I walked to work again this morning.  I could have driven today actually and still been within my rules but I chose to walk.  Let me tell you what I've discovered.  Walking is very inspiring.  If you ever needed inspiration for some creative pursuit, I suggest walking.  It's amazing how many things you notice.  A few things I noticed.  My left shin hurting.  Which is weird.  I don't get shin splits.  I was trying to figure out why my left shin was hurting.  Hiking  too much in Chacos in Hawaii perhaps?  Running the other day in my old running shoes instead of my new, more supportive ones?  Maybe because I favor my good knee when I run, and that favoring has caused shin splints in my leg with the bad knee, the left knee with the repaired meniscus and ACL.  Anyways, obviously my left skin was hurting.

I also noticed kids walking to the bus stop on 11th street.  I think I might have blended in with these high school aged kids since we all seemed to be around 5 feet tall and wearing backpacks.  Hmm....  The next thing I noticed was this house (pictured left) that was a bank repo and I wondered what it might sell for.  I am a bit obsessed with houses in my neighbor for sale that are on the bottom end of the market.  I have dreams of  saving enough money in the near future to snag a sweet deal on a cheap house in my neighbor that I could use for an investment property.

I noticed a lot of things on my way to work and thought to myself, "Why in the world do I not walk to work more often?"  In the five years I worked in my current office, I think I walked once.  And that was when it snowed nearly two feet overnight and I was afraid my car would get stuck in the snow.  I have rode my bike to work plenty of times and the bike is a great alternative transportation method to my car--much quicker than walking.  But I never remember noticing as much while riding my bike as I did these two days walking to work.  I challenge you to try walking to work sometime if you have a manageable distance say a mile or so like I do.  I think you would be impressed with how much more you notice.  It took right about 22 minutes to tackle my morning walk to my office--exactly the same amount of time it took the other day.  Not bad at all.    

This morning's foggy view about 3 blocks from my office. 

Walking, walking, walking.  That was my theme for the day.  I walked up to my gym for my 12 noon appointment with my personal trainer.  That took about 15 minutes one way.  On my walk back down to my office I ran into a friend and we exchanged hellos.  That's the nice thing about getting out and walking.  You run into people and things that you might not have expected and that is what makes it fun. 

Walked up to Safeway for some groceries sometime after 4 PM once I finished work.  Approximate 12 minute walk from my office to Safeway.  Having to carry my grocery bags home helped me keep my purchases to minimum.  I bought one apple, one orange (I don't like to over-purchase fruit for fear it may go bad before I can eat it, so I typically stock pile fruit only 2-4 pieces at a time), a head of lettuce, a bunch of radishes, cottage cheese, sour cream, one can of cream of celery soup, 2 cartons of egg substitute, a package of corn tortillas.  Total damage $18.  Not too bad.  I wanted to buy a 6 pack of red Gatorade that was on sale for $4.50 but figured that would be way too heavy to carry with my other stuff.  I figured I could come back for the Gatorade on a day I was in my car.  Although it would have to be by Tuesday next week before it is no longer on sale!  

Church sign I passed on my walk up to Safeway.  I thought this was a good quote, especially since my house is rather small!

So thus far I have yet to drive my car anywhere for the month of February.  Boo-yah (that my celebratory term of excitement)!