Is that rain on my parade? January 17, 2012

I was in bed not sleeping last night and decided enough was enough. The morning was going to bring a new day, and it was one that was going to include a healthy-living approach to life. No more 2am bedtime, no more chocolate for breakfast, and I was going purge the place of the bad things making me fatter by the day.

And oh yes, I was going back to walking the long walks. Not the cheater walks my golden has been moping about since the Christmas break – the ones where I walk around the property, or pop down to get the mail, or meander for a leisurely 15 minute ramble down the road. No – my golden knows what’s good for me – brisk walks till my legs burn.

Walk me. And enough with the cheater walks.

A real walk means right down the line, all the way to the main road. When we hike it in a good clip with no stopping, there and back takes us a little over an hour. I feel better about myself, he sleeps happy all day, and I actually get some of my best writing done in my head while we walk.

So I was going back to the “real” walks, I decided. Eat right, sleep tight, and walk. That was going to be my bright new day. It didn’t happen for me January 1st, but that was no surprise  – I detest resolutions based on a day because society deems I have to. No – this new day was something I was ready for. Bring on the new day I thought.

I woke up hours later and looked out my window. At first I thought it was a massive snowstorm because it was white everywhere – everything white. Then I realized it was fog, not snow. The day was miserable with rain and mist and wind and fog. Blech.

I know what you’re thinking. You think I used it as an excuse to stay indoors. But you’re wrong. I didn’t. I put on my coat. My boots. My hat and scarf and mitts. I packed extra kleenex and walked out into the fog ready to start my new mission. It rained the whole time.

My cheeks stung with the rain and the wind, and I was as grumpy as one might guess a woman with a mission walking in the rain might be. And I admit – I didn’t do the long, long walk. But I did the middle one   – which didn’t take me all the way to the crossroad, but it took me as far as it could on early morning determination and 7 kleenex. It ended up being a 45 minute walk – but I couldn’t hustle the way I would have liked because of the ice on the roads. They kept threatening to take me down, so I slowed my pace a little – but my legs still burned.

Just not as much as my cheeks and nose.