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feldmanSo I'm haunting Craigslist for cheap exercise equipment and I come
across half a page of ads for riding stuff; bits, English saddles,
boots, jodhpurs, you name it. Apparently I'm not the only one
intrigued, as the last ad is
for this:
Speaking of horses, or in this case draft pony physiques and my
chronic engagement with the topic of fitness, I'm totally looking to
cash in on other people's misguided New Year's resolutions. I got a
Nordic Track for $30 at an estate sale this summer and I'd like to
outfit the rest of a kickass gym for Casa de Feld for similar chump
change. Hopefully I answered soon enough on those weights for $65
(Olympic bar and standard set of plates, normally $300). In the
meantime, I snagged a jump rope and a small weight bar from Target for
twenty bucks.
Things I've learned from Craigslist:
1. Do not set up your exercise equipment in the basement. Even if you
have a finished basement, they just don't build them tall or airy
enough to want to spend time down there doing anything but laundry,
especially in the winter. Laundry is different because I think it
reminds us of freshening the nest, all those piles and baskets of warm
clothing. All those camera phone pics of exercise gear infesting dank
basement corners is depressing.
So the Casa gym is going to be in a spare bedroom until spring, and
then in the garage during warm months. I'm also thinking about
decoration and inspiration; paint, photos, art, and speakers for
music.
2. Don't buy anything that implies it will do the work for you, or
that it's relaxing or easy. There are a ton of squat machines, ab
loungers, mats, chairs and bullshit available and it goes
really cheap (if it sells at all) even if you keep all the DVDs
and extras it comes with. If you can't tell from the picture how it
works, people aren't going to buy it because they don't see the
Bowflex music video of oiled and sheened curves that made you buy it
in the first place. Some of the names alone are creepy and a lot of
them look like Farscape chairs.
3. Dude. No one wants your jumble of curl bars and unmatched plates.
What the hell am I going to do with one 45 pound plate, keep my
papers tidy during a tornado? Brain the next dumbfuck who blows their
snow out into the street? Use it as a pizza stone? Give it up
already. Sell it for scrap iron and stop posting it every damned day.
Or at least take a picture of the mess where it doesn't look like I'd
need a tetanus booster just to touch it.
In other news, I've been experimenting with whimsical produce
shopping: I wander through the market, pick out the things that look
pretty or yummy, and then figure out how to eat them when I get home.
I'm 35 years old and I just had my first persimmon. Of course, now
I've had quite a few persimmons, for lo they are delicious and one can
eat everything but the little calyx on top and the occasional huge
seed. The crotchity old coot eyeing me snidely as we picked them out
was right to be so territorial.
This weekend I made fried plantains (they were so emerald! and the
inexplicable band of strapping tape around each one looked so
naughty!) and baba ghannouj (aubergine! the official fruit of
Scullyfic!). The fried plantains are mild but starchy, next time I'll
cut them thinner. Baba ghannouj, on the other hand, is one of those
things that rewards the effort of making it at home, even if you're
too lazy to dig out the processor and just mash it ineffectively with
a knife and fork.
across half a page of ads for riding stuff; bits, English saddles,
boots, jodhpurs, you name it. Apparently I'm not the only one
intrigued, as the last ad is
for this:
*******WHERE'S THE HORSE?*******
Just wondering.
Speaking of horses, or in this case draft pony physiques and my
chronic engagement with the topic of fitness, I'm totally looking to
cash in on other people's misguided New Year's resolutions. I got a
Nordic Track for $30 at an estate sale this summer and I'd like to
outfit the rest of a kickass gym for Casa de Feld for similar chump
change. Hopefully I answered soon enough on those weights for $65
(Olympic bar and standard set of plates, normally $300). In the
meantime, I snagged a jump rope and a small weight bar from Target for
twenty bucks.
