Justin’s Eye
Today is on Justin’s walking schedule, so I waited for him to get up and go to the park. When he got up, his eye was swollen nearly shut. He went to urgent care and they prescribed antibiotics, but also told him to take allergy medication and use ointment until it all clears up. I assumed he was off the hook for exercise; there’s no need to push it if you have an infection, but after he got back I announced I was going for a walk and he came with me. He got in a little over a quarter of a mile, but considering one of his eyes is puffed up and he can’t see out of it, I would say that’s actually impressive. It tells me he is willing to put in some work. Things change!
The day was a little too warm. I said I was shooting for 2 miles, but after about 1.5, I started heading back. It was too hot, the park was filling with kids, and I was starting to need to use the restroom. I felt great, and I still do, but I decided to just go home and be done with it! If I feel up to it this evening, I might go out for more. We’ll see. I really want to be doing 3 miles a day starting on the 1st, so I really should keep it up. Twice a day feels very manageable. There and back, four times around the park, plus just a little extra is 1.5 miles. That sounds easy. 11 times around plus a little extra sounds daunting.

On the 24th, I picked up a magnolia seed pod and carried it home. It sort of triggered me to start picking up things and bringing them home on my walks. I don’t know if that is permanent, but it is fun. Today I found confetti. I might actually try to pick more of that up; we don’t need that much plastic in the soil, but it is hard to get a hold of. Even if it is larger pieces. I had decided to grab the strap in my walking photo during my walk yesterday, but forgot it. It still counts!
I’ve been thinking about the way I organize my journaling. The Wandering Hermit was on a separate site, so it has always been a separate entity, as are my book notes. I think I’d like to create a new journaling template for 2026, something that has spaces for all the different things as well as my sort of daily to do list. I can clip from it, but it would consolidate my days into a single post in DayOne, which I think I might quite like. It also might make my website cleaner if I’m posting once a day (except for reviews and whatnot). I’ll work on that.
[Walk #337, 1.63 miles]