Well I blew it – big-time!
What is the first word in the title of this blog? “Walkin’”… right? So, how could I just drop the ball and not do a blog post commemorating walking?
This past Wednesday was “National Walking Day” and I’ve been really busy at work, and totally missed the event! Do you want to know how I found out I missed it? A local radio station messaged me and asked if I could be interviewed about my walking regimen on this special day that commemorates walking, only I saw the message the day after the event. I have taken a rain check for next year … but how embarrassing!
I also missed “National Walk in the Park Day” back on March 30th but that was due to bad weather.
At least I didn’t miss “National Take a Hike Day” back on November 17th of last year. That was on a Saturday and I walked six miles … and, by the way, no one told me to “take a hike” … I did so on my own volition. But even that day was tinged with issues. You can click here if you’d like to read about it.
In my computer I have compiled a little list of some of the fun calendar days to commemorate throughout the year … you know, important stuff like “National No Housework Day” or “National Tapioca Pudding Day” … even “National Squirrel Appreciation Day” has been duly noted by Yours Truly to mention in this blog (even though this squirrel doesn’t look like he appreciates me very much – in fact he appears to be wearing a look of disdain).
So, after my faux pas associated with “National Walking Day” I looked on my handy-dandy list of events and discovered today was “National Walk to Work Day” … well, I knew that this little event would not pass me by, no matter what the weather was. After all, I work from home, so writing about this event is a win-win for me!
“National Walk to Work Day” has been celebrated the first Friday of April the past 15 years. I have not worked on site since April 9, 2009 and now my commute to work involves walking down the hall in my moose hide Minnetonka moccasins. Unfortunately, I won’t precede that walk to work with a walk outside because it is raining. Yes, I promised you (and myself) to embrace the idea of walking in the rain to ensure that I make my year-end goal (1,242 miles/2,000k), but right now it is 38 degrees F (3 Celsius), with a “real feel” of 31F (0C). The cold and drizzly weather doesn’t beckon me to do any more than hustle out to run the car. Instead, I’m taking advantage of the crummy weather to zip off this unprecedented early morning post.
With the exception of fellow blogger Shelley, who, like me, works from home – did any of you walk to work today? TGIF!
Linda Schaub
WALKIN', WRITIN', WIT & WHIMSY 
Linda,
To answer your last question first- no. It was a holiday and so I worked in the kitchen cooking breakfast and heating up lunch. I am sad we missed you on radio but the good thing is you are famous, Linda- even radio stations want to interview you. Good work.
Walk to work day- I will try to remember that.
Lots of love,
Susie
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I was surprised about the request and I felt very badly I missed the message. I’m heading out shortly … then back to get to work. Still busy. It will rain part of this weekend as well – foggy tomorrow morning. The weather is frustrating me a little Susie. I said at first “there are plenty of months left to walk – I hope I did not set my goal of 2,000 k (1,242 miles) too high. Lots of love back at you Susie.
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I’m celebrating the “National Walk to Work Day” with you. I agree with you, I’m nodding my head that it is too cold to walk outside in the rain. And it is raining here too. I’m trying hard not to look at the forecast, and am incredibly thankful that I have a good book to read on my treadmill. If I don’t hit that soon, I’ll be late for work! LOL! Happy Friday to you (thank you for the call-out too by the way)!! April showers bring May flowers and the weather perfect for miles and miles of walking!! xx
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I have to get out and run the car … it’s so damp and cold, and even with the trickle charger, I’ll give it a little boost by running it. Ugly weather and I’ll hold you to those April showers and May flowers … or maybe not. 🙂 You’re welcome … we from the work-at-home-contingent must stick together!
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Your so kind to your car! Yeah, Mr. told me that it’s going to be like this for over a week, including 3-5 inches of snow. UGH! You’re right, we must stick together and keep our spirits up! xx
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Snow! We have it in the northern ‘burbs, but not here thankfully. Just a steady rain.
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Yep – we haven’t had our 3 snows on the Robins’ tail yet, it has to happen before spring officially bursts here.
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I didn’t know about these special days and feel that I missed opportunities to be in the know, one of the cool kids, and all that. Please forgive me. I’ll do better next year. 😊
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The “No-Housework Day” is one of my all-time favorites Ally. License to just look at the dust bunnies and walk past them. I look at the trending sites on Twitter and I often find those oddball calendar days there and jot them down.
