Any of you who were Friends fans (and who hasn’t been at some point in the last 15 years) will remember the episode where Chandler wants to ‘quit the gym’. The episode is a bit over the top with extremely attractive membership personnel who keep everyone from successfully canceling their membership. While this doesn’t really have any basis in reality (at least not in my experience), but changing Gyms is a bit of a traumatic experience.
About a year and a half ago I changed gyms. My old gym was a long time local establishment. Great facility, but it had it’s drawbacks, mostly in the service area. The pricing was a bit high, there were lots of days the facility was closed and the staff spent the last two hours of the day vacuuming and cleaning. I typically went from 8-10pm, which were always the hours they were cleaning. I finally got tired of paying a premium price to listen to vacuums and get sprayed with bleach, so I changed facilities.
My new Gym is a 24 hour facility, lower priced than the previous place, but it has it’s drawbacks. First off it’s small, only about 10 cardio machines and a handful of weights and machines. That’s not really so bad, but they also don’t have locker rooms. There are two unisex bathrooms, so if you want to show up without your workout gear on, you have to wait for one of them to be open. The other thing I don’t like, and this may sound funny, it’s not very busy. Back when I was working in an office, I liked it when the gym was quiet. Now that I’m self employed, work from home, and just hang out with the dogs all day long, I kind of crave human company. Not nearly as much fun to go to an empty gym.
So here’s my dilemma. The city I live in offers some very good facilities. They include a pool, great workout facility, basketball courts and locker rooms. Pretty much full service, and actually $5/month cheaper than my current membership. Downsides? I don’t know how busy they are. That might be annoying. Also, it is about 5 minutes further away from my house than my current gym. The other thing is it’s a public facility. There has been a recent debate about how the facilities are losing money and have to have tax dollars to stay open. So is it evil of me to join the cheaper, tax funded location than to support the independent (well franchised) facility? Is it fair to independent facilities when the city provides a better service at a loss so they can be cheaper than their competitors? Is it right that independent businesses have to compete with these publicly funded gyms?
April 30th, 2008 at 12:58 pm by Bob Weber (Personal)
My grandfather’s recent passing has motivated me to move this blog back to it’s original intentions. One of my original goals was to relate stories about my life and my family’s life. My grandparents and great grandparents were somewhat colorful characters, and over the years we have quite a few stories. Some you may find interesting, some you may not, but I thought I would start out with the story that was probably my grandfather’s favorite.
My grandfather was always a spirited individual. I don’t think he was ever really bad, or dishonest, but he did have quite the attitude. One place this manifested was in his driving. When he was driving his old pickup he would go up and down the road at 30mph, not matter what the speed limit was, but get him behind the wheel of a car and it was a totally different situation.
Back when he was a kid in the early 40s, my great grandfather had a Buick. If memory serves it was a 1936 model. This car was a very powerful vehicle at the time, much faster than many things on the road. For those of you familiar with Loveland Colorado, one of the main roads through town, Lincoln Ave, was a two way street at the time (it’s been a one way for as long as I remember). There was an armory just south of 1st street on Lincoln, probably about the last thing on the way out of town. After the armory the road goes down a hill, continues for 2-3 miles before heading up what has been traditionally known as Derby Hill.
My grandfather, grandmother, and some other friends were headed out to the Kness farm one evening, and my grandfather was exceeding the speed limit. The local police were sitting in the armory parking lot in a Hudson Terraplane when my grandfather came flying by. Now the Terraplane was supposed to be a powerful vehicle as well, but the cops didn’t even bother to give chase.
The next day, my great grandfather received a letter in the mail from the police. They wanted him to come in for a traffic ticket. He went and and the cops told him his car had been speeding the night before. My great grandfather told them he wasn’t driving the car last night, so it couldn’t have been him. He then asked the police “If the car was speeding, why didn’t you stop it”. The cops responded “He was going so fast, by the time we would have gotten started he would have been over Derby Hill”
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:33 am by Bob Weber (Personal)
Yesterday morning my grandfather, Orville Weber, passed from this world to the next.
Eighty eight years old, he was still in reasonably good health and lived on his farm with my grandmother. He had started yesterday out like any other day, went to town for parts for his lawn mower, left the house on his golf cart and headed to the barn to work. All indications are that he probably started feeling bad, and headed back to the house. On his way across the yard, somewhere on that final trip his heart failed. A few minutes later my grandmother went out to mail a letter, and saw his golf cart stopped against some rocks. She called the paramedics, and the ambulance came. He was transported to McKee Medical Center, but there was nothing to be done. He was gone.
At 11:19 am I got a call from a friend of mine, another mutual friend of ours who drives truck for a local paving company had seen the ambulances headed to my grandparents house and wanted to know what was going on. Even though I live in another city - I knew about the incident minutes from the time it occurred. It makes me feel good to know that my grandfather was so well known and liked that even the paving crews that drove by his house every day were watching out for him.
My grandfather is a hard man to describe. He was a farmer all his life, and successful, but his life wasn’t defined by his major accomplishments. What was more important were all the little things he did. The way that he never backed down from anyone or anything. His quiet way where most people who didn’t know him thought he was so serious. The way he would tease all the old ladies at church every Sunday. The way he could pour anything from one container to another without ever spilling a drop. The way he would sit out on a tractor all day long just as happy as a clam. The way he would eat tuna fish, miracle whip and ketchup sandwiches. The way his plate always looked cleaner after dinner than it did before. The way he would fall asleep sitting up in the kitchen chair at lunch time for a nap. The way he would drive hs old pickup down the road at 30 mph (in a 55 zone), but have no problem driving his Cadillac down the Interstate at 90. The way he loved my grandmother like she was the only woman in the world after 67 years of marriage.
