I'm Soar

I woke up early this morning because I had an early meeting at work. When I rolled out of bed, I was soar! esp. my right arm. That's when I realized that I'm old and out of shape.

Yesterday, after Mass, a group of about seven or eight families from church met at Cloverdale park for lunch and some outdoor fun. It was just a random thought after Mass. As usual, a bunch of families were hanging out and talking outside of church and I started asking people if they wanted to meet at the park for lunch and games. I didn't realize so many would show up!

Man, the Spring weather was perfect! Here's what's really crazy... these were my old stomping grounds! I grew up at this park playing football, baseball, basketball, swinging, riding bikes/skateboards, and skipping rocks in the creek.

My kids, along with their friends, were enjoying the exact same fun I did growing up... the only difference was that all of the parents were there playing along! That's why I'm soar today... esp. my right arm. It's not the same arm I had when I was a kid. I was throwing the football around and skipping rocks in Neabsco creek. I took all the kids and dads to "Rock Island" (moms hung back with the babies and toddlers). Now "Rock Island" is a kid's fantasy land. You could play pirates, treasure island, or anything you could imagine. But what it's really known for is the perfect skipping rocks... flat and round. There's one long stretch of the creek where the water is as smooth as glass. You could get so many skips you'd loose count if you get the right rock and throw.

Man, I love that creek! I used play in it all day! We would race home-made, paper sail boats (or anything you could find that would float) down the creek, look for crayfish, find snakes... we even used to swim in that creek! You could even just throw huge rocks in the water to see how big of a splash you could make. We use to pretend that we were dropping bombs and the water splash was the explosion or pretend like we were throwing hand-grenades. It was especially fun when we would try to bomb each others boat during the boat races! ;-)

To watch all the kids playing, like we use to, was like looking back in time before video games and cable TV... when kids played outside all day until they were forced to come home for dinner.

It was exactly like I remembered when I was a kid... except for being soar the next day. But being soar is definitely worth it! ;-)