The stroller (which gives me a feeling of security when I walk) is stored in the garage but under and behind some other stuff, like the lawn mower, and some bins that need to find permanent homes in the house, or recycling if I cannot find a place for their contents soon. Anyway, I pulled out the stroller, put on my headset, put "Born To Run" by Christopher McDougall on my phone as inspiration--a thoroughly interesting read--, started the Map My Walk app, and headed out after saying goodbye to Dear One. He gave me a wonderful encouraging smile and off I went.
After the first turn in the road there looked like a leaf blowing across the road up ahead. It kept blowing in the same direction and at the same speed. Perplexing. When I got a little closer I realized it was not a leaf. It was a turtle.
It was not a very attractive turtle, at least from a distance. I started to get closer to it so I could really observe it, but he or she stopped in its tracks and looked around at me. I did not want to bother that little creature so I just spoke kindly to it and then went on my way. When I got home and reported the sighting to Dear One he wondered if it was a snapping turtle. Someone had suggested that if there are alligators in our pond, the turtles there are probably snapping turtles. Not sure why, but...one man's opinion, I guess. I have the impression that snapping turtles have a pointed shell which this one did not appear to have, so I am in a quandary. It certainly did not look much like the mud turtles I have seen in Vermont. The shell was kind of a humped oval.
The rest of the walk, which I thought was taking me on a big loop back around to our street, in fact took me all the way to Route 15 by the SAFE Credit Union. (Speaking of the SAFE Credit Union, if some financial institution calls itself SAFE, do you get a better feeling about it, or a worse one? I am thinking if they have to say they are safe, I might want to shy away from them. Sad, because they are so close to our house.) So, when I got to SAFE I realized I had gone the wrong way to get back to our house in a circle. Oh well. It was a longer walk than I had thought I would be doing but I survived it. Doing more than you intended, even inadvertently, can be inspirational.
When I got back home I was ready for a long lie-down! The top of my left foot really was screaming at me about what a loser I was to make this trek. It took two days to calm down. This makes me think that I have missed some of the things that Christopher McDougall has been saying about walking/running. Since I am almost done reading the book, well, maybe running is actually not for me. I never really planned on it, but have thought that walking was a good all-around exercise...and just maybe sometime down the road...?!
Maybe I will head to the YMCA pool this week...
Pools are good! Much kinder to our “mature” bodies . 😅
ReplyDeleteSo true! I hope to get there next week!
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