Taking A Walk

This morning for the first time in a long time I took a walk around my neighborhood. It's a 2 mile route my wife and I marked out some time ago. I haven't walked it in over a year because I was having some back problems but the more I've been walking on the treadmill, the better it seems to be getting. Anyway, I started out by trying to use my iPod but my wife left it on after her last walk and the battery was dead. So I got her old iPod and used that but it died after 20 minutes. So I was without music for about half the walk. The route is very uneven with lots of fairly steep grades & hills to go up and down. Without question my back bothers me the most when I go down the hills. I guess that makes sense since I'm using my legs as brakes and that puts strain on the lower back. Nothing much in the neighborhood has changed since I last walked it. I did go by actor Anthony Edwards who was jogging in the other direction. We exchanged greetings and went on our individual ways. I assume he was in the last stages of his run because he was out of breath and kind of gasping. I could never understand why people jog. I used to see people jogging all the time when I walked and they were clearly suffering. I remember once one guy honestly looked like he was going to collapse any minute. I kept looking back to see if he was OK until he was out of sight. The other changes in my neighborhood were a couple of houses for sale that hadn't been before. Also, one house had an in-ground pool installed in its backyard which was a hill. They literally carved out a notch in the hill, built a retaining wall, leveled it off and put in the pool. It must have cost a fortune. Like jogging, in-ground pools are very over rated-especially in this climate where use is limited. I can understand one in Florida but not here given the trouble and expense. Plus they worry me with small kids around. Anyway, that's it for my walk. Not very exciting. Maybe next time I'll come across some money or a dead body. Stay tuned.