That's right, you read right, today I went for a walk. My first walk since the Ides of March, March 15, 2020. One week ago today I was fully vaccinated having duly waited two weeks for my immune system to recognize the covid-19's spike protein as an intruder. I gave it an extra week. Did I feel confident going out maskless into the real world? Not entirely and I did have a mask at the ready in the pocket of my hoodie.
My plan was to go out at the crack of dawn, sunrise is currently at 5:57, I left about nine minutes before that. Most of the get out early reasoning was to avoid others. I also wanted to take advantage of 53º-54º temperatures, in part because I wanted to wear the hoodie for the convenience of said pocket. Aside from some very light traffic I only saw one person out on the street, a guy on a bicycle walking his dog. The dog was on a very long retractable leash. I didn't know that at first, from a distance it seemed like the dog was going wherever he wished to go. Their presence encouraged me to cross the street. Crossing that street and turning left on the next block took me on a longer journey than where my head was at before seeing them. I was already thinking to round the corner I was approaching and circle back home, only about a quarter of a mile in. I was suffering a little.
My immediate reaction out the door of the house was a big uh-oh with lower back pain and a nagging ache I've been experiencing for several days in my left calf muscle. Specifically, the gastrocnemius, medial head. My back completely mellowed out a 1/3 of a mile into the walk. The calf muscle went from about a 5.5 to a 6.5 on the E.P. pain scale. Nevertheless, I marched forward. It was a short walk by my standards. 3 to 5 miles is kind of normal, not that anything is normal anymore. The total walk door to door was 1.63 miles or 2.63 km. The mood was melancholy. So was the music.
I tried to take a few photos with my iPhone but I still find using that device as a camera to be both annoying and awkward. I think this photo, on a couple of levels, is the most symbolic, perhaps metaphorical of my renewed effort to get out and walk.
Although short, congratulations on your first real excursion! A friend and I drove to Lakewood yesterday and visited 2 nurseries, one I'd never been to before and another I hadn't visited in 7 years. Then we came back here and had lunch in the garden. It was wonderful.
ReplyDeleteGreat that you’re out and about ! Hopefully, it will get easier as time goes on. Ironically , I’m also dealing with a gastroc injury I sustained the other day just walking to the courthouse. Ain’t nothing easy anymore !
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