Things I've learned from Craigslist:
1. Do not set up your exercise equipment in the basement. Even if you
have a finished basement, they just don't build them tall or airy
enough to want to spend time down there doing anything but laundry,
especially in the winter. Laundry is different because I think it
reminds us of freshening the nest, all those piles and baskets of warm
clothing. All those camera phone pics of exercise gear infesting dank
basement corners is depressing.
So the Casa gym is going to be in a spare bedroom until spring, and
then in the garage during warm months. I'm also thinking about
decoration and inspiration; paint, photos, art, and speakers for
music.
2. Don't buy anything that implies it will do the work for you, or
that it's relaxing or easy. There are a ton of squat machines, ab
loungers, mats, chairs and bullshit available and it goes
really cheap (if it sells at all) even if you keep all the DVDs
and extras it comes with. If you can't tell from the picture how it
works, people aren't going to buy it because they don't see the
Bowflex music video of oiled and sheened curves that made you buy it
in the first place. Some of the names alone are creepy and a lot of
them look like Farscape chairs.
3. Dude. No one wants your jumble of curl bars and unmatched plates.
What the hell am I going to do with one 45 pound plate, keep my
papers tidy during a tornado? Brain the next dumbfuck who blows their
snow out into the street? Use it as a pizza stone? Give it up
already. Sell it for scrap iron and stop posting it every damned day.
Or at least take a picture of the mess where it doesn't look like I'd
need a tetanus booster just to touch it.
In other news, I've been experimenting with whimsical produce
shopping: I wander through the market, pick out the things that look
pretty or yummy, and then figure out how to eat them when I get home.
I'm 35 years old and I just had my first persimmon. Of course, now
I've had quite a few persimmons, for lo they are delicious and one can
eat everything but the little calyx on top and the occasional huge
seed. The crotchity old coot eyeing me snidely as we picked them out
was right to be so territorial.
This weekend I made fried plantains (they were so emerald! and the
inexplicable band of strapping tape around each one looked so
naughty!) and baba ghannouj (aubergine! the official fruit of
Scullyfic!). The fried plantains are mild but starchy, next time I'll
cut them thinner. Baba ghannouj, on the other hand, is one of those
things that rewards the effort of making it at home, even if you're
too lazy to dig out the processor and just mash it ineffectively with
a knife and fork.
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no subject
Date: 2008-01-07 08:13 pm (UTC)Your dad left quite the edible landscape, there. I'd never heard of scuppernong before, they look interesting.
no subject
Date: 2008-01-07 09:42 pm (UTC)He had a garden in the upper yard near the house where he grew corn, tomatoes, green onions, eggplants, collard greens, and Mom's flowers. There was a lower field with potatoes, watermelons, snapbeans and peas. In what is now the meadow, there were rows of okra and sugar cane.
The pond was full of catfish and brim and mullet (and the occasional moccasin or cottonmouth - fun!) and the ducks swam there (but we did not). We could fish from the side of the pond, and that's where I once caught Daddy in the ear with a fishhook when I was trying to cast. Eeeep!
At one time, we had pigs (Pork Chops, Mudpuddle), a bull named Bob, three heifer calves, turkeys, ducks, chickens, and rabbits. Unfortunately for Dad, neither Mom nor I were about to let him kill the rabbits for a Sunday dinner. On the other hand, I was all too eager to eat the pigs we'd raised, but Mom made us trade our big, fat, healthy hogs for someone else's when it came time to slaughter them. :(
FYI, watching a pig being slaughtered is both gross and fascinating, and makes a fairly indelible memory.
The scuppernong are a variety of muscadine, and are about the size of grapes, but thicker-skinned. We have the bronze-green variety, and I always view them with suspicion, because they make me think of my maternal grandmother's wax grapes, which were a nasty surprise to a tiny hungry child.
The persimmons Dad had were the tomato-shaped ones, and kind of mushy, but I suspect they were probably a few days overripe when I came upon them.
BTW, I love my copy of The Joy of Cooking. Mine was my grandmother's, dating from around the mid-seventies, and still has a recipe for green turtle soup, which is now illegal.