Check my Defend Equality page TODAY's QUOTE The tragedy of life is not that it ends so soon, but that we wait so long to begin it.~ anon. Yesterday's Entries 2001: Plague TODAY's FOOD Breakfast: Raisin Bran TODAY's READ Blood and Thunder TODAY on DVD Signs Getting to know me....
You are a Forest Beauty! |
WAKE-UP CALL 9 March 2004 Lemme tell you...if anybody needs a kick in the butt about leading a healthy lifestyle, just wander through the local cemetery and check the birth and death dates. Today spring has exploded around here. Suddenly temperatures are in the 70s, the air is clear and clean and it’s the kind of day where you just know you have to be out enjoying it. I decided that today I would go for another walk. My problem with walking as a form of exercise is that I get bored before I’ve gone a block. But when I was in Australia and saw that Peggy drove the few blocks to the park where we walked the dogs each morning, it suddenly occurred to me that I could actually drive to a different starting point each time instead of just walking the same old blocks around here, in ever widening circles.
The post office is near the cemetery, so I decided to drive over, park the car, say hi to the kids, and start my walk there at the cemetery. This time I remembered to bring the pedometer. This time I would know how far I’d walked. There is a place behind the cemetery where people take their dogs and I decided I’d start my walking there. But first, after visiting Paul and Dave’s grave, I wandered around looking at gravestones. The thing that hit me most was how many, many, many headstones there were for people who died younger than I am right now. There are those who are a lot younger, like our kids, but there are also a lot who were in their late 50s or early 60s at the time of their death. Lemme tell you, if there was ever a good incentive to continue on walking, resolutely, up the adjacent hill, it was that. I walked in that area once before and had forgotten how very lovely it is.
It is not dissimilar to the place where we ran the dogs in Australia (minus the vegetation, of course--it’s more open space, rather than bushes--and no kangaroos). There was even a "bird tree," with crows and mocking birds instead of cockatoos and gallahs, but still a bird tree.
I discovered that there are obviously "regulars" there. I met "Henry," a very friendly beagle mix and his owner, whom I passed a couple of times on the track around the dog run.
I also found this lovely dog whom I never met, but who was quite photogenic.
There is also a horse barn and it was fun watching the horses frolicking in the paddock after their owner let them out while I was walking by.
It was just a great walk. Unfortunately, I had worn a sweatshirt and I was suitably soaked by the time I decided to call it quits--it is definitely coming into t-shirt weather around here! As I was headed back to the car, I checked the pedometer and discovered that I had apparently put it in the wrong spot on my belt. According to the pedometer, I had walked thirteen steps and burned off one calorie. I think it was slightly more than that. I followed up the open-air walk with half an hour walking around the supermarket, then carrying heavy bags to and from the car, so by the time I came home and put everything away, I felt as if I’d had my workout for the day. There was a message on the answering machine when I got home. I don’t want to go into any details at all yet, but suffice it so say that if this all pans out, it will involve earning money doing more writing and that’s very exciting. I have to do some study about it tonight and some decisions will be made tomorrow. Hold the good thought. Walking back to the car through the cemetery, I looked at all those headstones again and realized that, God willing, I’m a long way from joining them. There’s lots of life left in this old girl yet. (Thanks so much for those who sent suggestions for publicity in Chicago. I will
let you know if any of those connections pan out!) |
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PHOTO OF THE DAY
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For more photos, please visit My Fotolog and My FoodLog |
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Weight Lost to date: 43.8 lbs
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Created 3/08/04
I had a couple of packages to mail, so thought I’d park near the post
office and do my walking there, but it turned out that there weren’t any available
parking places close enough to the post office that I wanted to carry packages, so I went
there first (have you seen the terrific new Dr. Seuss stamps? They are selling like
hotcakes here and I got the last sheet of them!)
