Our friends, Al and Michele, completely out of the blue, bought us a Concept 2 rowing machine. Lorena and I have both been avid rowers. I actually quit rowing after a good long stint back in about 1994 because we had kids and it was hard to get to the gym without neglecting the family. Lorena started rowing in about 2010 and has never stopped. She did an hour, three days per week for several years, but has settled down to 45 minutes now. She runs for an hour an additional two days per week.

I have now excuse now not to get back in the game. At 65, I know I need to start a little slower than I did in the past. My plan is to start at five minutes and add a minute per day until I get up to 45 minutes and make up the difference walking on the treadmill until I hit my goal.

Kudos go out to the people at Concept 2 who made this device. It is just spectacular. I spent three-quarters of a 45 year career in manufacturing, manufacturing quality, and design for manufacturing. The machine is extremely well made. I understand the difficulty of building something that is easy to assemble, ships in a reasonable size/weight box, and holds up after it is put together by fumble-finger schlubs like me. It took about 15 minutes to assemble after we got the thing unboxed and it is solid as a rock. We have been using it for a couple of weeks and could not be happier. Great product.