The community in which I live — officially called an active adult community — doesn’t have all that many young people.
When we moved here nearly 11 years ago, we were among the younger residents in Sun City Peachtree. We were 60, and it was a community for adults 55 and older.
Now there are twice as many homes as there were when we moved in, and we’re 71. If I had to guess, I’d say there are at least as many people younger than we are as there are older now.
If you figure that the oldest baby boomers are 76 this year, you would figure that most of the folks in communities like these fit into the Largest Generation. I mention that because people who live here seem to be a lot more active than I remember my parents’ generation or my grandparents being.
Whether I go out in the morning or the evening, I nearly always see people walking. When I got into the best shape of my later life in 2010, I was walking at least six miles a day. Sadly, after we moved here I fell away from that and now I’m trying my darnedest to get it back.
Problems with my lower back, my hips and my left knee the last few years made it nearly impossible for me to walk for exercise, but I have been trying to get back into it the last couple of months. I have worked my way back up to three miles or so the last few days, and at least from what I have seen, I am unique in one respect.
I am the only person I have seen who is walking for exercise and using a cane to do it.
Even with a cane, I usually finish the day with lower back pain. Without one, I doubt I could walk half a mile.
Sadly, I need to work on my technique. My route here is anything but flat, and I have a problem on inclines in that I try and speed up to reach the top of the incline so that I’m not climbing anymore.
Yesterday that cost me.
I caught my cane in a crack on the sidewalk and lost my balance. Falling forward, I hit the sidewalk first with my shoulder and then with my head making solid contact with concrete.
It wasn’t as bad as it might have been. The only blood came from scraping my knee and there was no swelling at all. My head is a little tender to the touch at the point of impact, and the worst pain came from twisting my neck.
Still, I did a short walk this morning and will do a longer one this evening.
I’m fortunate enough to have lost 30 pounds in the last six or seven weeks, and the only way to keep it going is to walk.
Onward.