uphill battle, downhill slide

.
Is there an "uphill battle" without a "downhill slide" or a "downhill slide" without an "uphill battle?"

I doubt it.

Set the sights on the East and the West is forgotten. Take up one adventure and forsake another...like the wispy finger-crossing of a Christian marriage vow: "Forsaking all others...."

You can only do what you're doing. And yet doing what you're doing simultaneously means not-doing what you're not-doing.

Uphill battle -- sometimes very heart-felt.

Downhill slide -- sometimes pretty discouraging.

But now and then and from time to time, maybe it's worth noting what things were like before "uphill" and "downhill" crank up their motors, to touch base with the starting point before things get started.

Neither uphill nor down.

Isn't it time to take out the garbage?
.