Memories of hiking the forest trails that are within walking distance of downtown Portland (Stephen Wright says everything is within walking distance if you have the time) are fading as the virus plague dictates I must not leave this building I call home. I know exercise is as important as food and water to keep me in the race (my doctors agree) and so I improvise. My front room is now a gym where I lift bar bells, do body lifts (bent over a stool with legs held down by heavy coffee table) squats, sit-ups, back arching. And last, The Halls.
My resident building is a huge square, five story structure with a courtyard in the center. Apartments open to the outside and to the overview of the courtyard inside. Each four-side hallway is 1/7th of a mile so you make seven loops and you've walked a mile. It could be tunnell-boredom if you let it but the trick is, don't let it.
Each apartment has a small shelf next to the door and residents decorate their shelves in various ways that make a small bit of interest for the stroller. Some of these are quite elaborate (mine is very simple: a round disc of wood cut from a log with bark still on the edges. In the center I have printed with my wood-burning tool: METHUSELAH REPORTS WORLD HEADQUARTERS). Whoever selected the carpet for the hallways gets two thumbs up. The pattern flows vertically ahead of you as you walk with no horizontal lines that would create the feeling of "breaking barriers".
My apartment on the third floor is almost at the end of one hall so every day I leave my apartment and go left to the next hall, then the next hall, then next hall that brings me to the stairway and elevator. At this point I am one hall short of a complete loop for 1/7th of a mile. But now I go down the stairs to the second floor and do three loops. Then I take the elevator to the fifth floor and do two loops. Then I go down the stairs to the fourth floor and do one loop. That leaves me one hallway short of seven loops. I make that up by going down the stairs to Three and walking that hall to my door. Seven loops, Willy boy, And another fun-filled journey generating almost more excitement than one aging citizen can deal with.
