Sunday, January 21, 2024

Three Beautiful Things 01-20-2024: The Cars and Cardio, Kind of a Witches' Brew, Celebration at The Lounge

1. Almost immediately, upon its release in 1978, The Cars' debut self-titled album became one of my very favorites. My love for this album continued well into the 2010s. When Debbie and I would hang out at the Old Line Bistro (RIP) in Beltsville, MD, I could be yakkin, drinking beer, eating a casual dinner and the house music would be like white noise to me. But three artists always grabbed my attention, moved me to say, Oh My God!, it's Tom Petty. OMG!, it's Mumford and Sons with Jerry Douglas performing "The Boxer.  And OMG!, it's The Cars! 

So, today, at the Fitness Center, as I increased the level of workout on the NuStep machine, I put on The Cars' first album and it was, ahem, just what I needed. I plowed through 40 minutes on that machine and did an interval training on the treadmill for half an hour, propelled by the Talking Heads' album, Stop Making Sense. In between my workouts on these two machines, I did some exercises with hand weights. 

If the Fitness Center didn't close at noon, I would have rested for a few minutes and worked out on the resistance machines. This is my next goal -- to give myself enough time to work out on the cardio machines and the resistance machines. To make it work during the week, I think I'll need to do cardio in the morning when Christy has appointments at the Center and when I go to the rehab gym in CdA and then return in the afternoon to complete my workout. 

Slowly -- and more slowly than surely -- I'm figuring things out. 

2. After working out, I once again built a delicious green salad with plentiful vegetables around the rest of the penne and hot sauce from Wednesday night. For dinner, Debbie and I decided that I would boil a pot of spaghetti and then we'd each put on the spaghetti whatever we chose individually. I heated up black beans and tomato sauce, seasoned with cumin and garlic powder, put this sauce on a small mound of spaghetti and topped it with grated hard cheese. 

It worked! 

3. Tonight, people from across Shoshone County (and maybe elsewhere!) piled into the Inland Lounge to surprise Tamie Lewis Eberhard. Tamie is retiring (has retired?) as the Shoshone County Clerk and she was stunned and full of joy when she walked into the packed Lounge and realized that all these people were in the house to extend their appreciation for her work and celebrate her retirement. 

Debbie and I went up to The Lounge over an hour before the retirement party was scheduled to start.

Diane joined us and, when we parked and slipped/slid our way into The Lounge, Ryan was also slip/ sliding in (he'd already fallen once outside his workplace, CdA Bike Co), but we managed to stay on our feet both leaving and returning to the car. 

I had a blast yakkin' with Ryan about breweries, football, and the pros and cons of living in the Silver Valley, among other things. I also had fun yakkin' with Harley and, among other things, having him update me on the upcoming Crab Feed at the Elks -- it will coincide with Cosette and Taylor's wedding rehearsal on Friday and wedding ceremony on Saturday, Feb. 16 and 17.  I'll miss out on the Crab Feed this year, but I might buy some crabs to go that we could crack open at a later date. 

We didn't stay long at The Lounge, but we agreed that seeing so many people gathered so happily together to extend congratulations and gratitude to Tamie was the epitome of what makes the Inland Lounge such a profound center for fellowship and togetherness in our area -- pretty much like a church. 

No comments: