Saturday, August 11, 2012

Today the Frosting, Tomorrow the Cake

by Pa Rock
In Transition

Today was the busiest day that I've had since returning to Arizona.  Yesterday I signed a lease for a house on base and picked up the keys.   All of my household goods and other stuff is still enroute from Japan, so I am moving in with essentially nothing.  I will still be at the base temporary housing tonight and tomorrow night, and then I have to occupy my new home on Monday.  So today I moved some of my clothes and small items that I have with me, and went in search of essentials to live on until the slow boat from Naha finally arrives.

I now have a futon which I have to assemble tomorrow - and oh how I hate assembling things.  (My dad owned and ran an appliance store when I was in junior high and high school - and one of my grunge jobs was to assemble television stands, put the handles on lawnmowers, and put together anything that arrived in pieces.)

My first stop of the day, however, did not involve shopping.  I stopped by my old exercise club - Lifetime Fitness - and signed up for a membership.  The guys there were nice, and when I told them that I had been overseas for two years "on military orders," they agreed to let me join at the old rate from two years ago - a nice savings.

Lifetime Fitness is very modern with exercise equipment and television screens covering two extensive floors.  It also has basketball courts, and three large swimming pools.  My favorite part of the facility, what I missed the most over the past two years, are two large hot tubs that each accommodate fifteen or twenty people comfortably.  My routine in the past was to work on the exercise equipment until I felt that I had earned the right to go sit in one of the big hot tubs.   The exercise was the cake and the hot tubs were the frosting.  Today after renewing my membership, I headed straight for the hot tubs where I boiled for twenty minutes or so.  I'll try to do the exercise thing tomorrow!

My final act of valor this evening was to spend quite a bit of time watering the yard at my new place.   It has a few patches of green grass, but most of the yard is Arizona brown.  If a steady routine of watering doesn't help, I'll get some grass seed.  I think I missed working in the yard even more than I missed relaxing in those hot tubs.

Some days life just has to be about the frosting.

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