Oh The Pain
After all the bitching and moaning I wrote about income taxes, my wife and I recently received our vindication - a pretty decent federal tax refund. Since discovering that monetary jewel at the bottom of our joint 1040 a month ago, active conversations emerged on how to spend the money, if at all. This, incidentally for you single people, is what you do when married.
By the time the feds opened up our checking account and plopped in that golden egg, we had agreed on how to spend the dough.
A computer? No.
A plasma TV from Best Buy? Tempting, but no.
After thinking it over, we bought something quite unexpected - an elliptical exercise machine from Galyans.
Now, I'm not all that into gyms. Had a membership for two years, and burned out on all the sweat, grunting, wet spots in odd places on stranger's unitards, blaring televisions, and the vacant stare of people peddling, peddling, peddling away from reality to God knows where. So I quit.
Since then I've truly missed that satisfied, energized feeling you get after a hard workout. You may feel tired, winded, and look like hell, but your mind is generally clearer, and your spirit renewed. Or, at least that's what I've been reminding myself. After three days of the elliptical, I feel like hell.
An elliptical is pure motion, and one of the most graceful exercise machines available. With your feet and arms, you move like a well-oiled machine in a levitated, forward motion. By standing, instead of sitting and riding a bike or what-have-you, your feet fly off the floor, and for brief hallucinatory moments you feel like you're running on air. Your sense of reality shifts into overdrive when you stop, and run backwards, as if you're reliving the previous 10 minutes in reverse.
By the time you get off the beast, your legs have that spongy, wobbly feeling similar to stepping out of a rollercoast car. Your mind is silent, balance is highly questionable, and the cats scurry to avoid the staggering, bleary-eyed neanderthal.
Despite the hard startup process, which always happens after elongated periods of relative inactivity, I am thoroughly enjoying the elliptical. I just need to take things a little...slower...
Comments
You need to think again about your exercise high. The NYT questions its existence in today's Science Times. An interesting article.
Posted by: Matt at May 21, 2002 7:12 PM
t,
mat here. wanted to tell you congrats about your new gym. sometimes when my new wife and i come into money, we spend it on things i don't feel i need to get either. that's why i talked her into letting me buy a spiderman skateboard from walmart last night. hee hee!
also, and actually the reason i'm posting, where did you find the icons you're using on your comp (as seen at hivelogic..)? looking at your setup, i'm interested in your choice to put folders in the default area next to your hdd and network items. i think i might just try that - i store things inside the ever-lovely "users" folder and leave them there. it's kinda a pain in the arse going to it all the time. ugh. :) i love seeing other people's set-ups because it always gives insight into new ways of doing things. just the other day, i got a mail because of my desktop @ hl because of the weather app in my title bar.
neato! have a great day,
mat
Posted by: Mathew at May 22, 2002 8:56 AM
Peddling away from reality? I thought that was what happened when you watched QVC while on Zoloft. :)
Posted by: AJ Kandy at May 22, 2002 9:21 AM
