Day 89

I’m back, and I’m on a Mac*.

Yes, fellow walkers, my computer crashed and burned, my sneakers were soaked and smelly, and my kids insisted we unplug Electric Santa even as he was happily belting out holiday greetings to all who walked through our door on Christmas Eve. And I — well, I took the road less travelled by this week. Here’s what I learned.

* If you don’t have a chance to walk on Christmas Eve day, it’s okay to drink half a dozen a few Old Cubans and walk to the ten o’clock candlelight service to meet your pals in the back pew. Just be sure you bundle up, because that rum in the Old Cuban is going to thin your blood.

* If you go for a walk with your sister-in-law in the driving sleet the day after Christmas, be sure to wear a long coat and the new waterproof Merrells your husband put under the tree. Because you’re going to be cold as hell if you don’t. And of course, that damn rum has gone and thinned your blood.

* If you walk with your daughter on the third day of  Christmas, be sure you leave the house before 3:30 — otherwise that sun is going to be setting before you reach the end of your hour march through the woods. And that rum you drink to warm up afterwards is going to thin your blood.

* If you decide to see the Tim Burton exhibit at MOMA (more on that tomorrow), and want to count those two hours of museum strolling as your BigWalk, you might want to also walk from the museum to the Port Authority afterward. And you might want to bundle up. Because (yes, yes, please join me)… that rum is going to thin your blood!

* If your blood hasn’t been thinned by an Old Cuban yet — my New York Times’ holiday drink of choice this year — you ought to hurry up and mix yourself one before the New Year arrives.  And if these don’t seem like GREAT walking tips to you, well then…that rum just hasn’t thinned your blood. Yet.

*Yep, that’s a MacBook. Patience, please, while I’m learning!