Month: August 2022

When asked, my doctor replied with a question. “Can you walk a mile ?” Well yeah, anyone can walk a mile. He asserted that if you could walk a mile, you were fine.

Really? Just a mile? Anyone can walk a mile. Or so I thought. People that go to Costco and shop there get a mile in. A Trader Joe’s is six blocks from our home. Walking there and back with a little walking through the store, that is a mile. But then there is the question of “will you walk a mile?” 1 have to admit to taking a car to Trader Joe’s. Yes, we did fill it up with three or four bags of groceries. But still.

Perhaps the doctor should be asking things like:

Can you walk a mile every day for a week?
How quickly can you walk a mile?
How far can you walk in an hour?

And perhaps:

Do you walk a mile? or
How far will you walk instead of taking a car?

I checked in with about a dozen friends and family people about how long it takes them to walk a mile. I put the Same question to each of them, “how long does it take you to walk a mile?” None of the people under 4@ knows what their time is. (3 people) One replied “Too long… One person, who spends his summers walking the Pacific Crest Trail said “2 miles an hour is a good pace.” People who walk for fitness report 13, 16, 17 and”on a good day with good weather 15 mins +/- 30 seconds On a typical day 15:45 – 16:10″ He also used to come in “under 14:45 consistently” All the rest of the people I asked gave answers in the 20 to 25 minute range. There is one guy who replied, “Thanks to my phone obsessively stalking me I know this. 18 minutes to walk a mile.” My phone reports that I walk 22 ti 28 minutes per mile. My real question for myself is “Everyday?” And the answer much like my One Typed Page answer is “No”, not every day.

I know there is more to be said about Walking. About how good it is for you, mentally and physically. About how there is so many things to discover while you walk. About all the things that are not part of the rest of your life. There is more to be said about walking.
Not today.

— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-08-05

Does § have special meaning in foreign languages, like French? In English it is a section sign. It is called section mark, section symbol, or, for fun to my eyes, a silcrow. And from what internet searching I have done, it seems that silcrow is just that – a word for the § symbol.

To get personal for a paragraph, today my dentist spent eight minutes inspecting the implant thing he installed in my jaw months ago. He agrees that they have healed up just fine so now I can get a tooth installed. At last!

The paragraph market, ¶, does not appear on my keyboard A section takes precedence over a paragraph? The etymology for silcrow is “Portmanteau of pilcrow and Latin signum sectienis (“section sign”), or a derived form thereof.” This is the kind of thing I get wrapped up in. Now I will need to find and open an Oxford English Dictionary and see what they have to say about silcrow. So much for sleeping.

This is the blather that comes out when I do not have anything to write on.

—- MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-08-02

Father Steven goes on a long walk each fall. It is a walk on the Santiago, or rather the Camino de Nantiago. There are many routes on this walk. They all end up at the cathedral in Santiago de Compostela. People have done this walk in all times of the year. Reasons for doing the walk varies greatly. Father Steven’s reason is to take a dozen or so veterans to address the moral harm they have suffered from. He leads them in prayer to start the day. They walk the route for the day. They reflect on their problems. A psychologist is with them for those who would like more secular advice or counseling.

On the Camino walk they cover 12 to 20 kilometers each day. 1 was working up to a half marathon. While l think of it as a 13 mile event it also can be thought of as a 21 kilometer walk. I was almost there when health issues braked me to a stop. I am working on getting back up to the half marathon. It is harder this time. However, and St. Augustine or Diogenes said originally “it is solved by walking.” And so I do each day.

This all comes to mind after a walk (mostly) to the library to pickup Hrling Kagge’s book Walking (One Step At A Time).It was recommended to me by Father Steven. Nothing was said about the book. He just texted me the title. It has a quote up front (what are those things called?) it is from Laurie Anderson from “Walking and Falling”

You’re walking. And you don’t always realize it.
But you’re always falling.
With each step, you fall forward slightly.
And then catch yourself from falling . . .

I seem to be falling a lot. Falling as I try to do it again and again.

— MichaelRpdx :: ih3k :: 2022-08-01