Fifty six degrees is a bit much for the mummy bag. Even opened up and using it as a blanket. Last night was the first in a while that I did not sleep well. I fell asleep okay, yet kept waking and tossing and turning- all to keep moving the mummy bag more and less over myself try to find a good equilibrium. Never quite happened until the coolest part of the night, about five am. From there, I sleep soundly until just after sunrise.
That being the likely cause, I did not feel like doing much today, yet shopping was on the list and a good walk around Walmart sounded great. Usually when I go to Walmart, I stay for as long as I can stay on my feet, as walking with a cart is really good exercise. Holding the cart lets me focus on the proper form of my steps- well, as best form as I know at least.
Yet going to the store isn’t something that I can do regularly for exercise and after a month or two of these walks, I can really feel the benefit. In fact, that is one reason I have been walking less. With the cart, I have proper form and I can feel the right muscles engaging, my foot flexing, and even pushing off my left now too. Without the cart or my cane, my steps quickly devolve into walking raising my hip and swinging my left leg around instead of stepping properly. Now my goal, rather than miles or time, is to simply get as many good steps in a day as I can.
As big as Walmart is, it’s still easy for me to get tired out- even with the cart. Hence it’s important for to take a list, else it is really, really easy for me to forget things. Usually, I make a list of things I want to buy or shop for, then at the bottom add on ‘food’. What food? Well, my list has been sparse this year, as I’ve been trying to refocus on good habits. Steak, salad, milk/cereal. And this has been good- I feel healthier. Much more actually compared to taking eighty percent of my meals through a fast food line.
Yet, the diet has some issues. Well, just one really- the length of time those items can be stored after purchase. The further out in the woods I get, the longer I want to go between store runs. With the current menu, the only thing I can buy in bulk, in advance is the cereal- the steak, salad and milk don’t want to last more than four or five days. Also, I seem to buy more of one thing, than another- ahh, I mean I’ll run out of one thing before another. LOL, that still doesn’t make sense.
I’d like to be able to go shopping, buy food for ten days, and run out of everything at the same time on the day I plan to resupply. Tonight I ate my last can of Campbell Chunky Beef Stew (with an extra can of Roast Beef added,) yet I still have a full jar of peanut butter and have a jar of strawberry preserves- another weeks worth of sandwiches- except I’ve only got a few slices of bread left.
So as I thought about going shopping, I started with my list. Except this time, I didn’t just write down “food” with a plan to just go buy whatever looks good as usual, rather I wanted an actual planned list. I wish I could tell you I was done, yet I’m not. Going to Walmart has been pushed off one more day.
Tomorrow should be the day, I have some other errands to run in town as well. So the rest of the day? Well, relaxed a lot. The warmth was nice (I say this now, in March- wonder what I might think in August if I’m still in NM.) Yet laying in bed has been anything but downtime. And these floor exercises are really paying off too. Already I can notice the difference standing up from the ground. It was only a month ago or so that I could stand up by myself from the ground. Not without my cane or a chair nearby.
Yet now, the flexibility in my left leg is amazing- all passive- yet I can fully flex my leg in all directions, especially noticeable in my knee. So much so, today for the first time in (at least since before my incident, fourteen months?) I was able to do a squat. In fact, I did three. My back wasn’t in the best form, yet I was able to squat until my femurs were parallel and stand back up. Tomorrow, I’ll do more.
Otherwise, I spent some time today thinking about income. At some point, I will expend my funds and will need more. Yes, maybe I’ll get rich digging for gold this summer, yet I need to make sure I have the funds to get there. I’d really like to find a way to get paid to do what I’m doing already- writing! Just brainstorming today, yet thinking of different ways I could sell my words. Two ideas I had are the ideas of patrons and sponsors.
From my google stats I can see I have a growing group of daily risers that come and check my site nearly everyday. Patrons could sign up for a monthly payment to the site (twenty patrons donating twenty per month would supply me four hundred per month.) Whether there are twenty people on the globe to signup is another question. Another idea I had are sponsors. A sponsor, for whatever price I set, could buy a piece of writing from me.
What does that mean? Well, as I publish everything online freely for all, I thought I’d let the sponsor seed my writing. As I figured out yesterday, picking a topic to start writing on is sometimes hard for me, yet to answer a question- that is easy. I wonder if there is anyone out there that would pay me a commission to write. What do you think? One hundred dollars for me to answer a question (in all detail of course) or tell a story on specific topic. What topic? Well check my resume, I could write my opinion on a lot: politics, local Jackson politics, skydiving, ham radio, photography, or, well, me.
I tried to put myself in the place of reader of this site. Each day reading a new episode, likely enjoying some more than others. Perhaps right now, someone is hoping I’ll get back to some of the stories I’ve half started or alluded to. Perhaps someone is thinking “I wonder if this guy has every thought of _____”. Maybe if I provide an appropriate and regular supply of enjoyable reading material, then they might find themselves willing to pay me to write on a specific topic, rather than waiting to see if I’ll ever meander around to it myself.
Lastly, as the idea is to write a book- maybe I should just publish what I have. I could take my posts from a given year and have them published in a paperback. I’m pretty sure Amazon (or some company out there) takes care of the hard work of printing and delivering.
Just ideas for now, yet I think there might be something to it. Else, there are always google ads, yet I hate ads so I’d rather not.
Okay, that about it for tonight.
Time to rest.