This is Day 5 of being unwell. After 18 months of COVID-driven isolation, I’ve ventured back out into the world taking full advantage (maybe too full) of being vaccinated. During those 18 months I (and most of you) didn’t have to worry about catching colds from random people – we saw each other under rather controlled circumstances, which has made colds and flus quite rare during the pandemic. Silver lining, I guess.

But here on Day 5 of unwellness, I am reminded that colds and flus are one inevitable outcome of getting back in contact with others, particularly if “others” includes children, who are basically little disease distilleries. They catch contagious diseases easily (no lifetime exposure to most bugs), and they fight them off relatively easily (young, strong immune systems). And they share their malady easily. I’m on a different part of the curve.

So my cold this week is a strong reminder that COVID isn’t the only thing out there that can knock you off your feet. Granted, most flus and colds won’t kill you, but they can rob you of a week or two of your normal enjoyable life. And here in my later / latter years, each week or two is pretty important.

And so it occurs to me that my chosen lifestyle – shuttling back and forth between two homes, and traveling the world in between, requires a certain robustness that isn’t easy to maintain at my age. I’ve never worried about having the stamina to live however I define as “normal”, but at this moment I am. Worried. About that.

It’s just one more reason to take heed to what the Universe has been trying to tell me for quite some time – get into shape! Much, much easier said than done, but if I want to live the life that I have in mind, I’m going to need my health. Actually, I’m going to need to be as healthy as I was mid-40s, when the Great Slide began.

There’s no end of people who will tell you in no uncertain terms how to lose weight and get/stay healthy. And they’re all over the place in terms of strategy. So deciding who to listen to is a challenge. More to come…