Treadmill fires

I'm at week 7 of the Great Ligament Tear of 2009. Been going to the gym every day since I came up to visit my parents (not much else to do around here, and particularly since I'm not allowed to run, I have no other choice but to visit the gym).

Today, willing to endure the boredom of the elliptical and the bike no more, I got on the treadmill to walk. (Last week I went to a 'Bosu Ball' class, which was basically step aerobics on one of those bouncy half-balls. Really? Really?!! I wanted to poke my eyes - or more accurately, the eyes of the stupid perky instructor - out).

But when you put a runner on a treadmill to "walk"? It's really, really hard not to want to run. About 5 minutes in there was a giant spark and huge flames shot out of the lighting fixture. Fortunately the roof is metal, otherwise the whole thing would've gone up in flames (which would've been very funny material for many people's New Years' resolutions, but horrible for the facility and the many elderly people who also go to PT and OT there). Three of us noticed this, and the two of us who were women hopped off and ran to the front desk to tell them what had happened. They didn't believe us (this nice woman is the mother of a high school friend, but if someone tells you that flames were shooting out of a lighting fixture in a packed gym, with three witnesses to prove it, it might behoove you to at least APPEAR concerned).

She called over some dude, who came back to where we were and proceeded to talk to the one guy on the treadmills about it -- not either of us who reported it (but I will save that for another time). They shut off the breaker, got out the lift, sent some poor lady up into the sky, where she unplugged it.

Way too anticlimatic for me. I lasted only 5 more minutes on the treadmill and hung it up. At least when I am back in NC I can swim (the "cold" pool here is 85 which makes me feel like I am suffocating).

Happy New Year, to my 3-4 remaining readers! (1 of whom I will see this weekend!)