Gym Clothes, Music, Book, GPS

So, my birthday has come and gone. We had a nice family dinner to punctuate the fact that I am now 57 years old. It really was a nice celebration. I got a pair of gym shorts and an exercise shirt from Jenny (she really wants me to keep working out) and a GPS and mount from Michael, Karen, Mary, John and Rachel so I won't have any trouble finding the gym.

I do have to say, GPSs are amazing. Now, there's something I never read about in the science fiction novels of the sixties! Robert Heinlein wrote of cars that drove themselves, but never of portable location and route calculators.

They even have hiking GPS devices, with internal maps of hiking trails and built-in compasses. That's what I want next. By next year, I may actually be able to go hiking often enough to need one. That's from my Return To The Gym. I really have been going almost every day. Although I haven't started the circuit training yet, I have been using this cardio machine that boasts "zero impact". You would think that wouldn't be much of a boast, but apparently they are referring to joints and not waistline, because in the two weeks I've been going, I actually have gotten a little thinner.

If only they had some sort of machine that would make my age a little younger!

However, maybe they do. Because, in addition to the slightly-smaller-waist, I also feel a lot better. Especially when I walk. The difference is definitely enough to keep me going, even if I didn't have a new gym outfit and GPS. (Not to mention two James Taylor CDs from Jock and Diane to listen to on my phone/MP3 player—another thing Heinlein, Asimov or Clarke never foresaw—and Larry Niven's latest book from Barbara and Peter).

Of course, the very best present came from Zachary: a hand-drawn card with two dollars of his own money enclosed.

Anyway, I do want to apologize for not blogging too much this month (so far). In addition to the gym, I've been preparing my automatic web site navigation software for commercial sale, which means actually documenting the thing. That documentation is online at http://www.cilwaweb.com, but please note the site isn't "officially up" yet so if it acts flaky just try again later. I'm still tweaking the code as I go along and that's my test bed.