Water slides? Huh? I’ll get to that in a minute…

Saturday morning walk

Today I did a 3.25-mile walk around my town. I’m lucky to live in a place where there are plenty of side streets and sidewalks so I can walk safely just by exiting my front door. I can’t imagine living on a road with no shoulders or sidewalks and having to drive somewhere so I can go for a walk.

I’ve trained for many half marathons by doing walks just within my somewhat small town. I’ve been able to map out routes of 1 mile, 3 miles, even 6 and 8 miles. There are many apps and tools that can help you plan out your walks — stay tuned for info in a future post.

In the meantime … about the water slides. On my walk today, I noticed a mother and little girl in their yard. The yard was nearly fully occupied by one of those inflatable playthings. This one had a great curving slide that landed in a big circular pool, and they were in the process of filling it up with a hose.

“That looks fun!” I said, smiling. That prompted the little girl to announce that it was for her birthday party. I stopped and asked how old she was. “Five,” she said, holding up her hand with fingers splayed to demonstrate. “Do you want to come to my party?” she asked very politely.

With regrets, I declined — but I have a feeling I’ll be thinking all day about how fun it would be to go down that water slide.