Expended

Raging Dudes!

Yesterday was the day for my weekly date night so I chose not to run in the afternoon.  I decided my wife deserved a date who wasn’t trying to cover up the after affects of a summer three mile run with a healthy does of Old Spice.  In reality I’m noticing that one of the other “benefits” of getting older is that I’m feeling the toll exercise takes on my body much more than it used to.  I’m getting a little sorer after running and it doesn’t go away as quickly as it used to.  I have to keep exercising if I want to continue to eat the food that I do and to “occasionally” have a smidgen of beer.  The running itself is not a problem although I do wonder if people seeing me run think like I used to which is, “Why is that old guy still out there trying to run?”  I’m going to keep doing it as long as I can but I wish it didn’t cost so much.  The swimming is much easier but leaves me a lot more tired.  The other night there were some younger people in the pool who I actually had to struggle a little to beat so maybe I need to back off that tendency.  I get frustrated with myself when I notice that it takes me longer to stand up or walk down the stairs or do just about anything.  I guess we’re getting back to raging against the dying of the light kind of stuff that got me started on this blog in the first place.  It’s just tough to have been in pretty good shape my entire life and to have to slowly (if ever according to my wife) accept that I can’t do some the things physically that I used to perform with ease.   Just have to keep raging, I guess.  This melancholy mindset is a perfect lead in to the movie we saw last night, Expendables 2, which as so much fun.  I love it when a movie doesn’t take itself too seriously and this one certainly didn’t.  It was a lot of fun to see all of these 80’s action heroes easing through the paces and poking fun at themselves at the same time.   Anytime Dolph Lundgren shows the most emotional depth of any of the actors you know you should stay near the surface in watching a movie, I mean we’re talking the governator (another welcome return) here not Olivier.  The plot didn’t make a lot of sense but it was just the vehicle to get to the action scenes and allow these old war horses another day in the sun which they seize and have a great deal of fun with.  The scene where Chuck Norris appears was worth the price of admission in itself.  There were also a lot of really subtle insertions of bits as well as the blatantly obvious ones from the movies that made the action stars who they are.  This movie didn’t try to be anything more than what it was, an excessive, over the top, action packed extravaganza that critics will hate but action movie fans (myself) will revel in.  I guess I’m not the only one raging.