Let's be honest here, where does the time go? Seems just like yesterday I could go out and sprain an ankle and jump back up and keep playing on it with no problem! Now it takes me a few days to recover and lots of stretching. What the heck is going on? I know, I know...you are probably asking how old is this guy? I'm only 26 but 4 years ago after coming out of college it seemed like doing "normal" stuff didn't bother me or effect my body as much. My coach in college would run us to the ground and I'd recover faster! Let me give you a quick rundown of why this post came about.
So, today there was an event in town called Winterfest. My company helps out with the event and I was suppose to be there from 9:00 to about 1:00. It's a big deal around here in Grand Haven. The weather has been absolutely insane and it's been bitterly cold. To say the least, I wasn't super excited about being outside that long. But, I bundled up with a nice count of 10 layers. The day started off with a struggle getting out of the driveway and down the street from my house. I was running a little late to the event so I didn't have time to snow blow the driveway. I do my best as my little company mini cooper struggles to get out of the driveway and down the road. There was probably a good 10 inches of snow in the driveway and road. In good weather it's probably a 10 minute drive or so to the YMCA where the event was being held. It took me a good 25 to get there today. I arrive and start helping as soon as I could. I start off with some light work using some power tools to drill holes into the frozen ground to put stakes in. (By the way, those power tools were freaking awesome! They quickly took it away from me when they saw my excitement). Anyway, after that we had to take these bales of hay about 50 yards or so to provide as a cushion for the sledders when they were coming down the hill. After two trips I could tell this was going to suck. There were 30+ bales of hay, 2 guys including me, and a teenager. It came down to the whole working smarter not harder ideal. We ended up finding this huge sled and loaded the hay in there and pushed and pulled with 4 guys. Then it was show time and we worked the event and it was done. I was outside for a collective 4 and half hours without warmth. I couldn't feel my toes and at one point I thought they had fallen off. Once we were done, we rounded up some co-workers and went out for some food and drinks. This whole time I'm dreading for what was next.
After lunch I look at my wife and say, "Well, we have to go and snow blow the driveway." That 15 minute ride home I was thinking, "Ahh, it can't be that bad." It was all a mind trick I was playing with myself knowing I was going to hate being outside again in close to sub-zero weather with the wind chill. We get home and can't even get into the driveway because the plows had come and with the compact snow it was hard to get any type of vehicle up there. So, we get to work. I get the snowblower started and let my wife use that so she doesn't have to work as hard with the shovel. I'm pounding away at the 15+ inches of compact snow that we have at the end of the driveway. It extended into the driveway probably 3-4 feet. After going at that for a while, I'm winded! I get frustrated and start asking myself what's going on. A few years ago this task would have been easy and I would have relished pushing myself physically after a long day just to see how my body would handle it. We keep going at it and an hour and half later we are finished.
I'm exhausted at this point. I've been using the shovel to get rid of all the compact snow at the end of the driveway, some in the street to make a nice path for the mail truck, and shoveling other parts of the driveway. On top of all that, I've been outside now close to 6 hours. I got inside, took off most my layers, and proceeded to drink a ton of water and random juices. I was like a caveman. Water spilling every where. My crappy shirt getting soaked and I'm drinking straight from the jug. Soon after my raid on all things liquid, I start to feel sore all over and ache in weird places. And that's when the thought occurred. "I'm an ex-athlete and I can't even shovel snow now? What happened?"
So, this post is for my all my ex-athletes. Keep up the good fight. Father Time 1. Dennis 0.
-Keeping Up With The Joneses...
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