Have you ever heard of “the ring” workout? “The Ring” doesnt refer to the Japanese horror novel turned into a film; “The Ring” is what they do in men’s gymnastics at the Olympics. There are a lot of different workouts and exercises that can be done with this simple setup, and it works your stabilizer muscles really well. The first time using “rings” to do, let’s say, some push ups- you will find yourself shaking like a leaf. It is pretty intense, and can leave a person wiped out in 10-15 minutes.

Some friends of mine have done this workout for a while and really enjoyed the results, so I got a pair of rings; but, there is nowhere to hang them. We have a kids swings that is about 6′ off the ground, and that worked for just a few of the exercises, but was far from the best setup. If a man wants to get strong in his own yard, it has to be the best setup, right?

If the swing set wasn’t high enough for a proper ring setup, surely a tree branch would do? Also no. There is not a single branch from our 6 gigantic trees with a proper branch to hang something from.

I had to build my own ring setup. This would be easy. This would be fun. Surely my amazing wife would love and support the idea, right? Obviously this is the right thing to do to save money on a gym membership.

The challenge was the support beams needed are too long to fit into the car: 8, 10, or 12 feet long. Usually my mom’s cargo can used to haul paintings would be a good resource, but she was out of town. The next best bet is Robert Core’s 1988 V8 Chevy Custom pickup truck. It’s army green:

And it’s a stick shift. My friend Houston and I used to drive around town and mow yards in this very same truck 25 years ago. And it still runs.

With Taylor’s blessing about a vague, but simple thing I wanted to build, and the truck to go get the 4 x 4s from Lowe’s, I got the saw out, drill, etc. and went to work. The plan changed: instead of dropping the wood beams into the ground as a permanent structure, Taylor’ requested it be above ground. You know, just in case I don’t continue using it for more than 3 months (a very reasonable position to have).

On a daily basis, I work on a computer writing computer code; I am not a “handy” kinda person, but I can get things done. Over-analyzing makes me good at my job, but not-so-great at other things. So, for this simple project of building a pull-up bar, I needed to make sure it wouldn’t fall over in ANY direction. Also, these small, amazing, but curious and troublesome kids would also end up pushing the limits, I wanted to make sure these 4x4s could support it.

And I accidentally went too large by using 12′ poles; however, these can be trimmed back, OR I can drop it into the ground at some point in the future. However, I present to you an over-engineered structure that my supportive, but embarrassed wife, hopes will keep my attention for more than 3 months:

It’s hard to stay healthy. Taylor works. I work. We have to get groceries, but it is hard to go to great lengths to make sure we have super healthy meals. I run a bit, but get bored after reaching a distance of about 10 miles; the gym is expensive, and for some reason I am not motivated to lift weights. I started riding my bike for exercise, and that is fun so far (I am not great at it). If I can do 4 cardio workouts a week, that’s good- at about 20-40 minutes a piece.

Also, this month is Sober-september to take a step in the right direction. Too many IPAs over the summer put me at +7 pounds since June- I am so lucky that my bathroom scale keeps track of that for me.

Wish me luck!

The last bowl.

Part of our wedding registry was at a store called Anthropologie. It is hard to adequately describe the store, I will just fall flat on this, so I will not even try.

However, we got lots of things from there. They are pretty neat, a little more artsy and colorful than what you may get at a boring department store. They fit Taylor’s style pretty well, and she still shops at this store to this day.

We got a set of rice bowls from there; the set had either 4, 6, or 8 bowls, hard to say, but they are the perfect size. Good for ice cream; rice, sides for dinner.

As a side note, we eat at home a lot. And, we never use paper plates (unless feeding a large crowd). So our dinner set gets used pretty often; 5x a week. If you include breakfasts and lunches, maybe much, much more.

We have been married 14 years now. Thats 5130 days, or 732 weeks. If that bowl set was used a conservative, 4x per week- that puts us at 2,928 times that bowl was used.

This week, finally, after putting away another load of clean dishes from the dishwasher, it’s lone matching bowl slipped and broke on the marble (or granite, I am not sure what our counters are made out of) counter. It had a good run. RIP to your brothers and sisters, little bowl.

Maybe I can find some antique versions to replenish the set as some sort of really good, thoughtful husband gift; or maybe it’s just time to get some new bowls.