This is a kind of all-encompassing "foundation" post about walking issues I've run into. (I'm big for "foundation" material, which isn't always seen as a good thing. ) I've had the post sitting on my desktop for quite awhile now, because once it was finished it just looked like one, big, dismal, pathetic thing about a "height of uninteresting" subject.
The other thing is that the "all-encompassing" approach meant that I felt like I wasn't tying any number of situations, or times-in--my-walking history, to right thing. Or, I felt like I was leaving stuff out. Or, I just wasn't satisfied with the "big blog of a thing" and its (to me) poor structure. That's why I decided to at least write a little about the post, itself, before posting it.
So, one thing is that the "pre-leg-injury era" involved any number of different personal situations for me. There were times when I had kids in secondary and/or high-school and/or college who were/were not living with me. (This relates to groceries and cell phones that don't "die" quickly, etc. It also relates to holiday shopping or calls that I needed to make sure I would not miss. Speaking of those, there were times I was looking for full-time work, or even part-time work, or assignments. There were also times when I was doing quite a bit of work onlline, getting pays from several different "outfits", needing outside access to my e.mail or other sites to check to see if something had been accepted or required changes; and looking to see if pays had come through (that type of thing).)
The point is that at one time or another I've needed some version of a phone and/or some other "connected" device with me. Devices have been invented since I was at the height of the "pre-injury walking phase" The point is that at any given time I needed stuff with me besides just accessories or whatever else let be ready for any weather or any mishap.
Also, more then than in more recent times, I wanted to be able to get the usual business-type calls if anyone tried to reach me (other than either online-work or potential work. There were a couple of different legal situations looming, and I was looking for offline work (and REALLY) wanted those calls. It wasn't as if I had a big social life by any means, but there were a few relatives or friends whose calls I wanted (not because I've ever spent a whole lot of time talking to any of them, for the most part; but those calls were usually about making one kind of plan or another - that type of thing). So, between my three just about grown (but not entirely) children and some of the other stuff that was going on; my usual shoulder bags had to serve all kinds of purposes beyond just comb, a little make-up, phone, and umbrella. Even so, none of the stuff I kept in the bag was all that heavy because I could sling the strap over my shoulder and just let whatever weight was involved hang effortlessly from my shoulder.
I just had to make sure I bought bags with good strong shoulder straps (needless to say, I think).
This little bit of "foundation" information on some of the things I had going on in those pre-injury days leads me to my next comment about the post below (before I do, in fact, post it below).
One thing that struck me as I looked at the post was (as usual) how tedious, tedious, it is. It doesn't help that I don't say anything about those times when I actually enjoyed some walks. There were, in fact, many times when I actually enjoyed walks. The way it most often worked was that I'd enjoy most walks on the way out to the store (because all I had was my shoulder bag). A good part of the time, even with my aiming to shop for weight, I'd find myself "over-buying" since I was out shopping anyway. That's when, to one degree or another, I'd run a high risk of turning the walk back into something far more unpleasant than I thought it would be when I almost inevitably developed temporary amnesia (about how bad too much weight or awkwardness could get after a couple of miles), or else discovered that whatever carrying (or even wheeling) "set-up" I'd done before heading home had developed some problem or another (and if the bags or stuff didn't develop some problem then sometimes my hands, arms, shoulders, or even back would).
The point (again) is that even with some of the return trips being more challenging than others (and some weren't all that bad), I actually did enjoy many trips on the way out; and I'd find ways to make them even more enjoyable. Sometimes when I'd be having a hot coffee at an outdoor table on a blue-sky Winter day (for example) I'd think, "I'd bet all kinds of people wish they could be having this pleasant a time instead of working."
The other thing I'd like to point out about this or any of the other super-long and tedious posts I have on this, or any other page, is that (while I don't pretend such big, long, things are something I whip up in fifteen minutes; these are all things I whip up from my head (which means as the phrase "whipped up" suggests, it's fairly quick to get them down. (Of course, "quick" is what results in the poorly structured, big mess, that makes me cringe and have trouble actually posting it.)
In any case, having tried to point out that all has not been as tedious and heavy as some of these tedious posts would suggest, here's the tedious post made more tedious with an "introduction"....
