 Yes, this is a good look for me. I just ate a protein bar, so I'm not sure if there's stuff in my teeth. Think we're good. Hello there, my beautiful internet friends. Welcome back to my channel. Thanks so much for joining me here today. I'm really excited to bring a very silly little light and a happy video to you because the more I live, the more I realize it's kind of the small things that make the biggest difference. And this was something that was a big deal for me. I don't know if you guys have been experiencing sleeping issues like I have. I feel like a lot of people probably have during the last, you know, two months of our world. But I've been waking up at like four and five and can't get back to sleep. And the other morning I was sitting there like just watching Netflix and I was like, you know what, the sun is rising. I love being outside in the early morning. I wonder, I wonder how far I could walk. I wonder how far I could go on my prosthetic leg because back in, I think it was February, I was gonna start training four or five K and then I wasn't able to because my legs started giving me a lot of trouble again. But after six weeks off of it completely after being sick, it seems to be doing okay. It seems to be working all right. And so I was like, let's give this a shot. And this is what happened. It is six a.m. and for the first time in two years I'm going for a walk in the morning as the sun is rising. This is absolutely glorious. It has been a long time since I've been able to do this. Okay, I wanna pause here real quick and note that I do notice that the way I'm walking doesn't look totally natural. Like it looks like something's off more than the fact that one of my legs is made of metal. So I'm curious what you notice if you have any feedback on how I'm walking and what you think looks like it's not quite right. I would really love to hear from you in the comment section. I feel like maybe my leg, my prosthetic leg is too low. So I'm kind of like stepping down every time. I'm not sure. I feel like I've been able to start walking more naturally and then I watched these videos back and I was like, mm, there's something going on there. So I'm definitely gonna go get it adjusted as soon as I can. But let me know what you see. I would really love to hear your thoughts on this. This is where I wanna be. So we've reached the point where I should definitely turn back. But I'm enjoying this so much. It's really difficult to like, you know, head home. I've been walking for about 25 minutes now. I know I shouldn't push it too far, but I kind of wanna see if I can get a 5K in today. You know? I don't know, is it worth sacrificing my leg being in pain the rest of the day? We'll find out. I'm skipping stones into the sea. All right guys, it's time. I made a decision to turn around, do the smart thing. I just realized I have to walk home now. I really don't wanna do that. It's more fun like having a direction, just going in it, feeling like the world is your playground than having to turn around, go home and start work. But this has been really awesome. We'll see how the return trip goes, but so far I'm actually feeling okay. I've really, really, really missed this. There's something about getting up in the morning and all the other morning people and the way that the air smells and the light that just is intoxicating to me and I've really messed up. And this is like one of the reasons that I wanted to be able to actually walk again so I could do stuff like this. And this is a no pun intended, really good step in the right direction. The next step what we're actually aiming for is to be able to take my puppies for a walk. That might be a little while in coming because I wanna make sure I'm really stable because two of them weigh 80 pounds, one weighs 40. And if they see a squirrel, they wanna go after the squirrel and I don't want them messing my leg up by accident. So we'll see, maybe sooner than I think, maybe not. Okay, real quick, before we continue that journey, speaking of dogs, I did want to mention that I drew a little picture, put it on some merchandise and it is available if you feel so inclined. It's a Zentangle drawing I did of me and my three puppy dogs, Sadie, Monkey and Sophie. So if you're interested, check it out, like it's down below. We're getting really close to two miles. We're almost there and I'm very ready to sit down. I just laid it back safe and sound and that was so cool to be able to do. I'm really grateful for just simple, quiet moments and being able to walk and listen to a good book is absolutely fantastic. I sort of always assumed that when I was able to do the things that I liked again, that I would like break down into your sobbing with joy, but it's more just quiet contentment and a lot of gratitude. So I'm really grateful for this. Okay, so I am a little bit curious to see what my leg is gonna look like when I take off my prosthetic. It feels very sore, but not terrible. Like it's just tender, you know? So let's take a look. Please ignore my incredibly messy room behind me. It just doesn't exist. That's what I'm pretending anyways. It's a little bit angry. You can see the angry lines through there. So I've started using this and the bottom of my prosthesis. I put it right there, right? But then we get these really harsh lines. You can so clearly see outlined where this little piece sits. I'm not sure if that's a good thing or not or it's probably just fine. Like it doesn't hurt or anything. It just doesn't look super awesome. But I'd say overall we're a little bit discolored but I think it'll go away in a second. And for two and a half miles, I think it did pretty good. So that was a couple of mornings ago and I've gone on a couple of other morning walks. Since then I haven't quite hit the two and a half mile mark but it really is just, God, it feels good. It feels so good to start moving again and doing things that make me feel like a normal part of my own life, less restricted. And later that day I wasn't in a ton of pain. It was definitely like my body was sore because walking on a prosthesis right now sort of makes my whole body sore, not just my leg. But there wasn't any significant pain. There wasn't any long-term discoloration or bruising or anything like that. So I do think that I should be able to hit a 5K here pretty soon. I'm gonna try again maybe next week. I'm gonna take it easy, not go too hard too fast because that's the tendency that I have. But I wanted to share those moments with you guys because God, they make me excited and happy. And it's like, this is the reason that I freaking did this so I could do stuff again. And it's been almost two years of like being able to do less. But I feel like the payoff is finally being felt a little bit. And I just do a lot better mentally, emotionally, physically when I'm able to move, whether that's go for a walk or a bike ride or jiu-jitsu or whatever. And so starting at the baseline of being able to go for an actually substantial walk is so cool. Yeah, so in the midst of everything that's happening right now, it's little things that seem to count a whole lot. And yeah, I know I said it before but I'm just really grateful for that. And I'm really, really, really grateful for all of you who are watching along and care about these little victories and these little cool moments. Like it really blows my mind and touches my heart that you care and that you get excited with me for this kind of stuff. Because it seems, again, it seems so little but it's like so big to me and it makes me really happy. So thanks for being here and following along. A huge thank you goes out to all my patrons over on Patreon for continuing to support me during this time. For all the new patrons who have joined, I am so grateful for each and every one of you who are a community member over there, thank you. And you watching this video, thank you for spending a few minutes out of your day here with me today. You could be anywhere in the world doing anything and you chose to hang out with me for a little bit and I am thanking you for that. I love you guys, I'm thinking about you and I will see you in the next video. Say. Have her from the sky on the bow.