I Heard the News This Morning

Meat Loaf has passed away and I'm shocked (he wasn't that old at 74) and flooded with sadness and a longing to hear all his old songs, starting with "Bat Out of Hell" and "Hot Patootie" (Rocky Horror Picture Show)... (Read more about the incomparable Meat Loaf here.) Jim Steinman passed away last year and together they formed an amazing partnership: lyrics and vocal strength, and the willingness to put on a fantastic operatic production. I only have a few of his songs on my workout mix but I own all three Bat Out of Hell albums in CD format, so I'll be ripping a few tracks this afternoon to add to my tune list. Thank goodness I still have iTunes on my old Mac (Apple discontinued that service a few years ago). Meanwhile, I have a "boom box" that I can play CDs on (because laptops don't come with CD drives anymore) and I don't feel like paying to download MP3s or whatever the latest format is since I already "own" the songs. 

The thermometer reads a single digit this morning. But it's the first morning I didn't feel sick since my son tested positive for Covid the first week of January. So I went to the gym after my son got on the school bus. While cardio wasn't amazing, it was decent and I did a full course (35 min). What was amazing was getting 19 pull-ups: totally unexpected! I was looking forward to seeing what round two would bring, but Snow Bird was hanging all over the Stretch Cage when I exited the Aerobics Room and I'm too impatient to sit around waiting for him to be done. 

I go to change and shower, where the shower rod falls down on me as I move the curtain because it's one of those temporary bars that's affixed with a twist and pressure like those removable doorway pull-up bars. Ugh. I managed to stand on tip-toes to balance the shower rod atop the lip of the shower walls so I can finish showering and not flood the floors. But one brisk pull of the shower curtain and it's down on the ground again. I did let the front desk know when I left. Someone taller than me will have to fix it.

It's finally double digits but just barely when I take the dogs to the park. I limit them to 25 minutes because not only is no one else coming to play, but these pups aren't thickly coated with fluffy feet like huskies or malamutes and they could get frostbite. They don't act cold but I'm not going to wait until they start shivering. At least the thermometer is on the positive side: last week I caught a reading of 1- and that's not something I want to be out in for any length of time. There's three portable heaters (donated by other members) in the shed at the dog park, and I periodically stand inside to warm my fingers when I check my phone. 

I have yet to find really warm gloves that have the dexterity to allow one to pull a phone out of the inner chest pocket to a down parka. I've got kid's Thinsulate snow-gloves on, and they're warm, but they're also thick and clunky... But the YakTrax grippers work really well for the frozen and icy snow, especially trudging up the 30 degree inclined to get to the shed on top. I've turned a few fellow dog park folks on to this product (available at Amazon, and a lesser version at Dick's Sporting Goods).

21 January 2021
Arctic Friday

Precor elliptical
Program 3
Time: 30 min + 5 min cd (5418)
Distance: 2.79
Cal: 307
HR: 86, 140-182

HGPU 19

Crunches 60
Piriformis/Hip/Pencil Stretch
60 Dead Bugs
Elbow Plank 60s
Quick Child’s Pose
Cat stretch 12x
Fire Hydrants 25 x 2
Bird Dogs 60s x 2
Child’s Pose
Push-Ups 25
Air Squats 25
Mild Mat stretch w 3 Eye Yoga