Walkabout Wednesday

Last week we had National Donut Day, today it’s Global Running Day.

Researching Donut Day, learning it’s history of having been created in 1938 to honor the Salvation Army’s Donut Girls who served donuts to soldiers the front line of World War I, made me curious to know the history of Global Running Day.

It doesn’t seem to have a history, being more/less a day designated, by some unknown organization years back, first as National Running Day, then Global Running Day, to occur annually on the first Wednesday of June for people around the world to celebrate the joys of running.

Outback Steak House, one of many places on my Never Ever Have I list is calling it, Walkabout Wednesday, so since I can’t run, I’m going with Walkabout Wednesday.

Judging from the email notifications I'm receiving, there are all kinds of running activities scheduled for the day; but actually, all it takes to participate is to take part in some type of running activity. “It can be a solo lap around the block, a long run with friends or even a game of tag with your kids. The key is to share your passion for the sport and inspire others to get moving.”

I could have walked the complex, but having seen the bling offered by the BGR organization, I’d registered last month.

Receiving an email reminder yesterday, with a link to my bib that worked this time, I suited up and headed out to walk the Ontario Mills Mall.

Inasmuch as this was a print-your-own bib, I had the option to change it up a bit.

I didn't want to bring attention to myself by wearing the bib. Instead, I kept it in the car on the off chance I ran into other BGR participants, as a group of Inland Empire ladies do get together occasionally and run/walk the mall perimeters; but no. Not this time. Guess they were on the nearby walking trail, which I don’t much care for because there’s no shade, anywhere.

Walking inside the Ontario Mills Mall, if you’re local and interested, takes four times around. Walking outside, takes only twice around.

It being such a nice day, I chose outside and, with adequate training now under my belt and the new shoes that feel like walking on a cloud, I beat the last time I walked the mall by a lot -- finishing in 1 hour 11 minutes 16 seconds, up from 1:25:36 last time.

Truth be known, these 3.12 miles of qualifying for bling is getting a bit wearing. But for the bling, I’d limit myself to a leisurely 2-mile walk around the complex or campus of the university.

Maybe that’s why they temp us with bling … to encourage us to stretch ourselves.

At any rate, I’m looking forward to the next challenge because it’s biking. All I have to do is put in 25 miles on the indoor bike between June 10 and June 18 to qualify in the 2017 Pedal for the Medal. That's a fairly easy 5 miles a day.

On tap for remainder of the day is to check into the Community Room to see if anything new and interesting is posted to the board, what this week's movie is, and check my weight on the scale in the Game Room.

I took my measurements this morning, they're still the same. So, I'll be very surprised if the scale registers a weight loss.

Waiting List?

Received my medal for the Never Say Die Goonies 5K.

Looks like I’m going to have to make plans for yet another bib/medal board. The one I made back in April was practically full as soon as it went up, because of overage from the first board. Having since added four more virtuals, with three more coming up this month, I’d better get started on a third bib/medal board.

I was thinking of “Never Stop” as inspirational wording on the board. But now, I’m thinking about “Covfefe!!” because it’s amusing, makes me laugh and, with so much stupidity, ugliness, self-interest leaking into the atmosphere since the election, I could use a visual reminder to laugh and trust the Universe that there is light at the end of this tunnel.

Seems I was spotted when walking the golf course perimeters Friday because, getting out of the car yesterday, returning from that walk, the woman who is too young to live here, but lives here nevertheless because she is her father’s caregiver, pulled her car up alongside and, with a weird stunned look on her face -- like she’d just seen a unicorn asked, “How often do you walk?”

I laughed and said, “You must have seen me when I was walking around the golf course”.

“Yep”.

I should have asked why she was now looking at me like she’d seen a unicorn but didn’t. I’ll assume she was just surprised to see me walking somewhere other than the complex.

As to how often, I didn’t really know how to respond other than to say, “I try to walk every day, but don’t always do so. Sometimes I do the indoor bike thing.”

“You must lose a lot of weight”, said she.

“Not an ounce. For some reason, I don’t lose weight but, if I don’t walk, my hip, knees and back begin to hurt, so that’s why I do it.”

