I opted to work from home today so I could work on a major project that my company is participating in. It’s a huge, multi-million dollar deal that kept my brain to the grindstone for most of the day. I tell you this because I have nothing interesting to put up on the blog today and the reason why is because I’m exhausted from working from home.

Hmmm… A little bit of irony there, right? The fact that I’m exhausted from working, but working from the comfort of my home office? Weird.

More fun and games tomorrow – see you then!

Then in May 2005, they closed the pool for “renovations” that would be completed in “a few months” and definitely before Summer 2005 ended. Come June 2006 (a full year and a month later) and not only was the pool not finished, but the entire interior looked like hell because they undertook a bunch of renovations that they just couldn’t afford to complete. Oh…and they didn’t lower our membership rates due to decreased equipment available or the horrible conditions in the club.

So I left and went to Gold’s Gym. It cost more and they have no pool, but the interior is brand new and the atmosphere is great.

When this e-mail came in, I actually entertained flipping back to the old gym. This is the gym where there are a ton of weirdos and dirty, creepy old men. However, they have that pool and the pool is what really helped me shed the weight (I’ve actually stopped losing weight since the pool closed and I’ve gained a few pounds since then – just a few, though).

So I made a phone call and spoke to the folks over at the old gym and they were excited about the pool being open again. They told me about all of the great renovations that were being planned and how the gym would be a world class place when it was all done and over with and, honestly, they got me psyched to go back to them! Then I remembered…they’re not that good at completing renovations projects.

I guess that I WILL go back to the old gym in the next year or two, but I’m probably going to wait until they finish their renovations. I don’t see the point in giving them a full gym membership rate and not getting a full gym to be a member of, you know?

The author, E. Randall Floyd, does an absolutely magnificent job of finding some of our American weirdos. Most of the nut jobs are from the 19th Century (that’s 1800 – 1899 for you historically inept folks out there) and it’s great reading about what they used to do and then thinking about how they could have possibly fit into society back then! There is one great story about the widow of the guy who invented one of America’s most popular guns and how she was haunted by the spirits of those who were killed by that particular gun.

So what does she do to ease the spirits?

She builds a monster of a house that has hundreds of rooms, bathrooms, hallways, windows all over the place, random doors leading to no where…absolute insanity! Come to think of it, I might have worked for a lunatic that did similar things in Monmouth County at one point…

In any event, the book was definitely worth the reduced price. It was a great read while I was on the treadmill at the gym. I’m not really sure what it retails for, but if you like American History, you’ll enjoy reading this book. Above I said that it wasn’t necessarily a “fun” read. I say that because I like to read a lot about a person and I sort of get agitated when I get a little tease about their life and times.

But that’s just one of my literary quirks.

Again, for those of you who like American history and especially aspects of American history that aren’t covered too much, this is a great read for you.