Puff, puff, pant

Dang.

Couple weeks ago I decided I needed to start doing something physical again because I was feeling out of shape. Haven't been going to the gym (we let our memberships lapse) lately, and I spent most of my days sitting down. Cleaning and cooking and walking the dog would be my main physical activities. Not good.
So I've been rowing again. I bought that rowing machine a couple years ago, and it's a great machine and I like it, but I haven't been using it lately. So Friday I decided I'd start rowing every day. And Friday I almost died.
Then I left my shoes in Naples over the weekend so I didn't row early in the week. Today I sat down and made up a workout I figured I could actually handle to start doing every day: 150m at a stretch followed by a minute rest. 150 meters is like the distance to the mailbox or something, it's pathetic. I used to row 5000m at a time. Of course that was... damn, that was over a decade ago. Still.
So today I did 8 150m intervals (with a minute rest in between). That's only 1200m total. And along about interval number 6 I think I died. I swear! In fact I think I might still be dead. I managed to keep my pace down in the 1:40 range for a few of those intervals but by the last few I was struggling.
I can't believe that. That's awful. I'm going to have to be diligent about this for the next several weeks just so I don't embarrass myself.

Beware of In-Laws

Specifically, beware of sisters-in-law (my in-laws are actually quite cool).

Poor innocent Zora was struck down in the prime of her life this last weekend, losing her fight with the cargo van in the first round in a technical bumper-crushing.
She's still drivable of course, just needs some body work and a new bumper. I'll have to post a picture of the damage. Thanks to my sister-in-law, she'll be in the shop for at least a week starting on the 22nd... just about the time I was hoping to drive up to SC to get a job. Oh well. So I'll stay here for a few more weeks.

This is a cautionary tale, though. When you're backing a large vehicle, make sure you know if there's another vehicle somewhere behind it. Especially if it's red, because red cars are hard to see. Ahem.

Celebrate 10 July

On 10 July 1821, the United States formally took possession of Florida under the terms of the Adams-Onis Treaty with Spain. The U.S. had actually already occupied West Florida west of the Peridido River (though not actually the whole of West Florida, which began at the Apalachicola River) and American settlers made up the majority of the European population in Florida anyway; and Andrew Jackson didn't ride into town to raise the American flag over Florida until the 17th. The Spanish never did much with Florida anyway since there was no gold or silver, the land wasn't especially fertile, and the natives were frankly better at holding on to their land than the Spanish army was at taking it from them. Regardless, this is the day that Florida formally became part of the United States. We should raise a glass to this most enigmatic of states; orange wine might be the appropriate beverage.

Celebrate 9 July

Today is Independence Day in Argentina, commemorating that country's declaration of independence from Spain in 1816. If you have any fireworks leftover from the 4th, why not set them off now in celebration of the nation that gave us Eva Peron and the world's best Malbecs. (A glass of Malbec would be a good toast, in fact…)

Celebrate 8 July

The first reports of a UFO crash-landing at Roswell, New Mexico, were published on 8 July, 1947. Let's have a toast to the little green men who may or may not really exist.

A valid complaint

Why have over-the-counter pills gotten so hard to get out of their packaging? Used to be you just pushed the pill through the backing, no problem. Now you have break the damn package apart and peel a paper layer off the back end or the pill won't come out at all. What the hell is the deal with that? And don't tell me it's for the kids' sake; children managed to live to adulthood before they started doing this just fine.

Celebrate the weekend, too

I see I've been chastised for taking a little break...
Well, only fair. I actually did have celebrations for the 5th and 6th, but I was out of town and away from the computer. Actually I'm glad Rambling prompted me because I really like the one for the 6th.

July 5:
Dolly the sheep, the first mammal cloned from an adult, was born in 1996. Hooray for cloning! Or not. Depending on your point of view this could be cause for celebration or cause for a wake. Either way you could get drunk. (And since Dolly was Scottish, getting drunk seems the only reasonable celebration at all, unless you like haggis.)

July 6:
On this date in 1978, British-Maltese peace activist Yana Mintoff hurled three bags of horse manure onto the floor of the House of Commons to protest British military involvement in Northern Ireland. I don't know how this protest was supposed to fix anything, but what the hell. Somebody threw a sack of shit into Parliament. That's funny.

Celebrate July 7

This is the best day of the year to have the famous drink known as a Seven and Seven. One part Seagram's 7, one part 7-up, all parts tasty. (Actually I think both ingredients are nasty by themselves, but that's the beauty of mixing stuff together. Sometimes 1+1=3.)

Celebrating 4 July

On this date in 1776, the Second Continental Congress formally adopted the Declaration of Independence. Sweet.