The Down Range Forum
Member Section => Down Range Cafe => Topic started by: billt on November 27, 2017, 06:59:25 AM
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Like a lot of people, I don't get the proper amount of exercise. Especially since I retired. So I went out and bought a treadmill. It's hard to keep up the routine, but when I told my doctor about it, he praised my efforts and told me to keep it up. Then I noticed something. Why is it on every treadmill you see at a doctors office, clinic, or hospital, right next to every one of them is a set of those defibrillator shock paddles? All ready to go. That sure doesn't give me much confidence to climb aboard one.
It reminded me of when my dad was alive, and I would go down to Texas to visit him. Most every town in Texas has some type of a rodeo going on every weekend. At some of them you can even buy a ticket to ride a bull. Then, when you go down to the chute they put the bull in for you to climb on, right next to it they've got 2 ambulances parked, with 5 or 6 Paramedics standing around. And they wonder why they don't sell many tickets?
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Exercise for the sake of exercise is hard to do and enjoy. I work hard three to four days a week, and the other days I struggle to stay active. Sad part is the hard work days are bunched, bookended by minimal work days.
When our son-in-law discovered a new exercise machine for their gym, I gained a high end eliptical trainer. For just over three months I have worked hard to try and walk an hour every day possible or spend time on the machine. I have learned that when I get my walk in I sleep much better, I get up feeling much better, and the next day goes much better. Problem is staying motivated!
Walking the streets or shoulders of a highway is not exciting, standing on a machine in the family room takes some real mental work to get into, and even though our society is attempting to push exercise and outside activity, I find that most of these new "trails" (sidewalks through natural area) are built to exclude those who need them most: Truck drivers! I constantly come across signs telling me I am not welcome, and have been chased out of them, because I am not allowed to even park bobtail in their mostly empty lots.
It appears that the liberal nanny state that pushes these tax funded ammenaties (spell check sucks when it doesn't correct you) is also a hateful and elite crowd of snobs.
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I qualify for the Silver Sneakers through my health plan, but find the gym and treadmill not that much fun... I try to ride my bicycle about 45min or so daily, enjoy the change of scenery and fresh air... especially since the weather is cooling off down here... bought one of the tadpole trikes (Catrike), but people keep trying to run over me on city streets...so back the the two wheeler...I have an Indian (east) vegetarian for a MD... if I haven't lost 5 pounds each visit, I get the "lecture"
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We got a nice 55" flat screen for our bedroom, (where the treadmill is). And that passes the time quicker when I'm on it. It still is ALWAYS hard to muster up the gumption to get on the damn thing every morning.
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Mine is in front of our TV as well, and I find a good action movie really helps.
Quick thought: "In your bedroom" I would think you could just put your leg model champion on the bed and race your way to fitness like a carrot on a stick in front of a horse ;)
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Mine is in front of our TV as well, and I find a good action movie really helps.
Quick thought: "In your bedroom" I would think you could just put your leg model champion on the bed and race your way to fitness like a carrot on a stick in front of a horse ;)
What I used to do all night, now takes me all night to do! ;D
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I recommend you go too the gym between 9-2 find a hot milf in yoga pants, and get on the machine behind her. You wull be amazed at how many miles you will have gone. 8)
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I bought a really nice elliptical machine and was on that puppy religiously every other day. It definitely helps if you can watch tv at the same time. I moved to Boise, however, and it is stuck in one of my two storage units until I get back to work and buy a new house.
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You guys have me breaking out in a sweat just reading about what you do.
I get up, walk out to the truck outside the garage. Park in a parking garage walk 50 feet get into an elevator. Then, at the end of the day the reverse back to home.
Isn't that enough?
Can I get a gold star if I walk to lunch a block away?
You guys have me out of breath now.....
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The gym I used to go to had a bank of TVs in front of the treadmills and elliptical trainers. One was always tuned to FOX News. I find that watching that One Lucky Guy show at noon is entertaining and the women are good looking enough to get my heart rate up. ;)
Unfortunately, the gym management decided that FOX was too controversial and tuned that TV to CNN. :P
Now, the smell of pure BS makes exercise impossible. :-X
Crusader Rabbit
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You guys have me breaking out in a sweat just reading about what you do.
I get up, walk out to the truck outside the garage. Park in a parking garage walk 50 feet get into an elevator. Then, at the end of the day the reverse back to home.
Isn't that enough?
Can I get a gold star if I walk to lunch a block away?
You guys have me out of breath now.....
You've got me beat. I walk to my mailbox at least once a day, except Sunday. It's a few feet from the bottom step of my front porch but I use my back door and go around the house. It's not far at all from the sidewalk back to the mailbox either. I can cover it in a few steps. I walk back to the back door from the mailbox and if I had mail I'm done for the day. If there's nothing in the box I check again later. Sunday if I don't have anywhere to go I'm not likely to even get dressed. Retirement is great. I recommend it to all my friends. ;)
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Retirement is great. I recommend it to all my friends.
Yes it is. I knew I would love it when I finally got there. I lose track of what day it is, because it really doesn't matter. Whenever I go somewhere, and they want me to sign and date something I always have to ask the date. Many younger people just look at me strange. I tell them, don't worry, in another 40 years, you'll get it.
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Yes it is. I knew I would love it when I finally got there. I lose track of what day it is, because it really doesn't matter. Whenever I go somewhere, and they want me to sign and date something I always have to ask the date. Many younger people just look at me strange. I tell them, don't worry, in another 40 years, you'll get it.
