Years ago, one of my parents' favorite thing to do was to drive to the county seat, on a Friday night, park in front of the Ben Franklin store and watch the people walk by. People watching can be fun and I was able to do a lot of it when we recently attended an event that drew in thousands of people. One of the most fascinating things about watching other people is seeing someone who looks just like someone we already know.
Another thing about being in the proximity of that many people, at least in this neck of the woods, is seeing just how many of us are out of shape. I only saw one person, who was in my age group, who actually looked to be in pretty good shape. That made me decide that perhaps it was time to take some action to make some changes in my appearance.
The youngest of our brood is into all things healthy and loves to do body building workouts, so I asked her for some advice as to how to get me started. She said she would love to help and sent me a text message with my first set of exercises. It consisted of 20 sit-ups, 15 squats and 10 push-ups and I was to do as many rounds of these as possible, in a twenty minute time span. Since I am already walking two miles a day, I thought an extra 20 minutes would be a piece of cake.
I set a timer for 20 minutes and tucked the tips of my shoes under the edge of the couch when I started the sit-ups. It had been quite awhile since I had done any and I finally got through the first 20. Then I was off to do the squats and that wasn't too bad either. When I got to the push-ups I remembered she had told me that if I couldn't do an entire body push-up, I could do them from the knees up. The first full body push-up looked like a roll up, so I opted for the knee position.
Satisfied with completing a full round of the exercises, I set out for round two. The sit-ups took a bit longer to do and Runtly, the ever so entertaining Jack Russell Terrier, was there to drop a toy behind my back for each one. When I had to take a breather, he licked me in the face and thoroughly enjoyed me being down on his turf. I managed to get through the second round and thought surely the 20 minutes were almost over. I looked at the timer, ten minutes had passed.
I started on the next round. By the time I got to the last sit-up it looked something akin to a fish that had been carelessly tossed up on the bank and its tail ever so gently quivered, as it gasped for its last breath of air. I struggled through the squats and when I got to the last push-up, I face-planted in the carpet for several seconds. When I finally got up off the floor and looked at the timer, 16 minutes had passed. It was the longest 16 minutes of my life.
From that point I'd had enough and made myself some breakfast. When I was done, I shuffled down the hall to the bathroom to get cleaned up. I walked in, turned on the light and looked in the mirror. Even though I had ran the vacuum cleaner the day before, my forehead was covered in white dog hair. Luckily my breakfast consisted of an egg white omelet so if any of the dog hair fell in it, I was none the wiser.
I'm not sure what the next set of exercises will be, but I do know one thing. If anyone ever tells you a Jack Russell Terrier does not shed, they be lyin'.
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