"Adventures" at Age 41

For the most part, I lead an unexciting life. I don't see that as a bad thing. The waters are mostly calm. My life is a good one. Last week, I participated in a 5k race that turned into a 4+ mile race. Most of us in the race were led in the wrong direction by someone's mistake, and we ran extra. I can't handle much more than 3 miles, so every extra step was a little painful. Thinking about it a week later, I'm glad I was unintentionally pushed to run more than I expected. It turned out to be a good physical challenge. You can't put much stock in the results of the race, because some of us ran a different course than others, but for what it's worth I finished second place in the 40-44 age group. I was even awarded a medal. I'll take it.

A few days after the race, I was walking alongside my 6-year-old as he tried out skateboarding. I never learned to skateboard so I don't have much to offer in the way of instruction. I did my best to show him a few times how it might be done, but I was really just guessing. I don't belong on a skateboard, a fact that became more obvious when the skateboard flew out from under me. I fell hard on my back on a concrete surface. My first thought was "I'm not sure I can get up." I played rugby for seven years during college and grad school and for all the crushing hits I endured in that time I'm not sure the thought ever occurred to me that I couldn't get up from the ground. Well, I got up, and luckily wasn't injured. I then mumbled "Know your limits" which was just a message to myself. So that's the end of my skateboarding career.

Some friends came over last night, guys I've known for around 30 years of my life. We had some beers and tossed around memories, which works for me. I definitely enjoy drinking beers on a beautiful summer day in the comfort of old friends. Some of our stories went way back to high school. Meanwhile, all of our kids were running around my backyard playing together. It was awesome to see our kids having fun together. I threw dogs and burgers on the grill and was happy not to screw anything up. I'm not known for my grill skills.

On an adventure scale from 1 to 10, with 10 being the most adventurous, I probably score a 1.7 in this life. Like I've written before, I pretty much live an unfabulous life. All told, I am fortunate to live such a good life.