…the agony of my feet!

I had just set two world records: one in the javelin and one in the dash and it looked like I was well on my way to setting another in the long jump. My first attempt had resulted in a scratch over the foul line — to the disappointment of the stadium filled with enthusiasts — but my second attempt had definitely set a record. It was then, on my third attempt, that disaster struck. I was making my approach run and my launch was good … but as I landed I pulled something in the back of my knee. I was able to participate in the discus throw, with disappointing results, but I had to forfeit the hurtles.

Not that I’m complaining. Last year my oldest son and his wonderful wife came by our home with what they termed our ‘combined birthdays, Christmas, Father’s Day, Mother’s Day and likely also President’s Day, Groundhog Day and Arbor Day’ present: an XBox 360 complete with a connect. This also came with a copy of Dance Central 2 and was, I believe, not only a superbly thoughtful gift obtained with incredible shopping and hunting skills at 4am on Black Friday by my son, by the way) but was also their way of saying I needed to get away from the keyboard and do something physically active for a change.

Laura and I have been using it ever since with the window curtains closed. That’s because while we do not mind them seeing us ‘bowling’ in our living room there are other Kinect activities which are probably best kept out of our neighbor’s view. Our youngest daughter Tasha, for example, came home for a visit one afternoon to find her mother and father both gyrating to Lady Gaga’s ‘Born This Way.’ It took her twenty minutes to stop laughing at the mere thought of my ‘snap and hip’ move. Yes, we regularly delete the pictures of us taken by the all-seeing Kinect eye.

I have gotten used to talking to that now ubiquitous eye above my television and have even stopped saying, “Good evening, HAL’ whenever I address it with my commands. That we now get to visit Disneyland on the Xbox through this wonderful device as well as video conference with our grandson through it from time to time just makes it all the sweeter.

However, now that I’m sidelined for a while with my pulled tendon, we are back to bowling (which we love). And, as a reward for myself when I finish a chapter during the day, I settle onto the couch with the controller and enter that amazing other world that is ‘Skyrim’.

I may not be setting any more Olympic records for a while … but I can swing a broadsword with the best of them!