The Old Gray Mare

I know this is a strange title. There's a very old folk song with the same title; in fact, the chorus goes "The old gray mare, she ain't what she used to be". DEl likes to sing it to me occasionally as a reminder that I'm growing older. It really bothers me when he does that, but I'm beginning to wonder this week if it finally does apply to me!

We had visitors this week; DEl's brother Troy and his family came to stay a night with us. They live in Washington D.C. and we don't get to see them very often. Needless to say, we decided to cram in as many activities as possible. First on the list was swimming at the wave pool. Normally I just hang out in the shallow end with Mathison, but I decided to live it up a little and tread water in the deep end while the waves were going. It was very fun, but the waves lasted for about 10 minutes and it took a lot of effort to stay afloat. By the time the waves ended, I was breathing pretty hard and my muscles felt a little heavy - but I was little worse for the wear.
After swimming we had a BBQ with Troy's family, then Troy's wife Denise and I took the kids to the park. For the first half of the time, I followed Mathison as he wandered around the playground. However, I started growing restless (or maybe it was reckless) as I watched the older kids running, jumping, and swinging around. I decided to join in the fun; I found a railing to use as a balance beam, took a shot at the climbing wall, then tried to run and pull myself up on a bar while flipping over it. I feel confident that I could have done it if the bar had not been 10 FEET OFF THE GROUND. I came so close that I had to try it again. And again. And again. I probably tried at least twenty times, but would just miss getting it each time. When I finally called it quits, my muscles were no longer heavy - they were sore.

After putting the younger children in bed, we had a DDR tournament. It was so fun - but again, I couldn't just sit back and watch. About 30 songs later, the adults decided it was time for bed - for the kids, at least. Troy, Denise, DEl, and I broke out the games until 1:30 in the morning. Of course, the little ones didn't get the memo about sleeping in so we were up earlier than we'd planned.

As I tried to get out of bed, I realized that perhaps I'd been a little overzealous the day before. I was beyond pain; my muscles were in agony. Especially my upper arms, shoulders, and abs - the muscles I'd used when I tried to flip over the stupid bar. It's taken me three days to finally feel like I might recover!

It's little depressing to realize that I might being "slowing down"; I guess I'll have to start pacing myself. Next time, it's the kiddie slide for me :)

These wonderful photos were taken by Denise:





Notice how happy and relaxed I look; this was taken before trying to prove I still "have it"