Getting old is a bitch......

I am 41 years old, which by no measure is old by any stretch of the imagination, but goddamn, I sure am not and do not feel 21. Today, my family and I did something extremely stupid (in hindsight) based on my suggestion: went roller skating.

Now, I have not been roller skating since I was in the seventh grade, some 28 years ago. My wife has not been skating probably in over 20 years ago, and my two girls ages 10 and 6 have never been skating. How else could we kill a chilly, rainy Sunday in NJ? I sure wasn't in the mood for a typical kids movie.

On the way over to the rink my wife and I wondered if they would play "our" music the way they played it back in the early 80's, would we hear "Shook me all Night Long," Come on Feel the Noise," and other rock classics from back in the day?

Arriving at the rink, it was like time stood still. My wife, who grew up around where we live now, said she remembered the rink exactly the way it was. And as for me, it was almost the same as the rink where I grow up, in Southampton Pa.

After paying a total of $34 which included rentals, we got our skates, put them on the kids and then ourselves and off we went. I was wondering if it was like riding a bike, would my wife and still be able to do it? The quick story, yes, but nearly as good as I remember I could, but my wife skated like she stopped yesterday, she was very good. The kids picked it up pretty quickly with the six year old doing a great job. The 10 year old, really wasn't too interested, and saying she is into her pre-teen whiny period, really didn't want to be seen with us.

After a few jitters, I got going pretty well and after a few times around I didn't even need to hold the wall anymore. From the way my legs were feeling, I knew it was going to be painful in the morning. To say I am less active than I was back when I was 21 is an understatement.

We skated for about two hours, with just some minor bumps for the kids who had fallen a couple of times but by some miracle my wife and I remained strangers with the ground. Not to test fate, but we decided that two hours of skating would be enough and agreed that we would be leaving in about 10 minutes.

I was doing pretty well and was going prolly close to my fastest speed of the day and thinking all along about how amazed I was that I hadn't fallen. When of course, I fell, and fell hard. I don't know how I fell, there was no one around me, so I didn't trip over anyone. I don't think I tripped myself, so my usual klutziness wasn't to blame. All I knew, I fell on my side and it hurt. I laid there for a few seconds, and thought I was ok, as all I thought I did was just lightly knock the wind out of myself. My younger daughter who was behind me skated up to me and I thought oh how nice, she'll say something to make me feel better. Does she say anything remotely like that? No of course not. She yelled "AND DOWN GOES DADDY!!!"

I was on my knees when the attendant skated over and asked me if I was ok, I told him I thought so and I got up and skated off without a problem. I skated prolly around the rink one more time, and besides a light cramping in my lower back, I felt fine as I had gotten my breath back. My wife came over to me and inquired how I was doing and told ok, but enough was enough and I headed to the benches to call it a day. I had tempted fate enough for one day.

At the benches, I helped take my older daughter's skates off, then changed into my shoes; I had no problem doing that. However, when I stood up, all hell broke loose. I could not put any pressure on my left leg. This was not good. You have not lived, until you are disabled at a roller skating rink full of kids. By some stroke of luck and a hell of a lot of pain later, I made it back to the car. I was in agony. I just preyed I did not break my hip.

We got home about fifteen minutes later and it took me literally five minutes to get out of the car. Not good. I could not walk at all. Deep down, I really thought all was ok, and it really felt just like a bad case of sciatica which is the nerve that runs from the middle of your back to your lower thigh. Believe me, if you have ever had sciatica pain, you know what it is.

I hate hospitals, and the thought of going to the emergency room makes me blanch, but this was something that really need to be checked out, JUST in case it was something more. So my wife and I agreed it was prolly the smart thing to go and have it looked at and have an xray taken.

Luckily, I have only been to the Centra State Medical Center ER just a couple of times and from past experience I will say Centra State is a wonderful hospital. Both my kids were born there, I had ulner nerve transposition surgery there, and I have not one negative word about the place.

To make a real long story short, 2hrs later and about 20 x-rays later, I was out of there. Luckily, all the x-rays were normal and the doctor agreed with me that it was prolly sciatica. So, I left the hospital with some 800mg Motrin, which THE drug you need to fight sciatica, some percocet and some flexerall. I am not one to take a lot of medicines, but in the next week if you read some weird posts, you'll know why.

To think at age 41, I needed to worry about a broken hip is scary. To think at age 41, I can temporarily barley walk is scary. Over these last few years, I am realizing that life is sprinting by at a pace in which I am unhappy with. I can't believe my oldest daughter is 10 years old already. It almost seems like yesterday, that my wife and I could take off on a moment's notice and do anything we wanted, when truth be told, those days are long gone. Time needs to slow down. But, as we all know time slows down for no one. So I guess the only thing to do is enjoy things more while we can still appreciate them.

Oh well, enough dwelling on the syruppy aspects of life, I will be back tomorrow with usual crap as for today, I just wanted to jot down a few notes about how getting older sucks. Now please excuse me while I enjoy my percocet and flexerall.