Growing up as an Army Brat, I experienced many situations in which we were required to participate in mandatory fun. When I read the assignment for this blog post, it brought those days to mind. As an Army Brat, mandatory fun usually consisted of attending Organization Day, which was a giant picnic/barbecue with lots of silly games and competitions. As an NCO, Dad was effectively required to bring his family along to participate in the fun. If our commanding officer, er, I mean instructor has ordered me to have fun over break than I am up for the task.
I generally work during Fall Break, which leaves no good window for travel and little time for shenanigans. Mostly Fall Break is about catching up on sleep. However, driven by the need to write about something fun, I decided to torment my husband over break to give me something more than sleeping in to write about.
My preferred means of tormenting him is to drag him on photo walks out in some sort of natural surroundings. We’re both shutterbugs. Unfortunately, I’m working through a plantar fasciitis flare up at the moment and that means long (or even medium length) hikes are pretty much out. Getting too far away from places where I can make sad eyes at my husband and ask him to go get the car if necessary is not the best idea in the middle of a flare up. From past experience I know I will get through it faster if I can get in lots of short bursts of walking with rest in between. Just walking bores me, especially when I’m stuck either walking slow or being in enough pain to end the walk too soon. I find it really hard to be motivated to walk when I know it will make my foot hurt.
Enter the “Pokéwalk”. Pokémon Go is a phone/tablet game that came out last summer. It was incredibly popular for a little while. The popularity seems to have died off fairly quickly, but my husband and I got into the game late. The Pokémon slogan is “Gotta catch ‘em all!” and we haven’t even come close yet. 
Pokémon Go makes for a nice distraction while walking and also gives us a reason besides my cranky foot to keep it slow and pause often. We have to pause to collect resources from Poké Stops and to catch Pokémon along the way. I also get to torment my husband by dragging him along and making him play too, which makes it win/win. Okay, okay, he does enjoy the game somewhat and definitely enjoys humoring me so it’s not really tormenting him to make him go on a Pokéwalk.
Over the week of Fall Break, in order to acquire sufficient mandatory fun for blogging purposes, my husband and I went on several Pokéwalks. It may sound low key or possibly even boring, but we enjoy it. The leaves are turning lovely colors. It’s cooler, but not cold yet - perfect walking weather.
Funny thing. I first experienced Pokemon Go secondhand on my summer road trip, when hordes of rampaging groups of teenagers converged on downtown Rapid City, South Dakota, to hunt Pokies (I was there to do some geocaching and meet some people over a flight of beer). Then it turns out my wife downloaded while I was gone to her iPad, not knowing that her WiFi only device really didn't work with this game. Of course, since all of our devices are synced, this meant the game was also downloaded to my iPhone and data plan iPad, without me even knowing about it!
ReplyDeleteSince this time, she has appropriated my iPad and it's grandfathered unlimited data plan for daily, lunchtime pokie hunts.
*sigh* I must be a good husband.
Aw, you're right, you must be a good husband. Giving up an unlimited data plan iPad for the cause...
ReplyDelete