Last week my first ever passport arrived. Over the weekend my packing list arrived from the tour director. And of course the bill showed up too! That was the ouchy part, a true dose of reality!

So now is the time for all good travelers to get in touch with the body and what it needs to be as ready as it can be… Fortunately the place to which I went for PT after my knee surgery offers a maintenance program, or ‘double secret probation’ as they call it, as they are small and don’t want to bandy about a term that might get people knocking at the door. Me? I am one of the lucky few and it doesn’t hurt that when knee #1 was done 5 years ago that I asked about such a thing and helped create a need in the eyes of the facility. And the therapists are good people!
So Friday I asked the PT who oversees the program about stepping things up as I have 3 months left to get more ready. And only 3 months, I think to myself… Ok fine – that’s good, we can add lunges and core exercises... remind me on Monday!

So this morning I got there – a little bit earlier than usual, which was nice, had time to do most of the old stuff, some of which had sort of fallen out of my memory, and for about 20 minutes I debated whether or not to remind her… well I finally decided to do it, as the word ‘lunge’ came up in a bit of an unrelated way, and boy What a Wakeup… before the lunges I was given a couple of those core exercises and, second dose of reality, I could see just how badly out of shape my abs are… no wonder I can’t get up off the floor without something to press down on with my hands and arms…

So it’s time to forget the excuses, time to get serious, or I will be on the tour bus watching folks take off over hill and dale! Of course then I might have the chance to look for the end of the rainbow and one of those pots the leprechauns are said to have…………