Going into Hiding

I always cringe when Walt gets "that special gleam" in his eye. You know the one. The one which precedes those five little words: "Wanna go to the gym?"

But I know the importance of moving more than from the computer to the refrigerator and back again. I know I need to do it, so I always grit my teeth, smile, and say "OK." I don't know why I protest so much because I always feel better after and I don't really even mind doing it once I get there, it's just the leaving the house part that I don't want to do. I'm having too much fun doing whatever it is that I'm doing.

We decided we'd go at 1 p.m. and at the agreed upon time, we got into the car and headed out to the gym. I try to go mid-day because there are usually fewer people there, but there were more cars than usual in the parking lot today.

We went into the gym and signed in. All but two of the treadmills were taken. My heart sank because it was the kind of scene I don't like to see. It seemed everyone was jogging, not walking, and I just hate to lumber up onto the treadmill and start walking my sedate pace. True, I do manage to get up to over 2.5 mph by the end of the half hour, which is a snappy pace for me, but I hate it when even the little grey haired old ladies put me to shame by running at speeds I can't even begin to imagine.

Walt went to the far treadmill and I started getting out all the "stuff" I need for my half hour -- my iPod, earphones, and bottle of water (since the gym recently took out bottled water and now just has a water fountain), and my camera 'cause I was going to do my self portrait for the day while on the treadmill. I headed for the one open treadmill, aware that the white-headed guy on the one next to it was going faster than anybody else, working up a sweat and certain to make me feel just horrible about myself.

Then I looked up from the rippling muscles and sweaty arm pits and saw the very last thing that I wanted to see: The head on top of the body was Dr. G's.

My head snapped up, I signaled to Walt, I turned, grabbed my stuff and was out of the gym in a matter of seconds. When Walt joined me outside, I told him that the very last person I wanted to exercise alongside was Dr. G, who is an exercise nut and who nagged me continuously when I was working for him, not only TO exercise (I was for most of the time I was with him) but HOW to exercise. No matter what I did, he always urged me to do more...much more.

No way was I going to open myself up for exercise critique.

I suggested to Walt that since I had to go to the university to get my parking ticket fixed (I had spoken with the parking people and they agreed to drop the charges if I would bring the ticket by the office), and since I had to drop by the newspaper office to pick up business cards which will, we hope, prevent this from happening again, that we run the errands first and hope that by the time we were finished, it would be safe to go back to the gym again.

Our first stop was Mrak Hall on the university campus, the administrative offices. Walt found a parking spot and waited in the car (so we didn't run the risk of a second ticket!) and I went up to the parking office to turn in my ticket.

It only took a long time because of the amount of explanation that they needed, and because a woman who was there was someone who had hosted a student from Chile for me, when I was placing exchange students with local families, and we were chatting about that.

When I got back to the car, I suggested to Walt that since we already had a parking place, since we had enough quarters to buy an hour on the meter, and since it was a lovely day, we should walk through the Arboretum, along Putah Creek, instead of going back to the gym. Who knows how long Dr. G was going to exercise...and it was the first really nice day we've had in a long time.

Ducks were everywhere...

...and I wasn't the only photographer taking advantage of the lovely weather.

We walked down to nearly the end of the arboretum, then crossed over the creek and started back. We found a cute little squirrel in one of the trees.

By the time we got back to the car, we had been walking about 45 minutes and I probably moved more than I would have if I had gotten on that treadmill next to Dr. G -- and I definitely felt better about myself than I would have had we stayed at the gym -- so I guess it was a nice accident almost running into him this afternoon!