Below is two separate posts that I'm posting as one here (and, again, below). Just a couple/few more points of "introduction" before actually posting them:
Although I've made it a point to say that I had my times of enjoying some of the walks, I should also point out that for a couple of years before the first big leg injury I was starting to notice, more and more, a certain type of running out of steam and/or seeming to more and more be reaching a kind of saturation point with some of the unpleasantness (whether that was heat, cold, an awkward load, whatever..). In fact, toward the end I was finding myself craving salt something fierce. I'd get in the grocery store (even if I got there in a car) and almost not be able to think about what I needed to buy. I knew what I needed to buy, but all I could think about was Campbell's chicken-rice soup (to which I'd be adding salt AND some saltines).
The other thing was that if I stayed home and it was a nice day, I'd often be in a really good mood and think how nice it would be to go outside and do some yard work. Feeling good, I'd go out and rake up a storm for a good long time. I might go inside for a hot or cold drink, and then I'd go right back out to enjoy the day and the work. At the end of the a few hours of accomplishing what I would and enjoying the outdoors (with no groceries or shoulder bags) I'd go in for the late afternoon/evening, only to find myself having what felt like "some weird kind of anxiety" (but without anything in my mind causing any anxiety). Those and a few other things go me to look up first salt cravings, which led me to find conflicting material about "adrenal fatigue". I've since learned more, but that's neither here nor there, because, as they say, "God works in mysterious ways"; I did the big leg injury at the end of December that year. That took care of a certain amount of (what I now realize was) over-exertion , I've pretty much had at least some degree of "an exhaustion-feeling thing" since then. It's manageable most of the time. Now, with the leg injuries ironed out for some time, there's that much less to replace old exhaustion with some new version of it (and one that has never been as "dramatic" as the first one). In fact, I'd go as far as to say that I'm seeing myself closer and closer back to my old self under the right circumstances (although circumstances being right can be tricky to come by for a number of unrelated reasons).
I have no doubt that I was "running on adrenaline" for a good long time. Then again, I'm generally a high-energy person, so it was kind of hard to notice some transition from my regular "high-energy" to "running on adrenaline" . I mean... before and for quite some time after the leg injury, I was doing nineteen hours a day on the computer when I didn't go out. The point is there wasn't a clear stop/start with the exhaustion thing, and there hasn't been a clear stop-start with seeing it improved (or temporarily seemed made worse by one over-exertion or another).
So below is first the post about walking and why I realized that I needed not to rely on just all that walking as far as fitness and working out went.
Second is a post about my choice/preference to wear a coat when I walk. The short story on that, besides simply keeping wearing the kind of clothes I've always kind of worn (as an adult), and besides the fact that it's easier to be ready for, or modify to, outdoor conditions than to go a less adaptable route; is that I wear long skirts (easier to buy without trying on when shopping online than pants are; but also more likely to stay clean and tick-free for the heavy-duty walker) . I've got a previously fractured knee cap, and although I've only fallen three times since I've walked; the coats and layers have helped me get through those quick falls with no injury (other than a little bit of scrape with one of them).
Anyway, here's the walking/work-out-related post followed by the raincoat post:
Not too long before the first leg injury, I'd realized that no matter how long, far, or often I walked I wasn't getting the kind of cardio exercise that a person who wasn't getting any younger should be getting. There were weeks when I'd have walked over 100 miles, or days when I'd have walked over 10; and on the right day and under the right circumstances (if I wasn't dealing with carrying groceries/purchases and/or using a cart to do that for me; and if I had the right shoes on (which pretty much meant wearing one pair in cold weather if they were "right" and another pair in warmer weather (again, if they were "right"), there were generally at least some opportunities to walk briskly and without interruption. There were too many "if's", though, so that was one problem.
Another problem was that as a woman, I'm not a particularly muscular person; so it doesn't take a whole lot of "regular" (even brisk) demands for me to just be able to walk effortlessly. People would say to me, "You walk so much you must be losing weight" or "you're going to lose a lot of weight". Since I was middle-aged (and moving more and more beyond "middle", really - at least if I don't assume I'll live to be at least 100), small-framed, no more "muscular" than the average non-athletic woman (and yet apparently fit enough not to feel the "walking mileage"), walking was effortless for me (and "effortless" doesn't generally encourage either weight loss or, as far as I can imagine, the "right kind" of "cardio" for someone concerned with maintaining, assuring and/or improving fitness when one's 50th birthday remains hovering someone in the air not too far away.
