TB Takes Shank's Mare

 As mentioned in Friday's post, I reached the end of my company approved rental car and, after taking the train home, was essentially left with my feet (aka Shank's Mare) as my mode of transportation.  I had thought that it would only extend one and one-half days (Thursday and Friday morning) and that Friday afternoon would see the arrival of my car.  Sadly, circumstances did not play out that way and today is the current estimated date of delivery.

On the bright side, I live close enough to work to walk.  On the less bright side (for a limited time), the only feasible option I have is to walk.

Note the word "feasible".  In point of fact there are other options - but a quick look at ride sharing suggests a $9 ride one way to work (for 2.5 miles), excluding tip.  Which puts an interesting mathematical dimension to it:  with tip, that is about $4.32 a mile.  If I had a car, the cost would certainly be less than that per mile (around $0.38, given average fuel prices).  So purely on walking on Thursday and Friday, I "saved" myself $21.6.  Financially, that makes sense.

And so, I walked.

I have not been in a position to walk to work since the early 1990's, where (for a brief time) I lived within a miles of my job.  There is a certain novelty to being able to do so.  And as  I have noted before, walking is possible here:  at least this part of the city has sidewalks in numerous places (on both sides of the street, no less) and certainly right up to my current place of employment.

The walk takes me about 50 minutes, or about 20 minutes per mile.  If I pushed myself a bit more, that is something like 3 miles an hour.  I do carry a backpack with my work computer, lunch, etc., but that cannot be more than 5 pounds - so weight is not a significant factor.

The walking itself is not bad - yes, it is mostly office buildings and light industrial so it is not the best of landscapes, but it is also quite green and makes for a relatively pleasant walk.  Although Friday turned out to be a bit less pleasant, as I walked through 50 minutes of drizzle.  One learns to carry a raincoat and water resistant backpack everywhere here so it was not a dire emergency (and I have certainly hiked through far worse conditions) although neither is the best of all possible worlds.

Of course, no car meant that everything over the weekend was either spent in the apartment or by foot - and so both church and grocery shopping were conducted with a walk.  Again, not unmanageable by any circumstance, although it does somewhat limit the amount of groceries one can bring home (fortunately, it is only me here at the moment) - one backpack-ful is somewhat less than you might imagine.

How are my legs?  Sore, but that probably does not come as a surprise simply due to the fact I have not walked this much in some time.  The soreness is not unmanageable - although it hardly makes me want to do a lot when I get home.

The biggest "complaint" I have is simply the amount of time it takes - almost two hours instead of what would be about a 10 minute drive.  One does not appreciate the loss in time until one is confronted with it.  And that is for a relatively short distance - imagine 5 miles each way, or even 10 miles.  The reality of pre-20th Century travel, where a great many people spent most of their lives near where they lived, becomes far more comprehensible.

What will I do when I get my car back?  Drive some of the time I suspect - but I do think (as long as the weather holds) I will continue to walk at least one day a week, if not more.   The exercise really does do me good.  And the humbling nature of moving, one foot at a time, makes me appreciate modern transportation all the more.