Taking the stairs

A modest 17 stair steps to the top

I’m fortunate that the office building where I work has two stories and no elevator.  My office where I spend most of my day is downstairs but the men’s room and some other areas are upstairs. 

So every work day I make several trips upstairs and back down when using the men’s room or retrieving an old file in storage.  The exact number of daily trips depends on how strong is my morning cup of coffee, how many buckets of water I drink during the day, and how well-behaved is my bladder. 

Regardless of how these three forces clash or interact, I’m up and down the stairs often enough to call each day “cardio light” on non-gym training days.  I enjoy taking the stairs and my frequent trips regardless of how brief they are. 

My take-the-stairs preference is not limited to while at work because I always strive to take the stairs wherever I am.  I prefer them to an elevator or escalator if for no other reason than the air is fresher taking stairs than being in a packed elevator and at risk that the Avon lady might be present drenched in her favorite perfume.

Every now and then, perhaps while in the company of someone who’s not stair-conditioned or for some other special reason, I’ll take the slow and sterile elevator.  It gives me a chance to catch up on the latest elevator music and see if it’s changed much over the years.

The original owners of my office built it as their personal residence in 1905 and resided there until their deaths in the mid-1940’s.  They were in their early 80’s when they died and still taking the same flight of stairs up and down then that I do today.  I’m sure doing so gave them some guaranteed and minimum cardiovascular benefit that may have contributed to their long lives.  I’ll never know.

But I do know this - I’ll be like them in my middle-aged man gracefully aging journey to the kingdom of old-man land by taking the stairs.

Pax Domini sit semper vobiscum