Since I knew that I'm not the type (regardless of my living situation or license status) to go to a gym to workout I decided to, little by little, invest in a libary oif fitness DVD's/programs and some basic (but non-space-requiring) equipment. While lthe equipment was for me, I figured the DVD's would be a good investment because a) a home-approach to working out should (at least for me) should be a part of one's life for the rest of one's life, and b) since my kids were close to grown and/or all grown but still, at one time or another, in the house; I figured they might want to borrow a DVD or try a program here or there.
(As a mother, even of grown children, when I'm figuring out whether a purchase/"investment" is worth it I'll generally list not just any benefits it has for me but whether any and/or all of my kids may get some direct or indirect benefit (and even if no direct/indirect benefit seems apparent at the time I always kind of have the thing that young people just starting out may not have the money to buy some things or may just, for one reason or another want to borrow one or another thing (whether that's a book, a movie or DVD, a spare cell phone - whatever).
In any case, I put together my nice little, basic, "collection" of equipment starting with some basic handweights and over time adding a few other basic little items (or slightly heavier handweights). Since I didn't want to (couldn't, really) invest a big chunk of money all at one time, and since I was OK enough with starting with rock-bottom basics, building small and limited "collection" of items that I'd actually use (and that could be used with any basic workout), I knew that the small collection of stuff I was aiming to eventually put together was finite. It as a "see-what-you-need-as-you" approach, or else "see-what-you'll-actually-use-and-what's-actuallly-right-for-you" approach.
The last item (which I think I actually had in the "save-for-later" part of my Amazon shopping cart) was a decent quality jump rope. What stopped me from doing "move to cart" with that was the fact that I don't really have anywhere where I could use a jump rope and where it a) would not hit a ceiling or b) would not look too weird (as in the case of finding somewhere outside the house that's neither grass nor dirt nor a location that wouldn't involve going out in the street at night and jumping rope). I'm not one to kid myself, so I never bought the jump rope.
At some point after the first leg injury I think I eventually deleted the jump rope from "save for later" and made the mental note to hold off on even thinking about a jump rope until a better time.
Even without the jump rope, however, I'd put together the basic, and reasonably nice, little collection of equipment. I was (am) all set in that department. And, having gradually built up a varied little library of different types of workout DVD's and/or programs, while I knew I didn't particularly have to worry about finding any more to make it more complete, or just more varied I made another mental note to always keep my eyes open for any good deals and/or particularly appealing DVD's
The was one item that I saw as "completely frivolous" for me (since I had everything I needed), and that was "The Wave", which was featured in a television ad. For anyone not familiar with it's a blue plastic "rocker thing" that came with a few DVD's for different types of workouts. I didn't really care about the DVD's because I had my own. I just thought, however, that the "rocker thing" looked like fun. I figured, "the more movement, the better", particularly since I spent so much at-home time in front of a computer. So, when I saw The Wave I figured, DVD's aside, it would be a good (and fun) thing to plop down on the floor if/when I was watching television and just keep moving.
It looks like a big, kid's toy. Using it feels like something most of us did as kids - maybe at a playground. In any case, by the time I was looking to buy a Wave it looked to me as if was on the way out, at least as far as "latest infomercial programs" go, so I as able to find mine for less, I think, than the whole program had once cost (or else the one I got wasn't the whole program - I'm not entirely sure). In any case, The Wave is my twenty-plus-something-dollar indulgence that I didn't really need but just thought would be fun.
The only problem with the television-watching/Wave thing was that I didn't really spend much time in front of the television screen, as compared to the computer screen. In fact, at the time (and with more people coming and going then than I now have at home), the only thing that really got me away from the computer screen was socializing at home or away; and while there were certainly times when someone would be here and they and I might watch something on television together (or a move), I wasn't about to drag out The Wave, stand on it, and start rocking my way through whatever it was we were watching. The same, of course, applies to if someone else was watching something and I wasn't. AND, the same applies, needless to say, to those times when nobody was watching anything and we having a get-together during which the television was off.
As with the jump rope, opportunity and place for using The Wave meant pretty much barely ever using it.
And then the first leg injury happened. That put an end to pretty much of my efforts to do any real working out at home for reasons I won't go into here. Suffice it to say an injury happened to the other leg before the "first leg" had truly had enough time and opportunity to get completely strong again.
For quite some time the only thingsI'd use from my little collection of workout stuff were my little handweights, which I'd keep near my computer desk and use as a way of fighting off a knot in the back of my shoulder or in my neck from sitting at the computer too long.
