Public Service Announcement:  Check Your Wheels!

No, not your *car* wheels, your ROLLERSKATE wheels!!    What do you mean, you haven’t rollerskated in 15 years?

Well, neither had I until last night.

And I was all shakey and flailing and windmilling my arms around and huffing and puffing and generally having a really rough go of it for the first two hours we (aklikins and I) were at the rink.  I’d make it once around the track then have to pull over to the wall (blessed wall. happy wall.  nice, solid wall) to hang on for a while and pant.  Within the first 30 minutes I had to have a half a bottle of water *and* a half a bottle of Gatorade 1

Now, I know I’m not in the best of shapes.  And I know I’m a heck-of-a-lot older than I was the last time I did this.   Still, though, GEEEZ, it was *hard work*.  I must’ve told 20 people (as they were lapping me, of course) that this was a whole lot harder than I remembered it being.  At one point I looked at Adrian and said “It feels like I’m skating on wooden blocks!”

Fast forward to 9:30pm.  We’d been skating (me, quite courageously, I’ll add) for almost 2 hours by that time 2 and I had to take (yet another) a break.  I was leaning against the air conditioner vent (my new favorite skating rink place), when I crossed my legs and idly spun one of my wheels.

Which went about one-and-a-half rotations then stopped.

Gina: “Hey.  My wheel doesn’t spin”
Adrian:  (spins my wheel). “Wow, it doesn’t.”
Gina: “Try yours”
Adrian:  (spins his wheel.  Goes around and around and around and around it does)
Gina: (feeling like a bit of a dolt) “No wonder this was so hard!!!!”

So I went over to the skate shop, threw my leg up on the counter and asked them to fix it, please.3

They did, and I headed (with some trepidation — what if it *wasn’t* the wheel and I just *suck*?) back to the floor.  But hooray!!! Rollerskating *is* fun, after all!  Wheeeeee!

Now — who is up for a skating party? (We’ll check all the wheels first!)

1 Note to self:  Orange Gatorade tastes like Tang and is pleasantly nostalgia-inducing.  The disco music and lights may have helped with that.
2 Minus, of course, the frequent “I-must-stop-and-rest-now” breaks.
3 Which they did by loosening the wheels (with the skates still on my foot, so I didn’t even have to relace!).