I addressed this topic
indirectly in a previous post: http://bobberndt.blogspot.com/2013/11/growing-older-but-not-up.html but
what follows below represents some additional observations as Carolyn and I
continue the adventure we call aging. As others have noted, getting
old isn’t for sissies!
• It’s a good thing we’re
retired. Otherwise I don’t know where we would find the time to
squeeze in our appointments for the purpose of getting healthy, staying
healthy, or at least trying to look healthy.
• Four days of subbing of
elementary PE (another group that gets to go straight to heaven, plus
subsidized hearing aids) and I was exhausted. Kind of like chipmunks: cute
unless they’re in your yard. You’d think it would be easy: jump into shorts,
shirt, shoes, grab your whistle and go. No, it takes me an hour and a half to
get up to speed. Anymore, I go from “Zero to 60” in, oh, about three hours and
then, by the time I get up to full speed, I’m out of gas. Figuratively, of
course. Unfortunately, I can’t remember the last time I’ve been literally out
of gas.
• I’ve named my feet:
“Ginger” and “Lee” because that’s how I have to walk every time I get out of a
chair or bed and start to move.
• Bending over and
straightening up looks like a demo for the Fox Sports SlowMotion-StopAction
Camera. And heaven forbid I actually have to get down on the floor. Getting
back up requires a complex plan with more stages than a NASA rocket launch.
Part of that process includes preplanning stable handholds for the return to
vertical and time to let my head stop spinning. Again, that is a
figurative statement. For me to turn and look at something often requires
moving my whole body, kind of like those revolving rooftop restaurants.
• There is an advantage,
I guess, to the old thing. Getting even one thing done in a day provides a
sense of accomplishment. You know, like going up and down a set of stairs.
Celebration time!
So, coming soon – The Over
60 Workout….
