Whit was in the area for Christmas and he and I got together with Joe at Joe’s house to catch up.  At around 8, Joe said he had to walk his dog so the three of us took Penny the Pointy for a walk.  Penny is a dog that thinks humans live life too slowly and spent most of the time pegged against her leash imploring us to go faster.  I had never really walked a dog before as Max I and Max II had run of our properly which proved more than enough.  I asked Joe for the leash, he passed it to me, and off Penny and I went.

I went as fast as I thought I could manage and Penny seemed happy with this higher pace.  As Whit has noted, I run like a saurapod and I probably looked like an idiot as my legs went up and down like pistons rather than with the fluid grace of a runner.  There was a feeling of freedom at running unconstrainted until I remembered I had no idea how fast I was going.  Up until now, “running” meant “treadmill” and a tiny LED array would declare my speed.  Here there was none.  Penny sensed my apprehension and tugged me through it and the rest of the loop had me alternating between jogging and sprinting in no particular pattern.  Penny and I then dashed to Joe’s house, and then back to where Joe and Whit were walking, and then back to Joe’s house.

Back at Joe’s there was enough adrenaline left in my system that when he asked if I wanted to play Kinect table tennis I said “yes”.  I got slightly too into it but smiled when I saw the shots the game had of Whit and I mid-game.  Tonight I got to strike an item from my “141 reasons I don’t want to be fat anywhere”:  Play a movement game without looking like an idiot.