Walks and Such

A point arrived last night ─ my cellphone alarm set for 1:30 a.m. ─ when in a small state of restlessness, in the dark I reached for my mug of water and then had a few swallows, and carefully put the mug back.

I settled down to seek another block of sleep ... when my alarm chimed. I must have had that drink of water with a mere minute to go ere the alarm.

I rose and used the bathroom, aware that both of my stepsons downstairs were not yet to bed.

In no rush, I slowly readied myself for my planned five-mile+ walk, while also spending time here at my bedside computer. When I was pretty much set to go, a weigh-in fully clothed (including heavy denim jacket) revealed that I was at least 188 pounds.

By this time my eldest stepson had retired for the night, so I only had to ease away without my youngest stepson noticing.

It was 2:26 a.m. once I was outside and beginning my walk ─ everything was still wet from what was probably the evening's rain.

It was chilly enough that when I reached the elementary school playground three or so blocks from here, I had decided to exercise with my jacket on; nor did I do more than wipe the remaining rain from one of the jungle gym monkey bars, for I was going to wear my gloves for at least the first set of pull-ups.

And so without any hope nor thought of achieving an exceptional outcome, my performance totals were as follows ... and already I forget if my first set of pull-ups managed five or as few as a mere three.

Then it was two further sets of two pull-ups apiece; followed by two sets of three chin-ups in each; and I finished with two sets of two pull-ups between a pair of gymnastics-style rings.

But I felt so damned heavy that I am unsure now if I even attempted to hold the final pull-up. Whatever the case, after finishing I did attempt to just hang loosely from the rings, but I couldn't do more than a count of 10 or 12.

Over at the nearby cement ramp, I gave up after just 10 full-range decline push-ups.

It was not an exercise session to feel pride in, but considering conditions, I was not self-critical to any degree.

There was to be only once incident worth mentioning about the walk, and I only do so because it also took place maybe a week earlier at most.

As I travelled the lower (or South) side of Fraser Highway towards 140th Street, I detected a solitary figure standing on the sidewalk well ahead. The previous time, I crossed the highway to the opposite side ahead of when I had intended to, because I was unsure if the person was going to be someone homeless and/or stoned ─ or even worse, time-wasting Charles "Stickman" McCarthy.

At that time, I was to realize as I came nearer to being abreast of the person, that it was a woman who was just standing there. This Google Map shows approximately where she may have been.

Well, this time the figure was in roughly the same spot, so I concluded that it could only be the same woman ─ probably out there using herself as bait to snag a 'customer'.

Since I was not interested at this time in potentially becoming engaged in a conversation with her, I again crossed the highway as I had the first time, and thus continued on beyond her.

Who knows? If she is there the next time I have my walk that direction, maybe I will brave an encounter, if only to verify for myself her designs for being out there. If she is indeed hooking, she would need to be markedly attractive and personable to be of much interest to someone like me when it is not possible ─ due to how chilly it is now ─ for her to be displaying her 'wares' or 'goods'.

Other than her, there was nothing else worth reporting. I felt like I might be doing well for time, and this was largely borne out at my return home at 4:26 a.m. When I can do this outing in a full two hours even after a stop at the school playground, it is exceptional.

My youngest stepson had retired by this time; and I expect that I did the same ere the strike of 6 a.m. after having drunk a half litre mug of hot instant coffee with the works.

At most it was in the neighbourhood of a little after 8:30 a.m. when I began my morning by rising. My brother was already downstairs watching T.V., but I did not join him until maybe 9:10 a.m.

He and his girlfriend Bev had arranged to try for her to achieve a walk-in appointment at one of the local LifeLabs outlets for some sort of medical test(s), and he wanted me to check online for him at 10 a.m. to assess the various listed estimated waiting times so that he could figure out what was the most promising ─ Bev has been coming up with excuses for at least the past five days, but he was determined to get it done this morning.

So with little time for videos this morning, I thought that we would sample a very long movie that I had previously downloaded onto a flash or thumb drive. Unfortunately, it proved to be Russian-dubbed ─ but not even properly dubbed. Rather, it was a male Russian voice reading aloud all of the opening credits, and then speaking over the English dialogue his own Russian interpretation.

How could any Russian sit through a long movie with this sort of nonsense when even the women's dialogue was likely going to be drowned out by this guy interpreting over their voices on their behalf?

Most disappointing.

So for a third sitting, I instead tuned in the recent nearly three-hour Joe Rogan interview of Donald Trump.

And we're still not done! However, one further sitting should do it.

My brother went off to pick up Bev at her home maybe two miles away, and did not return until something like 11:50 a.m. But even then, I think that Bev might have been in the van ─ he just came in to use the toilet and to have me get the address of a local West Coast Medical Imaging outlet, and then he left again.

My poor wife had a full day of work scheduled for the Thai restaurant where she is employed part time, so she rose possibly as early as 9:40 a.m. to shower and otherwise begin readying. She left around 10:10 a.m. on her fairly long drive ─ not too long after my brother had left to pick up Bev.

He was to finally return from dealing with Bev ─ I had not yet sought my very much needed nap. But he only came home to leave his van and then head off afoot to catch a bus so that he could begin his daily drinking / socializing.

Now leaping ahead somewhat, this has been a bath day, so that is now out of my way with my early evening upon me. I have an evening walk planned, but of a much lesser distance than this morning's. My destination will be London Drugs in Whalley.

I want to place a cash order with them for participation in the 2024 Millionaire Lottery. I am doing my best to use my VISA credit card as rarely as possible due to its oppressive balance.

I might also buy a flash / thumb drive. The largest one I own may have no larger capacity than eight gigabytes, so I might be willing to blow around $20 or even $25 on something considerably larger.

But it's all going to depend upon when I get to the darned store ─ it closes at 9 p.m., and is just under 1½ miles from here. And right now it is 6:15 p.m.

But I'm feeling a little drained from my long, hot bath, so I want to rest for a little before engaging the hike. Later, I will be sitting up with my brother once we are both back home, watching at least a couple of our shows on T.V. (via our Android TV Box) ─ and of course doing a little drinking.

I might risk a shot of dark rum before heading out on that walk ─ it might actually pick me up from where I have presently devolved. The risk there is that there will be nowhere to 'take a whiz' once I am into Whalley.

But enough on the blogging for this post.