So what about these days, now that leg injuries are all healed and, for the most part, very close (certainly not completely) to being as strong as they were before the injuries? "In theory" , or I suppose in reality, I'm entirely capable, at this point, of doing most of the movements that are in most basic workouts (even if I'd still avoid exercises done on the floor - not because I couldn't do them once I was on the floor, but because getting up and down from the floor is still an issue for me (I can/could do it, but, really, it's too much of a production to want to slow down a workout with that type of thing right now). There are plenty of non-floor exercises and workouts that, if I did them, would be a vast, vast, improvement of what I do now as far as "voluntary working out" goes.
My problem, even before the leg injuries, had been that (effortless as walking had always been and assuming groceries weren't involved) I'd already started the whole walking thing with a certain amount of stress, and any number of other different types of stress, worries, demands, etc. etc. meant that the stress pretty much either increased or was replaced by some different type of stress.
Toward what I think of as the end of the pre-leg-injury era I as noticing more and more that I seemed to be getting to some kind of (at least temporary and often fleeting) saturation point when it came to dealing with being uncomfortable walking. All was fine if the weather was fine. All might even be fine if it was cold out and I was dressed for it. It as just that there were times when the weather (usually wind and/or bright sun) might mix with whatever other less than comfortable issues I had going on, and I'd then figure out what I needed to do to make sure I didn't have the same combination of "issues" happen in the future and if at all possible).
I was, on the one hand, fine a good part of the time. In fact, going out and having a lunch somewhere "all by myself" was something I really enjoyed. It was my way of getting away from some of the stress (at least for awhile). I'm good at managing stress and coping. Sometimes that means taking a break from what we can't do anything about at the immediate moment. Sometimes it means taking some action. At the time, it wasn't really that the mental stress (which was extreme, long-term, and unrelating) was the issue. I managed it, one way or another (and effectively, I think).
It wasn't even the physical demands. (I just wrote a whole, big, thing about building my own little "gym" and having in mind that whatever I put together would be something I could use/benefit from for the rest of my life. That should tell someone something, shouldn't it....).
Of course, with WORKING out, I could choose when or if I did what workout. With GOING out it wasn't any issues related to weather, challenging walking conditions, or trying to "shop for weight" (as in "how much it will contribute to the overall weight I have to carry); or even shopping for how long something may have to last in an insulated bag (OR, if I happened to even bring the insulated bag that day).
Some of the issues associated with walking were that sometimes I couldn't even go out with some weather conditions or with some other thing that needed to be done, or to happen, in my life. Then, too, sometimes I couldn't do something or have something happen in my life if I DIDN'T go out, good conditions, mood, or energy level; or not.
The problem was that at any given moment there was some big mix of (often small, but sometimes bigger) things going on "with my immediate moment" (walking, not walking, thinking about walking, etc . etc.) against "an overall backdrop" of whatever else was going on in my "overall life".
More another time...
The "Raincoat" Post
When I first started walking for doing errands it was because my divorce was handled in some strange, secret, way that meant I didn't know what was going on, who was doing/saying what related to the case, and I pretty much assumed all would be resolved in a reasonable amount of time. I had three kids to worry about a) being separated from, and b) figuring out how to be their emotional support the way I'd always been. I told the lawyer who was supposed to be representing me that I felt like I was living in the Twilight Zone because it was all so bizarre.
My aim isn't to rehash all that here, but the reason I bring it up my driver's license became a casualty of a conflict between a court order and the inspection laws, not to mention the dismal failure that was the attorney/social worker who looked my children in the face, essentially allowed them to think that all would be fine, and left me trying to guess what was going on when things would be straightened out (as they kept asking me).
In any case, because the court handled things in such a bizarre way I opted to go with the court order that allowed/required me to pick up my children every day and for every weekend whether or not the car passed inspection. I did ask for money to keep the car inspected and was ignored, and I did address the matter of tickets I eventually got and was ignored (or else got so many different answers or non-answers when I would eventually, and at times, have the money to get my license back I was too worried that someone would "pull something", pull a switcheroo, or give me some new answer that meant they'd keep my several hundred dollars and move some goal-post. Other goal-posts had been moved by the court and/or someone associated with the case, so I had reason to think it may happen again.
