Δαφνη Ευτυχια Αρθουρος

Other ideas were bouncing around my brain (image of little Lego idea-figures playing on a grey moon-bounce thingie) earlier, but between having had a few of them get away from me and wanting to go to bed soon (blankets warm, poking fingers at keys cold), I'll just toss in a "how my day went" for now.

Thinking about my day, I started wondering what's considered a "lot of walking" or "too far to be a reasonable walk" for healthy people. On the one hand, they're not dealing with chronic pain issues and worrying about same kinds of repercussions from overexercise. On the other hand, at least in the parts of the US that I feel I know, most folks are unaccustomed to walking real distances (true of myself before and after I got sick), and many are also out of shape. I know that there are a lot of people for whom two miles (a bit over three kilomters) wouldn't be "far" on foot assuming they weren't in a big hurry, but I've got no sense of whether that attitude is usual or unusual in my own culture. It doesn't sound all that far, considering that I had to run eight tenths of a mile before soccer practice every day when I was in twelfth grade (well, until the season ended, of course), and this is walking. But it looks like such a long distance staring down Frederick Rd. and noting how many times the looks of the surrounding neighbourhoods change, and living in an automotive culture. I do know my legs and feet thought it was a long way, but with the fibromyalgia, my own body isn't a good measure for that.

In my previous entry, I mentioned walking a couple of miles partly because "it was too cold and windy to stand around at a bus stop." It occurs to me to wonder whether that statement makes sense to other people or not.

Is that a universal -- that walking doesn't feel as cold in freezing weather with wind as standing around does -- or is it just me? (Well, in theory it should be at least a little bit warmer because one burns more calories walking, but this is really a question of perception more than physics.)

I do remember thinking, in high school, that the coldest place in the world had to be the sideline of a soccer field in freezing rain while waiting for the coach to send me into the game. The moment I set foot in-bounds, the chill seemed much less noticable. But that's probably yet another phenomenon entirely.

From a mailing list I don't read, quoted (out of context) on a mailing list I do read:

> > How does it feel to be on the same side 
> > as the "Skeptical Inquirer?"

> It only happens when the planets are right.