"Everywhere is within walking distance if you have the time."
Steven Wright, Comedian
Ay, there's the rub.
Time. No matter how efficient or organized you are, no one gets more than 24 hours in a day. Knock off a third of that for sleep, or lying in bed desperately wanting to sleep, and you're down to 16 hours. Then there's all the daily gotta do's that don't seem to account for much time but add up by the end of the day. Stuff like cooking and eating and showering. Throw in the big stuff -- job, house, yard -- and that doesn't leave much time for the wanna do's like exercise, walking the dog, hobbies, reading, having a social life. Top all this off with the time sucks, those huge wasters of our precious minutes that we all succumb to every single day. You know what I'm talking about. Yup...TV, Facebook, reading mindless blogs. No wait, come back, I'll make it worth your while.
So into this mix I must find the time to get ready physically for my Camino. Luckily I'm mostly retired so that gives me back a pretty fair chunk of the day. And if I give up house cleaning and yard work then I'm pretty much the Queen of Time. Sadly I can't do that (and let me tell you, it's not for lack of trying) so I've had to come up with a system so that I don't hit the Camino and have it hit me back. The answer? Multi-tasking.
Every day I need to walk the dog, exercise and run errands somewhere. So I grab Gregory, leash up the pooch and head out -- to the library, the post office, boot camp. Pretty much anywhere that doesn't take over three hours round trip. But first I put a couple of 5 lb dumbbells in the pack. I've learned a lot about weight distribution over the past few weeks. Ten pounds at the bottom of the pack strains at the mid back just below the neck. But layer those weights in other stuff (right now I'm using my uncompressed sleeping bag) and I barely notice I'm carrying it.
Next month I'll up the weight to 15 pounds. Then 20 in July, 25 in August. I figure by the time I leave with just my clothes and essentials my pack will feel like a feather and I'll be floating along the Camino.
For the first hour anyway.
Time. No matter how efficient or organized you are, no one gets more than 24 hours in a day. Knock off a third of that for sleep, or lying in bed desperately wanting to sleep, and you're down to 16 hours. Then there's all the daily gotta do's that don't seem to account for much time but add up by the end of the day. Stuff like cooking and eating and showering. Throw in the big stuff -- job, house, yard -- and that doesn't leave much time for the wanna do's like exercise, walking the dog, hobbies, reading, having a social life. Top all this off with the time sucks, those huge wasters of our precious minutes that we all succumb to every single day. You know what I'm talking about. Yup...TV, Facebook, reading mindless blogs. No wait, come back, I'll make it worth your while.
So into this mix I must find the time to get ready physically for my Camino. Luckily I'm mostly retired so that gives me back a pretty fair chunk of the day. And if I give up house cleaning and yard work then I'm pretty much the Queen of Time. Sadly I can't do that (and let me tell you, it's not for lack of trying) so I've had to come up with a system so that I don't hit the Camino and have it hit me back. The answer? Multi-tasking.
Every day I need to walk the dog, exercise and run errands somewhere. So I grab Gregory, leash up the pooch and head out -- to the library, the post office, boot camp. Pretty much anywhere that doesn't take over three hours round trip. But first I put a couple of 5 lb dumbbells in the pack. I've learned a lot about weight distribution over the past few weeks. Ten pounds at the bottom of the pack strains at the mid back just below the neck. But layer those weights in other stuff (right now I'm using my uncompressed sleeping bag) and I barely notice I'm carrying it.
Next month I'll up the weight to 15 pounds. Then 20 in July, 25 in August. I figure by the time I leave with just my clothes and essentials my pack will feel like a feather and I'll be floating along the Camino.
For the first hour anyway.
Don't count every hour in the day, but make every hour in the day count. That's my moment of inspiration for you!
ReplyDeleteSometimes you have to do one to achieve the other. And that's my moment of inspiration for you!!
Delete