The Boy and I have endeavored once again to get into shape. That’s such a relative thing, I’m not even really sure what that means for the two of us. For him, it means putting on some muscle and losing the last of his baby fat. The pediatrician told us for years not to worry about his baby rolls. He’ll stretch out we were assured. They’ll disappear, and by and large, they have.

For me, that means just maintaining. As I’m getting older, mysterious new ailments appear. Recently, for example, the fingertips of my left hand have started tingling every now and then. It’s usually on my arm is bent, and it usually goes away as soon as I straighten it out: some kind of nerve interruption. I’m not too terribly concerned about it, but I’ll definitely talk to my primary care physician about it when I see him later this year. And of course, I’ll make an appointment sooner if it worsens. I’ve been hoping that perhaps the swimming that I’ve been trying to do would make that better. It seems like there’s just something catching in my elbow that’s making this happen, and I thought that perhaps a bit of increased mobility would stretch things back out and get everything flowing correctly. But I swim, and it persists, and I worry about it a little.

It seems every year, some new little thing crops up. My knees started giving me fits last year, and I really had to stop running altogether because I couldn’t make it more than about a half a mile before everything started hurting. My vision while reading has done the predictable: I have surrendered and bought reading glasses.

All this I suppose is somewhat predictable, and I guess it will only get worse. But I can fight it, and a bit of exercise every day should help. But I’m under the illusion that I’ll ever get back to the shape that I was in 20 years ago, or even 10 years ago.

I do hope I can encourage the Boy to remember that what he’s creating for himself now, the body that he is making, will go away and eventually be replaced by something older slower, less agile. I regret not holding onto my health and fitness that I experience that I had in high school. I regret losing the health and fitness. I developed cycling so much in Poland. It’s gone, and it seems like it will never come back even in the slightest bit.