Of course, by the time the whole business was being handled in court there were all kinds of complications (like possible lawsuits, for example). Also, I, myself, had filled out the form to ask that some things be kept confidential for a reason I won't go into here. In any case, at one of the court "things" the judge said, "This case is being shielded from public scrutiny." I wasn't sure why.
So that's the driver's license story.
Along with whatever else was going on, the children, their father, and I had been through some serious personal loss on his side, and it wasn't long before some serious loss on my side went on. So, all that aside and regardless of what I was going through; like any mother, my main concern was what my children were going through.
So here now, is "The Raincoat Story" (with some additional, straggling, points thrown in without regard for how well or structured I'm presenting things)... (As with the raincoat, sometimes one just can't worry about how things look...)
Before the whole divorce thing, I'd always had a couple of "all weather coats" (zip-in-linings) that I could just throw on over, say, a skirt and top (or sometimes dress), and be reasonably appropriate looking any of the places that I tended to go. Sometimes I'd get a new one for "good". Or, because I take care of my clothes I might take out a "Spring-ier looking" one if that seemed better.
So when I first started having to walk for errands it was "just what I'd always worn". I didn't think the situation would last forever. With all kinds of seriously big concerns on my mind it was the last thing I thought about, although I would eventually realize that walking often enough in a "raincoat" (they ARE often sold as "all-weather coats", but people tend to call them "raincoats") was seen as odd by some people.
Keep in mind that I was around forty years old at the time. One problem I seemed to run into in some personal circles was some people seemed to compare what I wore with what people twenty years younger than I wore ("the latest fashion" and "what the girls wear these days" or "what the young people wear these days).
Then, too, there were people seemed to think that women who weren't working full-time wore was supposed to be pants and three-quarter-length jackets. Whatever...
So, at the time (and for quite some time after) I was getting raincoat-comments coming from all directions. Some came back to me second-hand. I dealt with them politely as they came; and again, what I've said above should set enough "stage" for what I'll be writing in this "Raincoat Story" later.
I'm really tempted here to bring up, say, a couple of the horror stories my kids and I were dealing with that involved two of their grandparents - not to mention any number of other "horror stories" or the fact that I had legal stuff going on, bills to pay, and whatever else going. I'm not someone who assumes that too many people are spending too much time thinking about me if I walk down the street in a raincoat. Like me, they all have their own lives. Between not really worrying a whole lot about looking too weird, and having all kinds of other things on my mind, I just didn't care. In fact, with all the upheaval in my children's lives, and with little left of any signs of stability in their own situations; I saw it as very important that I NOT do something that made me seem different than I'd always been.
These days I separate my walking situation by "before leg injuries" and "after leg injuries", which includes these days. There was a time before when I did a lot more walking each week, sometimes because I was getting a weekly check, sometimes because I was getting random checks/deposits from online work. Whether it was needing to mail something, pay something, or buy something; there were all the usual errands of someone buying groceries, house stuff, sometimes holiday stuff, etc. etc.
Once I did a big leg injury six and half years ago that whole "system" I had going was thrown off. Then, too, my aims/plans to find work and/or the types of work I was doing changed (as had my free-time writing), but some of those changes had gone on before any leg injury. Most weren't related to that at all. The reason I bring up those non-injury related changes is that with some changes in my own work/writing/personal-business dealings have meant having to carry, or not carry, different "means of connectivity". If I later refer to having to bring some stuff with me when I go out that last remark will serve to explain it.
Since I don't want to rehash the whole leg injury thing here (any more than the whole, old, "court thing", here); the short story is that two leg injuries are now things of the past, but I was generally out of shape when it came to walking a few miles. I got that all ironed out, but carrying stuff (groceries, an umbrella, a cup of coffee, whatever...) awkwardly) often means getting "weird muscles" acting up for a day or two after doing one or another errand. I have a "shopping tote" on wheels if I'm going to do "big errands", but these days I do most of my grocery shopping when I'm with someone who drives, and on the weekends. That means that the only times I go walking is either to get something very small or a few things (which means I'm not going to bring the shopping tote, which doesn't really like a shopping tote but looks like carry-on luggage (which, like a raincoat, can be weird looking on the particular walk I do to either of the convenience stores).
Besides, even if I don't care who thinks what (if anyone is even "thinking anything"), there's the sometimes seemingly unnecessary "overkill factor" with the shopping tote. This, of course, means that I'm back to lugging an awkard combination of things, even if none of them is particularly heavy by itself.