Being intuitive, I assumed she was asking because she’s interested in walking to lose weight. She probably wouldn’t have a problem losing, because she’s young, with no metabolism problems from constant dieting, aging and gut problems. But I didn’t want to draw the conversation out by getting into that, because I was afraid she’d ask “when” I walk so she could walk with me. I just answered her questions and moved on.

That wanting to walk with me has happened more than once before but, after having once in my life rearranged my schedule because a woman wanted to attend a religious ceremony with me and she cancelled at the last second, and once rearranged my walking schedule because a woman wanted to walk with me at a specific time, and she didn’t show up and failed to call, I made a promise to myself to not let other people slow my roll ever again.

There’s talk of bringing back a walking group so, if she approaches me again, I’ll steer her to my President of the Resident’s Committee next door neighbor.

Today, I met with a banker and took care of the last “Upon My Death” item. Only thing on my TBD list is to renew my passport. Because I let the renewal period pass me by, I find I have to start from the beginning – submit my old passport along with a lot of paperwork and a photo.

Inasmuch as I can’t see myself travelling anywhere any time soon, don’t know if it’s necessary or worth the effort. I’ll have to mull this one over.

June 7 is Global Running Day. I registered for the Virtual Can’t Stop, Won’t Stop 5K.

This race organization I registered with works a little different in that, instead of mailing me a bib, I am to click a link and print one out. The link isn’t working, so it’s a crap shoot as to whether I’ll receive a bib and medal via mail upon completion. In the meantime, looking around on the race organization’s site, I saw registration for this event became such a big to do that they set up a “waiting list”.

That’s pretty amazing, but what could the list be a wait for?

Cancellations?

More bib numbers to be generated?

More medals?

It pays to register early, which I generally do, as I’ve seen races fill up and close, but a wait list? This is a first.

Lot of people want to be active on their own.

Happy National Donut Day

Waking up this morning, thinking today was Saturday – a good day to walk the university campus, planning to do so, I caught a glimpse through the blinds of one of the maintenance men walking along a pathway.

“What’s he doing here?” thought I, as the office is closed, management is off on weekends.

I can usually determine what day of the week it is by what I watched on television the night before, but with so many finales last week, nothing else interesting to view, my frame of reference is off kilter and inasmuch as seeing the maintenance man signaled this couldn’t be Saturday, I couldn’t mentally figure out what day I was in. Referring to my planner, I learned today is Friday, National Donut Day.

Curious to know if this was a made-up holiday to promote the sale of donuts, I learned an interesting fact: “National Donut Day was created in 1938 to honor the Salvation Army ‘Donut Girls’ who served doughnuts to soldiers on the front lines of World War I.”

Some areas are celebrating with canteen trucks outside Salvation Army Facility Stores. Deciding to walk the golf course, and curious to see if the Salvation Army store nearest me was doing so, I first drove away from the golf course to pass the army store to see if they too were celebrating with a canteen truck.

They weren’t. Instead, there were balloons and 50% off sales signs.

Returning to the complex after walking the golf course, I detoured through the Community Room, headed to the mail box.

No celebration with free donuts in the Community Room either – not that I can eat a donut without setting off an angry gut episode, I was just curious that, with several area donut shops offering freebies, to see if the Activity Director was into Donut Day.

Guess not.

She is, however, into Father’s Day, as we’re having a Father’s Day Bagel Social on Tuesday the 13^th.

Insofar as fathers around here, I fully expect no more than three men to show up -- The Baker’s Husband, the two maintenance men. Maybe a fourth -- Greedy Grabby’s husband.

Inasmuch as bagels are also on the list of items that will set off an angry gut episode, doubt I’ll go down. Besides, that’s also Pizza Day and there was discussion at the Memorial Day BBQ to the effect the residents are still behaving like wild animals in bum rushing the delivery guys before they can put the pizzas on the table; and even worse behavior now in that there is a husband and wife team taking four pizzas each, someone opening boxes and taking a couple of slices from one, couple slices from another, and there was a report of someone looking through boxes for what they wanted on their pizza and, in the crush, dropping a pizza to the floor, picking it up, putting it back in the box and back on the table for some unsuspecting resident to get ahold of.

Put it all together, and Tuesday is a good day to avoid the Community Room.

At any rate, checking the Community Room board for tonight’s movie, I found the bulletin had been pulled, but a resident in the know said it’s “King Kong, the second one”.

