LUNA-TICS TEAM ROOM: Year-round "Looney" fun.

[Kristine Strasburger]

Baz, what great photos of you and TomO! Looks like you had a fun and memorable time, and it was a perfect day for it.

Wim, I can't give you any feedback on those machines, but would say from experience that I would never buy any exercise machine model that was not commercial quality, meaning marketed primarily to the gym and fitness center industry. I would be dropping in on as many local gyms as possible, and seeing what machines are being used, and ask them about maintenance issues. These machines will cost more, but in the long run, if it doesn't end up being a coat-rack, it is well worth the investment, even if it takes another year to save up for it. A great deal of equipment usage hinges on how it feels when using it. Cheaper models won't feel and won't run as well. Case in point is the C2 equipment - it feels great, so we just can't get enough of it.

[Rumping]

Kristine, I agree in principle. However, for treadmills it's a bit different as the real commercial treadmills tend to be way out of my price range ($5000-$7000 for anything decent) as they were built to withstand 10 hours of daily use. For personal use, dust would be that unit's worst enemy before it would expire.

A mid-range machine should last just fine for home/family use. That's where the light commercial units (up to 5 hours of daily use) start coming into play (for use in hotels, police/fire stations, etc). And that's the type of machine I'm looking for. A local dealer/service company is important too, because treadmills need a lot more maintenance than our trusty rower. I see nice machines I can buy on the web, but if I can buy the same machine locally with free delivery and setup, with qualified service personnel that gives a free extra year of labor into the warranty (making it lifetime motor, 10 years parts, 2 years labor), it certainly carries some weight into my decision.

Unlike the salesman trying to sell me a Vision treadmill. He admitted having only worked at that store for 3 months, and beyond informing me that I'd have to have a rubber mat for the machine he didn't know much for details about the machines beyond what the flyers have written in them. That store didn't do delivery, installation or service which pretty much makes them useless in my book.

Of course, another nice thing about a local place that isn't part of a huge chain is that you can often chat with the owner and haggle.

[Kristine Strasburger]

Wim, Have you tried Sears or Costco.com (which often gives free shipping on items ordered online)? I think both of those places would provide you with good warranty servicing if that is a major concern. You can't beat Costco's return policy. Then you could just return the item if it turned out to be a bad one.

[bg]

Well, that was all a bit of fun, 6 kilometres over the equestrian course, with all the obstacles and plenty of mud. There were a few serious runners, but there were people dressed up as pink pigs, a few people in tennis whites (well white for a few moments), and we even saw goldilocks (was actually a bloke!)... A fabulous Sydney day, lots of sun, and plenty of mud!

Janet is even threatening to be on the start line next year...

A couple of before, and after shots follow!

The sun is getting low in the Western sky, and haven’t had a stout for weeks, now might just be the time,
Cheers, BBB & TomO

Ps Oh my gawd, I just read Dave H’s comment about organic matter...too late now (need that stout fast!)

great photos......

[Kona2]

I tell you...there are no coincidences! The 27th reindeer belongs to AJ.....and just27 (Minnie) is probably thinking "well, of course!" The stars are indeed aligned in our rowing universe! Congratulations, AJ, on earning the first $2.02 of your Concept2 donation $$$.

Polaris (AJ)

[Kona2]

Wim - I continue to support getting a mat to put under exercise equipment - whether it is the Concept2 or a treadmill. The mat deadens the noise the equipment makes, and provides a more stable footing - and keeps the area cleaner. I have a Pro-Form treadmill that I've had for about ten years. It gets most of its workouts in the winter, and I've never had to have any maintenance on it.

The other item is that since you have young children, you might want to make sure there is a good lockout mechanism. I gave up trying to keep my 6 year old nephew off the equipment, and showed him how to hook up the safety mechanism...since he invariably wants to go FASTER. I had visions of small fingers getting caught in the rollers as he was spun off the end of the deck...

[Rumping]

Kona, you hit the nail on the head with one of my concerns regarding the True treadmill. When it's folded up, the mechanism to unlock it is effectively a foot switch, something my 3-year old can undo (and have half a treadmill land on him at that time). And yes, I'm planning on getting a mat too.

