It's April, fools.

Ahhh....spring is in the air.  The sun is shining.  The birds are chirping.  I am sneezing.  What a wonderful time of year it is, full of new beginnings and new opportunity...

Also full of the reminders that summer is right around the corner.  The kids will be off school soon and home ALL DAY LONG.  Summer means swimming and swimming means swim suits... so spring means exercise.  Exercise for me means biking, biking means putting my butt in contact with that evil little bike seat and that means 2 weeks of pain as I sit at my desk after torturing my backside each morning in the name of getting back to my "college" weight and shape.

How in the world can I be so out of shape now compared to a time in my life when my diet consisted of a steady stream of pizza and beer.  When sleep was something you fit in between 3am and noon and exercise was FUN.  Disk golf on Sunday afternoon...good for the week.  I don't get it.

I remember the SNL skit with Mike Myers called "Middle Age Man" and now I no longer find it as funny as I used to.  It has been just a little over a decade since the days of hops and barley, hand-tossed with pepperoni but to be honest it feels like 50 years.  My 4 year-old son told me last week out of the blue "Daddy, did you know you are gonna die first"  I made him repeat it because I wasn't sure I actually heard this cryptic prediction uttered by my smiling little progeny and yep, that's what he said.  When I asked him why he would tell Daddy such a nasty thing he innocently stated, as fact:  "cuz you are old Daddy, and you have a big belly too."  Thanks Brody, that might be true, but Daddy won't go down without a fight.

So as I try to resist the temptation each morning to hit snooze on my blackberry, drag myself out of bed and hoist my huge belly into a pair of sweats so I can peddle myself around the neighborhood, I think of how quickly I seem to have lost my "edge".  I search for my gusto and dig deep to remember where I left my mojo.  Eventually I will find my stride, I will get it in gear and I will prove to Brody, my wife and myself that I am not "middle aged" and certainly not closer to the grave than the off campus keg party...


I will get this old body moving and I WILL be that active Dad who makes the other flabby fathers suck it in as I walk up to the soccer game, pushing a stroller with one hand, with a Clif bar in the other.  I will, really...but hey...until I get to that point...back off man,   I'M WORKING ON IT!