End of the Patriarchy?
2007-06-29, 4:29 p.m.

Day 1041

I was justifiably chastised by Ms. Circe for trying to insure that Zach ask Jill�s dad for permission to ask Jill to marry him. So. To avoid Circe�s swift right foot, (She threatened bodily harm!! Such a tease!!) I�ll be changing my advice to Mr. Zach. Instead, I think it�d be nice if he asked Jill�s parents for their permission to ask Jill the big question. (It�s hard to buck the patriarchy when you�re in it!!) (Harder still to see it)

Like it�s going to come as a surprise anyhow. The two of them have been to plenty of weddings recently. I know Jill is taking notes. I think she�s got a pretty good idea of what things will be like, or at least what she wants. The only thing that may not be set in stone yet is an actual date. That�ll come soon enough. The only thing I asked of those two is that they let me hit 50 before they make me a grandfather. Word has it that I�m safe there. Cindy? Not so sure. That�s another whole year off, she may not make it. (Right now, I have 49.25 guaranteed. Just gotta get to next March with no bun in the oven. Seems like a safe bet.)

Friday morning. Another hour of quality time with Gary the Sadistic Bastard in spin class. He was in rare form this morning � rarer than usual in fact. Of the 55 minutes we actually spend pedaling, I think 75 of them were spent out of the saddle. Wait, that doesn�t seem right. It must have been more like 175 minutes out of the saddle. He said we�d be working our hamstrings, quads & glutes. Right now (Friday afternoon) all those parts of my body would agree with that statement. Holy crap. I still have a nice �burn� feeling working in those areas. Also went through 2 full 25 oz water bottles in one class. Unheard of. Did another bottle while punishing the weight machines. Consequently, this weeks weigh in will be put off till tomorrow. 75 oz. of water translates to nearly 6 lbs taken in. Sure, it�s replacing some sweat, but could one person sweat out 2+ quarts of water in an hour? I�m afraid to know. (I looked it up. Found this. 24 liters in 12 hours. Lets call it 2 quarts an hour. Sheesh. Your stomach can only process about 20 oz of water an hour. One could dehydrate rather quickly is seems. Might better take up swimming, eh?

Oh! Saw the oddest thing at the gym this morning. I was finishing up my lap of the nautilus gear, being a good boy and doing my ab crunches. (4 sets of 12 at 195lbs a crunch. One day I WILL have nice abs) Anyhow. I have a clear shot of most of the cardio gear from the ab cruncher. Across the room, where the ellipticals each have their own private video monitor, a lady was cruising away. I�m not sure what she was watching, but I think it was some Baptist revival Christian broadcasting network. (Jesus TV at the gym at 7am. Is nothing sacred?)

Again with the anyhow. They get to one of the parts of the sermon where everyone is so enraptured they raise their arms in some �praise Jesus� move I do not understand at all. (is having your hand 18 inches closer to heaven (if heaven is indeed �up�) supposed to be a good thing? What do you get out of it?) So I can see the people on the TV doing the arm raising thing � and the lady on the elliptical is following along! Letting go of the handles so she can raise her arms for what ever reason. Riding the Rapture Express. Now, I�ve spent a whole lot of time on those ellipticals (even the exact one she was on). It�s difficult to go at any sort of decent pace on those things with out holding on to something. Think maybe Jesus was holding her up? She had her arms up, waving them all over the place. I�m amazed she didn�t end up sprawled on the floor. Maybe she just wasn�t going fast enough to get all out of kilter. I don�t know. If it pleases her, fine. I just don�t want to have to watch her go flying off the equipment when Jesus gets distracted and has to let go of her for a moment. She was a big girl too. Quite a thump waiting to happen.

Well, time to scoot on out of here. Got to try and have a fun weekend. I�ll be on vacation all next week, so updates might be sporadic. Family reunion in Boston next weekend, taking The Bob with us. Ought to be a real trip. Hope the hotel we�re staying in has a gym. It might be the only relief I get.

I�m outta here. Have a great weekend everybody.

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