My Week that Was - July 6

Anytime, anywhere Fitness. 6/29/24 dwm

 I went to a different gym Saturday morning. Well, it's the same gym but a different location. It's a little longer drive than the usual place.

 

 On Friday, the Verona Anytime Fitness was having trouble with treadmill televisions. Over the past couple months, the local cable company updated cable boxes, which kept us from watching programs while exercising for three weeks. 

 

 The service was finally restored, then last Friday new remote controls were on the treadmills but if the TVs worked at all, it only showed one channel. I checked with the gym manager later that morning and learned the TVs probably wouldn't be ready until at least Tuesday.

 

Monday was a great day to fly a kite.

That was enough to send me east to the Nesbitt Road location. It's a nice gym with a lot of new equipment. My only issue was figuring out where ESPN among the cable channels. I returned Sunday morning for a long walk and again Monday for a regular workout.  

Late Monday morning I walked across Oakwood's east side campus when I noticed two kites high in the sky. A resident I know was watching a pair of kites dance in a steady breeze.

 

The wind was so good, he only had to grab the kite string a couple times when the breeze calmed. 

 

Over the weekend, I planned to get a lens cleaner for my camera. It looks like a pen with a brush on one end and a tiny wiper blade to clean the glass. In comparing to cleaners online, a deal was found, 3 for $10 and it would be delivered before the day ended.

When it arrived, I opened up the package and tried to clean the camera. To my shock and horror, I saw was a streak on the lens that looked bad. It didn't come off and when I tried using a windex-like glass cleaner, it didn't work either. 

A Bucky kite. 7/1/24 dwm

 After work Tuesday, I took the two lens filters I attempted to clean to my camera shop. I was hoping they would have something to clean the lens. If they didn't, I was ready to buy new filters. The man behind the counter said he'd be right back as he headed to the back of the store.

 

 He returned with two filters, swapping new ones for mine, that he said he would clean on his own. The store went above and beyond my wildest dream on the subject. I was already a good customer, from now on I won't buy camera gear anyplace else.

 Wednesday I started looking at the introductory materials we received for the database we'll transition to over the next six to eight weeks. An hour-long video offered a general overview with some details in several areas, including data entry and running reports. I'm more excited now than when we signed the contract. I believe we'll be much more efficient than ever when we are fully operational.

 That evening, we planned to drive to a nearby community that has an A & W Drive-In, unfortunately for us, they closed an hour earlier to start their Fourth of July holiday.

Dodgeville, WI Pizza Hut. 7/3/2024 dwm

Down the road, less than a block away is Dodgeville's Pizza Hut. Quite a few Huts are changing over to delivery/carry-out stores with a table or two near the counter in case anyone wanted to 'eat in.'

 

This one is old-school, like the restaurant I remember in Janesville and around the country. It was the first restaurant I took a date to eat and the same spot a friend and I would share a large pan pizza and pitcher of Mt. Dew after we videotaped the high school girls' basketball games.

 

They weren't crowded but it was nice getting having a meal in the dining room. We each had a personal pan pizza (no more large for me, thank you) and shared bread sticks. It was a nice place for a date more than 40-years later.

Trip 16 - 45 miles. 7/4/2024

 For the Fourth of July holiday, I took a ride. The plan was to take the Badger State Trail to Belleville but when I started down the unpaved portion of the path, its condition got worse with every mile, after two miles on the crushed limestone/dirt/mud the combination of greasy conditions on the trail and mud traps convinced me to turn around. 

 I ended up on familiar trails, which was ok, because that abbreviated trip to Belleville padded my mileage. There were quite a few mini-pelotons out for a ride. The problem was some of them thought it was just their group and were coming my direction taking up the whole path. Most Madison trails have a striped line down the middle, so it isn't that difficult. Some of them must be watching the Tour de France.

 When I was three miles from home I enjoyed a perfect sight for Independence Day, a bald eagle flew over with a fish in its talons. How cool is that!

   

 I gave blood Friday morning. I had to wait an extra week before I could donate because of a Red Cross rule that donors can't give 7 times within 365 days. That had happened 9 weeks earlier, but I believe going forward I should return to giving blood every 8 weeks. 

The experience is one of the best I've had over years giving blood. There was almost no pain and a good poke, so I was done in short order. For some reason I was more relaxed than usual, which helped. The person drawing my blood was excellent, she took care of me from when I walked in until the pint of blood was packed away.  The routine is to stay a while in the canteen area to make sure all is well before you walk out the door.

That's a lot of stuff in a three-day work week. I'm glad for the break, and will be ready for work again on Monday, have a great week!