When I was 30 (15 years ago), I couldn't run more than 50 yards without having to switch to walking. I got to the point I could run 5 miles (slowly) but my weight was doing a lot of damage to my knees and ankles, so I switched to riding my bike.
Last year, I rode a 65 mile bike ride from Philadelphia to Atlantic City. This year, Penny wants me to do a 100 mile ride with her down in northern Virginia - which is a lot hillier than New Jersey!
Anyway, that's the goal.
My life full of whiny little problems continues unabated - on Christmas Eve, the cat managed to trip me while I was trying to take pictures of the Christmas Tree - and I learned that martial arts training matters very little if you can't decide whether you want to land on the Christmas presents, knock over the tree, or sit on the cat - and by the time I'd even made a list of the choices, I'd already struck my forearm on the fireplace bricks. I thought it would be only a bruise, but later on the elbow stiffened up and began to hurt a fair bit. Because of the holiday, I didn't manage to see a doctor (or get x-rays) till Wednesday, when we learned that nothing was broken but that there was fluid on the joint. (No, really?) Again, because of the holiday I haven't had a chance to talk to an orthopedist yet - not that I'm in any special rush, since I'm already beginning the year with dental work and two separate gastrointestinal tests. (Expect the YouTube video of my colonoscopy on Wednesday.)
In addition, I've put back on ~65 pounds of the 95 I had lost back when I was 30-35, so the day after Christmas I signed up for eDiets - because it was one of the two weight management programs recommended by my health insurance company. Their website offers a lot of potential, but the implementation is a complete mess, making sticking to your diet a lot harder than it has to be.
As I said - whiny little problems. For comparison, my cousin was told the day before Christmas Eve to stop eating anything on the off chance that a guy who had just had a stroke would die soon enough to donate his kidney to my cousin. (Sorry guys - I know I said liver before. Wrong organ.) What do you pray for in a case like that? I prayed that God would spare them both - but it was not to be; the 28 year old stroke victim died on the table, and his organs were too damaged to be used.
On the up side - when I saw my brother over Christmas, I discovered he was no longer using a cane - good news, since the Christmas before he was dragging his leg like a Marx Brothers' skit. (This is the guy who was riding his bike when he got creamed by a truck.)
So, again - I have nothing of any value to complain about. The train layout I put together for Mary got me a big hug when she saw it and it was a big hit with the kids who came to visit. The Festival of Leftovers turned out to be a bit of a disappointment compared to previous years - which wasn't too big a deal, except we were prepared for a too-many-people-to-move crowd, so we have a lot of ham left over, even after I made "U.S. Senate Bean Soup" with the bone and a pound or two of the ham.
Very good soup.
The plan for the train layout is to add an ice-skating rink and fix the switch tracks, because the ones I put in like to topple the trains if you try to switch tracks. Also a couple of trolleys for when little kids come over. Other plans for the layout are a bit up in the air. I'm trying to decide if I want to turn the flat deck of the layout into the lid of a storage box/work tray type thing for keeping the trains and houses when not in use. The down side of doing that is I probably wouldn't be able to store the layout on its side if I did that - although, maybe I could, if I divided the interior into sections.
We'll just have to see.
My mood is also tons better than it was before Christmas - seeing family, enjoying the holiday, exercising, they've all done wonders for my attitude. We'll have to see what I'm like after going back to work, though.