That's What I Like About Me

Hey, fans!  (Or even casual readers.  Or innocent passersby...)  LOTS of cool stuff coming up in the next few posts.  As I was riding this morning I hatched several new ideas, and there is this one that I was already working on, so if you've missed me you are in luck!  Shouldn't be too many days between posts for the next couple weeks.  So here goes.

First, I would like to start with the "some material may be too intense for some viewers" for this particular post.  There will be pictures posted.  Of me.  I happen to like them, but it's possible not all of you will enjoy the sight.  So consider yourself warned...

As I have mentioned before in these musings, I have lots of great talks with kids.  One thing that has come up a lot the last couple years is the fact that there are all kinds of people in the world (OK, in my life, anyway) who are simply not happy being who they are.  Too tall, too short, too fat, too thin (I'd have to give that a shot before I complained...), and all manner of shortcomings.  At least as far as they're concerned.  And I put myself in this pile as well.  I would certainly change several things about my appearance if I could; I happen to be working on the weight part at this point.

Something I learned in Weight Watchers, and has been reinforced in other areas of my life, is to do some positive self-talk.  When I think it's helpful, I encourage kids to do this as well.  "What do you like about yourself?"  It's an exercise that has proven very beneficial to me over the years.  I can think of many several a few things that I indeed like about myself.  Top of the list, in most instances?  My legs.

Seriously.  I have amazing legs.  I will not hesitate to put them against most other legs in a contest.  As a matter of fact, in my early teaching days, I won a great legs contest at one of my elementary schools.  The other guy was a runner. Skinny legs...  He never had a chance.

I'm not really sure why I'm blessed with these particular gams.  Doc had some skinny legs, as I recall, though perhaps the genetic combo of his and Helen's made mine look pretty good.  I don't really work on them much.  Riding and the occasional leg workout at TB's Gym is really about it.  One of those things that I just got lucky with, I suppose.

The thing is, though?  Somewhere in the world is a guy walking around with my torso.  You know the one: 40 Regular, flat stomach, maybe some ab definition, but not too much...  My fear?  What if I have that guy's legs??  What if he is thinking, "WTH is up with my legs?  They're all squishy and lumpy and out of shape!"  Perish the thought...  These are mine and I'm keeping them.

Want to see them?  You know you do...  I'll tell you, though, that taking "selfies" of one's legs is somewhat of a challenge.  Here are a couple that turned out pretty well:

 After my ride the other day.  Some decent definition there!









Now, I don't claim to have the best legs anywhere.  BUT - I have received many compliments over the years.  Most recently - "dude, your calves are like baseballs.  How do you do that?"





For comparison, though, here is a shot of Lance Armstrong's legs:

Might be a bit much, actually...  And you could argue that he was a doper, so maybe that helped.  My understanding of EPO, however, is that it is a recovery/endurance supplement, not a muscle-builder.  (You could also argue that if you recover faster/better that you can build more muscle faster.  So either way.)

So now you know one of the things I'm happy about.  There are a couple more, but they don't really fit the blog topic.  Have a great weekend!  And since that is kind of a bad closing, here's another music video link to sort of pump up the end: