Lamar Thames

One of the questions I have learned never to ask my wife is, “Do these pants make me look fat?” Especially when I am buying jeans, as I was last weekend.

Jeans are especially difficult for me to buy since I am one of those ‘tweeners, meaning I have an odd-shaped body. One of my former co-workers once told me I had a squatty body. I think he was being kind. A video-tape of me playing golf in an earlier post on this site confirms it.

Basically, my problem is genetics. In other words, not my fault. I was supposed to be in the neighborhood of 6 feet tall. Instead, I am not even in the same zip code, at just above 5-foot-7 and three-quarters inches tall. I blame it, too, on unnatural selection. My father was the tallest of his seven siblings and my mother was the shortest of her seven. Go figure!

When I sit down beside someone who is 6 feet, I sit shoulder-to-shoulder with them. It is when we stand up that you notice the difference. I only get a little taller when I stand while the 6-footers keep on going. My torso is the same length as most of the taller folks; it is my legs that got short-changed, so to speak. Read the rest of this entry »

Walking can add minutes to your life. This enables you at 85 years old to spend an additional 5 months in a nursinghome at $7,000 per month.

My grandpa started walking five miles a day when he was 60. Now he’s 97 years old and we don’t know where he is.

I like long walks, especially when they are taken by people who annoy me.

The only reason I would take up walking is so that I could hear heavy breathing again.

I have to walk early in the morning, before my brain figures out what I’m doing. Read the rest of this entry »