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Thursday, April 12, 2012

Running Observations

Today I took to the great outdoors to do some walking/jogging/running and to enjoy the great weather. I decided to go all the way to Walmart, nearly four miles away from my house. As I took to the streets, lawns, and highways (crossing those were a thrill ride) I noticed a few things.

1. Old Ladies Rock: As I was running in the downtown area today I got stopped by two old ladies out exercising. Both of them told me to get my butt back to school and to stop playing hooky. As you can imagine, I was kind of floored by that but my baby face, it does make me look like a high schooler. After explaining to the ladies that I was in fact five years removed from high school (they didn't believe me at first, took some convincing) and that I was out exercising, they apologized.

Nevertheless, I was quite impressed by the two old gals. Most people when they see a high schooler playing hooky wouldn't call them out but these old ladies aren't most people. Kids need to be in school and I'm glad there are still folks around that see that, even if most don't care anymore.

2. Brittany and Josh: I have no idea who you two are but I hope you two are still together. The graffiti on underside of the bridge seemed to indicate that you two would last "forever" and though I doubt it, the hopeless romantic in me can't help but cheer for you two. I just have to ask why spray paint it in yellow.

I don't have a huge issue with yellow but it's just not a real flattering color for much of anything in my mind. Yellow is associated with a lot of messes in the bathroom, if you catch my drift. To anyone else out there who wants to spray paint their names onto the underside of the bridge, please choose a different color than yellow. How about red?

3. Speaking of High Schoolers...: Apparently, there was some sort of field trip for a few high school kids today and a few of them made their way to the local Dairy Queen to get some grub. There were a number of high school girls out there and as I was running, I saw them giving me glances. Can't say I minded, but I found it odd.

Back in my day, the only glances from girls in high school I got were the "don't come near me" kind, lol. At any rate, I found the entire experience kind of weird.

4. Sidewalks in Front of Fast Food Places: Why do you put those there? I mean, seriously, why? Fast food places like Taco Bell, Hardees, and Pizza Hut have sidewalks in front of them that hardly get any use. The people who eat at the fast food places don't use the sidewalks, they drive there. The worst part is that a lot of people take their kids there to eat cause it's cheaper and the kids get screwed up food wise early.

And the sidewalks just sit there, unused. Rather than putting sidewalks in front of fast food restaurants, how about sticking them in local neighborhoods? I'd love to be able to run down a sidewalk in my neighborhood instead of the road. Let's just go ahead and stop wasting sidewalks on fast food places; people who eat there are likely to never use them.

5. I Need Some Crosswalks: I'm tired of dodging death on 231, 14 East, or other highways. We need some more crosswalks in order to promote people getting out and walking. In downtown it's not too bad but the city has grown to the point where a lot of people aren't as close to downtown anymore. I think a few crosswalks on the highways would be nice.

As much as I like the thrill rush of crossing the highway while cars blaze towards me, I can only play the odds so often.

6. Wow...I Ate Horribly Back in the Day: I took a walk down memory lane while I was at Walmart and surveyed some of my old standby foods. And by old I mean foods I used to eat a year ago. It's amazing the utterly horrible things I put in my body back in the day. The Walmart frozen foods section, with the White Castle burgers, the frozen burritos, the spicy chicken sandwiches, and more were just LOADED with carbs.

Eating like that should have killed me and nearly did. People, I cannot emphasize this enough, please look carefully at the nutritional information on the back of the boxes. It's actually important stuff.

7. Healthy Chips are...Basically the Same: I know that they charge nearly a buck more for the healthy chips and I know, that they're lower in calories or fat or carbs, but seriously, it's not that big a difference. I surveyed in depth the various regular brands vs their healthy counterparts and there's hardly any difference. If you're gonna buy chips just buy the regular ones folks, really. Healthy chips are like bottled water; a complete sham.

8. Penny's Are Unappreciated: I feel bad for the penny. It's disregarded easily, worth only a cent (realistically less), and always seems to be on the verge of being eliminated as a currency. I like penny's. Maybe it's the act of flipping them, maybe it's because I find them cooler than five dollar bills (you can't flip that...at least not well).

Whatever the case, I found a few of them on my trip out today and I flipped them in the air, keeping count of how they landed. The penny deserves some respect people. Without it, we'd never get that oh so valuable one cent back.

That's all my observations. Have a great day, thanks for reading.