Day 16 - Crisis Averted and Plenty o' Rust

Crisis Averted

Who would have thought limes were evil? Certainly not me before yesterday. That was before one of them set out to destroy my juicer. In battle there is a saying, kill the head and the body will die. In juicing, the juicer is the head, and this dastardly lime went for a kill shot.

I was making a citrus-y, fruity drink for myself and decided to add a lime to the mix for a little twist. First off, you can't peel the damn things, because the skin is so thin and leathery that it pulls the whole fruit apart if you try. So it had to go in whole, and that's where the trouble came in. I dropped it in the chute and started to press with the plunger and the juicer just stopped.

Panic didn't set in just yet, because this has happened before. The last time it happened, I just unplugged the juicer and let it rest for about five minutes before it fired back up again. No such luck this time. The feeling of dread was outside, looking in through the windows. I went online to find the operator's manual and saw that there was a reset button on the bottom of the juicer. Problem solved! I turned the juicer on its side and found the button. I gave it a press and... nothing. Dread was inside the house now and looking over my shoulder at the carcass of my juicer. The thoughts that went through my head were nothing less than nightmarish. I instantly saw myself binging on junk food because what the hell was the point now? I picture myself gaining the weight I've lost in spectacular fashion. It was a pretty grim scenario.

I decided to let the juicer rest for 10 more minutes and give it one last shot. And like the old Chevy in the horror movie, it fired right up at the last second. The obvious moral here isn't that it helps to read the manual, or cut the peel off of limes before juicing them. It's that limes are evil and out to destroy lives. Maybe it was the ordeal getting to me, but the juice wasn't even good. Too much lime.

Plenty o' Rust

I got a great surprise gift this week. My sister, Lisa, put me on her LA Fitness membership, so I now have gym access. The Tucker location of LA Fitness has to be one of the nicest gyms in the area, so I was excited to check it out. The first workout I had was great. I did about 40 minutes combined of cardio. I also did some back and bicep work. I was careful not to overextend myself for two reasons, I don't know what kind of energy stores I have when tested and I don't want sore muscles to deter me from keeping to a schedule. Day 2 was a success as well. I just did cardio and that was closer to an hour total.

On my third day there, the basketball court was calling me and I went in to shoot around. The half-court game that was going on ended and they asked if we who were shooting wanted to play a game. We started playing, and after about 5 possessions, my lungs were on fire. I called a time out and asked a guy who was watching if he could sub for me. He did, and I went to the water fountain post haste. After I drank a quart or two, I went into the locker room and ran the cold shower over my head. I didn't think I was in shape to play basketball, and now I had confirmation. I am proud of myself that I didn't pack it up though. I went upstairs and did 45 minutes of cardio.

Less Depressing Stuff

I have an exciting weekend coming up. I have two job interviews tomorrow, and I'm babysitting my nephew on Saturday. Then on Sunday, I'm hitting the road for a week-long trip to my hometown of Youngstown, NY. Like I said in an earlier post, I'm bringing my juicer and scale and will keep updating from the road. And limes are evil.