tiltjlp
PN co-founder
- Joined
- Jun 9, 2003
- Messages
- 3,403
- Reaction score
- 145
- Points
- 65
- Favorite Pinball Machine
- Flying Trapeze 1934
Well, the winter olympics are pretty much over, and aside from the stunning beauty of many of the women ice skaters, I'm again amazed with the raw courage it must take to begin learning some of those sports. Sure, some of them can be practiced in water, or with nets, but still.
I might be the least courageous person alive, being terrified of heights, and not at all thrilled with speed. but think about it, how can you become a ski jumper other than by ski jumping? And with how impossible it is for some people, including me, to even stand on a pair of ice skates, how can these men and women find the nerve to attempt their first spinning jumps.
Those Xtreme sports may or may not belong in the olympics, but who in their right mind would be dumb enough to jump five stories into the air, twist and turn and flip and flop, knowing they're going to wipe theirselves all over the mountain the first 250 times they do it? I'm in awe of every single one of those olympians, more so the last place finishers who never had a chance of winning.
I find it hard sometines, now that I'm 59, over 300 pounds, and still as clumsy as ever, to realize that those memories of me playing full contact football, being a catcher in baseball, and bowling in countless leagues, are real. Now I walk with a limp and a cane, and not very far. To think that I once was young enough to do those things stuns me. To realize I was once foolish enough to do them make me grin and chuckle a bit. Nowadays, strolling down Memory Lane works up a sweat.
I might be the least courageous person alive, being terrified of heights, and not at all thrilled with speed. but think about it, how can you become a ski jumper other than by ski jumping? And with how impossible it is for some people, including me, to even stand on a pair of ice skates, how can these men and women find the nerve to attempt their first spinning jumps.
Those Xtreme sports may or may not belong in the olympics, but who in their right mind would be dumb enough to jump five stories into the air, twist and turn and flip and flop, knowing they're going to wipe theirselves all over the mountain the first 250 times they do it? I'm in awe of every single one of those olympians, more so the last place finishers who never had a chance of winning.
I find it hard sometines, now that I'm 59, over 300 pounds, and still as clumsy as ever, to realize that those memories of me playing full contact football, being a catcher in baseball, and bowling in countless leagues, are real. Now I walk with a limp and a cane, and not very far. To think that I once was young enough to do those things stuns me. To realize I was once foolish enough to do them make me grin and chuckle a bit. Nowadays, strolling down Memory Lane works up a sweat.