Motivation.

The older you get, the more you value every day in which you do not have to interact with the Medical-American community. 

It's discouraging in so many ways. The medical community wants us to eat nothing but water, really -- flavorless vegetables, flavorless fish, and that's about all. They call it the Mediterranean Diet or the DASH diet or the MIND diet or whatever—we always know it will mean no fat, no salt, no flavor. They may sell this as stuff that Greeks and Japanese eat, but I really wonder if the recipes they recommend are authentic. The people in the so-called "blue zones" wouldn't live that long if so. The food would bring them to despair. 

Of course, exercise is at least as important, or maybe more important, than diet. We seem to be broken into two sections in our society -- a small group that LOVES exercise and can't wait to get that cardio going for hours, biking or hiking or kickboxing or just running like a crazy person. And then there's everyone else, who wonders why we invented all the great machines if we have to make ourselves do work anyway. First we make machines to save labor, and then we make machines to do labor on? 

Well, to be fair, for most of the latter machines are used to hang clothes. 

You just need to get motivated, I know. For years I was into morning exercise. Made me feel awake. But I think I accumulated a variety of injuries that are starting to show up now, in the Check Engine era of life. 

Everyone needs something to motivate them. 

And that brings me around to this weekend's project: replacing a toilet bowl seat. The old seat looks like it has a horrible stain, but it doesn't -- there's a spot on the seat that has been worn through, exposing a brown surface underneath. Well, you know I cannot allow anyone in the house until this is fixed, so I stopped at Lowe's and seized some precious Moments. 

Yes, Moments by American Standard. I think the name comes not from those magical times of tranquility, alone with your thoughts on the can. I think it refers to this being one of those slow-close seats, that take a moment to drop. Not like the regular seats, that could slam the lid down on your Little Friend. The slow seat gives you time to get everything in the clear. 

Replacing a toilet seat is a job so easy that even I can handle it without worry. Of course, I will have to clean the toilet too -- putting a new seat on a filthy toilet is like trying on shoes with filthy feet. But cleaning sounds a lot like "exercise" as well, so I guess that brings me full circle -- like the circle of a toilet seat. Or the circle of diet and what becomes of the food you ate. It's all connected, my friends. Just like your digestive system, your toilet, and the plumbing. The circle of pipes.