I don’t know which one that is because, for me when you go counting versions, the first in my mind -- and the best, was the 1933 Fay Wray version. In which case, the second would be the De Laurentis version with Jessica Lange, which version I hated. However, if they’re considering De Laurentis as the first, then the one showing tonight would be the Peter Jackson version with Naomi Watts and Jack Black, which was meh, so no thanks.

I’ll go down when they show the latest -- Skull Island.

Not Great, Not Wonderful

After that good luck sign of spotting two peacocks on the property yesterday and, this morning, finding good luck twin yokes in two out of the three eggs I cracked for breakfast, I felt like a kid at Christmas, excited for what was coming, because surely the peacocks and back-to-back twin yokes were the universe alerting me to something great and wonderful coming.

Killing time at the spa, to avoid down time created by SCE’s four-hour planned power outage this morning, I decided not to hang around Victoria Gardens for lunch after, because I’d awakened tired and sleepy. I remember dreaming, but can’t remember what I’d dreamt. Whatever it was must have been hard work, because I woke up so tired that, had it not been for the power outage, I’d have stayed in bed all day.

Arriving back at the complex a half hour before the outage was to have ended, I found the crews gone and everything back to normal. Stopping at the mailbox, I open my slot and there, right on top, was a letter from “Office of the Jury Commissioner”.

Ohhhhhhhhhhh Noooooooooooo! thought I.

Jury duty.

That’s not great and definitely not wonderful.

I’ve been duped.

The Universe has punked me.

Furthermore, I’m scheduled to appear July 5, the day after the Fourth of July.

I’d been thinking of spending July 1 through July 5 in Long Beach, to participate in a beach 5K on the 2^nd, stay over to attend a family event on the 4^th, returning afternoon of the 5^th. Just last night, I’d researched the cost of a hotel for that length of time, but didn’t book because I was considering if I really wanted to go through the drive, time, expense of either event.

The court has decided for me.

I’d not unhappy about not being able to participate in either event. In the final analysis, I probably would have opted to stay home. But I’m not looking forward to performing my so-called civic duty.

Happy Memorial Day

It’s been a quiet peaceful day here, which isn’t saying much because, since retiring (Praise the Lord), the majority of my days are blessedly quiet, peaceful.

The better part of the day was a short walk around the complex, testing out new athletic shoes – the third pair to be tested this month.

You know how they say “You have to kiss a lot of frogs to find your prince” That’s how it is with finding cross trainers that give the metatarsal bone the support it needs. There’s a lot of buying and testing before I find a pair that doesn’t throw my balance off just enough to threaten to dislocate my hips or that doesn’t cause my feet to feel like a stress fracture is imminent.

It gets expensive because, once you’ve walked outside, the shoes can’t be returned AND, in most cases, I do have to walk a mile or two before I can determine to keep or donate to the salvation army.

Of the three tested this month, I was able to return the first because, as soon as I opened the box, saw what I thought were going to be primarily camo green colored were primarily baby blue, I sealed the box back up and returned.

The second to be tested have a camo look but, two miles around the complex, my ankles felt weak – not sufficient ankle support. So someone shopping at salvation army is going to luck up on a brand new pair.

Third time was the charm because, a short walk to the market this morning for that potato salad, then two miles around the complex felt like walking on clouds.

My steps felt so light that my pace per mile went from a 27 minutes 21 second mile to a 23:03. As I passed a woman with a LVN badge, leaving a client’s unit, she said, “Ohhhh. You’re fast”.

Not something I’m accustomed to hearing.

Would you believe, as I rounded a corner, I saw two peacocks walking across the rear parking area.

I quickly tried to get close, tape them, but the vid came out jerky from rushing to get to them and, by the time I was close enough to capture them clearly, they were up and over the wall into someone’s back yard.

A long way from home they are because, the only other time I’ve seen a peacock was shortly after moving into the complex. I was walking the area of the golf course when a homeowner motioned me over to marvel over what he’d found roaming around his front yard.

It was a peacock.

The homeowner said there was a peacock farm many miles away in an unincorporated area and was assuming that is where it came from.

I’m making that assumption as well but, from what I’ve read, they’re essentially flightless. So how do they get back to home base? So far away, how do they even know where home base is?

