It was another cold night tonight but I failed to get back to the gym that I owe five bucks to. I couldn't convince baby #3 that he would rather be in his crib than in my arms before closing time came for the gym. My Mom suggested that I use a stationary bike that is gathering dust in the storage room in their basement to get my exercise for the night. I had low hopes that this kind of work-out would be even close to tolerable or begin to create sweat. I was wrong. The fantastic thing about a stationary bike is that you don't bounce up and down while you are doing it so you can actually read a book. With all the wishing power that I have I wish I could read a book on a treadmill. It would make ALL the difference. I read some of the Federalist Papers while I rode and got to read such gems as this, "A man must be far gone in Utopian speculations who can seriously doubt, that if these States should either be wholly disunited, or only united in partial confederacies, the subdivisions into which they might be thrown would have frequent and violent contests with each other. To presume a want of motives for such contests, as an argument against their existence, would be to forget that men are AMBITIOUS, VINDICTIVE, and RAPACIOUS." The Federalist Papers were written by Hamilton, Madison and a guy named John Jay to try to get the state of New York to ratify the constitution. Apparently New York was pretty gung-ho for a loose confederacy of states instead of a federal union. Anyhow - as indicated by the capital letters, I just loved the choice of adjuctives to describe the sorry lot of us - ambitious, vindictive and rapacious. Rapactious is my favorite descriptor of course, mostly because it sounds the most dastardly. At first when I read the phrase I was offended because I don't like to think of myself in those terms. But doggone it, Hamilton et. al had human nature pretty well pegged. As I went through the first few papers I couldn't help but think of Iraq trying to form as a republican nation and our muddling in it and I was even led to think about basic relationships that I have with people. It gave my mind lots of wandering to do and made me have to reread the parts I cruised over with my eyes while my mind was traipsing around off-course. Anyhow - the time passed quickly and I'm seriously considering some long-term borrowing of the stationary bike. I put down 4 easy miles as the equivalent of fifty minutes on the bike. I went about 12 miles according to the computer. Four miles might be on the low end of equivalency for distance, but no doubt it would be considered easy miles. Although the bike would make me go uphill every now and again which made my heart beat harder so some sort of exercise did happen. |