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Yay #1: exercise
Yesterday I did the coolest thing I've done in probably three years. Rob and I went to a fitness store to try out weight machines & see how many exercises I could do without standing, and while we were there I found a water rower.
I'd always believed rowing machines would be too rough on my feet. Some of them probably would be, and certainly if I hadn't been wearing my special shoes there'd have been no way. But I sat on that thing in the store for fifteen minutes, breaking a sweat, making myself red in the face... and I was happier than I've been in years. NOTHING else I've tried can get my heart rate up, really up. Swimming doesn't even remotely come close, for me. Operating a wheelchair I'm limited by my wrist strength. But THIS I could DO.
I was almost afraid to smile, coming out of the store, because I didn't know whether my feet would flare up in pain later in the day or the next morning. If they did there'd be no point. But it's the next morning now, and they don't seem to be too bad. I may have a winner.
I'll have to rework the foot straps completely, of course. They're terrible.
Nifty Thing #2: Iridium flare
I'm still not over jet lag, so I was awake at 4:30 anyway. I went outside to look for my first Iridium flare. The sky was very cloudy, but this one was supposed to be incredibly bright (-8) so I waited. Thanks to Rob mentioning it last night, I knew what direction to face, how high up to look, and what time to be looking (plus or minus the uncertainty of an analog watch that's been time-zone-changed a lot lately). Sure enough, I saw it, even through the clouds! It lasted maybe a second or a second and a half, a bright spot moving quickly across the sky. That was really nifty. I can see how people who don't, say, need sleep for some reason, can get caught up in going to chase these things.
Yesterday I did the coolest thing I've done in probably three years. Rob and I went to a fitness store to try out weight machines & see how many exercises I could do without standing, and while we were there I found a water rower.
I'd always believed rowing machines would be too rough on my feet. Some of them probably would be, and certainly if I hadn't been wearing my special shoes there'd have been no way. But I sat on that thing in the store for fifteen minutes, breaking a sweat, making myself red in the face... and I was happier than I've been in years. NOTHING else I've tried can get my heart rate up, really up. Swimming doesn't even remotely come close, for me. Operating a wheelchair I'm limited by my wrist strength. But THIS I could DO.
I was almost afraid to smile, coming out of the store, because I didn't know whether my feet would flare up in pain later in the day or the next morning. If they did there'd be no point. But it's the next morning now, and they don't seem to be too bad. I may have a winner.
I'll have to rework the foot straps completely, of course. They're terrible.
Nifty Thing #2: Iridium flare
I'm still not over jet lag, so I was awake at 4:30 anyway. I went outside to look for my first Iridium flare. The sky was very cloudy, but this one was supposed to be incredibly bright (-8) so I waited. Thanks to Rob mentioning it last night, I knew what direction to face, how high up to look, and what time to be looking (plus or minus the uncertainty of an analog watch that's been time-zone-changed a lot lately). Sure enough, I saw it, even through the clouds! It lasted maybe a second or a second and a half, a bright spot moving quickly across the sky. That was really nifty. I can see how people who don't, say, need sleep for some reason, can get caught up in going to chase these things.
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You're correct about it being hard to get your heart rate up swimming. One's heart rate is about 10% lower in the water for comperable levels of exercise.
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Say, how come you're up at five in the morning? I've always thought of you as being in my time zone (Pacific)...
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Anyway, g'morning!
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This is terrific!
I had never even heard of an iridium flare. Very cool.
Re: This is terrific!
Rob says some iridium flares are visible even in daylight (though that's rare). He greeted me this morning with "I hope you didn't get up to try to see the flare"; he'd found out late last night it would be cloudy. When he heard I'd seen it through the clouds, he was pretty impressed.
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It's such a smooth motion, the rowing. I can see why people would like it. I found out later that the type of machine I tried is known for its smooth action and a feel that is closest to that of oars in the water. If I get good at this I may have to go sculling somewhere.
Access to a machine is significant, I'm sure. That's a big piece of my no-love for swimming; I have to drive somewhere and do it on someone else's timetable. Fortunately, it's a lot cheaper to buy one of these machines than it is to heat a pool of my own.
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Two words!
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WOO and HOO!
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Yay!
Re: Yay!
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I looked at the website, but I can't see how this differs from a conventional rowing machine. The pictures on the main page jump around too fast and when I click the US area on their map to get more info I don't get anything at all.
In any case I'm thrilled that you found something that will work for you! Exercise is so important, for general health as well as all the emotional reasons you've mentioned in other comments! I'd be interested in learning more about it ... I have a treadmill I don't use and a recumbent exercise bike I can't use any more because of my knees. I'll always want to walk outside when I can, but I'd love to find an indoor form of exercise I could do when it's too hot, too windy or too rainy to go for a walk.
I'd never heard of an Iridium flare! That's really interesting, although I probably couldn't see one here anyway -- I'm only a couple of blocks from the mall, which uses huge numbers of globe lights, so the light pollution is horrendous. (They used to have tall lamposts with rectangular lights that were at least partially shielded ... but when the mall changed hands a few years ago they replaced those with numerous closely-spaced shorter poles with unfrosted clear glass globes (like the ones on this page (http://calgary.rasc.ca/lp/definitions.html) under "Globe-Style Light Fixture") that radiate light out 360º, with most of it directed up! Not only is the light pollution awful, don't let me get started on the ridiculous energy waste for producing light that's about 80% wasted!) In winter when the atmosphere is clear I can see maybe a dozen stars at best ... in summer when the air is hazier I can rarely see more than three or four. So I doubt I'd see even a -8 magnitude Iridium flare very well. :-(
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Hey, I found an animation!
I had been told by several people that the majority of the pressure is (or should be) on the ball of the foot, so that all the muscles and length and strength of the leg can be used -- just like on a bicycle. It's the obvious right way to use a human leg, except for mine. Fortunately, on this machine at least, the prop slants such that a lot of the push can be done by my heels. AND I have magic shoes.
I'm not sure how much it differs from any other rowing machine, really. Its resistance is provided by blades whooshing through a tank of water, rather than by bungees or something, but other than that I have to imagine most of the idea is the same.
Exercise is incredibly important, isn't it? Man, I've been SO starved for this.
As for Iridium flares, I'd only heard of them after Rob took up astronomy as a hobby and started reading about all kinds of stuff. It amazes me that people write software to go find these things and keep track of them. A -8 is several times brighter than the brightest star, so you'd probably see it fine if you knew exactly where and when to look. But most such flares aren't that bright. I sympathize with your frustration about the light pollution. Tucked in the heart of Silicon Valley, we can see a few more stars than you can, but not a whole lot more. We live under a streetlight, too. Taking the scope out and doing much useful with it is a challenge.
Astrophotography works though. Many long exposures plus image processing software mean you can "see" stuff the eye can't detect AT ALL through a good scope. If you're interested, take a quick look at Rob's picture of galaxy M51. We can't see that thing at all through the scope -- not even the faintest whisper!
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