Sunday Brain Dump: Walk, Tears, Comments

Sunday Brain Dump: Peeping Tom, Tears, Comments

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I promised to swing back to the blog on Sundays (even though the A-2-Z Challenge skips Sundays),  to give a walking update!  I will give that update.  BUT ... I discovered that my fingers began itching to write about some non-Challenge topics.   I felt stifled ... like mouth gagged and hands tied because I already wrote and scheduled all these other posts!!!  

So it is Sunday and now that the gag is off - here is what came bubbling out:

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Walking in My Neighborhood and the Peeping Tom

Think - hamster in a wheel.  

Think - treadmill without TV.
Think - circular track camouflaged as a neighborhood. 

Think - mental torture masquerading as a healthy activity.  

That is what walking in my immediate neighborhood is to me.  When I am desperate and time is short - I am left with no choice.

So here is what is good about my neighborhood walk:

• Safe - in a boring kind of way: no traffic, no scary people, no crime.
• No uneven surfaces.  I am not new to falling on public sidewalks.  Not a graceful fall either.  Pretty much a 'fall-flat-on-your-face" fall.  Not once unfortunately.  I can count 3 times.   On the up side - falling is never boring.
• Always available - even at night when it is dark - the boring areas is well lighted.
• Gently hilly.
• Neighbors/friends ... we visit.
• Can be interesting in a "peeping tom kind of way" - not that I walk up to windows and look in.    But if you have your blinds up, lights on, and it is night, guess what.  I can see in!  Really ... the walk is boring - nothing to see outside.  Inside views ... who knows.  Of course, there really is nothing to see inside either.  I live in a 55+ community, and we are not partying nude with loud music and mixed drinks!  But if there is something to see from the side walk, I will look. 

Here is what is bad about it:

• Boring.
• Very boring.
• Intensely boring (unless someone has their shades up, then it is only 'very boring.')

This unintentional walking track, however, is used by a lot of the residents.  One morning as I was getting into my car, I stopped a couple who regularly walks this route around the development.  I smiled and offered a casual greeting, "Nice morning for a walk!"  They agreed.  So I continued, "So how many times around do you go," thinking they probably didn't go this route for distance - just a few times around till their exercise time was up.  They quickly responded, "Nine times around is a mile."  Oh my.  They worked out the distance.  They knew exactly.  Okay, then!  And how boring - it was morning ... so peeping in windows for them!

I decided to skip my walking stats - except to say I have not yet reach 10,000 steps in one day.  That is actually my first goal.  There are other goals waiting in the wings - if I don't die before that.

I am adding some incentive to my steps by tracking them on the Walking4Fun website.  This site has a number of well known walking trails - one is the Appalachian Trail.  It tracks your step count against a number of well known walking trails - one being the Appalachian Trail.  Below is the map of the trail with the start marked with an S.  My marker is pretty much hidden by the start marker.  Guess I have just a few more steps to take before I even show up on the map!  Ha.

Walking4Fun - AP Trail

"Make the Babies Cry" Wednesday

Oh, so you didn't know there was such a day?  There is!

I visit my grand daughter in day care almost every Wednesday.

In the beginning she looked at me with that unblinking stare ... like she had never set eyes on me before.  Ok, I get it.  She isn't going to just give away smiley greetings (like some babies do) without you earning that smile.  I respect that!  She has standards.  I agree - you can't smile at every Tom, Dick or Harry that crosses your path!   Yea for a female who knows her own mind!!

Time passes, I see her most weekends.  I see her most Wednesdays.  She warms up after the initial visual assessment of my worth (like always), and we play and she smiles and laughs, and life is good.

About a month ago, I walked into day care - she took one look at me and her face resolved into red blotches, tears, and crying!   uh ... Okay ... so not exactly the welcome I was going for.  But after she pulled out of it, the visit was fabulous.  When I visit her house, or she visits my house - we have no tears. But ok. Maybe having a bad day in day care.

The next time I came - same reaction - only this time she gets her good friend, a little boy in her group, crying too. Now they both are crying.  And not just little whimpers - No, these are dramatic heart felt sobs, with head down to the floor in total despair.

Oh.My.God!  What ever could the care givers be thinking!!!

Seriously, folks.  I am not making this stuff up.

But, I am not an easy person to deter!  This is my grand baby - probably my only grand baby!!! I will persevere.  (Actually - stubborn and persistent is a good description.)

So last Wednesday I visited again.  By now I have labeled this day of the week, "Make the Babies Cry" Wednesday!!

I arrive at the day care and peek from the hallway into the infants room.  I see Eskarina standing in the middle of the room.  She is fine.  She spots me.  Nothing.  I enter.  Nothing.  I move closer - the face gets red, tears form, crying starts.  (In my brain: damn, damn, damn.).  I whip out my phone and take this picture:

 

*Sigh*

Thankfully it didn't last long and the caregiver didn't need to pick her up to comfort her.   She got control of herself and then I snapped this picture.

A slight improvement I guess.  I'll take thumb over tears.

We shortly got to this.  Much better.  The visit was successful.  

So mark your calendars folks, and remember me on "Make the Babies Cry Wednesdays" around 11:00 am - when I am out in day care making babies cry.  (See?  Retirement can be interesting.)


Commenting Drama

Finally, as regular readers know, I had problems with commenting on some blogs and some readers had problems commenting on my blog.  I made an adjustment to my browser and the problems are fixed - at least from my perspective.

The details of that problem and the fix - can be found at this location on my blog.  If you have similar problems, please check out my post and the link located within my post that instructs you on a possible correction.

The past week I changed my commenting feature back to Embedded Comments and Comment Moderation.  Responding to comment on my blog is easier with Embedded Comments and I really enjoy the 'conversation' with readers.  And I have noticed some other annoying problems as well (caused by trouble makers - with no life of their own except to cause problems for others)  - and I need to put back Comment Moderation.

Please send me an email if you are having problems leaving a comment on this blog.

Thanks all.