May 25, 2012
Dear Everyone:
The “residual itchies” from The Dreaded
Shingles
having finally subsided, at least somewhat, I decided it was time for me
to “get back on the treadmill”, both figuratively and literally.
So I donned my “fancy” sneakers and toddled on over to the gym,
conveniently situated right across the street from me.
And discovered that the treadmill was in even worse
shape than I was.
When I turned it on, it made a few pathetic noises
and tried to move the belt forward, but to no avail.
Instead, I used the exercise cycle for a bit and tried out what I
had assumed was some kind of stair machine.
Turns out, it’s an
elliptical.
Sort of like riding a bicycle, but always standing up.
Great exercise for your thigh muscles, but it put too much strain
on my back. And since the
warranty on my back has already expired, I decided to stay away from it.
I did encounter our
Association president as she
was out walking her dog, Gus, one afternoon a week or so ago.
(Yes, I do know her name as well, but the “dog people” are always
known by the dog’s name.)
She told me that they were already aware of the “problem” with the
treadmill and were in the process of replacing it “any day now.”
Apparently, it’s been “any day now” since before the Infamous
Thanksgiving Weekend Water Outage Disaster of last November.
So I’m not holding my breath.
Instead, I’m just doubling up on time on the
sit-down cycle for now.
In other news…
Last night’s monthly ARMA meeting drew a grand
total of seven people, including the Speaker.
That adds up to four Board members and two of us “regular”
members. Even the restaurant
manager was not too surprised as it was the Thursday before the first
really big three-day weekend of the year.
On the Delta Side:
It cost the Chapter money as the restaurant requires a certain
number of dinners to break even.
On the Plus Side: It
was a very friendly, informal meeting that ended in record time, and no
Board meeting afterward.
As for the subject of the “program” (Speaker’s
presentation), it was about how the state of California gets its voting
districts reorganized every few years (see
http://wedrawthelines.ca.gov/).
It was actually very interesting and reassuring to learn that a
small group of regular citizens, out of a “pool” of thousands of
volunteers, tries to please everybody when they redraw the districts
after each census. It’s not
an easy job!
And yes, technically, it does involve
Records
Management since the committee uses various sources (records) for data
to use in trying to please everybody.
However, because of the relatively small turnout, they decided
not to hold the usual raffle, because it might look like the fix was in.
The raffle is this year’s Community Outreach
program. Every Chapter tries
to have some kind of “help the community” program that they can report
on at the annual Regional Meeting.
The competition can get pretty fierce.
So at each meeting, everyone puts in a dollar for a
raffle ticket to win some kind of a prize; a bottle of wine, a small
necklace made by a local artisan, whatever.
The money goes into a pot and the proceeds will eventually go to
a local Animal Rescue Foundation.
But with only seven people, four of them on the Board, it really
wasn’t worth holding a “raffle”.
We’ll try to do better next month.
Love, as always,
Pete
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