Barefoot Saturday & Garden

City Garden - starting at top Peas, Broccoli & herbs, cucumber or squash & red peppers,
bottom is cucumber and corn.

I have sunflowers and mustard plants that I let come up in my garden from last year.  There is also a vine growing in the same plot as the peppers, not sure but it came up by itself, so I let it be. 

This week I recovered from my hike.  It took till Wednesday before my legs felt like doing stairs again.  Just the one bruise on the bottom of my right foot still hurts, I have to probe to find it and it is now feels like a little bump now.   My sleep has improved and I'm hoping to start jogging again next week.  I am actually looking into hiring a running coach to help me with my form.

This week I've brought the kids to Vacation Bible School (VBS) at the church every night.  They had a lot of fun, but we ended up getting home around 9 which makes for a late night.  Saturday morning was the men's breakfast and us guys went and I let my daughter sleep in.  I've been going to church this whole week barefoot and word has spread of my barefooted hike up the mountain thanks to Fred and George.

After breakfast I came back home and mowed the lawn, did a little work in the garden and cleaned up some bad weed growing in the shrubs.  The garden is growing nicely and was done 100% with bare feet.  After lunch I ran over the to Dollar Store and purchased a card (barefoot) then we headed out to a graduation party for a young man in our church who is heading out to join the Marines.  I thought for sure my mom would ask if I was going to wear shoes, but she said nothing.  So I arrived at the party barefoot.  Most of the people were from church and are use to seeing me barefoot now.  Though I don't think most of them know how much I go barefoot.
 One friend commented on the bare feet in my summit picture I posted on facebook, but other than that, nothing was said.  I don't think most people really notice or probably think your shoes are nearby.

So I managed another 100% barefoot day.  Vacation is coming up soon and I'm anxious to see how many days I can manage 100% barefoot on my trip to New York City.

Two More Stores

After work I walked a quarter of a mile barefoot to my vehicle.  Without the sun shinning brightly down on the pavement there was no warm spots along the way.  Upon arriving home I realized I needed a receipt book.  As I headed back out the door I hesitated, and then picked up my shoes thinking: people will think it is too cold to be walking barefoot, or what will people think.  Then I changed my mind and said, Yes it may be a bit cool for going barefoot, but I still want to do it and it is therefore my choice and then left without my shoes. I shouldn't live my life by what others will think, even if they are right and I am a bit crazy.  It is a balance between the comfort of barefoot or the discomfort of the cold.  And I just love barefoot walking and can tolerate a bit of cold to do something I enjoy.  Besides I've been out in shorts in weather colder then this and people thought I was a bit crazy, so what is the difference.  Well okay, it isn't too unusual to see people in shorts in the winter, but you don't really see people shoeless walking around, even in the summer.

ON RUNNING
I was also doing some thinking about my run on Thursday in the cold.  Walking in the cold might be a good way to help condition my feet a little bit more for my runs when it is cold.  I am also thinking I should bring some warmer socks on Thursday so once I'm done my run I can put them on if needed and then walk back to my work with my shoes on.  The brain never stops.  I really want to get a streak going of barefoot runs, but don't want to be foolish either, hard balance when your set and excited about something.

STORES
Where were going, oh yes, the stores.  Arriving at the dollar store I looked around briefly and couldn't find what I wanted.  I then asked the checkout clerk and was told they didn't have any so I headed over to a nearby pharmacy.  After looking around and not seeing any I approached a manager that happened to be nearby on the floor working.  He showed me right where the item was and never acknowledged me being barefoot.  I had no problems at either store once again.  I feel like I'm getting bolder with each store I visit.   And knowing I can go into my most often visited stores without an issue feels great.

IN MY HEAD
I'm sure I'll be asked to leave a store someday, but by then it will almost be a relief.  Maybe I should head over to the local Mall, I understand Malls quick to ask barefoot people to leave.  I'm not looking for a confrontation, but I am expecting it to happen, so if I get it done with I might be able to relax a bit more.     I don't know any suggestions?

Two More Stores

Had a morning men's breakfast to attend and it was still a little cold out so I wore some Vivobarefoot shoes.  After the breakfast I returned home and took of my shoes for the rest of the day.  Then I began working on my current project, restoring wainscoting in the bathroom.

After working in the bathroom for a short period of time I realized I needed some protective gloves.  I  was washing off the stripper residue on the wainscoting and the two left handed gloves just weren't cutting it.  So I headed over to the local dollar store, still barefooted, to purchase the needed gloves. I was wearing my shorts and I was very aware of my bare feet.  But it was just a short walk and the temperatures were in the 50s.  Inside it didn't take me too much wandering to find the gloves and was able to make my purchase without any problem.  I didn't even hear or notice any reaction.

Back to work the gloves quickly disintegrated.  So I decided to head over to the hardware store to buy some better gloves.  I asked my mother to watch my daughter and she told me to put some shoes on.  I asked her if she thought I would actually walked to the store without shoes and then left.  I guess she has already caught on to my new thing. I'll have to discuss at a later time my families reaction so far.

The hardware store is about 2 tenths of a mile away.  I visit this hardware store a lot so was very interested to hear their comments.  I went straight to the paint department and a kid I don't usually see assisted me in finding the necessary gloves and then I checked out.  Nothing was said, though I'm sure the kid who assisted me must have notice my bare feet, the cashier knows me by name and he couldn't really see my feet from behind his counter.

It was good not to be bothered with shoes and to take the short stroll to the store barefooted.  Still a bit cool and I wouldn't want to go much further, but summer is coming and it will be very warm soon.

Here are some pictures of my current project. This bathroom has a claw foot tub, so for now we plan to leave the tiles on the back wall, until we replace the floor and need to take out the tub. Otherwise it will be a pain to get all the tile off and wall cleaned.

The lower walls were covered in plastic tile, as you can see in the picture above, which popped off the wall relatively easily with a putty knife.  Then we were left with the glue (not shown), which a hot gun helped soften up so we could scrape it off.  This left some residual glue and the old varnish.  So we used stripper to get the wall down to the bare wood.  

 We then cleaned the wall with some thinner to remove any remaining varnish and stripper.  This was after we finished cleaning up the wall.  We will add some molding on the bottom, so we were not too concerned about the very bottom.

Loads of pipes running on the outside of the wall, makes it a real pain to clean.  But it is coming.  Hope to start painting next Saturday.