60 blocks east...

of where so many of those I care about were caught in a downpour while merrily engaged at the tribute concert the other night, we barely even got sprinkled on. Dottie and I were on our second trip back to my son's; when we went to feed the cats for the 2nd time that day, the doors of his garden shed were open (the grandkids had locked the padlock and left it somewhere in the house, lol). We went home and I dug up a spare padlock; we knew they had issued a thunderstorm warning and after we climbed the hill out of our ancient little neighborhood we started noticing limbs down; still it only sprinkled all the way there. The closer we got to his house the more and bigger the downed limbs were; he has one down in his backyard the size of my upper arm.

I am told that despite the soaking at the concert, a good time was had by all who were there the other night!

I did a bit of the shopping on Saturday, leaving the little dog that didn't like my cat in her kennel. Having gotten the check for the vacation hours that I hadn't used when I retired, I bought us a set of 600 thread-count sheets as a "present". They had a very small pattern on them; I couldn't feel it, but Dottie said with her psoriasis she couldn't sleep on them, so I returned them yesterday. I came home and unloaded, then went by my son's to feed their cats. One eats in a hurry, the other won't eat 'til the first one stops, but the first one thinks it's entitled to the other ones food. So I spent an hour and a half there with a magazine trying to cajole the first one into staying in my lap...things are never easy, it seems!

Today it's raining again; the dogs have just gone out for the 2nd time now Dottie's left for work and I'm waiting for the UPS man to bring me some things I ordered from ProSource. In the time I was off my diet, protein powder doubled in price (makes me wonder how much of what I bought came from China before the dog food scare!) so having bought some ZMA from them last month and been impressed with the price and quality, I thought I'd try some other things from them. Some creatine monohydrate, BCAA powder and acetyl-l-carnitine filled out my list at about half what I'd have paid otherwise.

Meanwhile, laundry is running and if the UPS guy shows up early enough I'll spend a few hours downstairs before Dottie comes home, along with taking care of John's pets. Since it's raining I really don't want all of that stuff sitting on the front sidewalk!

Amid the clutter...



The weight and extension benches I throw grill covers over just so Frankie isn't tempted to use his claws on them. Behind the pole with my tally board on it you can see the old 19" knob tune TV and perhaps the DVD/VCR below it, in front of the treadmill and the upright bike. The mountain bike some of you have seen before, back when I was down around 200...you will again by next summer as well!



The back extension bench I picked up on eBay, and a dumbell rack the way Dave Draper says Joe Gold made them in the original Gold's Gym...



Olympic bar and e-z curl bar set up for doing bicep curls...



The Weider 600 bench from Sears, with leg attachment. Rated for 300 pound user (which I no longer am) and 300 pound weight...

So that's my little gym. The floor is from Sam's Club and cost about $75; it's firm enough to do squats and such, comfortable enough to walk on barefoot (or sleep on if you're Frankie) and seems to be wearing well.

Dottie is off tomorrow, so I'll be playing hooky until Wednesday sometime!

May Monday be kind to you all!

alan