Most of my friends are avid outdoorsmen. They prefer to be outside doing activities like hiking, surfing, horseback riding, kayaking, climbing, rollerblading, softball, tennis, pickle ball, dog walking, shuffleboard, and cornhole. Although I choose to run every day, I’m much happier being an indoorsman. I like air conditioning, television, movie theatres, streaming, wi-fi and being a couch potato. I get my share of sunshine and fresh air during my morning run and swim. Occasionally, I’ll brave the outdoors in the afternoon by sitting on a beach chair. It keeps me tan and looking like a rugged outdoorsman.

I just spent two weeks working on my tan. It was hot and often uncomfortable, made tolerable by reading books. Occasionally, I would jump in the surf but mostly I just lounged. Sunshine can be very addicting but so can a cool, dark room. I spend a total of only about one hour a day outside with the combination of a 5k run and some short dog walking stints. I’m glad to be back in my routine after being away from home so long. The next few times will be even longer.

My sleep has been disrupted the last two nights by the smoke alarms. It drives our schnauzer Tally crazy, especially after all the trouble we had a year ago with defective sensors. There is nothing worse the the sound of a smoke alarm chirping in a house with no furniture to absorb the noise. Plus, they always seem to go off in the middle of the night. Two nights ago, we got a call from my widowed neighbor about 1:30 a.m. after her alarms sounded repeatedly. Her dog was understandably upset with the high-pitched squawking. I grabbed my ladder and disconnected the power, as I had learned from my experiences after just moving in. I bought a tall step ladder just for this purpose. 

After another neighbor and I got her system finally squared away yesterday morning, our alarm coincidentally went off last night at about the same damn time. Tally retreated towards the exits and I grabbed the ladder while still half asleep and mildly under the influence of a couple Cinco de Maya margaritas. This morning I replaced each of the batteries in all the smoke and carbon monoxide detectors, as seems to be required every year at this time. The only thing worse is being on a ladder outdoors!