Patty Smyth tried to kill me.

After two weeks of vacation, endless hours sitting in the car, not eating as well as I should have, and not exercising at all it was back to the gym last night.  Since it was kind of introductory, I decided to forgo the podcasts, and "kick out the jams, brothers, and sisters."*

Hitting the treadmill, starting slowly, Van Morrison singing "Jackie Wilson Said (I"m in Heaven when you smile).  A nice tempo to start, cruising along, me and Van, and when he sang "honey child, you make my day" we were hitting our stride.  Breathing and moving, blood flowing, heart beating, sing it Van!

"True Love" by the Del Lords was next, it was a great way to start the high intensity part of the interval training, and we were cruising.  Turn up the speed, turn up the volume, and go.

"Found a parking spot, all right,
Tonight's gonna be my night."

Man, those guys are great, and when the song ended and the speed was reduced, the heartbeat was up where it should be, and things were great.  It is a song with a driving beat, and a happy, positive message, a song that can make a person smile. It is about a guy who goes to work, comes home, and goes out to find the love of his life. He can "feel it any minute, gonna look up and find a true love." Call me naive, but that kind of hope flying in the face of desperate odds is powerful magic.

The Del Lords write from a variety of places, anger, sadness, desperation, and joy equally well, and they can drive a song with hammering drums, and blazing guitars, and I love those guys.  They are the ultimate in cool.

But, it was time to cool down with the mellow sounds of "One more cup of coffee" from Bob Dylan.  A song about, well who knows what it is about, but the message is universal, undeniable, and customizable.  To this day that song gives me the chills.

Not really my gym, and not really Patty Smyth.

This cycle repeated for twenty minutes, and it seemed wise to finish big.  My last high intensity burst was set to "Goodbye to You" from Patty Smyth and Scandal.  A song written by Zach Smith.  A scathing diatribe against the vanity of mankind, and the excesses of modern relationships.  Yes, it was written and performed in the eighties, but mankind and relationships don't really change much.  And in evolutionary terms, the eighties were only minutes ago, so neither has changed at all.

It is not a long song, less than 4 minutes, so the speed was cranked up on the treadmill, and we were off. Four minutes, at that pace, that far into my first workout back from vacation was like an eternity, and when she sang, "Goodbye to you, so long darling," she could have been talking to me, my life was slipping away, one gasping, painful breath at a time.  The room was getting darker, but that may have been the motion activated lights, since I was the only one there, and I was set to expire.  Maybe the sensors can tell, but that is another blog post.


And, then it hit me, Patty Smyth and Scandal tried to kill me.  It is not clear why, but I forgive them.  Tolerance, acceptance and forgiveness is what makes life worth living.  So, Patty, we are still friends, and you are still one of the greatest voices in music, and I will see you Wednesday, at the gym, earlier in the workout.

*Thank you, Blue Oyster Cult.