Yesterday, like it or not, I became an old lady who walks with a cane.

I wanted a lightweight hiking staff rather than a House-style cane (which is what my kids wanted me to get–a “House denial cane” as my daughter called it).   The Walking Company store in the Galleria used to have a good selection of those and of standard wooden staffs, but when we checked it out yesterday their selection was down to pretty much nothing.

So we ended up at the REI store in Northridge, where we haven’t set foot for at least ten years because there is really no convenient way to get there from here.   And they had a rack full of hiking staffs, but most of them came in pairs at circa $100 the pair, which was not what I was looking for, in more ways than one!

Still, after a bit of looking and help from the employees, I found a single, lightweight, adjustable hiking staff that was comfortable and well within my price range.   And it was on sale, too.

Alas, however, that one turned out to be broken and it was the last one in the store.   So I chose one from the next category on the price range, which turned out to be almost identical to the one I wanted except for the price.   It was a bit more than I really wanted to pay, but after mulling it over I decided to go ahead and get it.

And it turned out to be worth it.   Once I got the hang of walking with it and the right rhythm, it worked wonderfully well.   We did a LOT of walking the rest of the day (Ikea store, mall, street, restaurant, more street, parking garage, etc) and after all that on an ordinary day my hip would have been bothering me big time.

But it wasn’t.   And it still isn’t, today.   Maybe I won’t have to be Hopalong Grandma for too much longer.

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