Getting Old is HELL!!!

Now I know why our elders always shook their heads when we did all the crazy things when we were young and foolish. If they'd only just told us how we would "reap what we sow......" Jumping up and down on concrete cheerleading has just about done me in. I have a bad hip, bad knees and now my ankles and feet hurt. The doctor says it is just arthritis and I just have to live with it. I'm not a complainer and I have a high threshold for pain but still.....sometimes I look like Tim Conway's character back on the Carol Burnett show when he was the old guy who slowly shuffled along. That is exactly what I look like after sitting down for any length of time and then having to get up and move. And I've been so active my entire life. I don't know how easy it will be for me to stop. I want to keep moving so I can keep moving but am I doing more damage? Don't know yet. All I know is - now I know why some parents shelter their children and don't want them to play contact sports and stuff. It isn't that they are worried about them getting hurt then. It's all about the quality of life later on. But hindsight is 20/20. C'est la vie!