IT MAKES NO CENTS, BUT I GET SERIOUS

I decided to heed the cardiologists’ advice, and do more exercising! This is definitely anathema to me, and yet whenever I do it, I become obsessed about doing it.

Why am I doing this? I really don’t know, and it seems so counter-productive to my wild and exciting life! I like to live on the edge. The edge of a chair, the edge of a plate, and the edge of the bed, since TLW (The Little Woman) takes over the rest of it!

Now here is the good part, as I leave, I leave TLW sitting in her chair reading or watching the TV, it’s fun to leave and know I am leaving a little guilt behind. I invited her to join me a number of times, but a bad hip and all.  I go to the door, look at her, and she will not make eye contact! I know I’m mean.

So I got myself a couple of dumbbells, (no one you would know) and coupled with my walking, I created a routine. Now one of my sisters, in her need to tell me what to do: (Pick one of four, they all tell me what to do) sent me a suggestion in an email. She suggested I go to the lumber yard and buy a thick piece of wood, cut into a block, set on the living room or den floor, walk around it and say: I walked around the block today!

Very funny.

Anyway, the dumbbells are a good idea, since I can exercise while not walking or running that I really hate. Each weight is 5 pounds, and very convenient for loosening up the muscles, upping the cardiovascular rate, and limbering up, all in the span of no more than 10 minutes time.

The walking is another issue. Since I walk around the block only once, I am starting to see how quickly that goes, so I will eventually double that. I want to improve my mind, so the extra walk will help me count, all I need to do is remember if I went already once or is this the second time. Reminds me of a story that happened many years ago.

My grandmother was a bastion of immigrant Italians who needed help. They would come from “The other side” and check in with Grandma. She would give them money, or a place to stay, or arrange for them to get housing or jobs. This is during the depression, and Grandma was making money in a fruit and vegetable store, a few apartment houses and a restaurant!

So one day this lady comes to Grandma, can’t read or speak English and needs to go to some office in Manhattan, from Brooklyn. Grandma tells her to take the subway and to get off at such and such a stop. The lady says how will I know if I am there? Grandma counts out ten pennies, one for each stop. She says to the traveling immigrant, when you get to the first stop, take one of the pennies from your right hand and put it in your left hand. Do this for every stop. When you put the last penny in your hand, get off the train.

The lady comes back to Grandma a few days later and Grandma asks: So, did you find the place ok with the pennies?

No, claims the lady, it seems somewhere in between the 4^th and 7^th stop, the train lurched suddenly, causing the poor lady to grab the pole so as to not fall, dropping all the pennies! Seems she rode around on the BMT for a while!

So I will take two pennies with me when I start to walk, and hope I don’t drop one red cent.