The personals

The Friday Five:

1. What is one thing you don't like about your body?

It's 48 years old. (It's hard not to dwell on these things.) I think it's probably a good thing that at about the same time our "can't do that any more" list begins to get long, we forget how much fun some of the things on it are. I mean, were. Memory, they say, is the second thing to go. What's the first? I forget.

2. What are two things you love about your body?

(a) It's still here. (b) It's 50 pounds lighter than it was.

3. What are three things you want to change about your home?

(Picture me stumbling over that last step that isn't there.) "Home"? I thought we were talking about my body. (a) Warmer. (b) Bigger. (c) More bookshelves.

4. What are four books you want to read this year?

(a) The Free Fall of Webster Cummings by Tom Bodett. (b) The Century of Sex by James R. Petersen. (c) In Our Defense by Ellen Alderman and Caroline Kennedy. (d) Atlanta's Half Century by Furman Bisher and Celestine Sibley. (There are more books than that on my "in progress" shelf, but I wanted to restrict myself to books that I haven't really started yet. I've almost finished Carl Sagan's "The Demon-Haunted World.")

5. What are five promises you have kept to yourself?

I can't count that high. (a) Love my wife. (b) Love my daughter. (c) Love my son. (d) Lose weight. (e) Get stronger.