08/26/2026
People kept asking how many steps I get in a day doing my job, and it turns out the answer is somewhere between 20 and 25 thousand, which works out to about 10 miles. So I figured I’d put them toward something and start virtually hiking the Appalachian Trail, stacking my training miles from home until they add up to the whole thing.
I wonder how many of those miles will happen inside a twenty foot span, going back and forth over the same patch of grass with a dog who is just starting to work out that the leash isn’t a suggestion. Forty passes at the same mailbox is not much of a view, but it’s the job and a necessary first step like I did with Cody today.
My dog Kousa finds this whole project deeply unimpressive, which is more or less her position on everything I do, and she went ahead and wrote a book about it. It’s called How to Train Your Human, and her argument is that I’m the one in training here and that I’ve been slow about it.
Comment KOUSA and she’ll send you a copy for free, plus the Bruno Diaries, which is five mornings I spent in a neighbor’s driveway with a 70 pound Lab who had very strong opinions about which direction we were headed.
