Day Two

I have my greatest thoughts in either the shower or the middle of the night. Now we all know it is not a good idea to keep a note pad and pencil in the shower but I do keep one on the table beside my bed. So, when I have these great thoughts I can just make a note. Sometimes my notes are things I forgot to do, things I want to do, or things i just think about. So last night, or should I say this morning, at 2:01 a.m. I leaned over and by the glow of my little clock wrote "DDD". Fortunately when I woke this morning I was able to interpret this code. It meant "don't ditch daughter".

Following my experience from yesterday, I had decided to go at this alone. But I got to thinking last night that if it had not been for loving daughter, I would have turned around midstream and took cover. She was my inspiration yesterday and has already asked when she gets to walk with me again. Are we taking the puke master? Who knows. But there are some things I will insist on doing differently: 1) take my own bottle of water, 2) start at the opposite end of the path so that is down hill on the way back, and 3) walk in the morning before the heat rises.

As for today's activities, I was instructed to participate in any low-intensity activity for 30 consecutive minutes. This sounded great since my foot was hurting worse than ever. Some examples provided were gardening, house work and bike riding.
I gave this some serious thought and made myself a list of possibilities. (I am a list maker, by the way.)
1. gardening
2. housework
3. clean fish pond
4. clean out cabinet in garage
5. pedicure
6. trip to the mall
7. work in my classroom at school
8. nap
9. bake a cake for a friend
10. sew

I scratched off gardening because this is something I do every day and feel like I need to do different, more challenging things for this conditioning process. Housework I did on Monday. The fish pond only took me 10 minutes and I cleaned out the garage two weeks ago. Pedicure? I decided to put that off until next week and I can go to the mall anytime. My team mate backed out on me for that project at school today. Nap - check. (Well, I was up late last night!) Didn't bake that cake because I couldn't decide what kind to bake her and I like to sew at night when hubby is downstairs watching his dumb cop shows. Soooo, I decided on a stroll around the neighborhood for 30 consecutive minutes.

Here is what I discovered on said stroll. After donning my not-so-very-comfortable shoes, I headed off. I decided to take on the hills first so that when I got tired and hot, I would be coming down hill. So I took a right at the end of my street and headed onward past the neighbors on the corner who are obsessed with grass. I am very serious here. His grass dies all the time. The hubs says he worries it to death but he actually gets out there with a blow torch and burns it. He has done this several times and he has these huge black spots all over his yard. Then he resows it and lays these huge plastic snakes all over his yard. People from miles around ride by to see his snakes. One such person even called me to ask me if the snakes were real. I assured her they were not. Today I noticed he had some strange contraption sitting beside his house sort of hidden by a bush and it was making a loud humming noise. It was about the size of a chest type freezer. Hmmm. Come to think of it, I haven't seen his wife lately.

I continued on my stroll up yet another hill and was stopped and asked to please take a cute little black kitten. Well, my answer was no. I have two cats and don't want another. This person was almost insisting I take the cat. She was a little scarey so I quickened my pace and told her to have a good afternoon. Finally I reached the crest of the hills in my hood and continued a little farther on than I had planned. By this time I am hearning thunder and watching as the sky around me begins to darken. But no fear, I love storms. I don't want to be out in one but I will sit on my back porch and enjoy it. Those of you who experienced the bad storm back in June may have a different feeling but I was out of town when that happened. Anyway, I continued on and that is when I met up with the big black dog of Ark Street. Many of you may not even know there is such a street as Ark Street. I didn't until I look at the street sign today. Ark Street connects to Mini Street. But big black dog lives there and he apparently didn't like it that I was visiting. He begins barking very deeply and loudly. So I freeze.... and slowly begin to back away and turn for home. That is when I noticed the older, toothless man watching me and grinning from ear to ear. Had I scratched something without realizing it or was he amuzed about my impending dog attach? Who knows.

Anyway, I escaped and now know why people carry sticks when walking. There was a great breeze blowing and with the darkening sky, it was somewhat cooler so I decided to take the long way home. Remember, I'm trying to stroll for 30 minutes consecutively.

Another observation I made on this stroll was that people, especially teenagers, will run over you if given the chance. They never slow down, and they never hang up the phone. So I have learned to always be alert and pay attention to oncoming cars. If you are a teacher, as I am, it may be a good idea to wear a disguise. Some kid I may have taught in the 8th grade may try to put me out of the misery of other poor unsuspecting students. I need to give this disguise thing some thought.

People can put some really tacky *&%# in their yard. This includes, but is not limited to, plastic flowers. They do fade in the sun and turn blue. Get a grip!!! If you can't have real flowers, do without. Statues. Now I like statues within reason. But a lifesize statue of the Virgin Mother is a bit much in a small yard in my neighborhood. It looks like it should be in a cathedral. It needs to go, quickly. A fish pond the size of Lake Michigan in a tiny, very tiny, back yard. What's up with that? It's enough that the house is too oversized for that tiny lot and now the lake. Oh well.

I finally was on the downhill swing of my stroll and was beginning to get a little winded. But you know what? It felt pretty good and my foot was not aching as much as before. I got home, kicked off my shoes, checked my clock and realized I had participated in a low-impace activity for not just the 30 required consecutive minutes but 39 consecutive minutes. But, who's counting!!!!!

Until tomorrow....