Despite what the event schedule said, the rodeo didn't start today.

Clicking these pics, is not for amateurs.

Horse people checking into the rodeo arena. It's been like this all afternoon. I don't know how many competitors there are at this Arizona high school rodeo event, but there's a bunch.

Today according to the event schedule was supposed to be the start of something. But all that happened today was the competitors registering, and getting ready for tomorrow. That's why there's no horse pictures today, but there'll be plenty tomorrow. And that makes me happy.

Early this morning, while sitting around relaxing, I had an epiphany.... Fortunately, I was able to make it to the bathroom; I was thinking about something my family physician told me decades ago when we were discussing exercise and my inability to stay on an exercise regime for more than a month without getting bored with the whole thing; he said to me that short periods of activity was in some ways better for me than one long period of exercise, which I would rapidly lose interest in.

The point, of course, is to get your heart rate and breathing up to a certain rate, and it didn't much matter if you did it one time for an hour or six times for 10 minutes, and the brief periods were better for your joints. So I took this to heart and changed my lifestyle, and from then on, instead of "exercising," I just made everything I did every day a little more difficult.

When I went to Walmart, I would park in the farthest reaches of the parking lot, out where the RVs are, even though I was in my truck, because it gave me a few more minutes of fast walking. I always walked up stairs two steps at a time, which was pretty effective exercise considering I lived in a three-story house, and I always walked up stairs even when there were elevators. And if possible, I carried my groceries to the truck instead of pushing them in a cart.

 I know it sounds incredibly silly when I say my photography hobby is a form of exercise, but when you're 76 years old it doesn't take running a marathon to be called exercise. Since I have a blog that requires pictures every day, and to get those pictures I sometimes have to walk up and down hills, climb over fences, and walk farther than I ever would if I didn't have a reason,  just to get a picture for the blog, I'm pretty sure that's more exercise than I would've got with a video game hobby.

Making my life a little harder every day by doing those things and others, I got my exercise without having to exercise. And I've been doing that for all these years.

So getting back to what brought those memories to me it's this morning was me sitting here thinking about making things more convenient in the Lance. Putting things in places that are easier to reach without me having to get down low under the table to reach things, or ways of getting into the bed without having such a big step, and that's when I had my epiphany.... Maybe I need some "Depends."

But what I've discovered is; I don't need to make my life in the Lance easier; I need to make it harder! Getting on my hands and knees and reaching under the table for things, and taking those big steps to get into the camper or into what passes for the bedroom, is about the only time my hips and knees bend that far, and since it doesn't hurt, it has to be a good thing to be doing.

Now I'm not saying this would work for anyone else, it barely works for me, but it is something I stick with. It only required slightly changing the way I do things because it's simply an extension of what I've been doing  all these years.

At 76 years old, it's a little late to train for running a marathon, so I feel that just doing a little bit of bending and stretching when its a part of my everyday life and not an "exercise" is something I will continue doing instead of getting bored after a month or so.

Theboondork

Next time you hear parents complaining about what it cost to have there son play high school football consider this. If you're daughter wants to compete in a barrel racing event in high school rodeo, and stay comfortable for the weekend, it helps if you have a $65,000 one ton truck, a couple hundred thousand dollars for a four horse trailer with the horses in the back and an RV in the front. And those horses aren't exactly nags you found laying on the street next to the glue factory. These horses are born, bred, and trained, to be barrel racers at 10 or $20,000 a pop.... Makes a football helmet and jersey sound like a real bargain for a high schoolers parents.

Over one hundred thousand dollar truck, and about a quarter of a million dollar horse trailer.

And remember these are high school kids... They don't get paid. You win an event you get a belt buckle, you win a championship you get a saddle, neither one of which is worth the tank of diesel fuel it takes to haul the kid to the rodeo.

I was very fortunate, since my son was a bull rider he didn't have to bring his own bull. All I had to haul around was; him, his helmet, and his bull rope that he ties himself to the bull with. I felt sorry for the parents that had to show up with a trailer load of horses for their kids.

There's only a few pretty roses left on the rosebushes at the campground. Most of them were killed by the cold weather

Most of the roses, what few there are, look like the one at the top... Sure looks like frostbite to me.