Perpetual Ruminations

Sunday

Time is running down fast, so I better get my butt sat down here and write today's entry. I've been doing great so far this month, and have now passed the half way mark. The only discrepancy is Monday the second, which ended up being kind of late before I made it in here. I had my entry written and posted before midnight, my time, but unfortunately, WdC time is later, so it doesn't show an entry for the second. I'm good with it, but one of these months I'm going to have every day covered in here, and on the calendar next door.

I work the closing shift tonight, and it's going to be even later getting done, since there is a meeting in the store. It's kind of nice doing a closing shift again, and I especially enjoy being done with work by noon on Saturday, and not having to be back until four in the afternoon on Sunday. It will change this summer, but for now, this is terrific.

So, how did I spend my time today? I woke up when Rhonda's alarm went off, but since I won't get home until late, I rolled over and snoozed some more. It works great for her, too. If I get up with her, we have coffee and talk a bit, then she gets ready for work and I get in her way. But, this way, I stay in bed, get a little more sleep, and she gets ready much faster. Soon enough she is back in the bedroom to put make-up on, get dressed, and coax my sorry butt out of the bed. She brings the dogs up with her, so I cuddle them while I watch her get ready. Once she's done, she comes over and gets her own snuggles, drags me out of bed, and we enjoy a cup of coffee together and talk a bit before she has to leave.

Once she is off for work, I use the bathroom, get myself another cup of coffee, and set out to do the days chores. It varies, and today I had a report to send off, as well as a fax. Once that was done, I changed into my work-out cloths, put some good tunes on, and started my stretches. It felt kind of odd doing them before noon instead of after, but it felt good, too.

Once I was all stretched out, I put in twenty minutes on the bike. It's a regular bike set up on a resistance stand, so it can be used like a stationary bike. My legs handled it pretty well, but my butt tends to get sore. It's going to take a while to toughen my butt up for riding this summer. Once I had my time in on the bike, I transferred myself over to the Gazelle Glider.

The glider does just that. it's kind of similar in mechanics to a glider rocker. Only on this, you stand, of course, and it also has handles that move in sequence with the foot pads. It's a combination of arm and leg movement, using both to power it. It's very low impact, and does well with my back problems. I would say it's similar to a ski machine crossed with a treadmill. Someplace I have a disc that shows more exercises that can be done, but I haven't gotten to that point yet.

I was doing thirty minutes on the Gazelle, but since I started on the bike, again, today, I figured I would do fifteen minutes on the bike and fifteen minutes on the Gazelle. Well, close anyway. I ended up with twenty on the bike, as I said, and another twenty-six on the Gazelle. Next in my routine is the heavy bag.

It's a canvas punching bag, suspended from the ceiling. I put in ten minutes on that, trying to work on keeping my feet moving while I do alternative punching sequences. I don't have an actual routine yet, and no, I've not practiced any form of boxing for many years. I was about twelve the last time I went to the gym to practice boxing. We had a boxing ring and training on the top floor of City Hall when I was a kid, and I went up there and did a little boxing practice as a kid. I was too young to join, so it was very basic stuff, and it was only one summer. From what I remember, I spent most of my time doing calisthenics and running around the perimeter of the room.

I will have to look into some instructional videos for the heavy bag, but for now, it's just building up some stamina. I try to keep myself moving, and therefore burn up some calories while getting myself into a little better shape. Once I get some stamina built up, I can move on to some actual routines on the thing.

Right now, I'm doing about an hour of exercise, however, today I went on for seventy minutes. I will continue to do about the same, shooting for an hour of exercise plus the fifteen minutes I spend stretching. That makes a total of seventy-five minutes per workout. I'm almost there. Once I get up to seventy-five minutes, I'll likely stay there. At least, I'll stay at one hour of exercising, whether it's on the bike, the Gazzelle, the bag, or whatever combination of them. I may also add in some workouts on the body ball in the not too distant future. Again, it will have to be limited to a full work-out in sixty minutes, plus whatever amount of time I spend stretching.

Okay, so after the work-out I washed up, since I had a pretty good sweat going. Then I cooked up some dinner and logged my exercise and foods on MyFitnessPal while I ate. Once that was all logged, I read some posts by my friends, offered some encouragement and then headed over to Facebook.

I did the same, read some posts and left some comments. I tend to stay updated more through Facebook with my children than by talking to them on the phone. It's alright, it works out fine that way, and it seems when they do call, it's usually right at the exact wrong time. Either that, or I miss the call completely. So, I do Facebook, keep in touch and updated with family and of course some friends.

One of my friends in there was also my neighbor and best friend when I was very young. I had a huge crush on her back then, and crushed was what my heart felt when her family moved away. Years later, shortly after I got married to my first wife, we moved back to the little town I had grown up in, and rented an apartment over the Corner Bar. I was surprised to discover Kelly was now my neighbor, again. She had just had her first child, and we would soon be having ours. I soon discovered that the crush was still there, but nothing ever became of it except for us remaining friends.

In time, I moved closer to work, she moved to the same town, but we now lived a bit further apart. Even so, we kept in touch that summer, and through the winter. The following spring, we moved again, and once again, we kind of became more distant. I don't think we would have, except I joined the service that year and soon was far away.

We never got back in touch after I got out of the service, and many years later I divorced my first wife. I thought of her quite often, and was tempted to try and look her up. But, then I would think about the possibility of her being together with someone, having a family, and didn't see any reason to pursue it further. Years passed, and I met Rhonda, my current wife and best friend. We lived in Minnesota when we met, but soon we moved to South Dakota and started a fresh life together here.

A couple of years ago, I was surprised to see a friend request in Facebook; Kelly! She had looked me up and soon we were staying updated once again. She still lives in Minnesota, and ended up remarried. I don't know for sure when she got together with her current husband, but it's kind of interesting how our lives have paralleled over the years. It's also interesting how that friendship in our childhood has lasted over the years, and all the distance between us.

Well, now that I have wondered around in my thoughts a bit, I should get this finished. I have about an hour left to do my Bible study before I have to get ready to go to work.