A busy, constructive weekend

Last Tuesday I purchased a new exercise bike to replace one that had died last fall.  I was sort of under doctors' orders to get back into more exercise along with my normal two days a week at a senior fitness place.  Although I tried very hard to buy locally, I simply could not.  At several stores I visited, only one had a clerk who could talk with me and he knew nothing about exercise equipment.  The other stores totally ignored Gator Wife and me thus signalling us they didn't want our business.  So buying locally demonstrated one reason why business is apparently off, in spite of what government people tell us.

I turned to Amazon.com.  A bike I wanted and at much less cost was there.  I figured the cost savings would be taken up by shipping costs.  And it would have been except for a small feature at Amazon.com called "Super Savings Free Shipping."  There seemed to be only two conditions to that type of shipping.  First, not all items were eligible for the free shipping.  The bike was.  And second, the shipping would be by ground service and take an estimated eight to ten days.  I could accept that easily for both the savings and considering I had already been without an exercise bike for at least three or four months.

I ordered the bike with the free shipping.

On Wednesday, I got an e-mail from Amazon that my bike had been shipped and was given a tracking number so I've been following my bike's trip to Maine.  This morning, just three days later, UPS's tracking site said my bike was "out for delivery."  It said it will be in the swamp sometime this afternoon.

It weighs 85 pounds so getting it into the house might be a fun task.  Even more daunting, however, were all of the reviews I read on Amazon about the product.  Virtually to a person, the reviewers loved the bike.  Also, virtually to a person, was the complaint about the "some assembly required" instructions.  I've been well-warned that the instructions are ambiguous at best and mostly just pictures.  The reviewers warned that assembling the bike is a huge, confusing task.  But once completed, it is a super stationary exercise cycle.

So there's the busy part of this weekend.  Perhaps my smart daughter will come over and give us a hand.  In any case, especially since I'm picture instruction deficient, it is going to be an interesting adventure.  (Shucks, to be fair, my Fearless Friend would probably pipe in here that I'm construction deficient using either written or picture instructions.)

For anyone who may be interested, I'll let you know here how we made out once the project is completed.

GiM