Grasshopper Encounter

I’ve mentioned before that they’ve turned several sections of our campus into plantings of native grasses creating small sections of what native prairie might have looked like.  People are of two minds about this.  There are those who would prefer that the campus look like a golf course with neatly manicured grass and they see the natural plantings as an eyesore.  And some of us love it just for the sights, sounds and smells that you get and that it provides a momentary retreat from the stress of work.

The area is teeming with grasshoppers and other similar bugs.  Today, as I was walking towards the fitness center, this big one flew out of the grass and landed on my chest before quickly flying away.

If he didn’t know I was going to be there, then it must have been a little shock.  “Hey, I’ve made this jump many times and there was never this obstruction before”.  Or, maybe he did see me coming and he’s a bit of a daredevil and was telling his friends to watch how he does a reverse tuck off me to get even further down the path.  Of course, given that a grasshopper probably has a brain the size of a poppy seed, none of this really happened.  But I like to think about things like that.  It’s just my way.

Then, just for fun, I like to search for things like “what does it mean when a grasshopper lands on you”.  Supposedly, grasshoppers only jump forward (I’m skeptical of that claim) which means it is either telling you that you are on the right path or that you should be taking some great leap of faith forward.  Like something you’ve held back on and you should just go for it anyway.  Yeah, that’s not much help and probably doesn’t really mean anything except that I was in the right place when a grasshopper decided to cross the path.  But I think about these things anyway.  As I said, it’s just my way.

I do have a dance lesson tonight and then a coaching lesson on Thursday and I’ll talk about those when they are relevant.  But I just felt like doing a little random writing today so that’s what you get.  I don’t know, sometimes it is just relaxing to sit at the computer and see where my mind takes me.

As usual, I had my workout session today and today was a big shoulder day.  I think this guy has a plan.  He has a clipboard with notes and things written down which makes me think he’s not just throwing darts at a stick figure to determine which body parts we work on.

Had someone from my team stop by as we started.  Not sure what he was doing there but he thought it’d be fun to engage me in a little conversation while I was doing these roll outs.  Of course, he’s younger and in much better shape.  Sigh.  Actually, I’ll admit that I’m about done being embarrassed to be spotted working out.  I know I’m no body builder but at least I’m trying to get stronger and fitter and you should get some points for that.  Right??

The most “fun” thing we did today were the set of assisted sit ups.  Assisted because I’ve got these straps to hang on to so I have help getting up.  But, instead of having me do a normal one where you go all the way flat to the floor before starting the next one, he just had me do a “touch and go” where I’d just briefly touch my lower back and then bounce back up again.  Well not really “bounce” but I couldn’t come up with a better word.  Can’t wait until tomorrow to see how my abs feel.

And he finished it with a plank.  I tell you this guy is evil in some ways. Again, we didn’t have a time limit so I just held it until my arms gave out.  Which probably wasn’t that long given all the shoulder work we did.

Still, as sore as I will probably be in places tomorrow, the strange thing is that it feels good to actually be working things.  Weird.  But then I guess exercise is supposed to play with your mind a bit so this is probably normal.  Must be some kind of survival thing.  We know we should be exercising so the body released these chemicals to make you feel good after doing it so you don’t just chuck it all after one session and keep you sore body on the couch for the rest of your days.

OK, that’s probably enough weirdness for now.  Later.