January Retrospective

I was going to finish up my NaNoWriMo story. I was going to finish up other stories. I was going to roll up my sleeves and start carving up some older drafts to make them more fit for human consumption.

Instead, the only writing I've done has been diary entries and the new walk log.

But I have walked more. Quite a bit more, in fact. In the past there have been times when I pretty routinely got in three miles before work (plus a brief warm-up and cool-down bit I don't count in my pencil logged mileage). This month, I wondered how much longer five miles would take. About thirty minutes longer, as it turns out. And the turn around point brings me to one of the more scenic parts of the trail, right alongside a river (albeit generally a river in the dark at the moment).

I like it. I've been getting up that half an hour earlier to get in those extra two miles, me and my Black Diamond Gizmo headlamp, which has been a trooper. And I've walked through wet weather and cold. (But not ice--I don't do ice. See a few entries back where I fell down the stairs. That's clumsy me WITHOUT ice. I really, really don't do ice.)

I started doing a little quick math, and if I can average 25 miles a week (doable, if I'm willing to stick it out in the rain and occasionally sneak in some evening and weekend walks when I have to miss the morning excursion), I can walk 500 miles by the first week of June. (And IIII would walk five hundred miles and IIII would walk five hundred more...)

It's a nice round number to aim for. We'll see how long my gumption lasts (not to mention my shoes).

But I haven't really managed any of my other resolutions this month.

Maybe I should start one resolution a month until I finally (hopefully) have all of them going at once. Like learning to juggle, starting with tossing a single ball from one hand to another.

Next month should probably be "Play More," as in music. Wintergrass is just around the corner!

Walk Report (AKA Yet Another Excuse to Scribble in Field Notes)

As part of my "walk more" resolution for the year, I thought I'd start keeping a notebook, because I'm a nerd and I like the idea of being able to look back on at least some of my data. Bonus: knowing I'll get to write something down with a nice pencil in a cool notebook is motivation to get my fanny out the door in the mornings.

Don't have a set format yet, but I'll get there.

Kaput

This is apparently Kaput Week around here.

This weekend I bought new sneakers. Because I am a knucklehead, Monday morning I went for a three mile walk in said sneakers, without having worn them around the house long enough for them to get used to me and I to them. Gave myself a blister.

I limped in to work that day to find that one co-worker had messed up his back and another had pulled a muscle in her calf and was also limping. And one of the uninjured had to leave early because her furnace broke down. Also, Comcast throughout the region had network glitches and intermittent outages most of the day. Not fun.

Well, I chalked it up to "Monday" and figured it was over. Bought blister bandages on the way home, and was able to walk as usual on Tuesday (albeit in old shoes). The work day was hectic, but without major outages. Everything seemed to be looking up.

Then this morning I stepped out the door onto the waterlogged front steps (which, I might add, I've traversed hundreds of times in far worse conditions) and my feet went out from under me. Came down HARD on my tailbone, wrenched my shoulder. It. Hurt. One of those moments where you can't decide whether to curse, cry, or maybe both.

So I'm back to limping.

Is there a lesson in all this? Not really.

Except that, maybe, though we've escaped the Polar Vortex, we in the Pacific Northwest are in the grip of a Vortex of Kaput.

Be careful out there, folks.