Counting

From the time I was 5 I have had a habit of counting things. I don't know why. When I cycled everywhere I kept track of the number of kilometers my bike had gone, adding up totals from odometers that had died long before my bike did. (I did over 61,000 km in the first 12 years of owning it, before I had to stop.) Some friends reacted with confusion or amusement, others with disdain. Some thought I must be obsessive/ compulsive and urged me to stop though I never considered it a problem.

To me it was just a curiosity of how long a bike could last. Perhaps I should have kept my eccentricities to myself but I find it amusing how others sometimes try to control what others do even though it has nothing to do with them. Such as when a visitor uses my bathroom and takes the opportunity to rearrange how I hang my toilet paper or shower curtain. Now who is being compulsive there? Anyway, it doesn't upset or change my preferences.

One thing I do count religiously is the number of times I fall. I record the date, location and circumstances. I began that record in January 2004, after it had begun to concern me that I was falling too often. I decided to try to improve my concentration to avoid falling, for I have a wild imagination that likes to hop from cloud to cloud or from past to future while I walk along. The next thing I know I have tripped over some rise in the sidewalk and I am down on the ground.

I set out with the best intentions to go all year without falling if I could, but 3 days later I fell. And so it went. By mid-June the same year I had fallen 10 times, an average of 17.4 days between falls. I decided if I fell 20 times that year I'd buy a scooter and stop walking to work. That decision improved my focus and I only fell 4 more times that year. The next year I only fell seven times, and the following year only 5. The past two years I have only fallen four times. By October 4th this year my average reached an average of 102.3 days over the last 10 falls.

Since then I have fallen three times, something I suppose I should eventually expect as my strength and balance deteriorate. But I am determined to keep up the struggle in spite of this bad stretch. If I avoid falling before the end of January I'll regain my 100-day average, and if it lasts to the end of February I will set a new record. This is one obsession that serves me well.

Wish me luck!