May 08th, 2019

That's kind of what I looked like after Pilates class yesterday.  Well honestly, not that good because the lady in this picture is young and pretty.  I looked more like the Wreck of the Hesperus.   It was well deserved.  We work out hard (of course we did, there is no point in doing it otherwise)

I didn't even think too much about how I looked with my messy hair, sweaty body and no make-up as I walked by home but at some point along the way, the following sentence rang through my head, "Pigs Sweat, Men Perspire and Women Glow".

I learned that one when I lived in Texas.  With all due respect too the lovely ladies of Texas who at that time still wore gloves to church on Sunday  and the worst thing they ever said about anyone was, "Bless her heart", this particular woman sometimes sweats.  Buckets.

Especially in Florida. Especially in August.  It's only May right now.  It's still cool in the mornings and evenings and even on the most hot and humid day in May,  it is positively  lovely outside.  The great outdoors is a very desirable place to be.  Even at the worst  part of the day, people are still out walking, riding their bikes, playing tennis and frolicking on the beach.  We are all wearing shorts, sandals and using sunblock by the gallon, but we are outside. By choice.

By July the number will have dropped off to a courageous (or foolish) few and by August, only mad dogs and Englishmen as the saying goes.  Well and me.  I'm usually out there too.  I'm "Glowing" like the Las Vegas Strip at night, but I'm out there. Like the stubborn fool that I am.  Even on the worst of days, come noonish, Tim and I are out doing what we have come to call the noon-walk.  Tim tries, every work day, to take a break roughly half way through his day, to get up from his desk, to step away from his work, and then we take a walk.  Our usually trek is a two + mile circle.  Two miles is nothin' on a nice day.  But at noon, in August, when it's 90 something degrees hot with 90 something percent humidity and just thinking about going outside gives you sweaty pits, well, obviously we are out of our minds.

And yet there we are, outside, walking, talking, laughing, sweating....     
Lizards watch us walk by from the shade of a shrub or a tree, bunnies peep out from shady glens, birds splash in puddles and shake their heads saying, "crazy humans".   I was going to say, Crazy like a fox but I think it's more crazy like a crazyperson because, I mean, well, other than us, who does this?

Turns out more people than you'd think.  At least here.  Some of them I think are tourists.  Maybe they come from very cold places and they just want to warm up.  Or maybe they have arrived here from even hotter, more humid places and this is cool and dry by comparison.  Or they are just regular ordinary people who came to the beach for vacation and Damn the weather, they are going to act like someone on vacation!  Good for them.   Personally, I refuse to be a prisoner (of the weather) in my house.  

We have found that once you get past the initial...ewwwww I'm sweating....part, it's not that big of a deal.  Wear sunscreen, wear sunglasses, wear a hat!  Dress appropriate to the temperature, drink lots of water and then, relax and enjoy it.  The high heat and humidity won't be here forever so be one with it.   It's all very Zen. 

Be forewarned, you may sweat. You might perspire.   Personally, this year, I plan to work on glowing instead.  By the end of the summer, if things work out, I'll be able to light up the night like a beacon!