The main problem with walking is that it just takes too long. It's taking me twice as long to cover the same amount of ground each morning. That's discouraging. Walking does have one major advantage over running, though. It gives you a lot of time to notice your surroundings. Here's what I noticed this morning:
- God created some pretty big slugs. I saw one this morning that must have been almost 5 inches long, just oozing across the street. I gave it a wide berth.
- Walking hurts just as much as running. With running, it's my knees. With walking, it's my hip sockets. It kind of feels like my legs are coming loose from my torso. I just can't win.
- There's a house in our neighborhood that has all it's blinds drawn, all the time. I've noticed it for years but, while walking, I had more time to think about why that is. Are they keeping something out or keeping something in?
- Deer are fearless or stupid -- or both. As I headed up the driveway after finishing my walk, I encountered Bambi's granddaughter munching away at my lilies in the front yard. I stalked toward her with a menacing snarl (or so I thought) on my face. She quickly bounded away, only to be found less than 30 seconds later hiding just around the back corner of the house. I think she thought I wouldn't see her and that she could just return to her breakfast as soon as I headed into the house. Since I still can't run, I had to stride towards her again to scare her away. She took off for the woods. Now, though, I actually have peeked outside twice while typing this just to make sure she's really gone.
- Hardly anyone gets the newspaper delivered anymore. That got me thinking about how society has pretty much killed off the paper boy. What a shame.