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't fool yourself you old fossil. It's old not retired that erases the dates. 8)
I was retired for 4 months and it only took a couple of weeks for me to lose track of the date. Maybe I can stay retired next time. I was just getting to where I really enjoyed it and felt like doing something.
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Yeah, yeah, yeah. Don't fool yourself you old fossil. It's old not retired that erases the dates. 8)
I was retired for 4 months and it only took a couple of weeks for me to lose track of the date. Maybe I can stay retired next time. I was just getting to where I really enjoyed it and felt like doing something.
It was different for me. The only time in my entire career I was ever out of work, was from mid August to after Thanksgiving after 9/11. I remember every date and day because I was out pounding the pavement. Now I don't care about dates because there is no reason to. Every day and date feels the same. They all belong to me. I don't have to bother with trying to sell them to someone else for a paycheck.
I get up every day, and there is no thinking about how long until the weekend. Or when payday is. (All my income is directly deposited into my account). I don't have to do anything. Yesterday a couple of new guns I ordered came in. I had to ask the date to fill out the 4473. When I was leaving I told the girl, "Happy Thanksgiving".... Which was last week. I felt stupid, and she probably thought I was getting senile. My wife and I don't celebrate it with a big meal because it's silly. We have no family, and there is just the 2 of us. It's just another day of the week. (She did make really good homemade pizza).
Back when I was working, Thanksgiving and Christmas meant a lot. Because there was ALWAYS a block of time off during both Christmas and Thanksgiving. Now I'm always off. When you're stuck in rush hour traffic, you don't bother looking at your speedometer because it's meaningless. So are days and dates when you're retired. Regardless of what age you are.
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I lose track of the date constantly. When I ask someone what the date is I have to think about what month number goes with that day number. The day of the week is another story. Every day my routine is to check my email, look at tvguide.com to see what's on and write down what I'm watching and what I'll have to catch up with online when I can, and finally, visit 3 forums, this one being first and quickest to read. I really need to exercise instead of sitting here all day but it's too hard to get motivated.
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That "what day/date is it?" thing had me in a steady state of "inquiring minds" until I got a Casio watch that displays Day, Date and Month as well as temperature, barometric pressure, altitude, and several other things I have no need to use and haven't learned how.
But the Day, Date, Month feature is constantly displayed and has proven very useful on those rare occasions when it actually matters. Like, is NCIS on tonight or is it NCIS LA, or NCIS New Orleans?
Hazcat still works part time and is good enough to provide me with a photocopy of his weekly schedule so I don't make an unnecessary 3-block trip over to his house for coffee. All I have to do is look at the schedule, look at my watch, and brew my own pot on his "on" days. Of course, I brew my own pot everyday because I like my coffee better than his.
Yeah, retirement is pretty much okay except for one thing: When you don't have anything to do, how do you know when you're done?
FWIW,
Crusader Rabbit
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1-1/2 to 2-1/2 years to retirement...I’ll be dirt poor but working is getting old!
As to time, haven’t worn a watch in 25 years...I get up it’s dark, I go home it’s dark. In between it’s just boring!
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Yes it is. I knew I would love it when I finally got there. I lose track of what day it is, because it really doesn't matter. Whenever I go somewhere, and they want me to sign and date something I always have to ask the date. Many younger people just look at me strange. I tell them, don't worry, in another 40 years, you'll get it.
I do that all the time. all of the jobs just seem to blend together. i really do hate it.
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That "what day/date is it?" thing had me in a steady state of "inquiring minds" until I got a Casio watch that displays Day, Date and Month as well as temperature, barometric pressure, altitude, and several other things I have no need to use and haven't learned how.
But the Day, Date, Month feature is constantly displayed and has proven very useful on those rare occasions when it actually matters. Like, is NCIS on tonight or is it NCIS LA, or NCIS New Orleans?
Hazcat still works part time and is good enough to provide me with a photocopy of his weekly schedule so I don't make an unnecessary 3-block trip over to his house for coffee. All I have to do is look at the schedule, look at my watch, and brew my own pot on his "on" days. Of course, I brew my own pot everyday because I like my coffee better than his.
Yeah, retirement is pretty much okay except for one thing: When you don't have anything to do, how do you know when you're done?
FWIW,
Crusader Rabbit
I have an old Casio watch that I broke the band on because the rubber gets weak over time. I carried it in my pants pocket with no band for several years then finally got another band that fit my big fat wrist. It wasn't long after that that the part where the end of the pin goes in the hole broke off. I took the other half of the band off too and put the watch back in my pocket where I still carry it. It doesn't have a light or alarm but it does have the day and date displayed at all times, although it's kind of small. I have to change the battery about once every 7 years but it just won't stop working. Whenever it does crap out on me I'll know I got my money's worth. I think I have less than a dollar per year invested in it as is.
When I had a Swiss watch made by a company that made watches for 140 years the thin leather band rotted through in no time. I put another band on but the watch broke while still fairly new. That's when I switched back to another Casio digital. BTW mechanical watches don't work right in close proximity to the welders that cars are assembled with. One time I was on a job where me and another guy switched jobs every half hour. After 20 minutes he came over and stood there and I had to ask what he wanted. His mechanical watch said that 30 minutes had passed. My theory is that right when you hear the BZZZT of the welder there's a magnetic field that holds the escapement long enough for the gear to turn more than one tooth at a time. On some of the jobs like the one he was doing the transformer is only inches away from your hand.
I didn't mean to get this far off topic but here's a song to help make things better. ;)
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9doKHmkx928
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Mr. Wabbit,
Does Haz still have an issue with raccoons finding a suitable place to relieve themselves? He had a pool once upon a time...hilarious.