Me and the Wild Rider Fitness Challenge

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Arnold Schwarzenegger, bodybuilding, exercise, walking, weight lifting, winter, Wisconsin

Last month, Susie at susielindau.com challenged readers to her 90-day Wild Rider Fitness Challenge. It’s easy, really – exercise at least two or three times each week, and make one of these an outdoor adventure.

I’ve talked about my exercise routine before. It’s not always easy, but every morning, I lace up my shoes and head out, rain or shine. Or snow. Or ice. The only thing that stops me is lightning or extreme cold.

And since it’s July in Wisconsin, you’d think I wouldn’t have to worry about that. Did I say July? In Wisconsin? When it’s normally in the 80s and slightly humid? Not today, happy readers.  (Bottom number was the outside temp this morning…)

According to the chirpy TV weatherman, living near Lake Michigan brought luck, though: inland areas of Wisconsin were close to the freezing mark. I felt really good about that – not!– as I put on my winter hat and headed out.

Over the years, I’ve found that walking itself wasn’t enough. It brings many benefits, and is worth every step. I just needed more. So I added Pilates and really enjoyed that for a few years. Then I heard that a local school offered free use of its workout room to employees and area residents. My half-Hollander genes, the ones that have my radar keenly honed to freebies, kicked in, and I checked it out.

Not me. Really.

At first I thought weights would get me looking like some female Ahnold, which I didn’t want. But the more I learned, I realized that at my advanced age – cough, cough, 50 just around the corner – I really needed to incorporate weights into my routine.

Six days a week, I head to the weight room after my walk. I alternate – upper body one day; lower the next – and have Saturdays off. I’ve noticed a difference in the way my clothes fit, my posture, and my overall strength.

I use www.bodybuilding.com, which posts lots of motivational videos and workout ideas, to keep things fresh and interesting. Any kind of workout routine can become boring after a while, so mixing things up helps.

And thanks to Susie, my goal this summer is to try paddleboarding. I’m looking forward to this – when it warms up. I can’t imagine paddleboarding with a winter suit on, but I may need to. Stay tuned…

Wisconsin summer…

The Schoolhouse is Burning

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fire, fire trucks, neighbor, schoolhouse, winter, writing

After 20 years of living in our house, I’ve gotten used to life in the country. Milk trucks lumber by on their way to the next farm; cows cross the road at predictable intervals, and metal-hauling trucks from a nearby plant barrel past the house on their way to the highway.

One night last week I was sitting on the couch reading, when my husband thought he heard a car door slam. He went to the window to check. Seconds later he yelled,

“The neighbor’s house is on fire!”

Man, that shock got me up in a hurry! After we watched for a few seconds, we realized it wasn’t our neighbor’s house burning, but an old brick one-room schoolhouse nearby that a man was renovating into a workshop. Flames towered over the burning structure, and trees were illuminated like skeletal fingers in the deep dark.

It was frightening.

We dialed 911. The dispatcher said that others had called, and rescue teams were on the way. Within a few minutes, our local fire department headed up the hill toward the schoolhouse, which by then was fully engulfed by raging flames.

Together, ten mostly volunteer fire departments clogged the road, with water-supply trucks slowly making their way toward the blaze to unload.

it was a bitterly cold night, with a steady blast of wind that blew licks of fire into the air. A sheriff stood at the bottom of the hill, waving orange glow sticks as he directed traffic.

In the middle of all that organized chaos, I realized how many people came together to fight a fire for someone they probably didn’t even know. They labored in the freezing cold for hours, unable to save the schoolhouse.

I don’t know how much longer the local newspaper will have photos up, but here are a few.

It’s not the first time we’ve had a fire in our neighborhood, either. A few years ago, another neighbors’ house really did burn. It was an old structure, formerly a dance hall and bar, converted to a private home. It went up like straw before our eyes.

The schoolhouse fire was the end of a different era, though. Another neighbor was born in and grew up in a large white farmhouse across the road from the schoolhouse. Before he died, he told me that he used to walk across the road to school, then back home again where his mother had lunch waiting. I imagined children, running around the school yard in the noonday sun before being summoned by a clanging bell, back to their desks.

It was the only schoolhouse for a few miles around, and children walked down our road to get there. Here’s what things looked like the next day.

Pajama Grammar

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language, LOL, pajamas at Wal-Mart, proper grammar, snowshoeing, texting, winter

My husband and I went snowshoeing early yesterday morning – it was one of those crisp, winter mornings when the snow squeaked and crunched beneath our feet, glittering and sparkling under the sunlight.

Afterward, we made a quick stop at our local mini-mart for a gallon of milk, and I watched a younger father walk in with his two children. He was wearing a winter jacket and pajama pants. I wondered, not for the first time, when it became OK for people to head out dressed like they just rolled out of bed. I see pajamas in public often enough, and I’ll stick my neck out here and say it’s a sad trend, a devolution of style, if you will.

It reminded me of a dinner we had with friends a couple of years ago. Paul had returned to college to pursue a second degree, and was studying Hebrew and Greek as part of his college requirements. These studies refreshed Paul’s interest in language, encouraging him to take another look at English and the disturbing trend he was noticing: the poor quality of instant messages and texts holding traditional grammar hostage to speed and convenience.

“Language is devolving,” he said. “We’re so into shortcuts that we’ve sacrificed quality for speed.”

http://www.someecards.com

He was right. And since that conversation took place a couple of years ago, things have gotten worse. Grammar is suffering, and it’s become acceptable, OK, for shortcuts (and not caring how words should be spelled) to be commonplace. Shortcuts have their place, as I discussed in an earlier post, but poor grammar has no place in the work world.

Like pajamas at Wal-Mart.