Just markin pace with the day
Good morning … this is me again … Its about 5 am and we’ve been up about 1 ½ hours. We did a lot of reading of blog posts this week. Wanted to figure out where we were with all that. We were very happy we could do this task without fallin asleep.We’re starting our second cup of coffee, I’m surrounded by the kitties, but they are on the floor listening, dozing with the sounds of the morning birds. It is just turning light and everything is beautiful. Hmm, I wonder … could I take my coffee outside? Wake up with the morning, hmm? Let me try.
WooHOO … that was good. We’re up to the 8th chapter in the book. It is now 6:30 am and it is fully light. We are thinking that we should initiate some kind of walking in the morning. More on the level where we take the wheelchair and notebook … We figure we shouldn’t take pictures, but that we should use the step counter and timer. We figure if we make ourselves busy with the notebook that people won’t look at us so conspicuously for sitting for five minutes of time. It seems that we have this preoccupation with what people are going to think about us and that prohibits us trying. But, we need to find a means of getting around that can be done safely between zoo hours. We could try instituting the walk in the mall, but we are much too vulnerable to making purchases to try that.
Thinking … what would it take to get us to walk out that door in just a few moments? Hmm? People walk in the neighborhood without pets? Do they take water bottles? Can I look self-occupied enough not to feel conspicuous. Who really cares at 6:30 am in the morning? Took shower last night … go to the washroom, put on the shorts, top, and shoes and get the timers … where are they anyway? Don’t forget phone and pad of paper. Reach for 2 bottles of water and purse … maybe I would have to be identified if a police thought I was out for anything other than a walk.
Put stuff in red bag and bring down chair. Walk. Think we could be walking by 7 am?
Well, we’re close. We found the pedometer in some dirty clothes, got dressed, put on our shoes, and did our hair. We also tested that we could use one of our leather backpacks and they would hold two bottles of water. We didn’t find the notebook, but we found a clipboard and paper that fit easily enough. We just need now the keys and the phone. We’re not sure what we would be writing about yet. We have some new worksheets with the obese binging … yes that sounds kind of bad, hmm.
We’re going to try and get used to it as not something that is bad, but explains our behaviors and condition. We could also say the term BED for Binge Eating Disorder.
Maybe that is the softer of the two that still gives it credit for the reality it is.
The time is now 6:56 am. Would be a good time to walk … plenty of people get up later on a Sunday, right? Ok, girls … What would it take? Are we going to get through the embarrassment of our situation? It’ll be ok, right? Hmm, and where are we going to walk … are there any plans? How do we not get lost this time? Shhh, shhh … we can do it very orderly. Let’s try just going down Forest toward Ogden, hmm? We’ll set our first goal to a 30 minute walk – that would be 6 – 5 minute spurts, so between the sitting 5 minutes – it should take an hour. That wouldn’t be so bad, hmm? Let’s try 7 am … out the door with you, please!
Pshwoo. Ok, back … it’s now exactly 2 hours later (9 am). That also gave us a chance to use the washroom. Man … that was some walk … the end result? 3740 steps … that’s 1.18 mile!!! If I could do that every day, I would be fine. Just takes twice as long as expected. We took notes while we were gone during the rest periods. This is how she looks.
6 min up –
6 min down - Adjusting and resting. Set timer for 5 minutes rest before we start. We are fairly uncomfortable holding the paper, but that will have to adjust. We also ran into Apartment 2 guy who smiled at us. We need to try hard to believe he wasn’t smirking. We later heard his wife open the back window. Bright sunny day – no reason to go negative right? There wasn’t too much trouble undoing the chair and we learned while in the driveway to put on breaks, because of some slight rolling. That’s handy. Ok, now try to look around if you were comfortable being out. You can do this, right? No reason to feel afraid. We’re going to do this like to do it once a day. Zoo should be special for when there is that kind of time. Let’s go.
