You know what? I think that it's a shame the major networks aren't carrying the Paralympics. Or any network. Is there some high-number cable station maybe that's covering these games?
The last half an hour of my life has been spent combing through this site, reading up on what the US Paralympic team has been up to, learning about the folks on the team, and then scooting over and around the online news sites being more and more amazed at what people can do despite having every reason not to.
There are people who have had terrible accidents, been born with significant disabilities, who have had their vision taken from them by hereditary misfortunes, the list goes on and on. These people are world record setting athletes in some of the most improbable sports imaginable. For example, a male swimmer with no arms just won the 200m backstroke.
Is that not spectacularly amazing? I submit that it is.
Also inspiring. And shaming, if I stopped to consider that I have full use of all my appendages and don't feel the drive to utilize them to anything even close to their full extent.
Except...I have once again started a workout program. This takes me one step back from the precipice of 'so lazy as to be a source of embarrassment' toward 'might one day be able to touch her toes.' It's only 30 minutes a day, so I'm not shooting for any world records, but it's something. Getting older has seen the advent of a flabby gut, which I despise because I had always had a nice firm stomach (and let's not even mention the backfat, mmkay?), and I'm not helping matters any by NOT doing anything about it, so I can up with what I thought was a brilliant plan:
Each night, before I have that first cocktail, I have to exercise for a half an hour.
That's it.
While it might be sad to say that I do have my drinkies every night, this malleation of my daily habit is really the only sure way I'm going to do something for fitness every day. Why NOT link one habit with another? Why NOT delay the first sips of sweet happymaking liquor in order to get the ol' heart rate up and tone the muscles I know are lurking underneath that fluffy cozy blanket of fat?
Why not indeed, and so, it is done. At least for the past three days in a row. Because, damn, I'm not NOT drinking just because I'm too lazy to exercise!
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Now, to politics.....
I have downloaded a link to the Democratic National Party platform onto my computer desktop. The document is a shade less than 60 pages long, so it's not an onerous task to read it all. It is therefore my intent to read it all, then move on to the Republican National Party platform document. Once both are read, it is my FURTHER intent to compare and contrast the two items in order that I might make a somewhat more informed decision about for whom I'm going to vote this November than I ever have before.
Might I invite you to do the same?
Because remember, it's not necessarily that WHO you vote for is the sum total of what's going to happen in their administration, it's what their party stands for that counts just about as much. Being black, white, male, female, two-headed (but, I hope, not two-faced), abled, disabled, should only be a part of informed vote-casting. Just because one person is charismatic or pretty or different or a war hero doesn't make that one person the total package. The foundation on which they build their candidacy matters too. One thing balances the other. I would urge all of us to not make a decision based solely on a book's cover; look inside to find out what all the fuss is about. At least ONE chapter of that book has got to be what the party to which they belong has as their goals for the next 4 years and beyond.
And that's all I have to say about THAT.
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With the sermon over, and with this broadly unfunny post about to go straight into the crapper, I have this to offer you as a token of my affection for those who made it this far:
Cake Wrecks.
You can (probably) get through the entire site in less then an hour. I did. Caution: this site may make you really and truly LOL. You've been warned.
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Have a wonderful Tuesday, if you would. For me?
And thanks for reading.
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