The Decline and Fall of One Human
This is Steven Petrick posting.
Technically, I should have posted yesterday. I got an E-mail from Jean Sexton reminding me to, and I thought about it several times during the day, but I was tired enough when I left the office that it had just slipped my mind.
Before Mike Sparks came to work for us, I spent a great deal of my work day doing things in the warehouse. I was constantly up, moving around, lifting things, carrying the things I lifted, and putting them down. It was a surprising amount of physical exercise, enough so that even after Mike had been here for a while, when it became necessary to move an "I" beam and lean it against a wall to get it out of the way, I did it myself. No, I did not heft it to my shoulder, I basically raised it about hip high so that my back was straight and bearing the load and just walked where I needed to go keeping the beam balanced.
Now . . . I have done so little physical work over the past few years (Mike pretty much does that) that I have begun to seriously "go to pot". Muscles just are not getting used like they used to be. My walking pace has slowed and much of the formerly inherent strength in my arms and legs has vanished. My Stamina level is less than a quarter of what it used to be (I know this because there is a stride exercise machine in the office, and six years ago I could run it for an hour and not feel tired, now it kills me to be on the thing for ten minutes it seems).
All of which is to say that thinking is, of itself, hard work. Trying to draft a new SSD, or create a new scenario, or revise a new rule, or what have you is tiring, at least mentally. There have been times in the last few years where I have found myself so exhausted while driving the twenty miles home I have had to desperately fight to keep from nodding off in a car moving 70 miles an hour.
Another problem is that I wind up fighting exhaustion with food, which added to the lack of exercise has an inevitable consequence. I am having to think more before I eat, or I will simply eat everything that is in front of me and appears edible. I really need to cut down on the intake (or do something about increasing the physical activity levels, preferably both).
Technically, I should have posted yesterday. I got an E-mail from Jean Sexton reminding me to, and I thought about it several times during the day, but I was tired enough when I left the office that it had just slipped my mind.
Before Mike Sparks came to work for us, I spent a great deal of my work day doing things in the warehouse. I was constantly up, moving around, lifting things, carrying the things I lifted, and putting them down. It was a surprising amount of physical exercise, enough so that even after Mike had been here for a while, when it became necessary to move an "I" beam and lean it against a wall to get it out of the way, I did it myself. No, I did not heft it to my shoulder, I basically raised it about hip high so that my back was straight and bearing the load and just walked where I needed to go keeping the beam balanced.
Now . . . I have done so little physical work over the past few years (Mike pretty much does that) that I have begun to seriously "go to pot". Muscles just are not getting used like they used to be. My walking pace has slowed and much of the formerly inherent strength in my arms and legs has vanished. My Stamina level is less than a quarter of what it used to be (I know this because there is a stride exercise machine in the office, and six years ago I could run it for an hour and not feel tired, now it kills me to be on the thing for ten minutes it seems).
All of which is to say that thinking is, of itself, hard work. Trying to draft a new SSD, or create a new scenario, or revise a new rule, or what have you is tiring, at least mentally. There have been times in the last few years where I have found myself so exhausted while driving the twenty miles home I have had to desperately fight to keep from nodding off in a car moving 70 miles an hour.
Another problem is that I wind up fighting exhaustion with food, which added to the lack of exercise has an inevitable consequence. I am having to think more before I eat, or I will simply eat everything that is in front of me and appears edible. I really need to cut down on the intake (or do something about increasing the physical activity levels, preferably both).
posted by Federation Commander at 3:34 PM
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