One Million Steps
Sometime in the afternoon of April 27, 2012 I achieved a milestone albeit a couple of weeks later than I had hoped. On January 1 I started a program to increase the number of steps that I took each day with an ultimate goal of getting 10,000 steps a day. Starting a walking program in January in Pittsburgh probably was not the easiest thing, but I had to start somewhere and now that it is hotter I am glad that I got that start. I am, unfortunately, a sweater and this may restrict how much walking I do on my lunch break unless my co-workers don’t mind a sweaty heap nearby.
I had a recent experience dealing with the healthcare industry when my mother became ill. She went in with a condition that for those of us younger would take some antibiotics and be done, but when you’re elderly a simple illness can be fatal. It was interesting that when my wife heard her symptoms she made a diagnosis and the EMTs did the same. They ended up being correct as confirmed by the tests or so I thought.
No I am not planning to throw myself off of a tall building, but life as a conservative seems rather harsh and I keep looking at how easy it is for liberals with more than a little jealousy. Life for a liberal is quite simple…
That title is how the excerpt from my local paper described Rev. Jesse “blackmail” Jackson’s feelings over the Recording Academy’s (Grammy Awards) decision to pare down the number of awards handed out this year.
Perhaps not as widely used as “drinking 8 glasses of water each day” or “an apple a day…”, the belief that taking ten thousand steps each day will pave the way towards total health is almost as well known. On many levels that makes sense to me. I have a relatively new position where I work that entails a fair amount of walking 2-3 times per week with some climbing slopes included. I had been doing this for a few months and I noticed something weird. I was able to tighten one more belt hole, my pants got a little bigger, and I didn’t gasp for air when I strode up a steep slope.
As part of my job duties I inspect dams to ensure that they are in decent shape and maintained. I am trying to be vague as I really don’t care to divulge what I do for a living or for whom. The inspections are visual and generally take about 45 minutes for the field work each depending on the size of the dam. I was out yesterday and got four done (just the field work) and it was around noon. I had one more that I wanted to tackle before settling down to write up my reports. It was about an hour away and like to get my field work done so I postponed lunch and headed toward the dam.
Kiplinger writers Martha Craver and Michael DeSenne have done the impossible and uncovered 
