I Think I Shall Name Her CC

Since about August, I have been using our elliptical 6 or 7 times a week nearly without fail. (I'll be honest, there have been a few weeks where it's been closer to 2 or 3 times, but not all that many and mostly those were owing to pesky things like the stomach flu or gum surgery, both of which make exercising either unwise or uncomfortable.) The elliptical we had was the el cheapo version from Wally World and it was bought under the guise of "let's see if we actually like slash will use the thing." And we did and do. Or I did and do. Tim uses it a little but he gets a reasonable amount of exercise walking between the buildings his office occupies and going to lunch and so forth. Add that into one of those metabolisms that makes me want to puke, or strangle him in his sleep, and he's not really needing to use such a thing.

Regardless, around the November, the elliptical started getting noisier and noisier as I worked away. It went from squeaks that were ok and you just bumped the TV volume a little to squeaks and groans and *wroENK* noises that really no level of TV volume really overcame. Still, I bumped up the volume and carried on. In mid-January the *wroENK* was joined by a *ker-cluNK* noise every other stride. And then shortly thereafter the right side mechanism ceased to function.

Tim took a look (I was thinking maybe he could fix it - he's handy that way) and discovered that no, it could not be fixed, as the metal arm had sheared off. Let's hear it for quality construction! (On the other hand, it was $150 - so you do get what you pay for, and we've had it 3 years and used it all that time, with the most recent being more frequently than it probably had reason to expect to ever have in its lifetime.) (And, well, I am now and always have been well under the max weight, so I don't really think that had anything to do with it. But seriously, if you ever need to chip away at the old self esteeem, go ahead and have your elliptical break while you're on it. Does wonders.)

Anyway, once the poor dear was declared dead, I began researching replacements. Holy cow these things can be expensive! I began to remember why we bought el cheapo in the first place. I also began to seriously consider yet another el cheapo - though the thought that it would only last another 6 - 8 months (of intense use) had me reconsidering that. I finally had it narrowed down to two and after getting a chance to try out one of them, settled on that one. (Because I couldn't find a place to try out the other and really, if I'm going to plunk down what we just plunked down, I wanted to have touched the thing before hand. I will never be one of those people who buys a car over the Internet and has it delivered.)

Yesterday two bulky guys and a maxi-van arrived with my new toy. They shuffled it down the stairs into the basement and assembled it in the theater (where it will stay so that I can watch TV while using it) and afterward I moved it into it's out of the way location. (It's less out of the way than the old one because it's considerably larger, but it's still out of the way enough.) (Also, I'm glad that I don't have to move it in and out like the old one, because this one is a beast.) I gave it a little test drive and by far the best feature (well, other than it working) is the fact that it's pretty darn near silent.

And so, in honor of it's purpose, I have decided that it shall henceforth be known as CC. (Cause it's going to make you sweat.)