6 min 22 seconds up –
4 min 54 seconds down – Ok this is how it goes – nothing to feel bad about right. This first period included one minute up in the driveway and then down the block past Plainfield. Ok, so it isn’t far. We’re not going to confuse goals. Let’s think positive. It is a gorgeous morning and we made it past the front door. What do we note. Hmm – for one, it is better to park at a sidewalk not directly in front of a home. That way the homeowner won’t question why we are in front of his door. I think some may question why we are writing notes. Hmm, and its better to look away from the homes when we stop unless its for sale. Most won’t see the transition that we’re only walking a block or so between rests because they see only what’s immediately in front of them. Ok. Let’s try it again and remember to think positive – look at the houses.
5 min 15 seconds up –
5 min down – Ok this time we made it as far as the school. A couple is walking and looking at me. I’m embarrassed because of our weight. We think people are thinking of us as wimpy due to that and not because we have back problems. I don’t know why we read negatively into our perceptions of others. On the way this time, we walked a few steps with a bunny. He looked like he was bright and attentive. Not too scared. We also saw a huge garage being built and we can hear the sound of young children NE of us. Daring to look up, we can see them circling their inner garage with hot wheels and we can hear Spanish speaking parents and now we can additionally hear more children in front of us toward the NW. I saw our neighbor in apartment 4 leave with two very large suitcases. I wonder where he was going. They were huge more toward steamer size.
4 min 46 seconds up –
5 min 30 seconds down – Ok, next stop. We are on the block just south of Ogden. We were watching houses this time as to whether or not we would like to buy them. Most houses on this block are too small. I think we are going to turn west on Ogden and comeback on the block over. It’s been 7 years and we don’t even know what street that is? Hmm, maybe. Could it be Prairie? Not sure. Maybe it is the one with the cow on the restaurant roof. Hmm, smell bacon here. There is someone cooking breakfast. Across the street there is someone at the front door of a house. He seemed friendlier than the lady. And now there is a large black and white cat sitting there guarding the door. The guy might be staying cuz he didn’t start his truck. I need to prepare for busier street next. Hmm, catch this … 847-606-0080 Forest SE of Ogden.
5 min 42 seconds up –
5 min 32 seconds down – Ok we’re doing this … we just turned the corner of Prairie and Ogden. There were a couple of things that last trip. The second was that our neighbor in Apartment 6 drove past in his car with family slowing to say before leaving Forest, “How are you?” I think they might understand better the wheel chair now. Trying not to be embarrassed again. One other thing happened. We noted that the house at the end of our block was for sale. It looked like there might be a nice living room and master bed, the problem of course was that Sweetie wants a single floor and park. This looked built onto. It seemed to have a partially enclosed tanning roof over a sunroom in the back and a garage for 1 ½ plus space in front and back was a carport. We took down the number just to see how much they are going for on our block. It’s second neighbor was the dry cleaners. The sign said
it was reduced. Nice neighborhood at least. Nice cool breeze in the shade.
5 min 16 seconds up –
5 min down – Hmm, progressing. A dog just barked at us. I thought hmpf! I’m not going to sit by your house house! We passed another house for sale – this one smaller and less promising. We noted a large narrow 2 ½ story and a barn-style with an actual front porch – rare for this direct area. Most around our building have stairs leading up to the door and they are set back about 10-15 feet. Hmm, just passed by a faster older woman walker who was traveling with a cup of coffee in her hand. There was a guy to who was friendlier with his hello. This is a busier street than Forest, but still shady-tree-lined. There are periodic noisy trucks. Hmpf! I think a good portion of homeowners are up making nice breakfasts and going to church.
5 min 50 seconds up –
5 min 4 seconds up – Ok, we made it to Prairie and Congress. There’s a curious guy across the street SW of us. He is probably waiting for his wife so he can go to church. People take up a certain amount of ownership even the people I see walking. There were two more people. The first was a larger middle-aged man and the second was a heavy older man. There were also two more houses for sale. I don’t remember them too well already, but one was across from the playground/baseball park. We also passed a small church. Hmm park is for soccer too. I guess I remember seeing it filled-up with kids. Good for them. Another drink and now good to go. Hmm, washroom soon. 800-764-4054 x 1321 4431 Prairie.
