Too hot to hike.

I wanted to take a short hike in the state park today and perhaps write in my Moleskine a bit and take some photos. But it was just too hot. And humid. And still. Ick. So instead, I stayed inside and looked at pictures of Giant City State Park on my computer and finished updating the archives of this blog from my old TypePad blog. That photo was taken two weeks ago, when my super-good buddy Chris was in town. We also went to Makanda that day, to visit the labyrinth behind the Rainmaker's Studio on the Boardwalk. There is a secret garden behind the studio, and to get there, you have to go through the bottom of an old pirate ship...it's a very magical place. There are towers and ponds everywhere, and this photo is of the main tower:
I am probably a wimp for not going hiking today. Thoreau always talks about how we should seek "brute nature," even in the winter snow. I love Thoreau, don't get me wrong. But I spent three summers in New England, and, well, it just doesn't get this hot there. I love to hike in the cold as much as anyone, but getting heat stroke is not my idea of "communing with nature." I am telling myself that hiking today would have been dangerous. Besides, I really should have been in my office working today, but I decided that I could have a day off for the holiday. I didn't feel like doing anything but sitting around and working on the computer at home, in the nice digitally-controlled air conditioning. This poor kitty didn't have such a luxury, so he curled up on a bench on the Boardwalk in Makanda. That's a good idea, kitty.