With the WiiFit still out of commission, I've been driven elsewhere to try keeping up some kind of exercise regime. The obvious thing to do was go to the community's clubhouse and the fitness center there. It was, before we got the WiiFit, one of those things I always meant to get around to using but never did, and somehow there wasn't the reason to start that felt natural to me. Having to replace the WiiFit work, that felt natural enough. I still worried, you know, what if the regulars there asked what I suddenly was doing there? Yes, they never would, but don't underestimate what shyness will do to a person.
I was nearly scared off by the guy saying ``Hello'' and looking me over as I walked in, but I just tried to let smiling and bobbing my head cover that, and that passed without being too awkward. He was also extremely interested in helping me adjust the stationary bicycle so that I could sit on it without too much discomfort. Actually, he started telling me, ``You pull it out'', without specifying what the ``it'' was --- the little bar that locks in the seat at a particular height --- so it just felt like odd, disconnected advice for which I thanked him.
The fitness machines in the center have neat little displays which report things like the total number of calories burned, calories burned per hour, rotations per minute, power in watts, and your current heart rate. That's particularly useful in tailoring your exertion to either a fat-burning or a cardiovascular-building objective. The thing is none of the bicycles and only one of the elliptical machines have sensors for this. Instead the bicycle screen blinks at me every couple minutes to say, Attach Telemetry Strap. There's no straps for anything around there. I can't wait to get back on the WiiFit and escape the feeling stationary bicycles are judging me.
Trivia: After abandoning and destroying the CSS Virginia/Merrimac, its crew marched 22 miles to Suffolk, Virginia, and then took the train to Richmond. Source: Monitor: The Story Of The Legendary Civil War Ironclad And the Man Whose Invention Changed The Course Of History, James Tertius deKay.
Currently Reading: Lead Us Into Temptation: The Triumph Of American Materialism, James B Twitchell.