The Treadmill

Recently my treadmill gave up. It said "dead sensor." It had been purchased some years ago in Kansas City and I attempted to find someone who could repair it. I called three numbers and all three were out of business.

I asked my brother in Kansas City to see if he could find where I needed to go. He came up with a number along with his comment that he thought I was using the treadmill for a clothes rack, because every time he came down here there were clothes hanging on it.

With the help of a couple of friends, we managed to get the treadmill in the back of the pickup, drove it to Kansas City, picked up my brother and took it to the fitness place. A guy who looked fit helped me get it out of the back of the pickup and then commented, "I don't think we can get parts for this model anymore." My future flashed before my eyes -- someday I will go to the hospital in need of a part replacement and some doctor will look at me and say "He's outdated."

We did agree to leave the treadmill for a week and sure enough, the call came and an explanation that the electronic board had burned up. Apparently there were no more parts in this galaxy. The treadmill was loaded on the back of my pickup and driven back to Fort Scott. The only good thing about the two trips was my brother bought lunch both days.

Brother said, "What are you going to do with it?" I was suddenly struck with an inspiration. I'm going to take it out to the pond, tie cedar trees to it and drag it out to the deepest part as a fish attractor. Who knows -- maybe those fish will find some use for it in the bottom of the pond. On the other hand, I have a vision of hooking a lunker and seeing him go down to the depths only to wrap the line around my now defunct treadmill. It will soon be history and I'm hoping with the presence of an exercise machine in the fishes' home, the general health of the fish population should improve.