I've been walking like a madman

Perhaps as a way to deal with the stresses of the election, perhaps as a replacement for the various hobbies I've been taking slow now, perhaps as a replacement to taking public transport and biking, whatever the combination of issues might be, I've been walking a lot lately.

And it's not just in my closed-loop routes anymore, trying to best my speed and count the steps and test myself. No no no, it's been about exploring the neighborhoods, making a game out of it, getting to grocery stores and learning about them, seeing the different people that live in different neighborhoods, and just having fun. Earbuds with podcasts, the office, or meditation on, I just walk and walk and walk, rain or shine.

It does kill the time for sure. My original plan was to walk for an hour in the morning and an hour in the evening. The morning walks have fizzled out a bit now though who knows they could come back, but the evening walks get only longer and longer and longer. An hour here, two hours there, even three hours on some days. The times I leave the house are more varied too, I've even gone on latenight walks because there's not much to do and walking outside getting the cool chilly air is a good idea as any. Besides inside my room there's not much happening, it's always a good idea to spend time in the real world than in the virtual one.

Gone are the times when a bikeride to himalayan kitchen or the market basket felt like a long journey. I walk there on a slow day. Not just that, I make a look which means the trip is even longer. Have been testing myself by going even further, all the way to the Central Square and even the Galleria Mall and back. A 2-hour round-trip on a weekday. Because why not, it's not like I have much else happening.

The past week has been particularly productive walking wise. I walked on the day after the election to Brookline. Then we walked around the neighborhood, chilled about. The following day we walked for three hours...Brookline to downtown Boston, and back, on foot both ways. The day after that we went on an urban hike of the nature reserves and parks near Brookline, perhaps four hours of walking. It was tiring but well worth it. Yesterday I walked all the way to Chinatown and back to Brookline, to see what was up with the election results celebrations. Also had a heavy backpack on me. And today, I walked home from Brookline, the trip should have been 2 hours and change but took be an extra half hour because I was carrying conservatively twenty pounds of stuff on my backpack and in grocery bags. It was fun if not a bit tiring, and I'd do it again. This is all a big practice...for something.

There's still the daylong hike to somewhere good I want to make, need a friend for that, maybe that won't happen this year since winter's coming soon. And I can't seem to make myself talk to people while I walk on a consistent basis, maybe I've become a loner, maybe I feel that talking to people as I walk is distracting. In any case, that would be amazing for my social productivity, really need to get my game up on that.