Stairs, stairs, and more stairs

Roses are red, violets are blue, exercise is good for you? Don't forget to click the pics while you're still able.

I took this picture of some of the stairs at Red Rocks Amphitheater that were ahead of me, and there was actually this many, maybe  more,  behind me. Since the Civilian Conservation Corps, the CCC, completed the Red Rocks facility in 1941 there wasn't much safety built into the place, so steep steps and limited handrails were perfectly normal then. The operative concept being "if you have trouble getting around the Red Rocks, don't go there."

These young folks are taking a break on their way to the top of the stairs, there was a lot of that going on. The sign on their left just above their heads is telling everyone where things are, like the visitor center, and the restrooms, and down at the bottom it had this little bit of information that you see in the picture below.

How often do you see a sign like that outside of a public building?

I took this picture of downtown Denver while visiting  Red Rocks. Denver's 16 miles away from the Rocks and as you can see is shrouded in smoke from the fires out West. You really couldn't tell it was smoky in less you looked way off into the distance, but there were plenty of smoke  warnings on the television and radio.

But despite the numerous smoke warnings their were still a lot of people running around and exercising at Red Rocks, breathing hard and sucking in the smoke. Like this guy in the bright red shorts, and matching bright yellow shoes, and the woman pretending to do push-ups off to the left.

It appeared to me everyone I saw exercising all had one thing in common, they were all around 40-ish, which is that terrible age where you suddenly realize your not a teenager anymore, and you're actually getting old. But that's something that happens to others, and you've decided you're not going to let it happen to you.

It doesn't take much Internet research to determine that you can easily ward off old age by eating right, and getting plenty of exercise. So off you go buying gym memberships, exercise equipment, yoga classes, and books on how to live to be 100,

40-ish folks will continue doing this, and more than likely over-doing this, off and on for maybe 10 or 15 years, until they've worn out their joints, from all the healthy jogging. Have a bad back, from the weight set  they bought. And put on an extra 25 or 30 pounds, because their always hungry from their healthy eating. After all how much arugula does it take to fill you up.

This soon leads to the realization that they physically can no longer do actual exercise anymore, and they've learned that eating fat-free, low-sodium, tofu burgers. Followed by a couple of McDonald's milkshakes, and a sixpack of beer is doing nothing good for their waistline.

This causes the now partially crippled, future heart attack candidates, to resign themselves to the inevitability of getting old, buy an RV shaped like a coffin, and spend the rest of their remaining days living in an RV Park swapping lies and war stories with other old geezers of similar decrepitude ........ The End!


PS.... Many thanks to Judith for expanding my vocabulary with the word decrepitude.
                                      
                                      Theboondork