"Walking" Errands

It had been some time since I had gone hiking so I decided to walk to the three places I had to go to for my errands. They were more or less in a shortest distance to each other without any long side trips. The only real problem was that most of the walking was along what turned out to be a much busier street than I thought would be the case mid-morning on a Friday and some of the cars and pickup trucks were polluters.

I did get all my "errands," well at least the ones I'd planned, done. I mailed my absentee ballot. I returned a DVD that wasn't late even though I forgot to return it yesterday when I drove to the Toastmasters meeting. I got a couple extra house keys made. (I only needed one but now have one that I can hide outside to let unplanned guests without keys get in. Or, I could do what I currently do, which is leave a door unlocked. I think that my son and daughter-in-law may want the doors locked more, particularly after December 4th, the due date for my first grandchild.) And I walked over seven miles.

On the way home I passed a church sign that said, "Only pray on days that end in y." Perversely, I remembered more of my high school French than I had in years: Lundi, Mardi, Mercredi, ... Further and perhaps deeper thoughts had me wondering what I would pray for. With free will, I don't see myself praying to change someone else. I certainly don't see myself praying for myself for any material gain or even my own health. Those sentiments seem selfish.

However, if blessings and good wishes are a form of prayer, I am doing that every day. While I certainly am thinking of these blessings and good wishes for people I know who may have needs, I am also doing my utmost to think such thoughts for those I pass and encounter who show signs of stress and thoughtlessness. I'm also making it a point to smile, if I should be so fortunate to catch their eyes. It is amazing how many people go out of their way not to look at those around them. Other than my stop in Starbucks and a few dog walkers, I didn't pass that many people while I was on my walk. It was about 50/50 for any semblance of friendliness in those with whom I did make eye contact. This hike had a much higher ratio of both eye contact and friendliness than my previous walk along the Crystal Springs Reservoir trail over a week ago.

While I'm currently only scheduled for one more speech before I have to start out on my cross country trip to make it to West Virginia in time to travel to Alaska with my parents, I have three more to give to finish out the first book and attain some Toastmaster rank. Since I'm going to be gone one of the four meetings that are left before I travel, I don't see how I will get them in. I wouldn't have even thought of it, if the outgoing president hadn't asked. I guess being able to report member advancement is a feather in his cap. At least I already have this next one prepared.

As I have discovered, I normally think a lot on my walks, particularly when I forget to carry one of my iPods. Now that I have 16 conversational Spanish lessons on the nano, I should have been able to complete at least three lessons on my walk today. In lieu of listening and learning, I thought of a couple more speech ideas. One was triggered by a speech last night on "Speaking Up." It also has a little Stephen Colbert in it. The first idea was, "I can speak on anything and so can you." For this idea I couldn't help but think of Howard Cosell who was reported to be able to speak for an hour on any topic and four hours if he knew anything about it. Surely I can make it into the five to seven minute range, even speaking about being able to speak on anything. The second idea was triggered by a number of quasi-related things: the economy, a Tonight Show Katie Couric interview where she was talking about a gold seller in Saudi Arabia that just tied the flap of his booth shut and went to lunch, my getting keys for a door that I rarely lock, ... In this idea I want to just barely scratch the surface of nature vs. nurture, as in why do we ascribe selfish grabbing of more than a persons fair share to human nature. Indeed, why do we almost to a person make decisions that only affect the size of our piece of the pie rather than the size of the pie?

Plenty of vitamin D

Yesterday afternoon I went out to mow my back yard and decided that I didn't want all those broad leaf weeds, with their seeds, in my compost pile. I then proceeded to get my gardening gloves that Marilyn bought me one of the times we went to Sloat's Nursery, on Sloat Ave. across from the San Francisco Zoo, a weeding tool, and marched over most of my backyard lawn on my knees. After about two and one half hours, my green bin was about 2/3 full of noxious broad leaf weeds. I didn't even dig them all out as I still mowed the lawn, got cleaned up, ate, fed the cats, and still made it to Toastmasters. Ever since I saw the professionals mow the yard, I have been doing what they did, mowing it twice. First I go back and forth one way and then back and forth perpendicular to the previous direction. This mowing also required back and forth over one section diagonally to the previous two directions.

This morning I fertilized the fuchsias, filled the bird bath, put shredded newspaper over the grass clippings in the compost pile, and watered the plants, including the compost pile. As I was doing that, I noticed some more broadleaf weeds that I just had to pull. Again I limited myself to literally one handful as I had a variety of indoor tasks to complete and packing for my motorcycle trip south.

At one time I was going to go along the coast and camp in the Big Sur area but since the timing of my trip requires that I be down there on Tuesday, returning on Wednesday, and I want to get at least one day of visiting in, I'm now just planning on a leisurely one full day trip all the way there tomorrow, Saturday. This will be a closer simulation of my planned cross-country ride in June. It will also tell me whether or not I'm in shape to ride long distances or whether I still need to exercise more.

As I'm planning on exercising more anyway, whether I need to or not is moot. I am up to the third level of the Pushup Pro but am not yet doing the full number, unless I do two sessions. (Most often I only do one.)

Gas prices are shooting up around here again but I'm still going to ride my motorcycle. It gets around 35 miles to the gallon driving California Expressway speeds where the Prius gets around 48. While I don't get to listen to anything, I still have more fun on my motorcycle.

With all of my time outdoors yesterday, I got so much vitamin D that I had to put aloe gel on my face. I'm still taking vitamin D supplements with all my other supplements but probably should look into what getting too much vitamin D might do to me.

Someone sent me instructions for linking Twitter and Facebook as a way to post Spot "OK" location messages into Facebook. There is a technical problem with the Facebook application, which has so far prevented me from completing the steps. Once I can complete it, I intend to use the Spot more on local walks and other motorcycle trips besides the big one this summer.

This is as far as I got on the San Andreas and Crystal Springs trails on April 1st. http://maps.google.com/maps?f=q&hl=en&geocode=&q=37.5628,-122.397&ie=UTF8&z=12&om=1 I have some pictures posted on Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/album.php?aid=2008035&id=1288023430&l=308b96d1c6.

Well back to the preparing...