Urban wilderness

We live in a big ol' city, surrounded by people and stores and cars and eating establishments. Only one of those do I consider to be a good thing (it's a good thing in its many forms: Greek, Chinese, bar-b-q, Greek, farmers' market, sushi, Greek, pizza delivery, did I mention Greek?)

What we are not surrounded by is forest, wilderness, mountains, large bodies of water, or any element of the outdoors. Sometimes it makes me short of breath, and not in a good way. Sometimes it makes me downright cranky. At least that's what I blame it on when Philo asks me why I'm cranky.

Philo: "Why are you cranky?"

Me: "Because there's no National Park within walking distance."

Philo: "Really? It's not because I left seven pairs of socks in the living room and a sink full of dirty dishes?"

Me: "Dishes?  I didn't notice any dirty dishes. Socks? Oh no dear, that doesn't bother me at all. Or at least, not as much as the fact that the Rocky Mountains aren't outside my window."

See what I mean? Lack of outdoorness makes me hard to get along with. Philo decided to ameliorate the burr under my saddle before I started bucking. He found an urban wilderness only five miles from our house.

Known as Sutton Wilderness, there's a trail around a small lake. If you can ignore the sound of traffic on your right, and concentrate on the bird sounds on your left, you can almost convince yourself that you are in a real wilderness.

It got better as we got to the far side of the lake. The traffic sounds really did go away and we spotted some wildlife. We've decided this would be a good place to put in a few hours while wearing a pack, just as a sort of practice run.

Cheap, easy, and readily available internet is also a benefit of the big city. In our tiny town in Kansas internet providers were few and far between, certainly not cheap, and the service was less than reliable.  Now we can have four computers going at once in the house, and never have to talk to one another face to face. We just IM between rooms.

It also means we have found new and fascinating things to do with said computers. By we I mean the Whee. I don't have the energy or patience to peruse programs. I think an application is something you use to get a job.

The Whee has been applying Picnik to her Facebook photos, which actually inspired me to run one of my photos through PhotoSlop, I mean Photoshop, again. Photoshop is not my friend. I think I may be too old to learn new tricks, but I keep trying.

According to Photoshop for Dummies, with a few simple clicks (HA! false advertising!) I turned this dull, lifeless photo of the Sutton Trail ...

into this fabulously rich, colorful, detailed masterpiece. I know, you're underwhelmed, aren't you?  Me too.

I feel like Photoshop is like the club where you don't get the good stuff unless you know the secret handshake. I haven't broken the code yet.

At least now when I get that 'gonna-smack-somebody' feeling, I know a place to which I can escape,  thus saving mankind.  Who knew a little body of water in the middle of Urban America could work such miracles?

       Happy Trails, and may you find all the well-hidden adventures!