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On my first trip on an airplane in the New Year I read an article about unusual workouts.  One man said that he uses a pogo stick for two to five minutes five times a day.

I remember pogo sticks from when I was a kid.  They were spring loaded and I could bounce about one foot high.  I had good balance and don’t remember ever hurting myself, but I never owned one so using a pogo stick was an infrequent treat.

You can imagine my surprise to read about the current state of the art.  Adult pogo sticks now operate with air pressure rather than a spring. One model was used to set the world record by bouncing to a height of more than eleven feet.  Yes, you can jump that high and hit your head on an overhanging branch if you’re not careful.  Or you could hit the ground pretty hard on your way down, if you’re not careful.

I am not a hard core exerciser, especially since my personal trainer of more than fifteen years moved to another state more than a year ago.  My exercise routine consists of weight training and a little yoga when I get around to it.  This morning was the first time I actually exercised in more than a month.

What the heck.  Aside from representing a return to the relatively carefree days of my youth, a pogo stick seems like a lot more fun than lifting weights or, say, using an elliptical machine for forty five minutes.

And so, I’ve ordered an adult pogo stick.  It should arrive this week.

Don’t worry.  I have also ordered a safety helmet and two ankle braces, and I do not intend to bounce more than one foot high.  Well, maybe a foot and a half high, unless I go berserk (rare, but not unknown in my life).

I’ll report back to you in a few weeks – hopefully not from a hospital bed.  By then I intend to be aerobically fit, with improved strength, and be even better looking than I am today.

I already thought of a slogan for the pogo stick company – “Put a bounce into your steps.”  No charge for that one.

Please note, this is not a New Year’s resolution.  It’s already too late for that.  But I do remember the notable quote from the Pogo comic strip (no known relationship to pogo sticks) of my youth – “We have met the enemy and he is us.”  This does not, of course, apply to you or me.

Have a great year.

Bouncy, bouncy, bouncy.

Alan

I think of myself as different from other people, often reflected in the creative choices I make.

In the early 1970’s I built my first home in Carmel, California.

The master bedroom was a large open loft on the second floor of the house, just above the living room.  The black, freestanding fireplace and stovepipe chimney provided warmth in the winter but were hardly distinctive.  The custom-built bed was unusual, but a mattress is a mattress.  The one truly unique feature that I have never seen in another house, was a real fire pole running from the peak of the redwood ceiling down to the floor of the living room — a total of about twenty-five feet.

Did anyone actually use the pole?  You bet they did.  Almost everyone who visited the house, unless they were over seventy, gave it a try.  I piled bean-bags at the bottom, to cushion every fall.  My three young children couldn’t wait to arrive in Carmel to visit “our fire pole,” as they called it.

Of course, we established rules.

First, only one person at a time could use the fire pole.  You had to climb the open stairs up to the bedroom, then either slip through or climb over the railings to latch onto the pole.  The ride down was a lot quicker than the climb up.

Second, an adult had to be present at the bottom, preferably an adult big enough to spot the user.

Third, you had to be fully dressed and ride safely by holding on for dear life with both arms and legs – letting yourself fall slowly, not quickly.  No one was on their way to put out a real fire.

This morning, on the last day of 2018, I’ve been thinking about the screams of delight we all enjoyed, especially over the year-end holidays, riding down that pole.  And I thought, “Wouldn’t it be nice if each of us could think of every year as a ride down the fire pole?”

A ride down the fire pole was over in a matter of a few seconds.  Do the three hundred and sixty-five days in a year flash by more slowly?  Just like a ride down the fire pole, you can never be sure how each year will end.  And isn’t the purpose of each trip, on the fire pole and the year, to have a good time?

I recently sold my Carmel house. Other children will now have the opportunity to slide down the pole, just like my children, and now my grandchildren, taking their places on the fire pole of life.

For the New Year I wish you a safe ride.

I did say that “almost everyone” used the fire pole. In more than forty years I did not try the fire pole even once.

I have no regrets. But starting at midnight tonight I plan to lock my arms and legs around 2019, and fully enjoy every moment of another wild ride.

Alan