Wednesday,
January 23, 2002

Back on the free weights again

Another nice fringe benefit of getting the help pages finished and off for inclusion is that I now have the time to go to the gym in the basement at work. I actually started on the free weights last Friday, but this weekend was kind of a wash when it came to fitness, Monday was insane, and Tuesday I spent waiting for the DSL man to work his magic, critiquing manuscripts for FutureClassics, running out to pick up some windows for the dollhouse I'm working on (shown at right), then actually running out to FutureClassics. By the time it came to do the wrap-up, I was nodding off in my chair.

So today was the day I grabbed the bag of gym clothes, headed down to the dungeon and did Krista's recommended workout for a tyro weightlifter. The scary thing was, I could feel the difference between using free weights and using the machines. If you don't believe me, try it for yourself -- it's a hell of a lot more intense doing shoulder presses and one-arm dumbbell rows with free weights than with the Nautilus equivalents. And doing ab crunches while balanced on a Swiss ball in the small of your back -- man, YOU try that and tell me you're not getting a thorough workout. I'm breaking into a sweat just thinking about it again.

Afterwards, the Man from McKinney ambled down for crosstraining, so we hopped on the machines for a half hour and watched while a weather bulletin came on with a fairly impressive squall line moving across our neck of the woods. Of course, the gym is in the basement (hence my semi-humorous reference to the "dungeon"), so we didn't get the full impact of what that orange and red streak on the radar screen meant until we got back up to the 7th floor and saw water gushing from the sky and hailstones rattling on the windows.

"Are you going out in that?" I asked.

"Are you insane?"

Fair enough. So we went into the conference room to get a better view (nice big picture windows), and watched as traffic almost came to a stop on 114 while drivers tried to crowd beneath various overpasses to wait out the hailstorm. Which just looked really stupid to me -- it was a recipe for getting rear-ended if ever I saw one. I mean, I can understand the desire to get the hell out of a hailstorm, but stopping underneath an overpass IN THE MIDDLE OF A HIGHWAY is not the way to do this, people.

What am I saying? This is Dallas, after all -- sane driving just isn't what they do around here.

Anyway, we decided to grab dinner and give the traffic a bit more time to settle down, then I came home and started working again on POP. David (my main character) had poked his head up on the way to work this morning to ask when I was going to get my ass back into gear again, as he had a assistant museum curator's heart to win and an evil queen to defeat, not to mention his weekly lunch date with his buddies. For a detenured sociology prof with intermittent psychic abilities, he can be a major pain in the ass.

So it looks like I'm back on the job with the book. God, if I could only do what I did with the user guide, I'd have the whole thing finished by the end of February. Granted, I'd spend the rest of my life wibbling in a corner, but it might just be worth it. . .