Lunch

I just had the best lunch; like a mini-vacation.  And it caused a deep yearning to go camping.

I've spent this week working hard wrapping up projects, creating documentation, and resolving some outstanding issues.  I needed to get away.  I also haven't had a vacation in twenty months.  I needed to get away.

You should know that it is bright and sunny today, just over eighty degrees with a nice, strong breeze.  I knew this was going to be a special lunch, but even as I walked toward my truck, I wasn't sure how it would play out.  I decided on Wendy's and headed there to pick up a spinach chicken salad.

By the way, Wendy's, I am intensely grateful that you've put this back on the menu.  It's been a long time, but it's a favorite of mine.  You've made me a happy man.

After the exchange of salad and money through the tiny window, I headed back to the parking lot, which borders a creek.  This particular parking lot is familiar and preferred territory for tailgaters during the Longhorn's football season, but on this March day, it was just me and the cars.  There is a shady patch of grass along the creek, and this is where I set up my camp chair and got down to the salad.  Sun, breeze, salad, water, trees, and the siren of a firetruck behind me.  Ah, nature as it was intended.  It was enough, though, for my mind to take me away to the mountain peaks of the Weminuche and the forest trails of the Hill Country.

Back at work...three hours to go.