The Crab is Back... Kinda

[By Crabby]

Fran The Van, In the Glamorous Winnemucca Wal-Mart

Thought You Got Rid of Me?

Sorry, no such luck! I'm back to blogging, sort of, in a half-assed way. We still haven't moved in to our new place, and still don't have reliable internet access, so I haven't had a chance to check up on all the wonderful things going on over at everyone else's fine blogs, nor to get to the backlog of email messages... And it may be a while before things are "normal" again here. Sorry about that!

So until I get more settled in, Cranky Fitness will be relying heavily on Merry as primary host, and will be featuring her excellent writing and a few more guest posts for health-related topics. My next couple of posts are going to be more of a more personal nature so I don't have to hang out at the Provincetown library doing boring research I can fill you in on how our cross country trip went! Because I know all of you possibly one friend or family member who still reads the blog must be curious.


Gratitude Monday

Over at the Goat's Lunch Pail, Leah has a great feature called Gratitude Monday. Now it's a bit too much of a stretch at Cranky Fitness to sustain Gratitude for an entire day's post, but I do feel at least a paragraph or two is order.

THANK YOU THANK YOU THANK YOU!

Huge thanks to Merry, to the awesome folks who wrote such great guest posts, to those who left comments, and to all those who stopped by while I was gone. I loved sneaking in for those few precious internet moments to read what everyone was saying, even if I didn't always have a chance to comment myself.

And a special thanks to those who wrote guest posts that didn't appear yet--some of the best ones are still on the horizon, victims of Crabby's overly aggressive Spam filter. These include posts by cool bloggers like Leslie at the Weighting Game! (And in the meantime, check out her pap smear post--it's not just amusing but also quite thought-provoking).


The Trip: Fast and Brown

This was the Lobster's description, and it is true that (a) we hauled ass and got here in a week and (b) there was not a lot of greenery along the way. However, the views out the passenger side window (where the Crab most often sits, being an anxious and not very adept driver) were often quite pretty, in a wintery austere sort of way. There were mountains and canyons and farms and hills and stuff. We even saw one of those Amish or whatever horse-drawn wagons complete with four dudes standing in the back wearing funny hats. (OK, so perhaps I'm not going to make a fortune in travel writing).

Roadside Attractions?

Originally we envisioned taking our time a bit more, to visit friends or see some sights or go for a nice hike somewhere.

But first there was a storm to outrun and then we just got too excited to see our new place and basically said, "the hell with the journey, it's all about the destination." We are so very Zen like that.

However, our first afternoon we did make one stop. Longtime readers may remember this post, in which I was trying to figure out how to deal with stuff in the basement we didn't feel like packing up.

Stuff like this:



Well, guess what? We found a really, really efficient way to deal with $103 worth of accumulated coins.

In less than 10 minutes we had no more pesky coins to deal with!

Are We There Yet?




Our cat Maile (aka "The Moo") has been an excellent traveling companion. She keeps us warm at night, exhibits patience during long driving days, and has limited her creative endeavors to only two original floor art compositions. She does have the nerve, though, to require water to drink, and we have now kicked over her water glass (she prefers it to a bowl) four times. Well, once, I knocked it over not by kicking it, but by dropping our recently-purchased camera on top of it.

All three of us will be glad to be living in a real house again.


So Why Aren't We Moved In Yet?

Once we arrived in Provincetown, we called the moving van company to see when during the three-day window our stuff would arrive. Whoops! Turns out they'd be a week late because the moving van was abducted by aliens somewhere in eastern Nebraska delayed because of weather or something.

The good news: we got to move out of the van into a cottage paid for by the moving company, hooray! The cottage was supposed to have internet access... but it's broken. So it's a return to sitting in Fran the Van, hijacking wireless yet again. Grrrrrghh!


A Nod to Health and Fitness

This is a health and fitness blog, so here's a tip when you're on the road:

Find a gym, even if it looks crappier than your regular workout establishment, and get a Day Pass!

We've gone five times now since we left California, and while none of the gyms were perfect, all of them beat doing jumping jacks at gas stations by quite a lot. Plus you get to skip random exercises without guilt because you can't find exactly the right equipment. Highly recommended.

(But before you hit the gym, even on a day pass, be sure to check out Charlotte's great post on what not to wear at the gym. Very Funny.)

Thanks Again!

I really appreciate everyone's patience while I get back on track... Health reporting will resume soon, I swear. Sure missed you guys these past couple of weeks!