The unfortunate realities of getting older hit me last
night, as I had enough pain in my knees to wake me up
through the night. The day before, I had decided to play
a little game with my youngest, who is 9. We have a
fairly high-quality, band-type exercise trampoline inside
the house, and we decided to have a jump-off.
Here's how it worked (past tense because I won't ever be
playing it again):
- Two people stand directly next to the small trampoline
on opposite sides
- One person jumps onto the trampoline, then off again
immediately, landing on the ground (in our case, a
tile floor.) There is one single bounce per turn
- As the first person is in the air jumping off, the
second person begins their jump on
- The first person to falter loses
It was fun, especially if you timed your jump to be very
close to the other person. It felt almost choreographed
when we were playing it. On, off, on, off, on. Of course,
there were some intense "hugh!" sounds when landing, on
both sides, to intimidate the other player.
He liked it so much, we played several times. My daughter
saw us and we made it a 3-player thing for a round. I felt
my legs getting tired, but I didn't consider the impact
that the whole thing was having on my knees. Until last
night.
I turn 40 this year. I realize that 40 is the new 20 or
something like that, but I still have to admit to myself
that I can feel things like this much, much more than I
would have a few years back. I honest have never given
much thought to the impact of various activities that
I've taken part in, probably because I've never quite
felt the aftermath like I did last night.
Thankfully, I've taken it easy today, and haven't had too
much residual pain. It appears I didn't damage anything
beyond healing, which I'm really grateful for. I was a
little sad in the morning when my son asked if I'd have
a bounce off with him right when he woke up, but that is
life.
