This week (09/27/2021-10/01/2021) I bumped my lunch walks to 4 miles.  My weight loss rate has decreased a lot recently, and I’m trying to find ways to keep losing at a decent rate.  We’ll see how it goes.

I got stopped at about the 1/2 mile mark on today’s walk.  This happens much more than I’d like, and always slows me down from reaching my goal for the today.  Sometimes it’s a homeless person, or someone who’s “stranded in Waukegan” with no money and no way to get to get to the bus station (like that’s going to help you if you don’t have any money anyway), some just seem to want to explain their life story to me… It doesn’t happen often, but over the years it’s happened much more than I’d like.

Today it was a guy who had no phone, but needed to borrow my phone to call for an Uber.  I had pulled out my earbuds, interrupting a very interesting TWiT podcast I was listening to, and said “No, I can’t stop, I’m on a timer” as I briskly kept walking.  My pace was about 3 mph according to Runkeeper, and I kept on walking, so he starting walking alongside me, still explaining his situation, insisting he won’t take my cell phone or anything (red flag #1).  He said he’d even keep up with me, asking how far I walk and if I did it every day…which, in itself seemed a little stalkerish (red flag #2).

I thought about it for a moment, counting the few red flags in the current situation, thinking that maybe, if he really needs to make just this little phone call, his willingness to keep pace with me might be enough effort to convince me he’s legitimate.  Ok, what the hell.  I paused my podcast, took off my wireless Bluetooth earbuds, and handed them to him.  I told him to put them on.  After he did (both of us still walking quickly) he gave me the number he needed to call, I dialed it, and he reached whomever he was calling, explained his need for an Uber, gave the closest nearby address, and ended the call.  He cleaned off the earbuds and gave them back to me, thanking me for the use of my phone, then turned back in the opposite direction to stay at the address he had given to the person on the phone.

I figured, if worse comes to worst, it would definitely be much easier to lose a pair of earbuds than to lose my smartphone, and if this guy was legit, I don’t have a problem helping someone out a little.  I would hope someone would do the same for me if the situation were reversed.

It all turned out ok, and I even managed to still clear my 4-mile goal for my walk…but just barely…I had to jog a little–about 50 to 75 paces at a time is about all I can handle–then back to brisk walking speed–but it made up enough time to still make it back to work within the 90 minutes I am allotted for lunch.

Good to know not everyone out there has an ulterior motive for the things they do, and sometimes they just need a little help.  Then again, neither of us were masked.  It all happened too fast, and I don’t even keep a mask with me when I walk, since it’s outdoors and I try to stay clear of everyone else.  Can you catch COVID from contaminated earbuds?  Uh oh.