Final days of Summer

This kid knows how to play.

My youngest brother went back to school last week. I stayed at the office until 1:30 a.m. Friday waiting to check pages after the football game. Last Monday I had to wear a hoodie when I went to the park with a friend.

Summer is officially coming to a close. I should really keep that a secret from 7-year-old me.

I want to ride my bicycle

People who love riding bikes: This guy.

For all intents and purposes, this is the last week of summer (yes, technically Fall starts in about a month, but kids are back in school and the city pool closes this week). And so far this year, I have not taken part in one of the most traditional summertime activity: Riding a bike.

But then again, when you look at 7-year-old me’s history of bike riding, it’s not all that surprising.

Do the Sneak

When you want to watch the Simpsons, but your folks say 'No,' you do the sneak (ahh), do the sneak.

I have great parents. They are wonderful people who have always been loving, respectful and caring. But when you are a 7-year-old you tend to have a love-hate relationship with your folks because you’re told to love them but deep down, you know they are the ones that keep you from doing the things you want to.

And therefore, you do the sneak.

Running

I want to know how people used to play basketball in these.

I don’t have a lot of friends with kids, or at least I don’t spend a lot of time around their kids, but when I do, I have noticed something about those children that I never see in adults: they run everywhere.

However, I am living what some doctors would refer to as a sedentary lifestyle.

Without this getting into a creepy place, I want you to watch children next time you are around them and notice how often they run. Kids have places to be and they are going to get there as soon as possible. Better yet, try to remember back to grade school and look at the difference between kids in 4th grade to kids in 6th grade -- it’s about 2 feet and 14 mph.

This probably comes down to a number of things, but possibly one of the biggest reasons people older than 6 grade don’t run like they used to is because they don’t play like they used to. Sadly working as a journalist in a small town newspaper doesn’t allow for a whole lot of recess breaks. For some reason HR always gets a call whenever I ask co-workers to partake in a game of hide and go seek with me.

In addition, I have never been one for exercise, or sadly physical activity of almost any kind. Although I played sports in my youth, it was typically not because I was interested in them, and throughout college it was very uncommon to find me at the gym except for the quarter I took a wellness class. And even though I recently purchased a pair of shoes with the purpose of being used as running shoes, I have only taken them to the park with me a small handful of times.

I realize that physical health is something I should probably be working on. I was a big fan of walking in college and for the most part had no problem walking from building to building on campus and even taking long trips off campus to hit up the local library or grab a bite to eat. Even today I have no problem walking to my part-time job downtown or walking to any of the nearby bars to see friends. The problem is that when you spend so much time working in an office, and that office is so far from home, you tend to walk less and less. And now my only real physical activity during the day is the distance between my car door to the door of my apartment.

One of the good things I can say is that I have tried to make a more conscious effort in the past few years to eat healthier, with more veggies and I have almost completely cut red meats out of my diet. I do make other bad health choices, but I feel like some of these things are a step in the right direction.

So for this, I apologize to 7-year-old me not taking care of myself as well as you did, even if you didn’t know you were doing it. Yes, it may be awkward watching you run everywhere in family movies, but at least you were keeping active -- and having fun.

10 for Friday: Disney Movies

For a 7-year-old in the 1990s, there was no company as prolific as Walt Disney, especially their cartoons. So in order to do a countdown of my favorites at the time, I’m going to have to cheat a little bit.

So, here are 10 of the best animated features, according to 7-year-old me.