June 11 – “Stepping out”

I tried out the gift Chris got us for our anniversary yesterday.  Wait.  I tried out the gift yesterday.  Our anniversary was the 6^th.  So I guess that should read “Yesterday I tried out the gift Chris got us for our anniversary.”  There.  That’s better.  Thought you might enjoy a brief window into my thought processes.  Of course I left out all the random, incoherent rumblings that are constantly flying around in there as well.  My brain is … an interesting place. 

But back to the gift.  Chris got us one of those pedometers.  It measures how many miles you walk or how many steps you take when you walk.  You’re supposed to first measure your own personal stride.  Here’s the process in the instruction manual for that: “First mark a starting point.  Take ten strides from that point.  Use a tape measure to determine the total distance you have traveled.  Divide that total distance by ten.  That is your average stride length.”  Well, OK.  That seemed a little extreme.  But it didn’t stop there.  The next section added: “If you are not able to take ten steps, repeat the process taking only three steps.  Measure the distance.  Divide by three.  That is your average stride length.”  Again … OK.  The math is fine.  But if three will do it, why tell us to do ten?  Believe it or not, it got better.  A final statement said:  “Already installed in the pedometer’s memory is the average stride length for most human beings.  You may use that as a default option.”  I suppose that’s for the people who don’t have access to a tape measure.  Or who don’t know how to divide. 

I chose option three.  I’m a default kind of guy, I guess.  I also chose the mode for measuring distance rather than steps.  Just curious if our track around the neighborhood, which we measured by driving in the car, matches up to the average human being’s stride length.  So I took my walk as usual.  According to the car I went right at two miles.  I checked the pedometer and it read 1.95 miles.  That’s pretty close, right?  And since I’m not really all that average as human beings go, I probably went farther, right?  Well, that’s my story and I’m sticking to it.  Oh.  Chris hooked it on when she went for her walk.  Her reading was 2.17.  Must have been off.  See, she takes much smaller strides than I do.  Or maybe … she just went farther than I did.  Tomorrow I think we should try the “steps” mode.  Then we’ll have proof that we have been “stepping out,” right?

Psalms 94:22 says, “But the Lord has become my fortress, and my God the rock in whom I take refuge.”

Father, thank you for the ability to walk.  That’s keeping it pretty simple, huh?  Amen.