exulting in one's labors

Today I had 2 workouts. The first was at 7:40 am. I did 15 minutes on the bike, then 30 minutes of personal training. Now, the personal training is kind of like going to hell with a very nice person. This nice person hands you a jump rope and asks for 100 jumps. So I start jumping. After 20 jumps, I am gasping for breath like a fish. She smiles encouragingly and says, "you're at 20." I continue, tripping on my feet, catching the rope on my bun, at one point wrapping the rope like a figure 8 around my feet. She just keeps smiling at each stop, telling me how many jumps I've done. Are you seeing my point? Then we do something fairly easy, like laying flat on the floor and raising my body to a sitting position using only my abs. I'm just starting to "relax" when she hands me the 10 pound medicine ball and instructs me to lift it over my head while I sit up. And let's not forget, I'm paying this person. Now, I've pushed myself when I've worked out in the past. But I tend to give myself a nice big break. 20 bicep curls? Time to sit down, gulp some water, and feel self-congratulatory. But with the trainer, there is no time for self-congratulations (she does let me gulp water). By the time our half hour is up, I have no energy to feel smug and self-congratulatory. I'm merely thankful that my legs are carrying me to the car. Am I complaining? No, this is my choice and I'm glad I'm doing it. But wow, it is NOT rewarding, and I'm not getting addicted to working out, as some might expect. I'm sure in 3 months when I have a body of steel and can jump rope all the way around my neighborhood, I will feel smug and self-congratulatory. Just not now.
My second workout, however, was tremendously satisfying. I planted bulbs. Lots and lots of bulbs. And I transplanted some plants to a sunnier location so they will bloom next spring. I feel a huge sense of joy and anticipation, knowing that the 2 hours I spent grubbing in the dirt, levering out rocks, chopping up roots, ripping out weeds, will result in 6 months with beautiful tulips, daffodils, and other flowers.

The Wild Adventures of the Bayless Barnstormers

On Sunday we went geo-caching. We were surprised to find that there aren't any geocaches in Umstead park, but we went to a local lake instead and found 2 caches! Very exciting. We may be doing more of this, now that we have the hang of it.
Then last night, as we got in Dale's car to go to church, the garage door didn't open all the way. It didn't even open far enough for his car to get out. We struggled with it for a few minutes, until we saw that the primary board holding the chain rail was pulling away from the wall. That's when we freaked out and called our garage door repair guy. Then we were faced with a dilemma. Dale's car would be in the way of the door repairman. Opening the door manually is almost impossible, not to mention, probably dangerous, with a main support pulling out of the wall. But I had the bright idea that maybe, with Dale's amazing turning radius, we could at least angle his car away from the door opener. So I pulled out of the garage and Dale proceeded to execute a 25 zillion point turn, finally actually completely driving his car out of MY garage door! What a feat!
We got the door fixed today, at least for now...

Fringe Thinking

Last night's episode was fantastic! Lots of good things to observe.
We got confirmation that Peter is from the other side from the hippie chick (although that was pretty much already confirmed). This raises the interesting question: Olivia is able to move between universes without being ripped apart. How did Walter and young Peter do it? Was alt-Peter treated with cortexiphan?
We learned that sometimes, you just need a shot of mercury to feel better, especially if you're a shape shifter who's been in his body too long.
Nina Sharp produced two snow globes out of thin air - really, they did NOT match the decor of her office and there's no storage in there... Still, nice illustration.
Walter finally caught on that the shape shifter was still around. But here's my nit-pick. Olivia was staring at the partially rendered head of the shape shifter when the bell brought back her memories. But she looked like she was starting to recognize that head as Charlie's. At any rate, it was clearly not Nina Sharp's face forming there. Yet, in Nina's office, she was willing to believe Charlie's word on who the shape shifter was. I'm guessing this is because Olivia was willfully ignoring the possibility that her stalwart ally Charlie was really dead.

Garage Doors

We finally got around to getting Dale's garage door fixed today. Last winter it had an annoying habit of either not closing entirely, or closing partially then bouncing back up. As the weather warmed, the problem disappeared. Now that fall is back, the door has started misbehaving again. It's so bad that I literally go out and close the door for him, because it requires precise timing and multiple hits of the button to close the thing.
But today our lovely garage door guy came out and fixed it. It was like magic. The whole door got a tune-up, and he gave me some tips for tuning up my door as well.
But still, I cannot WAIT until we save up the money to re-side the house and replace those awful, super-heavy, old rickety garage doors!

Writing Day

And this is what I've got so far:



















...