I have skipped a week of exercise at this point. Over the winter, I almost always lose the will to exercise as the cold saps all initiative from me. Come spring, the pain of getting back into shape is worse for the long gap.
One winter I actually managed to maintain exercise and then lost it in the despair of a winter that would not end extending into the spring. So I got the pain anyway when the late start to summer finally got me moving.
Mind you, I don't "work out." Push ups, sit ups, chin ups, and walking (I stopped running in 2016 when I nearly blew my knee out. It recovered after many months but I don't want to risk permanent damage at this point) are my main weekday exercises. I take weekends off except for walking. I recently added several rounds of timed stair climbing. That will strengthen knees, right?
Anyway, I re-started exercising at the beginning of March in anticipation of spring really inspiring me to exercise. But then April and snow came--twice now--and all I want to do is lie on my couch, drink beer, and watch TV.
As I write this, a Devil's threesome of ducks scrounges for food outside my window through the now-thinning snow cover.
Not that I succumbed to that desire to hibernate in my couch (well, not to the degree I feared, anyway). But it was all too easy to say I'd skip just one day. And then I went a week.
Oh well. Time to get back on that horse. Even though actual spring seems nowhere in sight.
On a related matter, I can see why so many older people move south. I don't like winter and I endure it to reach spring and summer, while praying that fall holds off the coming winter as long as it can.
It is perfectly understandable that people will pay a high price to live in southern coastal California, notwithstanding what seems like onerous taxes and costs of living brought on by a government seemingly dedicated to killing the free market goose that laid the Golden State egg.
Now that my children are older, I don't even have the joy of seeing them excited and eager for their winter-era birthdays and Christmas plus the relief of Christmas school break. So what is good about it?
At least when I was younger it was easier to endure knowing I had many decades of summers to come. Now? Not so much.
Not that I feel the icy grip of death reaching out for me, but I can do the math and my decades are far fewer. Will I reach the point of thinking that halving my useful and enjoyable lifespan by enduring winter is not the way to go?
Because I guarantee winter sports won't appeal to me. I suppose I really need to ramp up my wargame hobby that I used to devote a lot of time to. I have tons of games and miniatures unopened or unpainted that I'd hate to leave to my children unopened and unpainted.
Anyway. My family, at the very least, keeps me in Michigan. And I do like Ann Arbor and the University of Michigan atmosphere. Unlike so many who live here who resent students, I enjoy the excitement of September as a new horde of eager students arrive on campus. It keeps the city young. Maybe me, too.
I guess I stay. Where I've lived has given me a lot of happiness over the years. Why risk change?
UPDATE: I hope we can all rejoice that Monday I resumed walking, stair-climbing, push ups, and pull ups. But it is just one day, of course. A little more warm weather would surely help me out.