This means that many of my outbound walks start with my already having muscle issues from a walk the day or two before. It doesn't help that I try to figure out the Massachusetts heat, humidity and/or cold in order to know how well hydrated I can be when I start out (because, bad as this may be to do, I try to limit how much I drink if I think there's too little heat or humidity (or sweating for my own "muscle work-out reasons") for me to be able to drink x amount without needing a ladies' room halfway home (where there just is not one).
I'm getting to the raincoat thing (and no, it has nothing to do with needing a ladies' room and not being able to get to one; although I can't resist mentioning that I was glad to have an "all-weather coat" on the evening I was at a restaurant when I was expecting my son over thirty years ago and the water broke; but again, the coats I wear truly have nothing to do with that kind of thing. After all the time I've been walking I've got that kind of stuff down to a science, even if a kind of risky/unhealthy one of involving some efforts at limited hydration which doesn't do much for the leg muscles.)
This may all seem like an unrelated mix of points, but I can't make the "raincoat points" without first setting up a few things (although, of course, the thirty-year-old water-breaking story didn't need to be there; but I don't think I'm the only mother in the world who can't resist dredging up some bit of a childbirth-related story for no apparent good reason).
OK, so now REALLY, is the "Raincoat Story". If anyone reads this (which I doubt) s/he has everything s/he needs to know for the whole raincoat thing to make sense.
Massachusetts Weather and when it's dark out and when it's not are major factors. So is the fact that where I walk isn't great for walking, for one reason or another. Like Massachusetts weather, there's pretty much a little of everything as far as terrain, sidewalks, or lack of them go; and that can change with any number of different weather factors, not to mention traffic factors. So, I take the "All-Weather" description of my coats very much to heart. I repeat: ALL WEATHER!!!!
Sometimes I use the lining. Sometimes I don't. Most of the raincoat issues have been the same since I began walking. The only difference (besides working on the leg injuries issues, themselves - and, no, I didn't mention the second one above) between "before injury" and "after injury" is that the coats I had before were coats I'd bought in person, at a store, after getting there either by car or by bus. The older coats (no longer with me at this point), fit me better than some of the ones I've been wearing in more recent times
In more recent times I've had to do all my clothes shopping online. That means I've learned to err on the side of big (I hate returning stuff because I don't have a printer set up and can't easily get to the Post Office and generally don't care enough about how good one of these coats looks (or IS, for that matter) as long as it covers me, has pockets, and is not too short. I'm not tall, but some coats that are "petite" are shorter than I want for my purposes. I once had a Spring coat (not all-weather, but more linen-like) shortened at the cleaners, and they took more off than I wanted - which meant I couldn't use the coat for walking).
More recently, I've had a couple of them that were far too long shortened, and it worked out well. Even so, I want them long for my purposes. One problem is, though, that if I wear one of the better ones out somewhere that matters (like, for example, out to dinner or somewhere other than the the "mixed terrain" walking route) I can put on heels or higher wedges, and the coat doesn't look too long. I wear long skirts, which means the coats have to cover them.
Since the leg injuries and muscle issues, I when I walk I walk in flats of one kind of another, or at least a "mini-wedge" (which kind of amounts to a flat). As it happens, the three coats that I have these days amount to one that I call "the rag coat" (because it is) and two that don't fit me well. One is off-white and looks dressier than the other "good" one, but it turned out it's more "synthetic" than I had realized, which means it holds in the heat really well, which also means that I'm unlikely to even try walking in it if it's too hot out (at least unless the other one is either in the cleaners or in need of washing).
Reasons I wear a coat in "all weather".
First, I buy them big in case I want to wear layers under them, rather than the lining (or maybe with the lining), so there's that. As far as the heat goes, I'm not someone who generally gets hot unless I'm, say, carrying very heavy bags for, say, three miles in the sun and on a hot and humid day. At least that's how I was/am when working my way back from leg injuries wasn't a factor. It's a different thing in more recent times when, although I've made progress, there are still times when walking with some combinations of awkward weights, amounts to a large-muscle workout of one kind of another.
With the walking conditions, I pretty much rely on the coat for any number of reasons.
There's sun protection. I have light skin, and years ago it looked to me as if, maybe, I should start paying attention to how much more sun exposure I let happen.
There's pockets. They just come in handy.
