All opinions are my own...until criticized.

Update: Al's appetite is much better, and his energy level may be some better. He still gets up and down with difficulty; it looks like it hurts. We're at the 2-week mark so it's still early for marked improvement.

One of the really cool families at Pathway spent part of their day at the courthouse. The adoption of the 4-year old twin girls is now complete. Way too adorable.

Last Sunday evening we invited our new neighbors to join us at Coldstone for dessert. They moved into the house next door a couple of months ago, relocating from South Dakota, and we’ve chatted often. Sunday afternoon while I was working out in the garage I decided we needed to get to know them better than the occasional brief conversation allowed. They accepted the invitation readily.

We had a nice visit and got to know each other better. At some point he, too, rode a motorcycle. Taking briefly about it made me miss riding. This is the first time since I sold my motorcycle almost two years ago I’ve wished I had a bike.

I miss the whole-body experience that I’ve only had riding a motorcycle. It’s something custom designed for an ADD person. Riding a twistie at 90%, or just grabbing a hand full of throttle on a deserted straight road, rolling right past the century mark, seriously stimulates body and mind. Total involvement, total focus. Seriously intense.

I’m not going to get another motorcycle. We don’t have the money and I’m not sure my family would allow me to return to what they consider an unnecessary risk to life and limb. But I miss riding.

Which is why I went out to work in the front yard this afternoon in 105 degree heat. I needed to get up and do something physical as a break from mental work, and the shrubs need trimming. In five minutes I felt drained, but that was the point. So I kept going and got two of them hacked back and the cuttings raked up and put in the trash can.

Sometimes you gotta do something stupid to prove you’re still alive. Especially as you get older. Sun City is filled with old people who do the same thing every day, week after week, month after month. They came here because they wanted an easy life, free from things like shoveling snow, mowing lawns, cleaning gutters and painting porches. That’s what they’ve got - a boring life where nothing ever changes and their biggest thrill is ordering French Dressing instead of Thousand Island on their dinner salad at CoCo’s (the early bird dinner with the senior discount). They’ll be dead for three weeks before they notice the change.

Yeah, it was hot, and nobody with an ounce of sense goes outside here at 2:30 in the afternoon to prune shrubs. But that was the point. Pushing the envelope a reasonable amount (riding a motorcycle is a reasonable amount) reminds me I’m alive, that my body still works, including feeling pain.

The time will come soon enough when getting up out of a chair will do the trick, but until then I want to push the envelope from time to time so my body and my brain feel something besides ease. I want to feel alive.