Bless me, readers, for I have sinned - it's been eight days since my last posting.

But I've been busy - we're here in Marion, IN, taking care of my father-in-laws effects and business affairs. He passed away last Thursday, and we've been dutiful children - jumped on a plane as soon as we could get one, been going through all of his stuff and situations as best we could, and now we've been through the funeral mass - the only thing left is the Interring of the Ashes, and that happens tomorrow afternoon in a cemetery in Greenfield, after which we'll jump on a plane for home.

I've also been trying to get my workouts done, at the YMCA in Hartford City, IN -

           

That empty dreadmill in the middle is mine - although, while I was taking this picture, a nice old lady tried to take it.

It's not often that I'm the youngest person in the cardio line. Nor am I normally the one in the best shape; but it's been that way at the YMCA. Even the young folks don't run as far or fast as I'm running....and it needs to be stated that I am not running very far, nor very fast.

In all honesty - no exaggeration - I'm in the worst shape that I have been in since I started keeping my running log in January of 1993.  The combination - in series and in parallel - of the PF from last April, the hip dysfunction showing up this last summer, going back and forth to 9000 feet and skiing and then this trip - have left we with the lowest numbers in my log that I can recall seeing. And my speed is by far the slowest. I'm a mess.

And probably only half of the miles that I've logged here have been running miles - the other half would be elliptimiles. Just as vigorous, but not as much pounding. That's "good", in the sense that it doesn't bang me up as much, but "bad" in the sense that it doesn't prepare me for real running on the roads where I do get banged up.

But I'm still alive, and "where there's life, there's hope" - it's possible that I could get back into shape. I'm willing to try. Those folks in the picture above seem to be still trying, although maybe their definition of "back into shape" isn't the same as mine.

However, it should be said that being still alive is not an automatic asset; my father-in-law had lived two years longer than his wife, and he was in a hurry  to join her. I think that I can understand that. Someday, assuming that Ethel continues her current policy of yeah-I'll-get-back-to-the-gym-later, it's possible that I'll live in a world without her, and that's not a world that I want to think about.

My legs are now tired and sore; I was going to go for a walk at lunchtime to loosen them up, but it's (yet again) 20F outside, windy and blowing snow. Not "snowing" like it does at the Love Grotto, but snowing the way it snows in Indiana - damp, chilling to the bone, never piling up much, blowing around like crazy. This is MISERABLE.

I am very, very ready to go home tomorrow.