This past week I began doing something I’ve been putting off for a long time now. In an attempt to lose some of the extra pounds I’ve been carrying around, and at my doctor’s urging, I enrolled in a water aerobics class at the YMCA in Rocky Mount. Three days a week, from 9:30 to 10:30 a.m., you will find me there, exercising with my new friends in the heated swimming pool.

The major reason for doing this is to improve my overall general health. I suffer from high blood pressure and a couple of other minor problems, and the doctor tells me that losing weight could very possibly eliminate, or at least moderate, these conditions, maybe even to the point that I won’t have to take medication for them any more. And I like that prospect. I don’t like to take medicine, even Tylenol. Maybe that’s …