At any rate, the homeowner advised that seeing a peacock is considered good luck and this morning I saw two.

Along about 3:15 I headed down to the Community Room to drop off the potato salad.

The weather being quite pleasant, a group of residents were seated in the outside patio area, listening to music, keeping the grill person company.

I decided to stay and chat a while with the folks.

Looking around for a woman who fit the description given, no one registered at first. THEN it finally hit me who it was … a woman I actually did know as we’ve passed each other multiple times on the property, greeted each other. I just never bothered to learn her name. And, yes, if you look at her strictly through sense perception, she does fit the description.

Conversations were good, it took quite a while to BBQ ribs, burgers, hot dogs, so I stayed until all was done and the 15 or so residents began serving themselves at 5:00.

On tap for tomorrow is to kill a few hours at the spa. Not because I necessarily want or need a manicure/pedicure so soon after being treated on Mother’s Day, but because the entire complex is scheduled for a planned power outage from 9:30 a.m. to 1:30 p.m. Rather than sit around with no television, no computer, no A/C for four hours, I’d rather people watch from a spa chair, then cross the street after to people watch in Victoria Gardens.

Maybe I’ll even pop into Friday’s for another of their delicious turkey burgers for lunch.

Sense Perception

Yesterday was spent qualifying for the Virtual Never Say Die 5K/10K.

Forthcoming Medal

The phrase “Never Say Die” is from the 1985 Goonies movie and June 7^th is Goonies Day, in honor of the 30^th Anniversary of the 1985 Goonies movie.

Inasmuch as the virtual gives me the option of qualifying any time prior to end of race period and qualifying options are “run/walk/jog/bike or even treadmill”, the plan was to get it done yesterday and to reach for the 10K. No way can I walk 6+ miles, so I did a split – logged in 3.12 miles on the indoor bike, headed out the door intending to walk 3.12 miles.

I say “intended” because, due to the heat, I crashed at 1.63, just 1.49 miles short of reaching the 10K goal.

Soooo close, but no matter. I still get the 5K medal and, with cooler weather and a little more training, I’ll get the 10K next time.

My bling from the virtual Great Donut Run arrived in the mail yesterday.

Tee Shirt, Bib, Medal

This was the event I completed by walking four times around inside the Ontario Mills Mall on the 19^th, with a slow finish time of 1:25:36.

If I’m still this active next year – at age 74, I plan to participate in person at The Great Donut Run, rather than virtually, because I received Highlights from the race organizers and the event looked so fun that it will be worth the drive, hotel room and, with so many participants of varying abilities, my slow pace won’t be a factor.

Two highlights I read are very inspiring.

One was of a little 4-year old girl, with a prosthetic, who finished the kid’s 1K, started the 5K with her family and was supposed to jump in her stroller to rest for the upcoming kid’s donut dash race. Instead, she kept going and finished the 5K as well.

Then there was the guy for whom the Donut Run was his very first 5K. Competing at 70 years of age, he finished … on a walker.

I’m having second thought about attending tomorrow’s Memorial Day BBQ -- the event organized by a resident whose name I do not recognize, but who was described to me as “The woman who looks like a man”.

Back in 2012, shortly after I first moved into the complex and was becoming acquainted with the residents, I quickly learned that, when I could not place a name to a face, I was given a rather blunt description – usually something about the person’s physical appearance that later became obvious to me, like “The woman with the big butt” or “Pepe Le Pew” because the man always had a bad body odor.

In fact, I’d written a blog post back then about how folks described others in terms of surface sense perception – what residents saw with their eyes about the person or, in Pepe Le Pew’s case, what was smelled. Curious as what sense perception said about me, I’d asked a group of ladies to be honest with me, that my feelings wouldn’t be hurt, but tell me “How am I described?” Without hesitation, I got, “The walking lady with the dreadlocks”.

They’re Sisterlocks, not Dreadlocks, but I was happy to learn sense perceptions of me are in gentler terms than afforded others.

At any rate, though I’m curious to see if the resident hosting the event fits the description given, I’m just not all that interested in attending. However, I did say I’d supply potato salad, so I’ll make a run by the deli, pick up a tub and make a quick drop off in the Community Room.

Maybe I’ll catch a glimpse of the woman hosting the event during the drop off, to see if sense perception is reality.