The Six Cent Solution
Aug. 23rd, 2008 10:29 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
thisnewdayThe distance around the Henninger High School track is a quarter mile. And each day I count the number of laps I walk as part of my post-surgical recovery program. As of yesterday, I was up to six laps or a mile and a half.
Problem is, a quarter mile on foot takes appreciable time. During which, I'm often distracted by the possibility of taking an errant soccer ball in the middle of the back from one of the teams that practice on the infield. And then there are those mental lapses which some of us euphemistically call "senior moments." So, by the fifth or sixth lap, I'm wondering if I'm really on the fifth or sixth lap or if I've totally lost count.
Since there are eight or nine lanes clearly painted on the resilient surface of the track, I've considered starting in lane one and moving out one lane with each lap I complete. Which I thought would be a neat idea since the answer is built right into the track. But lots of other people use the track and it's sort of an unwritten rule that you pick a lane, and stay in it, for the duration.
So today, as I was hustling down the track, wondering which lap I was really on, I noticed the rhythmic bounce of something in one of my pockets. It was several of those pennies that Little Jay always finds along our travel route and asks me to keep for him until we get home.
What if, I thought, I just put six of them in my left pocket at the start of my walk and then moved one of them into my right pocket at the completion of each lap? Hence the six cent solution...
Problem is, a quarter mile on foot takes appreciable time. During which, I'm often distracted by the possibility of taking an errant soccer ball in the middle of the back from one of the teams that practice on the infield. And then there are those mental lapses which some of us euphemistically call "senior moments." So, by the fifth or sixth lap, I'm wondering if I'm really on the fifth or sixth lap or if I've totally lost count.
Since there are eight or nine lanes clearly painted on the resilient surface of the track, I've considered starting in lane one and moving out one lane with each lap I complete. Which I thought would be a neat idea since the answer is built right into the track. But lots of other people use the track and it's sort of an unwritten rule that you pick a lane, and stay in it, for the duration.
So today, as I was hustling down the track, wondering which lap I was really on, I noticed the rhythmic bounce of something in one of my pockets. It was several of those pennies that Little Jay always finds along our travel route and asks me to keep for him until we get home.
What if, I thought, I just put six of them in my left pocket at the start of my walk and then moved one of them into my right pocket at the completion of each lap? Hence the six cent solution...