6 min 34 seconds up –
5 min 23 seconds down – Pshwoo just crossed Plainfield. Real nice cool spot. Seems to be on the East/West streets. We passed another house for sale and noticed one down the block where we turned. The last was a big one almost a two-flat, but noticed only one mail. I took down that address too. Hmm, there goes that first middle-aged man. He nodded and gave me a low wave. Let’s see if he turns. Yep. Turned down our block. We have a row of apartments. It was a good bet because the guy was ethnic. Hate to say that, but most of homeowners here are 99.7% white – and a good majority old. Ok, ok. We can do this … let’s see if we can finish this round, k?
5 min 38 sec up –
Down for the count – total 2 hours computer to computer – Woo HOO. We are back. Need to put her away yet, and then climb those stairs. Just sure and steady right? Wow again!! 3700 steps … oh man oh man wait til Rich hears! That’s like 1:16 miles. I can’t believe I did it. It took … hmm clock might be wrong. It says 1 hour and 45 minutes? YEEKS! Lets check that out. We’ll go by the time it is when I get back upstairs. Hmm, have to get a picture of that. Sitting close to my drivers side of the car there is a beautiful reflection of our apartment building. Sweet! Looks French because of top leaning back in an angle. Nice to get fresh air. You notice small things like squirrels and low flying birds that cross over your path. Sweet. And, remember lets go for work at 10 am and let’s sit outside!
Ok, ok … were back to real time. It is about 9:45. I’m thinking that we are going to need a snack in a few moments. We’ve decided to have a grapefruit. I’m pretty sure the coffees gotten cold. Pretty good the writing gave us something to do while waiting to continue and it gave us the sense now typing it out that we could remember the little details and we could take you with us on our walk. I think we had some endorphin like high because we were feeling successful in our journey.
There were in total … 9 up periods … that is 51 ½ minutes of walking WOW! Pretty
darn good … that be then at a rate of about 72.62 steps per min, or more simply then for our records 72.6 spm. That about right? There is a little fudging in that steps actually included up the stairs and during that period we weren’t being timed, but if we do that consistently we’ll be ok. That also be like 3169, or for an average then say 3200 steps per average mile. 653.6 added to the base would mean an even hour of walking might be a goal of 4400 steps. Hmm, that will be our next goal then … we will want to walk for 60 minutes or about 4400 steps – that could be for the day, and that would be like about 1.38 miles. Cool … we’ll still be walking then about 72.6 spm, but eventually, we can watch that score come down. Cool, cool.
Ok, 10 am grapefruit AND THEN WORK!!!
Ok, mostly work … 11:15 and stopping for lunch. We’ve got something in the micro.
We’re progressing on the work … we have the first 10 months complete now we have to do the additional 2 months that were handed in late. It’ll be ok, It’ll be ok, please don’t take the rest of the afternoon.
My legs are kind of tired. I think that we pushed them today. I felt wobbly crossing the kitchen floor. Hope we feel refreshed soon. It couldn’t be absolutely any more gorgeous than it is out there right now. I sure hope that fishyman is getting the same. It says that it is 73 degrees and NE winds at 10-15 mph. Whoooo … this is the perfect couldn’t order any better kind of day. We’re feeling that enthused. Looking over at our fishing buddy on the calendar … and always the one where Bob is hugging him. I’m thinking he was thinking Good Rich and Good Rich knew it! On the same calendar page is the two other guys that were going up with them.
