Generally speaking, this gym is a place CJ enjoys. But there are a couple aspects of it that make him uncomfortable. I'll have him tell you the story.
For the past few months, I have been going to a local gym named Defy. You won’t find any treadmills or weights here, though. Defy’s central attractions are the elaborate trampoline setups, including a very large grid of trampolines in the center of the area. The gym also proudly features an obstacle course on par with American Ninja Warrior. The entire back half of the gym is an expansive grid of trampolines. I've long since become familiar with the primary trampoline array, and it’s where I spend most of my time. However, it’s not the only attraction Defy has to offer its guests.
In the northwest corner of the gym are the “Supertramps,” named after the iconic British band from the 1970s. The Supertramps are equipped with more springs than standard trampolines, and they are next to walls that visitors can bounce on to. During numerous visits, I tried and tried to get up on the wall, but each attempt was fruitless. Even at the most recent visit, it was a struggle for me to get up the eight-foot wall. I sweatily jumped, fruitlessly bouncing on the trampoline in hopes of getting the height necessary to ascend the wall. After several desperate attempts, I finally reached the top. But it gets worse.
The real uneasiness for me came from coming down. Again, there are only about eight feet from the Supertramp on the floor to the top of the wall. But since I’m six feet tall, it looked like over a story from my perspective. At age sixteen, I pitifully called for my middle-aged mother to come rescue me. She awkwardly assisted me back down. It wasn’t exactly my proudest moment. At this point, my choices were never going up on the wall again, or managing to descend independently. On my most recent visit to Defy, I was determined to go alone. I scaled the wall on my first attempt, and then clumsily lowered myself back down. This wasn’t very graceful either, but it was a step up (no pun intended) from my mommy coming to save me. After two or three trips up and down the wall, I was able to get off and on it without hesitation.
Near the front of Defy is the “Tower.” Above a massive, inflatable pillow are three ledges, each three feet up from the one below. The first ledge is about four feet off the pillow. Jumpers are told to land on either their butts or their backs. Kids half my age taking the plunge off the Tower, even at its highest, is a common sight. The ledges may not appear very intimidating to onlookers, but it was quite a bit different to me, as the jumper. At previous visits to Defy, I frequently climbed up the Tower’s staircase, but I always chickened out and shamefully slogged down the stairs. However, at this visit, I nearly leaped off the middle ledge about seven times before finally making the rear-first plunge. Fortunately, after my first dive down, I quickly got the hang of it, though it was still a little uncomfortable. (Here's some video of that: https://youtu.be/9EMtYazpFb4)
However, I was not yet satisfied. The third and highest ledge still awaited. Thankfully, Defy wasn’t busy that day, so I had plenty of shots at making the leap during my brief visit.
I was trembling with fear at the topmost ledge. My family cheered me on from the floor, but I shamefully walked down the stairs multiple times. We were about to leave, but I chose to attempt a leap one more time. After shakily ascending the stairs leading to the top ledge, I made a hop of faith, down on my butt, to the pillow. I survived, and I overcame my fear. (Video of the bigger jump https://youtu.be/587BIJCOcMI .)
But I wasn’t done yet. I made a point to take a short ride on Defy’s zipline attraction. When a staff member is manning the station, visitors are encouraged to take a ride on the zipline, over a sea of foam blocks. The last time I tried to use the zipline, I almost instantly dropped like a sack of concrete, before crawling from the pit with bloodied hands. This time, I zipped over the field of foam, and crawled out stronger for it.
All in all, it was a good day at Defy. I literally overcame obstacles, and I probably won’t have difficulty with them in the future. My future visits are going to be more fun, because there aren’t as many barriers for me. (Here's his zipline trip: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Cq2ImQnVLW0&feature=youtu.be
Meanwhile, Annabelle keeps working away on her to do list. She continues to make progress traversing the climbing wall.
SOLEMN STOP: Saturday afternoon we were headed up Airport Way with me in the driver's seat. When we were passing The Museum of Flight, I pulled into a parking lot on the west side of the main building. Christian and the kids asked me what I was doing, and I reminded them that it was February 1, the anniversary of the loss of space shuttle Columbia in 2003. The museum has a wonderful statue of Michael P. Anderson, a Washington resident and NASA astronaut, who was lost in the disaster.
We paused for a moment to pay our respects.
SUPER SUNDAY: The Super Bowl was Sunday. Even though we had just one guest over for the game, we still marked the big game with some themed food. We made clam chowder from scratch and served it with sourdough bread as a nod to San Francisco, the NFC team in the game. We made Kansas City style ribs as a nod to the Kansas City Chiefs. Kennedy brought bierocks, a Missouri staple, per the Internet. Annabelle and I worked together on a key lime cheesecake (since the big game was being played in Miami).
I claim it's not fit for a consolation prize.
We are pretty experienced makers and bakers, and followed the instructions to a t.
What a mess. The sides of the cheesecake stuck terribly to the pan (yes, we greased it), and the cheesecake was "curdy," for lack of a better descriptor. It tasted mostly OK, but it was super disappointing, overall.
MAKER: Monday morning Annabelle awoke and declared she was going to build a piano.
And that's what she did, using dozens and dozens of parts from a Nintendo Labo kit.
She worked away, quietly and independently. It took her a little over an hour to finish the build. Then, she had to put it to the test.
As you can see and hear, it worked quite well!
POST SCRIPT: I had this (rather lengthy) blog all done last night. And upon clicking "Publish," the whole darn post disappeared, including saved drafts. Sigh.
A couple of very successful days-except for the cheesecake.
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