No Excuse

Did I mention, the fightback starts here?

Aquacise and gym today, within a couple of hours of each other. You've heard our morning banter many a time, but this morning, you featured in it.
"D'you really want to do this?" mumbled d at 7.15.
"Course I don't really want to do this," I muttered, drooling into my pillow after a crappy night's sleep. "But I really really don't want to have to report in today's blog that I didn't do it."
d laughed a somewhat hollow laugh.
"You're using the blog as a surrogate conscience now?"
"Hey, whatever works, right? After all, there's no excuse not to go, is there?..." I mouthed those words a little bitterly. They weren't originally mine, but my mother's.

My mother, bless her, has a spectacular way with language, with which she blazes through the world like a bulldozer on crack. She, after all, was the woman who introduced herself to her then-prospective daughter-in-law (who grew up in an Sicilian American family), with the immortal line "Oh, don't worry about us, love - we're just like the Mafia!"

One day this week, Ma was here in our little jewel-box, and we were discussing how much we loved being so central for everything that's everything in this town - including the leisure centre, with its gym and swimming pool.
"Oh, absolutely," she said, casually. "There's no excuse not to go now, is there?"

Let's be clear here - there's no malice in her words, and hardly any deeper meaning. But the words have rather hung around us, every time we've been lying here not wanting to do something horribly energetic. No no...there's no excuse now.

And so, against the will of our bodies, we hauled ourselves into consciousness and into the pool this morning, for a range of exercises which are theoretically supposed to be made easier by the fact they're done in water, but each and every one of which we can feel in our muscles now. I, being a sick fuck on times, went back for the lunchtime gym session, to do some biking, some back-strengthening, and some chest pressing - the practical usefulness of which I suppose will only be revealed to me if I ever get trapped beneath a broken building and have to push great hunks of masonry off myself.

Oh and you remember I said yesterday I'd ordered a new bike power cord?
Arrived TODAY! The postal service is clearly enjoying its annual January speed allotment. So now, there's even less of an excuse to not exercise every possible chance I get.
Have of course also done some office-clearing today - as I know have to unearth the bike, in order to get on it! Read some old journals we wrote, to and about each other, and came over all gooey at our certainty, which, over time, has been more than justified, I'd say.

Sigh...ignore me, just having a sentimental moment.

Tomorrow, more office-clearance, while d and Ma do another car boot sale. And undoubtedly, I'll be getting back on my own bike tomorrow...

After all, there's...