"Where Are You At 62?" part 2..the basement

 November weather has come in like a lamb....any bets that it doesn't go out that way?



It was pretty much a perfect weekend weather-wise for early November.  Sunshine with afternoon highs reaching the low 60s on Saturday and into the mid 60s yesterday with southerly breezes.  A bit of rain is back today, but temperatures for the next couple of days will remain in the 60s, before cooling off for midweek and the coming weekend.

Today will be busy enough...MRSI Board meeting at Noon, and the opening of Dartball season tonight, as we travel north a few miles north to Mount Tabor to kick off the season.  How about those Bengals?  A team that many were predicting to go 0-16, came back from a 17-7 deficit at Tennessee yesterday and defeated the Titans 24-17,  to move to 6 wins and just 2 loses on the year, and a 5 game winning streak has Cincinnati sitting with the best record in the AFC....things get tougher from here however, as they host Pittsburgh next week, then after Cleveland comes to town, they play at Baltimore and Pittsburgh back to back.  The next four weeks might tell Cinderella's story.

"62" part 2___

Friday I wrote about getting back into weight training on a good scale, after several years of starts and stops, mainly due to back problems, and frankly getting old....

I've been back at it for 5 months, lifting 2 or 3 times per week to go with my daily walks in good weather around town or the Fairgrounds, and if it's lousy outside, I climb on the treadmill for 30 or more minutes.  So far the results have even surprised me.  I'm not back to where I was in my weight training days of yesteryear, but for 62, 63 in a few months, I'm doing alright.  Now the old adage is, that muscle weighs more than fat...must be true, because since I started lifting again full bore, I've gained back about 8 pounds of the 30 I lost over the previous two years...but still fit into the 36 inch waist jeans and khaki pants.  I'd like to drop the 8 or even 12 pounds, but, not by giving up the weight lifting or beer....that's just the way it is going to be.

The Basement___

I do my workouts in the ancient basement....the house, the former First Church of God Parsonage, was built during the winter of 1923, the basement, according to newspapers I found in the cracks and crevices of the dungeon like rooms.  These days in newer and even some older homes, people fix up the basement areas, and make a den like setting...not with ours, it's pretty old, with the cost, and frankly the lack of use as a den it would get, tends me to keep it as it is....spiders and their webs are down there, along with the washer, dryer, my cigars, food storage, clothes, weight center, a TV with cable access, my officiating/umpiring equipment and uniforms, along with many old antiques from Grandma's Scott, Ohio, home...yep the basement is what they were meant for...the furnace sits along side the weight bench in one room, and my old shower, installed by Patricia when we first moved in, sits in the corner under the stair well....that shower, which needs replaced soon, has seen me and the boys, when they were living here, take 99% of our bathing needs....I've used it at least twice per day over the 16+ years...I can think of no more than a handful of times I have used the main bath upstairs.

The basement was a "full" one when the house was constructed some 88 years ago....in 1945 the south end of the house saw a kitchen, dinning room, and utility room, along with extra half bath installed...instead of the full basement continued under that portion, they added a 4 foot deep crawl space adjoining the basement area.  Anyway, that basement portion is where I spend some time each day, winter, and summer...and I like the "dungeon" just the way it is.

Busy day...so I'll be back later>>>>

Photos-The basement isn't finished or like most 88 year old things, isn't pretty, but it gets used daily...weather for weight lifting, food storage, washing, drying of clothes, and my daily showers.  The Bengals, along with Buffalo and San Francisco, are the surprise teams of the first half of the NFL season. Food Storage in the age of Obammy is important...you never know when the Kenyan bastard is going to declare Marshall Law....and when not walking outside, due to inclement weather, this is the view I get from the indoor treadmill....