What REALLY happened

Reader, I drove.

Oh, I got up fully intending to walk to and from my dentist's office. It's a gorgeous fall day,  and I was looking forward to it. Then as I came downstairs, my left ankle ... weakened. Painfully, and almost threw me the rest of the way down the stairs. It had been bothering me all week, a little bit. Sunday, at the highway clean-up, it got more aggravating. It kind of ached all night last night - not enough to really worry about. Until the stairs.

I'm always telling other people to be sensible and take care of themselves. Always carry your cell phone as you do chores upstairs, downstairs, outside, because you never know when you'll need to call someone for help. Etc etc.  So once I got downstairs I sat down and took a good, hard look at my walking adventures and what my body was trying to tell me about them.

64 is not 46. I've been sedentary for so long, now that I'm really wanting to change that, I've been pushing it too hard. All of my joints from the waist down are sore, all the time. If I lie in bed more than 8 hours, my hip joints really hurt. I have to get up and walk around a bit before they stop.

I think I've been stupid. 64 is not 46. Those years and pounds COUNT.

So, I drove to my dentist's, and afterwards I drove to the grocery store and got some of the "heavy stuff" I've been worrittin' and worrittin' about all week. That's another thing - this experiment has made manifest more of the problems that going car-less in this society, in this city, cause people. You have to be constantly planning, analyzing, strategizing even the simplest of errands. No matter how tired or sore you are, some things HAVE to be done. You HAVE to go to work (if you're lucky enough to have a job). You HAVE to get groceries and household items like toilet paper and cleaning supplies and laundry supplies. You HAVE to get yourself and your family to the doctor's or dentist's. It must be just exhausting. *I* find it exhausting, frustrating and depressing. Depressing, because I have the choice: I can quit this game any time - until my car actually dies. Then I'll have to either go in debt for another one, or get back on the Mode Shift merry-go-round.

I think there are a LOT of elected and un-elected officials in this city who really, really need to try this experiment themselves. I think there'd be changes made to the transportation network in Omaha real fast if they did.