Not Quite What I'm Looking For
This morning I went to the gym, did my abdominal exercises, and then decided, what the heck, I'd go outside and try to jog one of the 1.2-mile routes starting and ending at the fitness center.
Well, one thing I learned from this experience is that using the exercise machines mainly prepares you to use the exercise machines; they don't help a lot with actually going out and doing some useful physical activity. By which I mean that I probably jogged about a quarter of a mile before I was so out of breath I had to start walking.
To be fair, I may have been going too fast, not pacing myself; I haven't jogged in a 15 years, maybe more. I experimented with different paces as I went along. I ended up probably jogging about half to two-thirds of the distance, and walking the rest. I finished the lap in a little over 16 minutes, which works out to about a 13 and a half minute mile, which I guess isn't so bad for a first try. As with biking to work back in Madison, I'll try to work up to doing the whole thing without stopping. Then, when they come for me in the night, I'll be able to run a mile before thy catch me and take me to the mothership!
Er, ahem.
Cupertino is actually one of the prettiest parts of Silicon Valley. They've nicely landscaped many of the roads, with plenty of trees, and with plants on the median of De Anza Boulevard. It sure beats pounding a treadmill.
Well, it wasn't a dump, but it was a little smaller. It's actually probably well worth what they're asking; take $200 worth of stuff and space out of my apartment, and you'd have that one. Then consider that it's in a better location, and it's probably a good deal. The problem is, it's not really big enough for me: The living room is small, there's some 'wasted' floor space used for hallways, the kitchen has very little counter space, two of the windows lack screens (not a good thing when you have cats), and none of the electrical outlets have three prongs. The space issue is really the big one, and I think I'll not be taking it. But I'm sure they won't have trouble finding someone to take it; it's a good deal.
Oh, well. Can't win 'em all, I guess. Maybe I'll get totally lucky and find a place up there for about the same as I'm paying now, and about the same size. That would rock.
I'm a little disappointed, though. My cow-orker Tom and I were talking about looking at apartments, and he thinks it's better to get excited and then be a little disappointed than to be pessimistic going in. And I think he's right. Enthusiasm helps.
Sounds like this machine rocks. I'm still going to wait for Mac OS X to come out before I buy something new. My G3 should cruise along fine for another year or so. Heck, it's only a year and a half old...
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