Blue-Footed Musings

My glasses broke the other night. That was upsetting. I need glasses to see well, of course, which was the main issue. But it was also annoying, because 1) I’d known they were in bad shape and had planned to get a new pair before this one bit the dust, but failed, darnit; and 2) I’d recently thrown away all my contact lenses because they were expired; though I might ultimately have chosen not to take the risk of using them (only a small risk, theoretically, as long as they were disinfected with new solution), I would have liked to have had the option. I am kicking myself for having thrown them away at exactly the wrong time. (Decluttering is great but sometimes ends poorly.)

My husband glued the frames back together. That held for one night, then the glue started to give. He reglued them and added some tape. That seemed to do the trick. They are holding together now, but the tape keeps partially unraveling and irritating my skin. So, until I get new glasses, I’ve decided to use that pair only for driving. Otherwise, I’m going glasses-free, which is fine most of the time, or wearing an older pair that still corrects my vision fairly well.

My plan is to get a cheap pair of glasses to see me through the next few months. Then, after my next visit to the eye doctor, I’ll buy a proper pair with all the bells and whistles. I’m actually looking forward to it, even though I hate having to spend the money. I’ve had the same glasses for a long time, and I deserve a new pair!

There are still some clovers blooming in the front yard, but what has the bees all abuzz at the moment is the sweet pepperbush. You can smell it as soon as you step outside. It’s such a wonderful fragrance, and I wish as always that I could somehow bottle it. Also seen outside are the dewberries finally ripening and dragonflies zipping around everywhere.

All of these speak to the advance of the season, but what startled me today, as I was walking down to the mailbox, was that the asters have started to bloom. Just a few. But each day will bring more, and soon they’ll reach their peak, and then we will know that summer’s end is just around the corner.

OMG, how has the time gone so fast?

Earlier this year I started walking regularly again as part of my crusade to get better sleep. I set the daily minimum at four driveway laps (half a mile). It doesn’t sound like a lot, but it was difficult for me. It seemed to take forever, it left me physically drained, and it never seemed to get any easier. It was also murder on my bad knee. I was always limping by the last lap.

Maybe a normal reaction would have been to quit, but I doubled down instead and set the minimum to eight laps. And it worked. Eight laps was enough to start moving the fitness needle. The walk got easier and started to feel less onerous. I had a little more “pep in my step.” My knee hurt me no more at the eighth lap than it had at the fourth.

I was measuring my walks in laps or miles, but many people talk about walking in terms of steps. They say one ought to strive to take 10,000 steps per day. That seemed like an arbitrary number, but I read up on it and realized it wasn’t entirely arbitrary. Apparently anything less than 5,000 is considered to be sedentary. I was surprised by that, until I wore my pedometer all day to test how many steps I was getting. My total for that day was 7,000, give or take. Of those, 2,400 were from my daily walk, meaning that the remaining 4,600 were just steps I’d taken while moving around the house. I can hardly believe that I walked almost two miles in my own home, just going about my daily business. That explains anything less than 5,000 is “sedentary,” because you can walk that much without even leaving the house.

Months down the road, now Livia has started training for cross country, and I’ve been taking her to the local park so that she has room to run. While she’s running, I walk. I wear my pedometer so that I can keep track of my distance. I’ve been walking at least a mile every night, sometimes two. On those days when I walk two miles, I may be getting close to the recommended 10,000 steps per day.

Since I started walking again I’ve lost weight, about 6-7 pounds. Every pound you lose is equal to five pounds of force on your knees, it’s said. Between that and the presumed muscle gain in my legs, my bad knee bothers me less. Now it hurts only after long walks rather than all the time. That’s a big improvement.

So I’m going to keep walking. Walking laps. Walking miles. Walking steps. However I may count it, it all counts.