It's a cloudy day today, with a little bit of drizzle. This is probably a good thing, since the sunshine and warmth that we've had lately seems to have affected my judgement. Day before yesterday, I sat out in the sun, getting my To Do list back up today. It was actually warm enough for me, and my legs were bare and I had them propped up on another chair. Later in the evening after I got up from spending too much time on the internet (again, but that's a different story), my first thought was, "My knees are sore. I spent too much time with them pressed against the couch." Later it dawned on me, no, that wasn't the problem, I had burned my knees out in the sunshine earlier. Ouch. I don't remember the last time I've had a sunburn, and I guess I've gotten rather laissez faire about sunscreen. That'll teach me.

Then yesterday, another pretty day, I decided to go ahead and start the running regime that I've been working up to. The running was done barefoot, and I'm no dummy, I started slow (60 secs run, 90 sec walk) for about 2 laps. No, I'm not sore, but I did manage to get blisters on both heels. Another ouch. And I *knew* that I had committed to go walking with Sister No. 2 and the Smaller Niece in the evening. I just hadn't even *considered* the possibility of blisters. That's the *point* of running barefoot; it's supposed to create a more "natural" style of stride that doesn't injure you. Some internet searching revealed that one's stride may still reflect shoe-learned behavior. I'm apparently hitting the ground with the wrong part of my foot, and hence the blisters.

So, yesterday evening, I slathered on the aloe vera (for the current sunburn) and then the sun screen (to fend off making it worse) and and wore my sensible shoes with lambs wool in the heel (for the blisters), and joined the family down at the Nisqually tide flats. Sister & I walked a little over a mile while Mom & Niece listened to a lecture on Snow Leopards. I developed some small blisters along the ball of my foot, compensating for the blisters on my heels, but otherwise, I was relieved that it wasn't as bad as it could have been. Today will be mostly a day off my feet, as we're taking the Niece over to see The Boy at college. Swimming is the primary activity scheduled for this evening and tomorrow morning, and then we'll walk around the campus, and I'll get to see how well I've recovered. ;-)