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Tuesdays and Thursdays are my walking days so no for today. I will celebrate the day with a toast of my mocha latte!
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well didnt walk to work as day off, but i have walked over 10 000 steps today. walking back from kids school the long way to the car helped my step count,
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Good for you Mirian – 5 miles right there! I have gone on errands or done grocery shopping while wearing the pedometer and those steps sure add up quickly. Even running around the house adds up.
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Oh yes, all those steps count..
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I know they do add up – when I go grocery shopping, I leave the grocery cart in one area of the store and run down each aisle and bring stuff back, unless I’m buying a lot of canned things, then I wheel the cart over. I bring each bag in the house separately to get in more steps. I have a small house and still can rack up a bunch of steps just taking care of things in the house. You have kids – you are always running after kids!
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Don’t forget “World Snake Day” (on July 16th of this year). It was designed to increase appreciation of snakes and awareness about how they are beneficial to nature’s balance. 🙂
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I did not know about “World Snake Day” Tom. A couple of the walkers that I only see on weekends at Council Point Park pointed out the area where there is a snake nest once it warms up a little. This was new to me. So, there is something new for me to watch out for – I don’t promise to get as close as I do to the squirrels. The two gentleman also told me they were walking one day and saw the animal control officer there. He was wrangling a boa constrictor. He said that someone must have no longer wanted their pet and set it free it in the Park. Now that would have been an even a bigger surprise!
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A boa constrictor… slivering around in Michigan! People need to take them to an animal shelter or zoo, not release them into the wild. In Florida, the boa constrictors are rapidly reproducing and cause havoc by replacing the natural predators that are there. It’s a huge problem there.
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I didn’t know that about Florida Tom, but I read about their onslaught of poisonous toads – that is incredible too. I don’t know why someone would release a boa constrictor in a park … that makes no sense to me. Luckily someone saw it before it attacked someone and crushed them.
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Of all of the sweet animals that have special days, i think that snakes need one especially. Most people, men and boys mostly, cruelly kill them without regard to whether they are poisonous or not… and around 99% of the time, they are not poisonous and would not bite (anyway). Then we wonder why so many disease riddled rats and mice are around and trying to get into our homes. It ruins nature’s balance and protects no one. Most all snakes that are poisonous give you warning well in advance before they strike; so even being extremely afraid of them is uncalled for. 🙂
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I’ve never seen a snake until last year – I took an interpretive tour at Lake Erie Metropark and mentioned this and the guide took me into the museum where they have a couple of snakes … my first time seeing a snake. People hurt/kill first, ask questions later.
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I thought of you this morning Tom as I heard the news story about the huge Burmese Python found and killed in Florida. What an impressive size this snake was!
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Wow you’re a celebrity! See you are not the squirrel lady, you are the walking lady! lol That was really nice that they asked you. Maybe next year.
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I thought it was nice too Diane. This is a female morning news anchor on an all-news station here in Detroit (WWJ 950 AM) and we follow each other on Twitter. She has embarked on a healthy living campaign after her sister died late last year. She was in a campaign to raise money for Boys and Girls Clubs in Michigan along with other radio personalities in the Detroit area. The radio station and other local radio stations are all owned by the same company. They had an event sponsored by Planet Fitness last Saturday. It was in my area and I thought of going and we had such crummy weather, torrential rains I just stayed inside. I don’t post my blog posts in Twitter, however, I did one time in conjunction with how many miles I had done – maybe for “Take a Hike Day”. She saw it and made a comment about the walking, so she knew I walked. I felt badly I did not see her message asking to interview me on the air until the next day. Been swamped at work and didn’t go on Twitter – probably headed straight to WordPress, e-mail, Facebook, not Twitter. I did not walk on Wednesday as I try to gather all my errands that I need to do for one trip, so I don’t miss a walking day and did the errands that day, totally oblivious to “National Walking Day” … we are having a nice weekend up to Sunday afternoon and I can live with that – hope you are having good weather too. Can you convince your husband to walk on weekends with you if your schedules mesh? Or one of the grandkids?
