We’ve had a warm spell here in PA and I have been doing some heavy duty gardening: Pulling out well rooted hedges with prybars and shovels, moving a lot of dirt.
My back hurts. It hurt really for the first time in ages three weeks ago from loading pellets for the stove, now the pain seems to recur.
Provided this isn’t a herniated disc, is this a sign of a life-long trend?
If you young folks take advantage of this thread to ridicule us older folks, I’ll do everything I can ro run the social security program dry! If you are from outside the US, well, I suppose I have no leverage at all. Have mercy…
You know, I think that’s how people get old. Those blue haired geezers are renowned for getting up at the crack of dawn, working all day in the garden, keeping a tidy house, and so forth. Coincidence? Not to mention harassing the younger folks with tales of woe about nagging aches and pains. Don’t ignore the warning signs! Turn back, before it’s too late!
It snowed here yesterday, so I took my kids sledding. My 2 year started complaining early on and wouldn’t let me put her down. I ended up carrying her around for at least an hour and she weighs nearly 40 pounds. Anyway, this evening my back is hurting too. Hopefully, it will be feeling better after a night of rest.
In the interest of journalistic integrity, I may be quoting Harper on that one. But I’m not sure, because in addition to back pain, the other fun thing about getting old is that you’re always forgetting things. Especially recent things. I can still remember the phone number from the house I lived in at age 5 (OV2-6109), but I can’t remember where I park my car each day unless I park it in exactly the same place.
PS: Monkeyman’s drawing is true, but the key thing to remember when you’re faced with a long downhill is to cut some powder tracks along the way.
Thanks MM! I wait until it’s been stepped on, and covered with dirt. It looks liek she’s holding a starbucks cup in her other hand!
cSuko: Kids are great. I carried him as long as I could. Loved doing it even though it hurt! Bear is 7 and a half and tall and weighs 60some. I remember him being WAY too big and needing to be carried. Yep! Only time I lug him now is if he has fallen asleep in the car and we finish our journey.
To Wobbly John: OMG it’s not even 7am and I am awake, checking the weather to see if it is good for gardening.
TBlackwood: Same here with the memory. I have an idea about t hat, though, that the ease of remembrance is inversely proportaional to the available space. Just like a hard drive, when the disk is near full, new data thatis stored is fragmented and not intsalled in a very organized fashion, makes it harder to bring up (slower).
That idea is based soley on my imagination, so I imagine there will be some brilliiant forum poster that will point out why its wrong. Oh well. It works for me!
On a different note, I just read that Life spans in the western world may soar soon! Maybe the down slope will be a lot longer!! Better wax my board!
I was told by my chiropractor that once you injure a part of your back, it is more susceptible to future injuries.
Prevention is the best medicine for this ailment. Come up with some exercises to strengthen your core muscles. Do these exercises several times a week and your back will be more resilient to injury.
Either that or get Bear to do all your hard labor.
Being really, really old compared to you, I have found that if I don’t do stretches every morning my legs are all crampy and I walk like an old person when I get up. Don’t know if this is because of unicycling. I also do the core exercises that were in the first Uni mag.
Cathwood: you are right, absolutley. I will do more stetches. I actually have a good stretching routine that I enjoy from a Tai Chi Class.
Maestro: I will get back to doing my sit ups and push ups. Pushups are hard for me, I can do like 25 then ooof. I can do situps until I get bored. I think I need to do them on an inclined plane or something to get a workout there.
Pat: I like your attitude. If you have kids, do they keep up with you, still?
The shrubs I dug out was a huge job. I tried pulling them out with my Jeep and they kept snappinng the 1" rope. I think I’d have been sore even when I was 20 years old!
My oldest daughter, aged 32, just got married. She is a serious rock climber and an avid skier. My youngest daughter is 27 and earned 11 Varsity letters in high school. She was captain of the boy’s golf team her junior and senior year. Like her sister, she’s an avid skier. They both live in great locations for skiers - Calgary and Denver. Neither rides a uni but they get a kick out of the fact that their dad does.
Now there is by far the most productive thought in this thread.
It was recently pointed out to me that I am a dinosaur, since I’m skiing on completely un-shaped comp GS boards of 207 length. The world, apparently, has changed while I’ve not paying attention. But soon I will have some short, shapely all-mountain boards of the new generation, and a plane ticket to Salt Lake to go with them. But I’ll bring my old boards along too, just to see if FINALLY I can be the guy with the longest skis in the Snowbird tram. It’s only happened once, when I had my 220 DH boards along one day. I could see people lookin’ over, wondering what they’d be like to ride, and whether I really had a license to operate them. I did.
I will TRY the new world, but reserve the right to retreat back into the old.
Wow! 207s? That will get attention at Snowbird. You and Glenn Plake are among the few still exceeding the double century mark. In GS I’ve dropped from 190 to 170. I’m selling a pair of 176 Atomic GS11ms in a Race Stock model. 21m+ radius and they come with Atomic 6:14 race bindings. I paid $804 and only used them for about a dozen races. I’m asking $399 if anyone is interested.
You’re going to have a blast on the shaped skis. Let the ski do the work and experience the joy of pure carving.
