I bought this little bitty Chinese, manual step counter a while back. Runs on a battery. Thought it would encourage me to walk more and eventually become 70 years old again. Hope springs and all that jazz.
It came from China, and I was able to track it from a place in China all around the world till it got here to my house. That was interesting. It was cheap. Maybe less than twenty dollars.
I read the directions as best I could. Since they were printed in maybe 4 point type, they could have been in Chinese for all I could see.
It had one button that moved between things like steps, miles, time--that's the time of day, not the amount of time I walked, and something else. I forget. I only cared about the number of steps, anyway.
A second button reset all the numbers to zero. I wore it--- had a clip on it--- on the waistband of whatever pants I had on.
Some days it registered nothing.
Some days it registered 2200.
Every day it registered something between those numbers.
So I figured, it's from China. What can you expect? It was cheap.
Still, I continued to wear it as I headed out each day, hoping. And whatever it said, I comforted myself with the belief that I had walked as much as the highest it had ever registered.
I counted one trip all the way around as 2200, regardless.
As I write this, I realize it makes me sound stupid. Why, in the name of all that's holy, would you keep on when you know it has no relation to reality? I don't know. I don't know. I don't know.
Then I got sick. It was shortly before Christmas. I quit walking.
While I was sitting around feeling sorry for myself, I examined the Chinese step counter under a bright light wearing the strongest drugstore glasses I have. They are too small for my face and hurt my head, and I wear them only in the direst circumstances.
There were THREE buttons. One said mode, one said reset--that one changed everything back to zero. Except the time of day. I don't know how you reset that.
And the THIRD one, said SET.
Aha, I said, and put it back up on the top shelf by the door for when I felt like walking again.
Fast-forward a week or so.
Went out today. Pushed SET before I clipped the Chinese step counter to my pants. Walked all around. Came in side and walked around in the halls and visited with a variety of people.
Finally, came home, hung up my sweater, took off my second layer shirt. It was 36 degrees outside, so I dressed accordingly. Sat and read awhile, not checking, just ignoring the device on my waist.
Ate some protein and salad. Acted like I didn't care at all what is said today.
I was pretty tired. My first day out after more than a week off. I told myself it would take a while to build up my strength. I patted myself on the back for just going out. Good girl.
Plan to look at the verdict on my Chinese step counter tomorrow. Let it wait.
No comments:
Post a Comment