Up here in Idaho, the winter cold restricts our exercise. Here is some information to keep you alert, alive, and sore:

Think of Venue

I suggest a change in venue. Hop in that mobile home parked out in the yard gathering dust and drive it down to Quartzite, Arizona. That is rock hound heaven. Every winter a zillion old folks go to Quartzite to gather rocks, shoot the bull with other old-timers, and to warm-up in the desert sun.

Rock hunting is good exercise. At the end of the day you can nurse your sunburn, put Watkins Liniment on your sore muscles, and snooze in front of the T.V. Your friends up north will be freezing their tootsies off. What could be better than that?

One last caution: When rock hunting, dont put your hands into dark holes. A snake, scorpion, or spider might be lurking there. Ouch!

Drop Down to the Old Folks Center

Most centers have an exercise program. Nothing is more vigorous than waving your hands at your neighbor. You will bend over and stretch. After the exercise you can stay for that 3000 calorie lunch. That will make you sleepy. Go home and take a long nap in front of As the World Turns.

Walking Around the Mall and its Alternatives

Lots of old folks like to walk around the mall. You can walk at your own pace, stopping at interesting window displays. After the walk, you can go to the food court and eat a couple of those great cinnamon buns with milk or your favorite hot beverage.

I prefer hot chocolate myself.

Mall walking seems to be more fun if you are a member of a group. That way you have someone to lie to while eating your cinnamon bun.

If the mall is too far away, then walk around your house or apartment.

When your spouse says, Stop that! What the heck are you doing anyway? try the Charles Atlas method of dynamic tension.

Nobody will be kicking sand in your face.

Do you know that Charles Atlas still advertises? His ads are published up-side-down. You have to stand on your head to read them. Thats good exercise too.

An explanation of dynamic tension is needed for the uninitiated. Take your left fist and put in into your right palm. Now push and push and push. Now grab your right hand in your left hand and pull and pull and pull.

Get it? You are working one muscle against another.

Well, you are on your way dynamic tension wise.

An alternative to dynamic tension is weight lifting. I bought a pair of 5-pound weights at a yard sale. I lift them while watching T.V.

I also have a horse other than my real horse.

You sit on the thing and pull up your own weight. You can change the configuration and push up your own weight.

Either way you will be looking for the horse liniment.

John T Jones, Ph.D.

Jones was a vice president of a Fortune 500 company subsidiary having the major responsibility for research and development and certain engineering functions. After he retired, he became editor of an international trade magazine. Jones is Executive Representative of IWS, sellers of Tyler Hicks wealth-success books and kits. He is a direct mail and mail order marketer and operates a dozen websites.

He has written three technical books, four novels (Bull, Revenge on the Mogollon Rim, Bone China, and In No Way Guilty), and many published papers on business, marketing, engineering and other topics. Details on many of these topics can be found at his personal web site.

Jones is a hack poet and amateur landscape painter. He lives in Idaho with his wife of 52 years. He has five children, three in medicine, a lawyer, and a portrait artist. The Jones? have thirty-two talented grandchildren (many with special musical talent and skills), and one great grand child.

Jones is a prolific writer which started when he was an engineering professor at Iowa State University (Go Cyclones!). He doesn?t know how to stop.