I was in Decade 3 when I was lucky enough to meet Dr. Stuart Houston, a Professor Emeritus of Medical Imaging and Radiology at the University of Saskatchewan. http://econet.ca/sk_enviro_champions/stuart_mary_houston.html
I was working on a provincial daily physical education programme at the time and was fascinated with Dr. Houston’s research on bone health and development in young children. Dr. Houston introduced me to the fact that our skeletal system is a living part of each one of us and needs good nutrition and regular exercise (especially resistance training). He felt that putting kids in desks for 6 hours a day was very counterproductive for their physical development – ditto to the couch potato lifestyle in later life, i.e., Decade7 and beyond.
Obviously bone health is a concern for those of us in Decade7 as we need to push back potential attackers like osteoporosis.
Yesterday, during my “Decade7 Saturday”, (see my March 6, 2011 blog,) I had an opportunity to test the strength of my own skeletal system and am happy to say sternum, ribs, femur, humorous and small bones of the wrist are in good order and able to withstand the gravitational force of a fall from about 4 feet.
I am not sure “opportunity” is the right word, as the bone strength test came on by complete surprise, without any choice in the matter.
Since my old Sydney departed this planet in October, Boo and I have added a run from my house to the Ambleside dog beach to our Saturday routine. Boo lost a mate, with Sydney’s departure, and is often very clingy on our Saturday morning run. He literally stays on my heels and on several occasions I have come very close to taking a tumble when my heels clip him.
On yesterday’s run we had the company of Lola, a small black lab cross who is now almost 8 years old. Despite her age she is wired to the max and obsessive about balls and water. Her state of “wiredness” intensifies proportionally to the proximity of the beach.
Everything went according to our Saturday morning ritual – jog over to the Capilano River, cross the bridge to the West Van side, then down the trail to the off leash area of Ambleside.
Once there Lola and Boo took turns, ever so nicely, retrieving the chuck-it ball all the way down to our favourite beach, when they both disappeared down to the water ready to continue the game in the ocean.
The waves were unusually high, after a wind storm during the night, plus the added force of the Capilano River meeting the incoming tide.
Watching the dogs catch a wave and ride it back to the beach with their prized ball was really fun. There were lots of surfers on stand-up boards competing for the same waves, which added to the entertainment value for the canine fans on the beach.
On the way back we dropped by Jerry Beckerman’s bench by the duck pond and the little white beech tree where there is a bit of Sydney.
Before leaving Ambleside I committed to doing 3 laps of the jogging course around the exercise area, so we tucked into a small trail into the forest, which after all the rain we’ve had was very muddy. We hadn’t gone too far on the trail when Boo, in his usual position directly behind me, clipped my heels, so I said to him, “Boo – run, run!” so he did his usual charge on ahead.
At this point I should probably add, that because the trail is very narrow, I had put the ball in my pocket which abruptly ended the chuck-it games. This was, of course, much to the chagrin of Miss Lola!
All of a sudden, and out of the blue, my feet were swept out from under me and I was flying through the air parallel to the ground. As expected I came down with a terrible thud with my upper chest being the first point of contact. The wind was knocked completely out of me and my last thought before drifting into unconsciousness was, “OMG – the thump on the chest stopped my heart!”
I have no idea how long I was out, but when I woke up I could feel something pounding on my chest and decided that someone had happened by in the depth of the forest and was able to do cardio resuscitation to get my heart going again. When I opened my eyes I was greeted by Boo’s hairy black face looking down at me with a very startled look on this face. 
To my surprise, the pounding on my chest was not from a Good Samaritan but was a huge, long stick, more like a large tree branch, that Lola was dropping on me in the most insistent way. “Would you frick’n get up and throw this stick for me!”The humour of the moment caused me to burst out laughing which in turn led to a sharp pain in my chest and the thought that I had broken my sternum or a rib or two.
I gave Lola a huge GRRrrrrr and started the long limp home. Needless to say, Lola was totally nonplussed by the entire affair and after lunch was ready for an hour of chuck-it from the back deck.
A Decade7 Saturday to remember!
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