My Journey With Health And Fitness – They’re Back!!!

Despite yesterday being a very busy day I got it all done. Of course this was helped by getting up at 3:45am so that I could hit the treadmill by 4:30am. I started off the day with a 1 1/2 hour walk on the treadmill and completed my 2nd 1 1/2 hour walk by 8:45am. I even found time to get in a couple of short 1/2 hour walks to make sure I got in all my steps. The rest of the day was taken up with meetings and volunteer work at the end of which I decided I needed to put up a dry erase calendar in my office to start trying to do a better job at keeping track of my days.

But they are back. Who you ask? Why the dreaded Canada Geese of course. I should mention my healthy fear of these creatures stems from growing up on a hobby farm where we had geese. I learned at a very young age that these can be very mean animals. I also learned it is not just their beaks biting you that you need to be concerned about but also their wings as they will beat you with them. While they are pretty docile right now I know gosling season is coming up and then they will become extremely protective of their young. When that happens I give them the widest berth imaginable to ensure my safety.

The real question is how do I know they are back. Simple, I’m back to walking my beloved beach. I figured it has gotten warm enough that it is time to treadmill less and walk outdoors more. Yesterday was a prime example as for my 2nd walk I went down to the beach and along the promenade. Yes it was raining but I just simply donned my rain slicker and headed out. It was glorious! Even the passing train didn’t bother me and I admit I only saw a handful of geese.

I decided that today instead of doing 2 hour long walks I would just do 1 long one so I headed back to the beach. Now it was raining even harder today (I am so glad I have a really good rain slicker and if I decided to run at least I have a water resistant running jacket) but that didn’t bother me in the least. I had such an enjoyable time watching people and greeting each and every one of the them a big smile and a ‘hello’. I saw some beautiful dogs (all on leash) enjoying the fresh air and the salt water spray. There were all sorts of sea birds and everyone just seemed happier. For me, I just truly loved that long walk and have already started planning how I can do more of it during the coming week.

I do have a rant though. Yesterday I was at a very well marked crosswalk in an area where the speed limit is only 30 kph. I stopped and looked both ways noting cars coming from either direction both of which were a good 1/2 block away when I got to that crosswalk. Neither of them stopped despite the fact it was my right of way. And before you think that they may not have seen me, I had on my bright yellow rain slicker which trust me is impossible to miss. So I will remind all of you again, when you are driving around in your vehicle always watch for pedestrians and give way to them every time.