Papa's Business Meeting and Exercise Class (or, I'd Rather be in the Spa) with pictures

We travelled to the capital city to spend sometime with Papa and Youngest and her family over Christmas where we feasted, sang Christmas carols, opened presents and saw a weekend full of entertaining movies (Four Christmases, Valkyrie, and Ben Button). No doubt about it, a good time was had by all.

So as not to overwhelm Youngest, we engaged the services of a local hotelier, who, despite the holiday season, had plenty of room (in fact, we had the run of the place). Papa came with us for part of the time at the hotel, and he remained in good spirits despite the physical effort involved in just walking between the lobby and our room (everything is bigger in Texas, don't you know).

In fact, he laughed, told stories, and even entertained us with, what Youngest confirms is a regularly occurring, sleep-talking business meeting.

Specifically, the second night at about 5 a.m. when we were all sound asleep, Papa said in a forceful but polite way, without any explanation, "No, Emit, we don't need to amortize the capital expenditures, its not justifiable."

That was enough to awaken me, so I sat up and listened for more as he continued, "Just use the capital maintenance approach to determine net income. The transactional method is not appropriate here."

At that point, he paused, as if listening to someone respond, mumbled something that didn't make any discernible sense and started again, in an authoritative, but gentle tone, "Please just compare the amount of total equity at the end of the period to the amount of total equity at the beginning of the period and tell me the result."

He paused again. I rolled him over onto his side (from his back) thinking that would help him sleep more soundly, and that concluded the public portion of his nocturnal business meeting, well-before he disclosed any potentially privileged information. Of course, he remembered none of it when we awoke at a more reasonable time, but joined us in laughing as we told him about it.

Amidst all the fun and games over the weekend, Youngest and I took up with Papa some more serious matters, not the least of which is the fact that the physical therapist has recommended hiring a personal trainer to work with him to regain some of his mobility. Papa did say specifically that he does not want to end up confined to the bed, and that he wants to get more physically fit even though he loathes exercise just for the sake of exercise. He is game for something that will help him, "with reservations." It sounds to me like he needs someone to prod him into a regimented program of exercise, whether it be the stretching and bending recommended by the therapist or water aerobics at the nearby pool, even when he says he doesn't want to (and you know he will). That person needs to be someone who will know the difference between when it's safe to prod, and when it's time to stop, and Youngest already has two candidates.

Anyway to test his interest, I took him to the hotel exercise room to try out some of the equipment there. I'm posting below some pictures of the workout, and as you look through them, keep in mind, I snapped the pictures after he walked more than 300 yards from our hotel room to the exercise room and that he made that walk without any means of support other than holding onto my shoulder. I'm sure that's more than he walks on purpose all day long, and as a result, he was tired and sore when we got there. I tell you that so you will understand that he was, in fact, smiling, and that these pictures show him tired, but willing to "carry on."

Here he is after he "endeavored to persevere" in trying this elliptical slider. Unfortunately, the wide span of movement required for a full stride made his back hurt after a few minutes, and he decided to take a break.

While he was resting, I quizzed him about how he felt, and he repeatedly said he was fine except that his back hurt, right at the base of the kidney area. He was not ever out of breath and his heart rate was never accelerated, though he leaned forward a lot when he walked, taking very small steps unless encouraged to stand up and take bigger steps (Youngest tried walking like that and said it made her back hurt too, so maybe his physical limitations result from something that can be addressed with stretching and moving some).

Anyway, never one to give up, after a few minutes of rest and some encouragement, he was willing to try this machine that allowed him to sit down.

He lasted a full 7 minutes (maybe because of the women behind him watching) before he stopped and announced, "that's enough for today, it's time to finish our coffee," whereupon, he quickly moved to within "spittin' distance" of the spa offering Swedish or Deep Tissue Massage.

We debated the possibilities of a Swedish Massage, but ultimately, he decided against it and began the 300 yard walk back to the hotel room driven, I'm sure, by the lure of breakfast.

All in all, he did well, and he made up for any lack of natural enthusiasm with dogged determination.