Well it does seem that the old saying "Use it or lose it" is true. Almost 15 years ago when I was much younger we had a fund raising basketball game between graduate students and Chemistry faculty along with a local TV/radio station personality in ghoul-garb during the halloween season (The Bowman Body, a friend of Elvira). I was never much of a first string player but I could sink layups in high school. I had not played basketball for over 20 years and I was embarassed and amazed that I could not even sink a wide open layup! My body simply would not do what I remembered it used to do! They say that your body changes every seven years so maybe that explains the muscle forgetfullness. Now I work about half a day on the car and try not to shy away from working underneath with a lot of bending, crawling etc. and that is my only exercise other than taking a walk in the Mall several times a week for a brisk 1 mile walk. My wonderful wife reminds me if I do not at least do the Mall-walk and she does a lot of digging in her gardening obsession. The bottom line is that it is true that atrophy does occur if we do not exercise! Now it is important to keep the open end 3/4" and the 5/8" wrenches handy and keep the arm muscles tensed up as well as all those strange positions your legs have to get into when you mess around under the car.

Don Shillady
retired Scientist/teen rodder