My Little Patch of Sanity

I don't get around as well as I used to. Ask most 72 year old's and I am fairly certain they would agree. If not, then good for them. I should be so lucky. 

I know that the aches and pains I deal with today could be alleviated some if I exercised more. Well, there's the rub. And it's a rub I have dealt with over the years every Spring getting in good enough shape for a summer of mountain biking. Improving fitness always brings discomfort(pain) and as each year passes, the rebirth process after a winter of slothful endeavors brings more discomfort(pain). The pains seem to invade new body parts with each passing year.

I have to embrace the pain; grin and bear it if I hope to control the worst of the pain in my future. Suffering a little now means less suffering later. Yeah, after so many Springs used up changing from a winter of listless and lethargic navel contemplation to a lifestyle of active physical efforts, I would hope I would be used to the pain involved in that transition by now. But every Spring the intensity of the initial discomfort shocks me for a week or so.

In recent years I guess I decided to not deal with the pain of shaping up. It is so much easier to continue the barco-lounger way of life and slowly waste away into the great beyond. Falling into the trap of inactivity is definitely the path of least resistance and with each new year under my belt, that path gets easier. I have told myself this many times this year so far:

"No fuckin around Mike. This Summer we rock. This Summer we get off the couch, turn off the computer, the TV and get busy".

For the last 6 or 7 years, after a couple of really agonizing weeks, I have given up and turned back into that torpid lizard sitting on a rock in the hot Sun. To be fair, I have had some health challenges that made it easier to sit than not. Tick borne illnesses and Covid did kick my butt and bouncing back has been hard. Regardless, I have begun to be more active. How long this lasts will depend on if the chronic aches and pains I have developed do not get any worse.

I have to thank the influx of mountain bike videos on my Facebook page for my recent efforts to be more active. I used to love riding my bike in the woods. Nothing made me happier. Now, I want to do it again. But I have to be in better shape to even attempt it. So I started walking almost every day with Maggie over in Mary's Woods across the road from my dooryard. 

Those woods have been a special place for me since I was in high school. I fixed up a bench from cut up deadfall and I bet I have consumed 100 joints sitting there while I watched and listened to the woods get on with their day. So, if for some reason I again fall off the fitness wagon, If nothing else, I am calmer these past couple of weeks. Sitting on some old logs in the woods can do that for me.

Keep it 'tween the ditches .....................................

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Since I am in the early optimism about the future for myself and again feeling better about our country's direction with the stand out duo, Harris and Walz, looking to kick some GOP butt in November, I figure a song from Tracy Chapman might be appropriate. Here is "New Beginning", the title track of her 1995 album, "New Beginning".