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Yes as soon as we get all the outside work done…2-1/2 acres! We are spending every free moment working outside. I should finish up getting the last of my flower beds done today as well as the asparagus and rhubarb patches.
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That’s a lot of work – yes, after you enjoy the fruits of your labor, try and squeak in a relaxing walk too.
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Dear Miss: “moose-hide,Minnetonka moccasins,”………………………….because of the rain I had to walk on the treadmill at the exercise room this morning…………………………..I was bummed out………………my work is driving people to the doctors…………….so yes i walked to my car to work this morning
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That rain is a pain. It messed me up too – the weather folks said an all-rainy/ligh snow mix on Thursday morning, and that didn’t happen.
They said rain yesterday morning – it was raining when I got up. I decided to do this blog post as it was raining hard. When I went out to run the car, it was dry and the sun was shining. I will start walking in the rain, but it has to warm up first … not fun to walk in the chilly rain. I had too many years of that taking the bus to work. You have a good heart and drive people to the doctor and volunteer at the soup kitchen, nursing homes, help out at church activities, Sunday school … and do good deeds for people. It is not “work-work” but it is “good deeds work” … the world is a better place because of you Ann Marie.
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Too bad you missed the “National Take a Walk Day” radio interview. You could have been a celebrity! Lots of people must know about your walking regimen. I tried to think back to Wednesday and we did take Benji for a walk that day – a long walk. I don’t know if I ever told you, but Bill retired from an architect’s office. One of the last projects he worked on was the conversion of a huge abandoned chocolate factory into condos, a hotel, shops, and a restaurant in our town. It’s about 1.5 miles away from our house. He likes to walk by it to check on the progress as it is under construction now. That’s one of the destinations of our walks with Benji.
I did NOT walk to work today. 🙂 I no longer have to walk, bike, or drive to work and I love it! I definitely want to know when it is National No Housework day. That is something to celebrate!
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I felt really badly Laurie – I am glad she offered to do a rain check next year. I was still embarrassed by it, but I was not on Twitter all that day. I try to lump my errands into one day so not to lose walking time and just picked Wednesday to do some errands … so much for figuring I’d remember the first Wednesday in April is always National Walking Day. This woman is the morning news anchor. I have been giving her some Atta Girls for her workout regimen she started this year. I didn’t know Bill was an architect – how nice he can check on the progress in conjunction with Benji’s walk. You are in luck my friend – April 7th is “No Housework Day! – Enjoy! https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/2019/04/07/
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Woo hoo! I will not do any housework today!
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Hope you did not do housework – I did not and made a post about it … I’m not trying to make this into a humorous blog, but I got a slew of funny pictures yesterday and many of the ducks were preening themselves (which happens when I go anywhere there is ducks; they wake up and start attending to their feathers). The hybrid mallards are so unusual looking – this is the only park that has them around here.
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I did absolutely NO housework today, Linda. I am happy to report that I followed the No Housework Day spirit! Oh, wait…I did a load of wash. does that count?
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I am glad you followed that edict Laurie – yes, laundry is housework, so you had better have a make-up day and take tomorrow off.
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Good idea!
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I think I shall adopt National No Housework day for six days a week, year round.
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Me too – now aren’t you glad I suggested it? I looked and cannot find a “Chipmunk Appreciation Day” – well that is just plain silly.
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If there is not a national day for something, it must mean it’s meant for 365 days a year.
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It should be and you will never guess but it is tomorrow, so go for it:
https://www.daysoftheyear.com/days/2019/04/07/
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What happened to your detailed description of your walk to work?? I was waiting! (joke)
Love, light and glitter
Hope this weekend is peaceful and relaxing 🙂
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I am still here – not moved to Reader except to look at your new blog … still in Comments. I did enjoy my walk this morning and knew coming home so late and wanting to write this post I did today with all the pictures would make me late tonight. My walk to work … shuffling down the hall in my moose hide moccasins. 🙂
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oh my gosh, I thought moose hide moccasins would be a completely strange and cool invention. And then Sir google showed me images. I like 🙂 Though it’s different to what I expected!
