Keep on Walking

I have been having lots of dreams about lions lately-none of them good. What kind of person wants to kill and decapitate a beautiful male lion with a black mane? The thing I remember most about sitting near lions was first, how lazy they are when they are not hunting: they really do nothing but sit around looking good. And second, when they occasionally look at you with those yellow eyes, they do not see you. You are invisible- and it's terrifying.
But oh how we love them. We love them because they are beautiful and powerful and heartless. Like a lot of people, I guess. Anyway, maybe this will galvanize the conservation efforts-but I'm sad to say I doubt it.

Yesterday the weather was bad: I was feeling blue and in the mood for a good brood. (this more than anything makes you a local: no one does brooding like an Austrian).
I decided to go it alone: walk up steep and nasty but just for 40 minutes; run down for 1/2 hour down the other side, then run/walk flat for another 40 minutes or so to lunch. A little trip towards food. And I would be alone, so I could go slowly and brood in peace. Just munch on my gummi bears thinking morose thoughts at will.

Later at lunch, I actually said to  Thomas-von-Lalanne that perhaps I should walk back up the 30 minutes home after we ate. He looked at me like I was crazy. "You have run for almost two hours already." Yes, I said, but so much was down hill....? and a lot was walking..?
I'm not kidding..I sounded like Margaret-who is an actual fit person. (Compared to her, I am a Saudi Arabian 12 year old). But after a few weeks in Lech, distance changes. It's like some sort of time space continuum. Lech distance is different from other distance.
Point is: keep walking people. There is no place you can't get to with a pocket full of gummi bears and an injustice to ruminate against. Trust me.

On my way, I saw a friend of the Schneider's who is an avalanche dynamiter. He lives in the best house in town with a woman who is a cross country skiing guide and whom I adore.
He and I have always spoken German-but he is very shy and I worry my vocabulary will soon run out. I had one night last summer where the German Gods blessed me and I was killing it. Just one avalanche joke after another coming out of my mouth. The trouble is I cannot possibly keep that level up, and yesterday he was looking at me expectantly, cheerfully even, like I was going to say something hilarious. But I was sweaty and tired and I had sticky hands from the gummi bears and I was sort of flailing.
So I declare in a weird voice , as I am peering into his car, that we really need to get together and have a drink because his wife and children are in South America for 5 weeks.
I mean...sad that Uli is away..so sad. We need to drink now. But maybe just apple juice. But definitely at your place because your house is so great.. I mean you know what I mean..let's go to your place. 
Good lord.
I looked horrible, so there is little chance he will take me up on the offer. But my reputation as that loon from California is growing. 

In case any of you are worried that I am losing weight, below is a photograph of last night's dessert. Here's the rub: it was for one person.  That's right.

 Salburger Nockerl is a famous Austrian dish -made mostly of egg whites and sugar I think.
Thomas dryly asked what the waiters do with the bodies that have exploded. I told him I was pretty sure I saw a memorial somewhere dedicated to those who died while eating it.

More visitors come today; K's gay BFF is throwing her a party on the 6th where he will cook a full meal as a gift to her. This is the same man who threw the famous margarita party with me years ago; (see earlier blogs), the same party where I started eating the plants on the table.
Anyway I wrote to him offering my services as sous chef. Funny, he has not written me back..

"Lost to Egg Whites, but forever in our hearts..."