… today is National Walking Day.

I had been mindful that the weathermen had predicted a potpourri of ugly weather on this Wednesday, and, I was prepared to be on the inside looking out, but I lucked out.

As soon as it was light, I laced up my shoes and headed out to walk because I was determined I would get to 150 miles on or before National Walking Day. The dilemma, however, was what to wear since it was much milder today than it’s been, and, I also decided to take along an umbrella as well.  It seems that since last Fall, I’ve had to have two wardrobes at the ready due to the ever-changing weather, and now I had to factor rain into that wardrobe equation as well.

I didn’t stray far from the ‘hood since it was dampish out and the sky looked as if it would open up momentarily and send rain pelting down. But, I made it home just before the first rumbles of thunder announced the impending storm … then we had rain and lightning for about a half hour.

I saw this picture of sneakers and decided to save it for today’s post. The name of the picture above is entitled “Feetfies” as it is a selfie taken of the photographer’s own feet.  These shoes reminded me of my colorful and sturdy footwear from when I was a kid.  Through the years, I know we called our canvas footwear “sneaks”, “tennis shoes”, “tennies”, “running shoes” or “Keds”, and, I fondly remember a pair of bright-white “Jeepers” which were Sears’ own brand of canvas shoes … they were part of my coming of age.  I say that with a giggle, because I’ve written before about getting my first pair of white canvas shoes, and my mom admonishing me to keep my “Jeepers” clean and neat-looking, and not grass-stained or muddy, because now I was a “big girl” and didn’t need to have dark-colored running shoes anymore.  But, at the playground, a girl noticed my bright-white sneakers and commented on them by saying “new shoes?”, then she promptly planted her dirty shoe on top of each of my sneakered feet, leaving a large muddy shoeprint and forcing me to come up with a good explanation as to how and why I made a mess of my “Jeepers” the very first day I wore them.

Since I work from home now, I wear soft Minnetonka moose hide moccasins all day – they are so soft and comfortable that it is like walking on pillows. I sometimes wonder how I endured those narrow pumps, or sky-high heels, or worst of all, the strappy sandals from back in the day?  They were definitely for the younger  me!  Even my walking shoes are very comfortable, but they are heavy with thick soles, and look and feel like clodhoppers, as I clump along making a click, click, click each time my feet strike the pavement.

Well, I’ve met this mini goal of 150 miles walked by April 6^th, National Walking Day … now there are just 350 more miles to get to my annual goal of 500 miles, and, after that, I’ll try to best last year’s total of 718 miles walked.  Whew!  I think there are enough days left in 2016 to get this accomplished.

“Believe you can and you’re halfway there.” ~ Theodore Roosevelt

[Image by photographer Julien Sister at Life of Pix]