it's a lazy saturday. i've been telling the story of my hearing loss on my music blog and the story of raising a DMDD kid on my cloudcroft blog; i'll make you find that last one but tell you it's fairly easy to find. neither story is pretty. but i'm at an age where i reflect on all the things i did well and not so well.
my own dad tried to hike the appalachian trail at the age of fifty-five. it was too late already. we men are at our peaks in our twenties and it goes pretty much downhill after that, and he probably should have realized it. he was stubborn though. the first time his ankles gave out somewhere in pennsylvania, an extremely rocky part of the trail, and after a significant period of recovery, he went and tried again. this time he made it maybe to connecticut. but the second time they gave out they gave out for good, and he was in pain literally for the last thirty years of his life.
it was partly because i had experienced that pain through him that i am very cautious about doing the same kind of thing. on the one hand, i remember going down to virginia and hiking about thirty miles of it with him. at one point we took a picture which i believe i have lost, at least i haven't found it for years, and in that picture (of him and me) he was the happiest i ever knew him. he was fit, he was smiling, he was glowing. he was unshaven. he had traded three-pound cameras for two-and-a-half-pound cameras and on down until he could live entirely with what he was carrying. but the pain of his last thirty years also will stay with me. he drank too much sherry off and on in his life but toward the end he'd given it up entirely and then some of that happiness came back. but i never denied that he'd had plenty of good reasons to drink a little to much, i just maintained that the drinking in the end didn't help. or at least it caused some other problems, even if it helped with the chronic pain.
these days i have a hard time getting up out of my chair. the pressure from the kids has gone down a little. we've trained them so that they don't always need constant rides all over creation. we ourselves manage our rides so we do as much as possible in a single trip. i've come to prefer the small honda, with a stick shift, for various reasons, but i believe i have clutcher's knee and the ailments pile up. i need a lot more exercise. in fact i'm about to go get a little more now, and sweep the upstairs maybe or just move some stuff. spring is here, time to clean things out a little.
when i feel pain in my joints sometimes i blame the driving, or sometimes my shoes, none of which fit perfectly, but mostly i know it's just old age. i'm not reaching for the sherry. i'm just going to gradually walk enough to find a balance, lose some weight, and keep on keepin' on.
my own dad tried to hike the appalachian trail at the age of fifty-five. it was too late already. we men are at our peaks in our twenties and it goes pretty much downhill after that, and he probably should have realized it. he was stubborn though. the first time his ankles gave out somewhere in pennsylvania, an extremely rocky part of the trail, and after a significant period of recovery, he went and tried again. this time he made it maybe to connecticut. but the second time they gave out they gave out for good, and he was in pain literally for the last thirty years of his life.
it was partly because i had experienced that pain through him that i am very cautious about doing the same kind of thing. on the one hand, i remember going down to virginia and hiking about thirty miles of it with him. at one point we took a picture which i believe i have lost, at least i haven't found it for years, and in that picture (of him and me) he was the happiest i ever knew him. he was fit, he was smiling, he was glowing. he was unshaven. he had traded three-pound cameras for two-and-a-half-pound cameras and on down until he could live entirely with what he was carrying. but the pain of his last thirty years also will stay with me. he drank too much sherry off and on in his life but toward the end he'd given it up entirely and then some of that happiness came back. but i never denied that he'd had plenty of good reasons to drink a little to much, i just maintained that the drinking in the end didn't help. or at least it caused some other problems, even if it helped with the chronic pain.
these days i have a hard time getting up out of my chair. the pressure from the kids has gone down a little. we've trained them so that they don't always need constant rides all over creation. we ourselves manage our rides so we do as much as possible in a single trip. i've come to prefer the small honda, with a stick shift, for various reasons, but i believe i have clutcher's knee and the ailments pile up. i need a lot more exercise. in fact i'm about to go get a little more now, and sweep the upstairs maybe or just move some stuff. spring is here, time to clean things out a little.
when i feel pain in my joints sometimes i blame the driving, or sometimes my shoes, none of which fit perfectly, but mostly i know it's just old age. i'm not reaching for the sherry. i'm just going to gradually walk enough to find a balance, lose some weight, and keep on keepin' on.
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