Rich is the youngest. I think there are one or two younger than Rich, but that is about all. He prides himself for being one of the young guys. I think it is his boyish charm. Hehehe there’s another one where he is curiously looking over Bob’s shoulder. Where I know that it is a fish they are looking at, I like to pretend it is Rich … anyway … we better not go there, but to say the least … It’s a sexual pose I’m pretty sure. There is a couple of pictures where Rich is in the middle of a card game. One he looks sheepishly impishly satisfied and the other hes just the most docile kitten you ever seen. There’s one more picture with Bob … it looks like they are finishing up eating and they are standing around still chatting. You get the idea that Bob has just joined Rich and another. Either that or he is not in as much need to lean against the wall. It puts in perspective better that Rich might be the bigger of the two, especially in height.
Hmm… just gone through a long lunch and a lot more time ogling the pictures in the calendar. I’d probably be embarrassed if Rich knew how often we looked at it.
*Sigh*
It’s noon now so we figure its time to get back out to the work project … maybe if we were successful at it, we could take a little snoozy nap? We’ve been up since pretty early. We’ve got a couple more hours until the sun hits. My stomach is a little frazzled, but I don’t want to change to something less social, because I want to get that laundry done tonight. Figure we’ll leave at 6:15 pm to get the gas, then go to the fruit market and hope she’s still up, and then to the laundry.
Better remember to take some money with us.
Umm, tummy problem better … 12:20 though. I’m starting to see advantages to reading fishy magazines. Maybe I could learn a thing or two from fishy man’s perspective? “GET FISH”
Ok, you back to work – outside you go. Shoo
Ok again … It’s now about 3:16. We’re back inside until towards dusk. The sun shows its worst about now. Ok, here is our dilemma. We figure that in about 3 hours, we’re going to go out to do some errands … the one’s mentioned above. But, we aren’t going to the zoo because of all the earlier walking and our stomach has been swishy. So the thing is we are tired now, but we won’t want to stay up all night … so, should we take a nap now, or let it go? I’ve just done a handful of work, not into any more right now, but we’re not a proven expert at doing it in the evening either. Usually, I don’t take a nap, but feeling really worn out. Hmm, that means I should take a nap, but maybe a short one? Think we’re going to put the braces on too because our arms, hands and fingers are sore. Not sure why. I know I don’t want to spend any extra time eating … that would be a bad thing. Hmm, maybe before we nap though we could gather some of those clothes we want to take in? Ok … that’s a good idea … gather clothes, nap, eat, chores – gas, fruit, laundry, work or read (write some) and go to bed early about 9 pm. That should work. Ok, we’re going to try that out … be over here.
*Sigh* ok, ok … we’re up … It’s about 5:50 and we’ve been up for a bit … we just had a snackable and am wondering if that should be it for dinner. I think according to plan that’s it. And in a half hour we do the above, right? Sure be nice to have a subsandwich along the way. It’s right next door to the laundry place. I’m just thinking here that we might have forgotten the medicine this morning. We just read back and there doesn’t seem to be anything in the notes to reflect having taken it.
Maybe that is why we needed the unusual nap? Might be too that we were a little bored. Not that doing so many hours of business on a Sunday afternoon wasn’t exciting. Uh huh, hmm. Too late to worry about it now … wondering if I should catch up on some of them or just wait until the morning. Shoot, I don’t know … it’s a new worry. Usually I don’t forget. I don’t want to be under or overdosing, but its kind of hard to avoid. Won’t be doing anything until after laundry, etc? Should be getting dressed? Little bit now will make all the difference by tomorrow … gas, clean clothes, fruit, hmm?
Kind of feel headachy. Maybe we should take our medicine first? What do you think. We’re getting pretty unclear here, hmm? Might not be back for an hour? I think we better. BBB
Ok, back. 2 out of 3 accomplished … well sort of 3 out of 4. I did get the subsandwich too. The gas and car wash were good, but the fruit place was closed.
So, I ate the sub while waiting the 15 minutes for the laundry to open. It’s about 7:15 pm.
Ok … that about does it for the evening. It’s 8:45 pm and we’re pretty well zonked. Let’s try it again tomorrow, ok?
posted by Ann Marie @ 7/01/2007 08:41:00 PM
Comments: 1