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And I am bummed because the store I buy them from, McLinden’s Shoes in the next city over, is going out of business. They just announced it on April 1st and they’ve been in business for 72 years. A family-run company. Oh these are the softest shoes … I bought a darker-colored pair for street shoes, for when I am not in my walking shoes, but that is not that often, just if I’m out doing a few errands, I just wear them. You slip these on your feet, they are like slippers. They last me awhile since I never wear them outside – I’ll probably have to order them right from the company now or Amazon – haven’t looked there yet.
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That’s so annoying.
Have they gone out of business yet? Or can you order it now before they close?
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Seeing your message reminded me I wanted to call the store and now it is too late – they have never opened before 9:30 a.m. and always closed at 6:00 p.m. and never open on Sundays. They just announced the sale on 04/01, said they would close for three days to mark down and then the big sale would start Thursday morning thru Saturday. I knew there was no use in going there as the article about the store closing was out on social media. I saw it in three different places. I have her e-mail address for the store from a while ago and going to ask her … they also told me last time I bought them, that they weren’t carrying the moccasins in the store anymore, just special orders. People felt they weren’t enough support and stopped buying them. I only wore them in the house, so they were fine. I wish they had advertised the store was closing about a month ago and then people could have bought their favorite items before the markdowns – you take a chance then. Sigh. I have gone there since I was a kid – sometimes I got “fun shoes” like colorful flats or something like sandals at the mall, but for moccasins, walking shoes, boots and pumps (when I still worked) they were my go-to place.
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Can you email them now?
Fun shoes sound fun!
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That’s great that you are a walking celebrity! If you get the chance to get interviewed again don’t forget to mention your blog chronicling your journey…..help spread the word about how much fun walking can be. I did walk today, but on Wed, I spent the whole afternoon doing financial stuff, which I hate. I no longer work, so I can’t walk to work, unless going up and down the stairs with laundry counts.
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I will do that Joni. You’re right – let people know it is more than just exercise, but a fu way to get your exercise. I hate financial stuff … I hated getting all the stuff together for taxes. Took hours and did it on a weekend as it was so time-consuming.
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Ohhh national walking day was this past Wednesday?! I think I got a walk in although I’m not so sure . Hmmm. Even if you weren’t able to walk that day or get back to the radio station- that is SOOO Cool they reached out. And yes- definitely next year I look forward to hearing that interview!
Lol- so glad no one told you to “Take a hike” and you did it on your own volition.
I love the idea of celebrating these national holidays!!! Can’t wait to read how you celebrate them all!
I did a 20 minute walk after dinner today that was so nice 🙂 Thanks for sharing, Linda!
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I keep a list of some of the fun holidays that apply to me and I guess I just figured I’d remember this date since my blog revolves around walking. I’ve been so busy at work I never looked at that list until I got the request and saw it the day after. I then checked the list to see what else was coming up in April. I was embarrassed but hopefully it can happen next year. A walk after dinner is good … I’ve walked a few times at Council Point Park after work, but it is not the same experience. I enjoy the Park when it is quiet and the critters are all around – later in the day, it is more people and no critters at all. The critters have foraged enough and return to their nests for the rest of the day, so I just walk in the neighborhood.
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I love all of the days you have found to celebrate especially the no housework day 🤣.
I love the idea of walk to work day but unfortunately didnt do that as it is around 18 miles away and Munch wouldn’t have spoken to me if I made him walk that far 😁
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There are a lot of fun calendar days that I’ve found … I thought I’d share some of them … unfortunately three were in one week. 🙂 (No imagination there on my part.) Last year I spotlighted International Walking Day which is in May. 18 miles is a long commute – you are right, Munch would have really ignored you and had an attitude if you insisted he do that trek. Here in the U.S. we have the Susan Komen Three-Day Walk to Support Breast Cancer. Across the U.S. they have designated cities – people walk 20 miles per day, 60 days all together. Some are survivors, some walk for loved ones/friends lost and some people just walk to raise money. It is quite a feat. They often camp out overnight in groups.
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Wow that is a long distance to walk each day for three days but for a great cause.❤
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I agree with you Zena and I think they should switch the three-day event to September when it is cooler. It is always held the first Friday/Saturday/Sunday in August, one of the hottest and most-humid parts of the Summer. I know I could not even come close to reaching 20 miles each day.
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