Treadmills & Elves

  Original? Nope. Easy? Yep. 

 

Chuckie is tired. He's been flying back and forth to the North Pole every night for weeks now.  

Mommy is also tired. (And quite thankful for the endless ideas on Pinterest).   That said, he's only here two more nights.. I'm kind of bummed he's getting ready to leave.

On to the treadmill portion of today's post (try as I might, I can't come up with any kind of segue from a magical elf to a decrepit but beloved treadmill...). 

It's no secret that I've been a part of the regular 5:30am crowd at the gym for eight years now. Early? Yep. Easy? Nope. Is there another option? Not one that works very well for this girl. 

This 5:30 am crowd has remained virtually the same over these 8 years. Some have disappeared, others have joined.  We don't know everyone's names, but we certainly know each other's faces. And. We know each other's machines. There's an unwritten rule that you don't get on someone else's machine - whether it's a bike, treadmill or elliptical.  

There are many, many shiny, fancy new treadmills. They hook up to smart phones and have fancy TVs and amazing graphics and incredible cushioning. And until about 10 days ago, there were four very old beat-to-hell treadmills. Those four were next to each other. These things have no place to set one's phone, no way to know an average pace or to track one's run other than time and distance.  Running on these machines is actually probably HARDER on one's body than running on the street. But these machines rock. 

And between about six runners from our early morning group, those four machines were like gold.  (Our schedules rotated enough that rarely were all six of us there at once battling for the machines). 

About 10 days ago, one of these had an 'out of order' sign on it. And I knew the beginning of the end was near.  I knew that it would cost more to fix that one than to bring in a new one.  I was right. Within days - the broken one AND one that had been perfectly fine - GONE.  Over the weekend, only two remained. I soaked up my Saturday run on one of them during a solid 6+ miles. 

And today, sigh, only one of those two was functioning. It's as if when that first one went down those days ago, the others started to fall apart. Like those couples you hear about who have been together 60+ years ago and one dies, and the other dies within hours? Yeah. 

Three of us runner girls were there this morning. One got lucky and got the only functioning old one. The other two of us were on the newer beasts.  And we had an entire conversation about the demise of our beloved machines.  As grueling and unfamiliar as it was, we got through our runs, the two of them on a speed workout and me on intervals.

Did I really take a picture of a treadmill? Yep. Am I being a tad over-dramatic? Yep.   Will I live?  Uh, yeah. 

But am I seriously bummed about this situation? Hell yes. Eight years of a routine & a machine is a long time!!! 

So as we near (at mach speed, I might add) the end of 2014, I suppose I'll welcome a new machine to my routine with the new year. 

'tis the season!

Yep. We're 5.5 days from Christmas. And I'm sitting here blogging with all the time in the world. 

Wait. What was that noise? Oh right.  It was my readers choking on their cocktail as they sit down for a quick read. Or walk and read on their phone.

At the moment our kid has frosting in her hair, we're pretty sure our dog has poo on her paws, there are presents to wrap, cards to finish, and several more gifts still to get. We have two basketball games tomorrow, family stuff on Sunday, and we promised said kid we'd go see the lights and the tree downtown. And we can't forget to move the Elf. MOVE THE ELF.  

'TIS THE SEASON!

I really do love it. It's exhausting and we're thinly spread but it is fun. And seeing Eileen light up at mention of her elf or Santa or gifts for her friends and things we donate to charity and the music and the lights, that makes the chaos worth it. 

I was certain that last year when she was 7 it would be our last "magical" season.  I was wrong and I'm so very glad. Who knows what next year will bring when she's 9, but I'm stoked for this seemingly extra year.  (And of course, we still have several years to go with Edie Kay, so that helps!)

Christmas Break has officially begun. No school or work until January 6! This, of course, means that I don't have to wear real people clothes until January 6.  I'm pretty sure that part alone trumps all the gifts and parties and food. 

Ok. that's it for today. I'm off fix a bow on the big wreath outside.  

'TIS THE SEASON!

Testing from mobile...

Curious how it looks and about posting pictures... 

Truly fascinating entry, no?

third time's a charm?

I actually have no idea what attempt this is at the re-start of blogging. Every year around Christmastime - when I design the cards and put the blog address on the cards - I decide I should actually start AGAIN to blog. So in this attempt we'll see if I can get some posts up here for any of you who get a card, and any of you who might decide to come check in and see what's up. 

So in this post, I'll be brief. I just updated some of the pictures and such, seeing as how most of them were well over two years old (now if I could just update the pictures in the HOUSE - if one didn't know better - it would appear Eileen is 4 years old - FTR, she's 8. EIGHT).

In my attempt to reignite the blog factor - I'm making an effort (in my head) to reconcile with the fact that not EVERY post has to be epic in length, or have some great lesson tied to it. So, fingers crossed, right? 

That's kind of it, for now. Stay tuned for updates of teh past year (little to tell - and these days - I think that's good news).