"I'm walkin' heah!"

About a year ago I started making a concerted effort to "get my steps in" every day.

Fun fact: "10,000 steps a day" is marketing, not supported by scientific/medical research. (Not directly, that is. No research says "10,000 steps a day is the key to health!" Or any other count.)

So it turns out that, as of my last visit to the doc (for what turned out to be the flu, a month or so ago) I had lost 30 pounds in a year. Which isn't a lot, but as long as I keep moving, and watching what I eat, is also not likely to reappear...

Anyway. I have figured out how to get those 10,000 steps in while at work -- if I can, I simply do two "tours" of the Salt Mines, but if it comes down to it, I know how often I need to make a quick tour of the closest sections.

I have an app on the smartphone, and last year for my birthday Mrs. Drang got me a smartwatch, so I track my steps, and heart rate, that way.

So I was off yesterday, and decided to go for a walk on one of the local walking trails. (It's named for a major local power company, and the trail runs along the course of some high tension lines.) (Imagine my flabbergastedenss -- I'm telling you, my gast is downright flabbered! -- to learn that the BPA Trail has a Wikipedia page...)

Anyhoo.

I was walking over to the start of the trail.  Now, I have to cross a major 4-lane surface street to get to the trail, and there are three places I can do so conveniently; one is the intersection at the end of my street, one is a couple blocks down in front of the library (the site of a modern, American take on a  Belisha Beacon) and another is down the street further, a major intersection, the site of an apartment complex, and commercial development across the street.

Mrs. Drang swears that the only safe place to make the crossing is down by the shops -- Safeway, among others -- so I headed down, got to the intersection, and hit the button to let the traffic lights know that there was a pedestrian waiting to cross...

...and the lights changed, I started across, and some little old lady in a Caddy plowed right through the intersection, taking a left and passing within a foot or so of me.

This, by the way, is not only extremely unsafe, but also (and therefore) illegal.

Here in the 9-8-double-ought-3 it will come as little surprise, but up in Seattle I'm sure it would come as a shock to learn that the 9mm in my holster didn't even think about jumping out of it's holster and teaching her a lesson.