Sears doesn't do its own service and maintenance, and at that point I may as well buy online directly. Sole supposedly does have good service, but I don't know if there's a good service spot for them locally. Still looking around .

We do not have a Costco anywhere near yet. They're building one for next year though. Can't wait for that one.

And I am jealous! So many reindeer, and here I am still lagging behind. I'm ahead of my scheduled 200k for the month, but getting to that first 100k still takes time. Congrats (and thanks) to everyone who's rowing in the challenge. Hopefully we all will get our reindeer.

[Kona2]

Welcome back, Rivka and Sarah. And, you've already rowed enough meters to get your reindeer!

Mercury (Rivka) - and $ 3.90 in Concept2 donations

Venus (Sarah) - and $ 3.90 in Concept2 donations

[Kona2]

19 or 20 days to go !



29

Concept2 Challenge Donations Earned:

Luna-Tics Team = $ 128.00

Concept2 Overall = $ 1849.04 SIX PERCENT !!!


Season meters as of 218 / 365 = 89,516,915 m

Total meters on the day = 3,857,531 m

Oars in space (participation) = 27 percent

MILESTONES...Bragging Rights...Celebrations:

4.45 MM Jay
2.65 MM Rosi
2.15 MM Anita
1.75 MM AJ
1.7 MM Zander
1.6 MM Danno
1.4 MM Robyn
1.3 MM David T
650 K Angelo
250 K Greg C
135 K Kaylee
65 K Ethan

Million Meter Watch:



Will S with (40,003 m) to go!

Cathie with (210,672 m) to go !

Million Meter Watch :


Minnie with (22,296 m) to go! Today could be the day....let's see that would be worth 89 cents in donation $$$

Brett with (189,388 m) to go!



Million Meter Watch:




Charles B with (29,340 m) to go!

Raoul with (52,727 m) to go!

Chris H with (70,650 m) to go!

Harold with (134,900 m) to go!




Thanks to all who rowed today ! Great to be able to contribute to making a difference in people's lives ... let's go get those donation $$$

Ethan 1,008 m
Harold 1,300 m - $2.88
Ashlee 1,776 m
Kaylee 2,375 m
Sam 4,500 m - $ 2.84
David T 6,000 m
Tom R 7,262 m
Ross 7,531 m
Tony m
Bobbie 8,000 m
Tammy 9,000 m - $2.49
Chuck 10,000 m
Dave H 10,000 m - $2.78
K2 10,000 m - $2.42
Kristine 10,000 m - $2
Mitch J 10,007 m
Greg C 10,579 m
Jim 11,000 m - $9.08
Ted m - $2.31
Wim m
Ronnie 12,000 m - $ 5.64
Zander 12,000 m - $4.80
Richard T m - $6.15
Roger m $3.48
Anita 12,500 m - $6.16
Ken G 15,000 m - $ 2.60
Robyn 15,000 m - $ 4.51
Minnie 15,127 m - $ 3.51
Peter G 15,500 m
Rosi 16,000 m - $ 5.52
AJ 18,228 m - $ 2.02
Baz 20,000 m - $3.60
Danno 20,000 m - $ 3.48
Michelle 22,525 m - $7.33
Jay 26,252 m - $9.71
Cathie 36,000 m - $ 8.01
Angelo 174,653 m - wowzer, that's quite an update !
Sarah 1,492,406 m - $3.90
Rivka 1,759,314 m - $3.90

As a team, we earned $26.28 in Concept2 donations yesterday ! Woot !

[Kona2]

We do not have a Costco anywhere near yet. They're building one for next year though. Can't wait for that one.

Wim - I am pretty sure that you can get a Costco membership online, and you can then take advantage of Costco online purchases - and these are backed by the same great return policy that the stores have. It might be worth your time to check out the online treadmill opportunities through them, and see if it is worth the purchase of a membership online.

