I have learned a lot in the last week about living life at half speed.

Actually it’s been slightly more than a week. I would have written this yesterday, but one of the things I learned is that going to the grocery store takes forever when you’re limping around. I also found that a shopping cart is kind of like a walker on steroids.

If you have ever gone someplace with me that involved walking you probably know that I typically stroll quite quickly. So it is less than ideal to have a stress fracture in my foot that means I have to wear a stylish flat-soled shoe.

In addition to the natural avoidance of pain, I’m also being slowed down by the shoe’s construction. Though today I worked on a sort of combo limp-run, which entails running on the left (uninjured) foot and limping on the right. The result is a slightly faster walking speed without putting the bum foot in jeopardy.

So we’re making progress.

Last weekend I found myself in a rare scenario these days. I was wearing a Susquehanna University sweatshirt and was in a place where I bet at least 75 percent of the people around me knew what that was. Of course being at a Taco Bell in central PA is almost cheating in that regard. But it was still a happy time.