As each spring rolls around and the “get the yard trimmed up” and the “get in shape for the summer” bugs buzz in, there has to be a HUGE influx at the hospital from those of us who should know better than to be out there acting like we’re still kids. Yeah, we SHOULD know better, but it's one of those lessons we have to relearn every year. After all, it doesn't hurt when we're doing it – at least not for a long time. It's tomorrow and the day after that are going to get us.
All athletes grudgingly recognize when it's time to hang up the cleats. They postpone it as long as they can, but there comes a day when the ‘kids’ are quicker, stronger and no matter how hard the ‘old guys’ work they can no longer keep up. NO ONE wants to admit the years are passing us by. However, having said that, spring brings a whole new mindset to the aging fight - one that usually has a painful reminder at the end.
Today is a beautiful day in the Southeastern United States. It's spring. Pollen, bugs and love are all in the air. Suddenly, people who have been locked up in their houses all winter are out mowing their lawns, trimming bushes, going for jogs, hiking or working on that tan, going to the park or finding new ways to enjoy the day.
It's a wonderful thing - in theory.
Practice is a whole different matter when "you're not as young as you used to be." Spring is a cruel reminder of that fact. Putting aside the spider and snake bites, the painful sunburns, cases of poison ivy and poison oak, the lawn implement accidents, the heart attacks and those who got pecked because they thought the baby Canadian Geese were cute right up until the hissing parent geese took a chunk out of those who got too close. Let's put all that insanity aside for now. Instead, let's concentrate on the overexertion MOST of us above the age of 40 (and a lot who are younger, too) are going to feel tomorrow morning - and a few days after that.
All us ‘warriors’ go out there and take up the challenge every spring to fight off the onset of old age – well, some of us might be escaping the spouse and kids, but we’ll deal with that another time. We go face the elements and we try to drag out bodies into the same decade as our minds – even though that gap is always widening.
Ben Gay sales have GOT to go through the roof this time of year. Chiropractors, doctors and emergency rooms for us old warriors have to be extra busy. Then there are the painkillers we're all going to be taking for the next few days. The whole country will be walking around in a drooling daze until the muscles start to get a little tone back in them. No matter how young we THINK we are nor how good of shape we were in before winter set in last year and we went into hibernation, every year we're a little further from being "in shape" than we were last year this time and it's going to take a little longer to get back to even where we were LAST year. It's a sad reality we all fight tooth-and-nail.
So I thought we all could use a little solace. While you're sitting there nursing your pains pleading for someone to bring you a drink, icing your joints and muscles and deciding how many pills it will take to make it stop hurting, remember you're not alone in your pain. All of us SHOULD have known better. Hey… it's nothing some ice, Ben Gay and a few aspirin can't fix, right?
Maybe we'll remember NEXT weekend to slow it down a little!
All athletes grudgingly recognize when it's time to hang up the cleats. They postpone it as long as they can, but there comes a day when the ‘kids’ are quicker, stronger and no matter how hard the ‘old guys’ work they can no longer keep up. NO ONE wants to admit the years are passing us by. However, having said that, spring brings a whole new mindset to the aging fight - one that usually has a painful reminder at the end.
Today is a beautiful day in the Southeastern United States. It's spring. Pollen, bugs and love are all in the air. Suddenly, people who have been locked up in their houses all winter are out mowing their lawns, trimming bushes, going for jogs, hiking or working on that tan, going to the park or finding new ways to enjoy the day.
It's a wonderful thing - in theory.
Practice is a whole different matter when "you're not as young as you used to be." Spring is a cruel reminder of that fact. Putting aside the spider and snake bites, the painful sunburns, cases of poison ivy and poison oak, the lawn implement accidents, the heart attacks and those who got pecked because they thought the baby Canadian Geese were cute right up until the hissing parent geese took a chunk out of those who got too close. Let's put all that insanity aside for now. Instead, let's concentrate on the overexertion MOST of us above the age of 40 (and a lot who are younger, too) are going to feel tomorrow morning - and a few days after that.
All us ‘warriors’ go out there and take up the challenge every spring to fight off the onset of old age – well, some of us might be escaping the spouse and kids, but we’ll deal with that another time. We go face the elements and we try to drag out bodies into the same decade as our minds – even though that gap is always widening.
Ben Gay sales have GOT to go through the roof this time of year. Chiropractors, doctors and emergency rooms for us old warriors have to be extra busy. Then there are the painkillers we're all going to be taking for the next few days. The whole country will be walking around in a drooling daze until the muscles start to get a little tone back in them. No matter how young we THINK we are nor how good of shape we were in before winter set in last year and we went into hibernation, every year we're a little further from being "in shape" than we were last year this time and it's going to take a little longer to get back to even where we were LAST year. It's a sad reality we all fight tooth-and-nail.
So I thought we all could use a little solace. While you're sitting there nursing your pains pleading for someone to bring you a drink, icing your joints and muscles and deciding how many pills it will take to make it stop hurting, remember you're not alone in your pain. All of us SHOULD have known better. Hey… it's nothing some ice, Ben Gay and a few aspirin can't fix, right?
Maybe we'll remember NEXT weekend to slow it down a little!
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