[just27]

The 27th reindeer belongs to AJ.....and just27 (Minnie) is probably thinking "well, of course!" The stars are indeed aligned in our rowing universe!

Polaris (AJ)

Hah -- there'll be no living with him now -- he was already thinking that the Earth revolves around him ... now, with the stars doing the same thing ... !

[Kona2]

Meteor (Marty)

Woohoo! Congratulations, Marty! You've made it to the 50K milestone....and your donation earnings are $2 ! Way to row !!!

[bg]

WOW
Miss ONE day and look what happens. Welcome and congratulations Rivka and Sarah Congratulations to K2, Dave H,
Tammy, Kristine, Ted and AJ. Congratulations to Jim, Cathie, and Marty on your Riendeer upgrades
And I just noticed Jay broke the 300,000 meter mark-way to go
Is this a great team, or what
Ron
And, I forgot to add mega Kudos to K2 for keeping track of all this

and thanks for posting all this ron so i can say welcome and congrats to everyone from me too....

[Kona2]

Pretty exciting when the line on the graph starts going stratospheric ! We're not quite through with Day 11, but wanted to see how cool it looked as a graph. The Concept2 rowing community has been pouring it on all weekend....and we're almost to 8 percent completion. The Luna-Tic reindeer are holding steady with their contributions....and should be at about 50% towards the goal of $300 by end of day tomorrow !! Whoop, whoop!!

In the meantime, have you noticed how many people are zooming up the leaderboard, and making their meter millionaire status ?!

[kgallagher]

I didn't end up rowing at all this weekend and I feel that I want to share why. All week I had been debating how to share some sad news with my Lunatic friends. But due to the unknown in the story, I held off. Now I feel it is time.

On Monday, one of my real life teammates went out in his single and capsized. He signed out from our boatclub at 10:30 am. At 2:00 another teammate showed up to row. Saw that this rower hadn't returned and his shoes were still on the dock. He walked down to scan the river and saw his boat upside down across the river resting on the down stream bank. He immediately called 911 and the search began. His family took up residence in our club room and were there all week. The cold water was impairing the search (about 45 degrees farenheit). I continued to erg during the week although didn't feel like pushing myself too much. I didn't erg Sat. as I was up the river as part of a search team walking the banks. (They had dropped the river as low as it could go. An advantage of being between two dams.) The lower river level and many searchers did not prove successful. At 1:00 they opened the upper dam and began raising the river back to a normal level. Around 2:30 a neighbor was out in his own small motor boat searching for a boat lift he lost after Hurricane Irene, when he hit something soft. He claims he could see something and was sure it was a body. He came to our boat house and the police resumed their search. (They had stopped due to the increased current from the dam opening.) They brought back the sonar boat and the cadaver dog. They searched for a while, but only located a submerged dock. The false alarm was heart breaking. Listening to this man describe what he felt and saw, I believed he found more than a dock.

Well, this gentleman couldn't sleep all night. He knew what he saw and felt. He had to go back out there and look for him. He remembered reading in a fishing magazine about Inuits who created some object to help them see in the water when they were ice fishing. He used a lampshade, plexiglass, and some gorilla glue to create a similar object. It worked. He went back out to the spot where he felt him yesterday and located him again. He went back to our boat club and took one of my other teammates out in his canoe. She also saw him and was able to identify him while he was still in the water. A dive team returned and pulled his rip cord on his personal floatation device. He immediately surfaced. It is believed he had a heart attack and died instantly as he was still in the rowing position as if at the catch (legs bent, arms out straight), hence the reason he didn't pull the cord on his own.

It is a sad thing to lose a friend, but after 6 days of not knowing what happened or where his body could be, there is relief in the ending.

I am thrilled that this neighbor didn't give up. His diligence allows the family to move on in their grieving process. I am also glad to know that my teammate seems to have died quickly, suffered little, and went doing something he absolutely loved.

Thanks for listening to me.

Karyn

PS(I didn't end up rowing today as I decided to spend time with my husband and child enjoying each other. I usually try to tackle longer distances on the weekend. Now I have to tack on some extra meters this week to get back on track.)