things get desperate enough, and I think this country is getting there despite how many low-skill and undereducated but heavily unionized "winners" in this argument who seem to believe otherwise.