For Peg, to counter Frama-lama-ding-dong

At the vaunted Canandaigua YMCA: (First time in a week [Monday, January 12, 2009] — Linda worked every day last week, so I stayed home with the dog; since the YMCA, etc. takes about five+ hours.)

—1) The following conversation ensues.........
I’m on the arm-bicycle, and a young bloated tart is on an elliptical two positions away.
Young Studley walks up and gets himself in her face.
“I see ya have a new beau,” he says.
“Yes, I do,” tart chirps.
“Is this guy permanent?” he asks.
“Never in a million years!” she says.
“Well, it can only get worse, or better,” he says.
“Doncha mean worse?” she says.
“Well, time to go home, and fix lunch for ‘the wife.’”
(Get that everyone? “The wife.”)
I don’t get it, people.
41 years and I don’t consider her “the wife.”
—Nor would have I married some overly made-up floozie!

—2) “Circuit-man” is there......... (Tremble.)
The YMCA has about 20 Cybex so-called “strength-training” machines.
They are arrayed in a “circuit;” that is, one machine after another.
There are no circuit numbers, like there were on the old Nautilus circuit, but you’re supposed to follow the circuit.
Except most times the machines are occupied, so ya use one that isn’t.
(We used to do that with the Nautilus machines.)
The end result is jumping all over, machine-to-machine — so much for the circuit.
Well, this old geezer is there I call “circuit-man.” He does maybe 10 reps (a minute) on a single machine, and then harasses the guy on the next machine, who’s doing maybe 100 reps (10 minutes).
“I’m doing the circuit!” he bellows. “Are you?”
Like step aside! Hup-hup!
“Well,” I said; “I’d do the circuit but I had to do it in reverse. Someone was on the first machine, so I used another.”
Sorry, Boobie; but I ain’t gettin’ off. Ya can’t use that circuit-jazz on me, not when the real issue is that you’re only doing a minute per machine.
I made him jump over me — he used the next machine, which I had began on, so wasn’t advancing to.
And off he went, a minute per machine.
Soon he was behind me on about the sixth machine past me in order, and some poor schmuck was using it.
“Are ya doing the circuit?” he bellowed.
Poor schmuck got off: “no problem.”
That’s what I did the first time, but no longer.
(A Dubya-button was on “Circuit-Man’s” shorts.)

“Peg” is my baby sister Peggy. She’s 17 years younger than me, and the last sibling. She lives in Lynchburg, Va. with her husband Paul Broda and three sons. (The oldest is in college.) —She works at Frama-Tome (which I call Frama-lama-ding-dong), which has an Internet filter that won’t allow access to a site linked to our family-site. (She’s fiddling our family-site on her [the company’s] computer; although on her lunch-hour.)

I work out at the Canandaigua YMCA. (The YMCA is about four hours; attach other errands, and it becomes five+.)

“Linda” is my wife of 41 years. Like me she’s retired, but she works part-time at the West Bloomfield post-office.

Our current dog is “Scarlett;” a rescue Irish-Setter. She’s three-plus, and is our sixth Irish-Setter.

An “arm-bicycle” is essentially an exercise machine for cycling your arms. An “elliptical” is a machine that mainly cycles your legs, but not a treadmill. (It can include arm-cranks.)

“Nautilus” was another manufacturer of exercise machines, but the YMCA replaced all its Nautilus machines with Cybex when it upgraded its exercise-gym.

“Dubya” is George W. Bush, our current president; proclaimed by my siblings as “the greatest president of all time.” —I perceive Dubya-supporters as rather pushy.