I probably don't exercise anywhere near as much as I should, but I do a bit more than I did four years ago. That's when a doctor told me I should get some light aerobic exercise at least a few times a week. So I manage at least once a week, usually a bit more. I'm not sure why it seems like such a chore, because after a few hours of hiking or an hour of roller blading during the week, I feel so much better.

I can't say that it has had that much impact on my physical appearance. Despite my best efforts, my weight hovers around the same 210lbs that it has for the last 7 years. My calves might be a bit bigger, but if so the mass for them didn't come from my stomach, which is still around the same size. Still, my blood pressure, which had always been a bit high, is exactly where it should be now, and I'm pleased with that.

This week, I noticed a couple of impacts. I went hiking in this place that calls itself "The Grand Canyon of the East". There are probably a dozen or so places that bill themselves that way on the East Coast. This one had a 1000 foot descent into a tree covered gorge. There was a couple about my age that tried to follow me up the trail on the way back, and I wasn't trying, but I left them in the dust. I found a nice pace, and pacing is really important I've found, where I was just breathing heavily a bit, and I just kept at that for the entire hike. My legs never felt overly tired, and I was sweating, but it was a good sweat.

Also, I think I'm slowly making progress on the rollerblading. I'm still not there. I don't have that easy, effortless flow that a lot of the other people I see have, but my pace is finally picking up, and although there are moments when I feel slightly unbalanced, I'm getting more comfortable. Yesterday I went for an hour and pushed myself to do a little over four miles. At the end I was feeling really, really good. I was tired, but part of me wanted to keep going another hour. I had other plans for the evening though. But anyway, it was especially nice, because I really had not been in the mood to exercise. I was just like "exercise. blah." and I kept putting it off and putting it off, but I felt so much better afterwards. I was like "why did I not want to do t this earlier?"

Well, my youngest cousin is getting married today, and I have the day off so I can attend. It'll be one of those weird stilted, superficial affairs with a bunch of relatives I know, but don't really know. One of my older cousins, who lives closer to me, had his oldest daughter get married two weeks ago, and I went to that.

Then I'll spend the night at my brother 1 of 12's house along with a bunch of my siblings. Sort of one of those summer wrap up get togethers that my family seems to have fallen in to in recent years.