There's shelter from the wind or rain.
Rolling up the sleeves is enough to make me feel cool enough on a hot humid day (usually). The coat keeps my clothes clean if I sit somewhere outside (particularly if it isn't a chair or bench). It covers my clothes so I don't have to worry about things like a windblown skirt, the sun showing through what I'm wearing, a slip-elastic that cuts loose (I'm more careful about older slips these days, but I've had that one happen once.) Food/drink spills, puddle-splashes, bird mess, bugs of one kind or another - all things that can be issues. So is rain and snow. Oddly, maybe, wind is almost more of an issue than precipation is, mainly because with enough wind of the wrong kind one can just can feel kind of beaten up and frazzled, no matter how warm or cold out it is. Cold is almost better because one tends to bundle up in the cold. In more moderate weather it isn't so automatic to bundle up (and that WOULD be weird) I can be surprising how beaten up one can feel even on a very warm, but very windy day.
If one spends enough hours out walking and/or walks enough miles for a long enough time, or often enough, one sees the wisdom in wearing a lightweight coat that can either be easily and regularly washed, or else dry-cleaned reasonably cheaply.
The thing with the "coat thing" is that there have been times (sometimes more than others) when I've been made to feel/kind of reminded, actually, as if I'm doing something REALLY weird - like walking down the street in in a Halloween costume (or something). It's certainly not all that often, or all the time; but even the occasional "issue" raised by someone can add up over a period of time. It's not as if anyone openly makes fun of me. People often mean well (or at least "mean harmless"). One woman who had always been very nice to me also made it a point to tell me that she and her husband would laugh at me and my coat. It seemed like good-natured enough teasing, but she also made it a point to say how baffling (my word, not hers) my coat was to her.
More than once I've had police (or someone else) stop and ask if I'm OK. Police have said (true or not, I don't know) that someone called to say they saw me walking (so the police said it was "well-being check" ).
Over the years there has been the occasional time when police have asked me things like if I know where I live (!!!!), and my just saying that I did wasn't enough. They actually asked for my address.
I think it was last Spring when I thought I'd wear the off-white coat in the afternoon because it's not the same old khaky and looks Springier (but I knew warmer days were coming, which meant I couldn't wear it), and a policeman stopped and asked if I was OK (and seemed to be looking at the coat and my bag).
That happened another time during the day in that coat, and I know part of the problem could have been that it was hotter out than I'd realized, but also that last Spring (or the year before, I forget now), I was working on getting the leg injuries back to normal and there was quite a bit of discomfort involved. So, maybe it was nice that someone thought I looked like I had a problem.
At the beginning of this Spring I thought I'd bring out the off-white coat again. I'd learned from experience not to take it on once the afternoons were warmer; but I had to go to the store when the days were still fairly short (and the off-white coat would show up more in the dark, I thought). Because I knew it was chilly out I wore my "trusty" thick, pink, "cardigan" style "jersey" that has a rolled collar. On two different occasions when I had that "combo" on I was asked by a police officer if I was OK. One saId that someone had called. The second "occasion" I'm thinking of was similar, although the police officer said someone said they'd "almost hit me" on a street where there hadn't been more than a couple of cars when I was there (and none of them "almost hit me").
This kind of thing has happened a few times (off-white coat or not), and it has been more than once that someone has mentioned thinking I was wearing a bathrobe until they saw/realized I as wearing (as one woman put it, a "dress coat").
Granted, there are often (not always) times when I've walked when it's dark out, and I'm not all thrilled to be out walking in the dark. Then again, I don't do the same walk at the same time all the time. It's occasional, and I'm more concerned with running into skunks or other animals than anything else (although I know that crime is everywhere, no matter how "friendly" and reasonably quiet a neighborhood generally is).
Some times of year, however, it's not easy to time daylight, especially on the late-day/evening side of things. And, if I want to get night air or see the night sky the only real way I can do either is to occasionally be out walking in it.
One problem is that I can't see one foot in front of me along the way (and for some reason, there's a streetlight or two that go out just when I get to them - I still don't know how that works, and can't really care either). Once it's dark it's a whole other thing, and the slowness factor isn't just about whether I've had any leg injuries or not, but how long it takes to get anywhere when sometimes not just using a flashlight, but waiting for car headlights to brighten up a few feet of sidewalk in order to get the next few feet before hoping more headlights will happen along for another few-feet stretch.
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