It’s with a heavy heart and tears in my eyes that I say goodbye to this great man.
April 18th, 2008 at 2:19 pm by Bob Weber (Personal)
OK, I have a rant that I’ve just got to spout off about.
What is wrong with product manufacturers these days? A few months ago I purchased a new alarm clock. My old one was really bright, and I wanted something that just dimmed more. First off, I was annoyed that you can’t really buy anything fun or classy for an alarm clock. There seem to be two grades, $15 Walmart specials and $300 fancy European alarm clocks. Nothing in between, but that’s not my point.
I bought this alarm clock, RCA or something. Had most of the features I wanted, even if it is kind of ugly. $15 bucks. I plugged it in, and it automatically set the time for me! How cool is that? Not that this is knew technology, but I think it’s the first alarm clock I’ve had that just picked up the NIST signal and set itself.
While the Alarm Clock is great, I also acquired two other home appliances recently. An over the range Microwave and a Coffeemaker. Both of these items were much more expensive than the Alarm Clock, and both have digital clocks, but guess what. Neither sets themselves. So if the power goes out I have to reset the stupid clocks. What is this? 1983?
Jason Elam, long time kicker for the Denver Broncos, has left the building. A four year, $9 million offer from the Atlanta Falcons was just too good to pass up. At 38, I can’t really blame him.
Personally, the thing I will miss most about Elam isn’t his great kicking. What I will miss is his number. My sister and I have a long standing joke, I always tease her about being “Number One” and threaten to get her an Elam Jersey.
They are probably on discount now, maybe I’ll do a little early birthday shopping.
Growing up, I had a lot of toys, but not as many as some kids. When my brother-in-law and I are out looking at toys for my nephew, it seems like he had two or three of every toy on the shelf. One thing we did have, not too long after it came out, was an original Atari 2600. I still remember the Christmas morning when we got the Atari. My mother, sweet as she is, loves Christmas. She had wrapped the console and the games separately. She instructed me to not open the console, but forgot to mention the games. About the second package I opened was an original Pac-Man game. Of course, this took away some of the mystery, but I was extremely excited to open the remaining games and the console itself.
That console ended up being incredibly popular in our house. We played incessantly. One of the games we played was the infamous Atari ET game. Until recently, I wasn’t really aware that this game was one of the worst video games of all time. I played it a TON as a kid, and although I found it somewhat irritating, but didn’t think it was the worst game ever. In fact, it had a bit of an appeal.
The Atari is now dead and gone, I have no desire to go back and play ET for nostalgia, but I do remember the game fondly. It’s just another memory of my blissful youth.
February 18th, 2008 at 1:41 pm by Bob Weber (Personal)
Today is the seventh anniversary of the tragic fatal accident that took the life of one of the most amazing men, and one of my very few heros, Dale Earnhardt Sr.
I remember that day vividly. I had been at my sister’s house, and we didn’t even watch the Daytona. We turned on the TV and it was all over the news. His passing struck me very deeply, and still, as I write this, I feel a definite sadness for a life cut short.
Growing up as a farm kid, car nut and chevy guy, it’s just natural that I would have great respect for Dale. I remember many races in the early 90s, when he earned the name “The Intimidator”, where he just dominated the sport. One race in particular was the 1991 Busch Clash. The race was run in two 10 lap segments, the field was inverted after the first race. Dale won the first segment handily, and had to start at the rear of the field for the second segment. The first lap of the second segment he passed four cars, in the second lap he dropped the car to the apron and passed the remaining nine cars. It was one of my personally most memorable NASCAR memories.
Dale wasn’t the best man who ever lived. He had his share of problems when it came to family and his personal life, but one thing always struck me about him. No matter how famous he became or how much money he made, he never forgot his roots. At the time of his death I remember a number of interviews with local North Carolina residents remarking on his generosity and kindness. On the track he was all business and would spare nothing to win, off the track he was undoubtedly a man of character who is still greatly missed.
My grandparents are getting up in years. Both their late 80s now, and they live alone ( but within a mile of my parents ). While they are both in reasonably good health, they do have some difficulty getting around. My grandfather broke his ankle many years ago, and it’s never been quite right since. He got along OK when he was younger, but not it’s catching up with him. As a result for compensating for a bad ankle, he now has bad knees to go with it. Unfortunately, when you are pushing 90, knee replacement isn’t much of an option.
While they normally don’t have too much trouble, one challenge is getting in and out of the bath tub. My grandfather has difficulty with this, and has had to be rescued from the tub at least once. At Christmas, my grandmother asked me to do a little research into bath lifts.
I did some looking, and there are a number of very cool products on the market. Transfer benches, mechanical lifts, hydro lifts and battery powered electric lifts are all available. Problem is I can’t find one product review for any of them. Personally I think this is one of the great downfalls of the internet as we know it. There are zillions of products out there, and if you are looking for the latest gadget, phone, TV or game console, there are tons of reviews. On the downside, if you are looking for something that’s not a techy item, reviews are much more difficult to come by. I suppose 90 year old people aren’t much for writing reviews, and physical therapists are afraid putting this kind of information on line will probably devalue their overall expertise, but it’s still a problem.
I’m not sure what the solution is, but I would encourage everyone out there, if you purchase a product, not matter what it is, write a review and post it somewhere. Oh, and if you know anything about bath lifts be sure to leave a comment. I would be interested to hear what you have to say.
You can do anything you want to do. What is rare is this actual wanting to do a certain thing; wanting it so much that you are practically blind to all other things, that nothing else will satisfy you.... I know I have said a lot when I say 'You can do anything you want to do.' But I mean it... Blunder ahead with your personal view... The real work of art is the result of a magnificent struggle.
Painter Robert Henri from his book The Art Spirit
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