Jason had stopped by to grab a quick shower on his way to a date. The car wash business was good that day and he’d been working late. He came down the stairs and was heading out the door when he commented that the toilet was plugged in the bathroom. “I sure am disgusted with Jack. He never plunges the thing,” he said as he left.
I was right behind him, on my way to pick up Jack from work. A couple of plunges usually solved the problem and I’d get to it when I returned. When I did, I found Holly sitting on the steps and looking more than sick…like pissed.
“I can’t understand why none of you will take the time to unplug that toilet. It overflowed and now my laundry room is soaked and a day’s worth of clean clothes needs to be rewashed,” she said as a way of greeting. The laundry room is below the kid’s bathroom and if their toilet overflows…well…it goes downhill. She was already extremely sick…I’m guessing getting out of her sick bed to investigate strange sounds coming from downstairs and finding water pouring through the ceiling hadn’t improved her mood…and she took it out on me. I reminded her that I’d left to pick up Jack and that the toilet never overflowed when plugged…unless someone was dumb enough to flush it in that condition…Jason.
I went upstairs first to stop the water…which was still running since the tank had not stopped trying to fill. I plunged it a couple of times and the plug was gone. That alone raised my temperature a few degrees since I couldn’t help but wonder why two grown boys hadn’t taken the seconds to do what I’d just done. When I arrived in the laundry room and saw the extent of the damage, I completely understood Holly’s frustration…which I shared with Jack with words you’ll never find in Webster’s.
Clean-up took an hour or so and I have no good formula for calculating the calories I burned while completing this task. I know my heart rate was up the entire time and for sure my blood pressure was in the danger zone…but I’m not going to list it because I’m thinking…praying…it’s a passing fancy and not something that will catch on as a workout.
Speaking of workouts…I’d been to the park earlier that day to do the Survival Workout. It has been some time since I set my push-up pr of 88 and three set total of 244. I was hoping to crack 100 by the end of the year, but once the dizziness kicked in, I never had a chance. I haven’t actually been burning up the woods with my workouts since, and didn’t have high expectations as I began my first set on this day. As I approached 80 though, I knew I had a chance. I squeezed out 90 and 91 and fell to the earth trying for 92. Once I had the strength to get my nose out of the mud, I regained my feet and pumped my fist in the air. The down side to this was…I now had to challenge my three set pr, which meant two more sets averaging 78…and that meant lots of pain. I did 76 on my second set at the cabins and by the time I returned to the car for my third and final set, my arms were swollen from the rest of the workout and feeling dead. I attacked it anyway, knowing I may not be this close again for awhile and managed to hit 82 and 249 for the three set total.
Push-ups keep me going. They’re the gauge that reminds me I’m continuing to improve and the baseline against which I can check my progress from last May when I began the Survival Workout in earnest with a three set total of 61 push-ups and 26 for a one set max. It motivates me to know that at age 56, I’m still able to set fitness pr’s and that the book ‘Younger Next Year’ really applies to me. I’ll keep listing the numbers…not to brag (though there is that)…but to encourage. Holly will be happy to confirm…I’m nothing special and I’m doing it, so pretty much anyone can. I know it’s hard to do…but the results are there for anyone to gain…you just have to stay the course. It’s really all I’ve done that is special.
Survival Workout: 60 minutes.
Training Heart Rate: 100-150.
Calories burned: 600.
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