Word: whinge

whinge

\ hwinj \  , verb;

1. To complain; whine.

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               Alex collapsed on the grassy ground in a panting, sweaty heap, taking deep lungfuls of air.  His body ached as he slowly managed to flip himself over to face the sky.  He was so exhausted that he didn’t even care that a small rock was jutting into his shoulder blade.

                “I’m going to die.”  He said, each word interrupted by a deep, panting breath. 

                “No you’re not.”  Rebecca said.  “Now get up.  You’ve still got lots to do.” 

                “Five minutes.”  He said, raising a shaky arm and holding his fingers out for a few seconds before the limb flopped wearily back to the ground.  Rebecca looked at the pathetic, sweat drenched lump that was Alex and sighed.

                “Ok, fine.  Five minutes.  That’s all you get, and then you have to do five more laps.”

                “What?”  Alex said, suddenly finding enough breath in his lungs to shout the question.  “But you said I had to do five when I started.  I should have two more after this.”

                “You would have two more if you weren’t resting now.  A rest, no matter how long, resets the count.” 

                “You.  Are.  Evil.”  Alex puffed.

                “You’ll thank me later, when you’re lying next to your little dream girl.”  She said, confidently striding over to a gym bag lying nearby.  She reached into it and pulled out her cell phone.  She used a timer app to count down to five minutes.  “You’re five minutes starts now, by the way.”  She said, hitting the start button.

                Alex was not in good shape.  His body was big, round, and flabby from years of very little exercise.  For the most part, that didn’t really bother him.  That is, until he met a girl named Leslie.  He felt she was the most beautiful girl he had ever seen, and had developed a massive crush on her almost immediately.  The fact that they were in the same major and had three classes together ensured that he had little trouble seeing her.  He had even managed to strike up a solid friendship with her.  But, when he finally asked her out, she had refused.  Well, refused was too strong a word in this case.  He described it as putting it on hold.  She had admitted that she would be alright with dating him, as she liked him quite a bit.  However, his build was not something she found appealing.  As such, she said she would go out with him if he lost weight.  In fact, her exact words were: “When you have a stomach instead of a belly.”  He had almost immediately gone to the campus gym to get help in doing just that.

                That was where Rebecca came in.  She was one of the personal trainers the gym had.  He had chosen her for two reasons.  The first was that she was the only female trainer, and he figured that meant she would have a better idea of what Leslie would want.  The second was that she was the only trainer that couldn’t be called a ‘muscle head’.  Her build was trim and athletic, with toned, fit muscles that one found in fitness magazines.  The other trainers were large, muscular guys that scared him a bit.  She had even seemed very nice when they first met.  She had been jovial and friendly then.  He soon found there was only one problem with her:  when it came to physical fitness, she had a mean streak a mile wide. 

                She had a tendency to push those she trained to the breaking point, and then double that effort far beyond what the other trainers did.  Alex went back to his dorm room sore, tired, and so sweaty he looked like he had taken a shower with his clothes on.  He woke up every morning in pain, and only his desire to see Leslie made him able to move.  He had lost quite a bit of weight, but that didn’t mean he liked the process.

                Currently, Rebecca was having him run around an open field on campus.  The field was roughly the size of the running track used by the track team, with one key difference.  The field had a long, steep hill that took up a great deal of it.  In the winter, it was a favorite spot for students to sled and roll around on.  But now in the spring, it seemed like it was there to make Alex’s life a living hell.  When she had told him to run around it five times, he had thought that the downhill part would make it more manageable, but he soon found that the steep slope made him work just as hard to keep his balance as he did on the uphill.

                Rebecca had run alongside him the entire time, giving him her own unique brand of encouragement.  This mainly consisted of her shouting in his ear that he was slow and should go faster.  Alex looked at her and hated the fact that she was hardly breathing hard, and there wasn’t a drop of sweat on her body, even though she had been running the same amount he had. 

                “Yeah, right.  Is all that really worth dying over?”  He panted.

                “You’re not dying.  And you wouldn’t be so out of breath right now if you took the stairs like I’ve been telling you to.”  She said, crossing her arms in a combination of annoyance and amusement. 

                “Stairs are the enemy.”

                “Look, if you want to get rid of this,” She said, kicking him lightly in his still ample gut, “you’ve got to put forth a lot more effort than you have been.”

                “More?  You have me doing so much, it’s a wonder I can still move.” 

                “Oh stop complaining.  Anyways, you’re five minutes are just about up, so get ready to move.”

                “And if I don’t?  What if I just stay here until I feel like it?”

                “Then when you do, I’ll make you run ten laps.  With the weights.”

                “You wouldn’t.”  His eyes narrowed as he looked up at her.  Rebecca kept a set of five pound weights made to be worn on the wrists and ankles.  She had put them on him as a little punishment for slacking off, and he had barely made it around the field once.  Since then, she had used them as a threat to keep him moving the way she wanted him to.

                “Wouldn’t I?”  She said, a smug look on her face.

                “Oh god, you would.  Ok fine, I’m up.”  He said, hoisting his body into a wobbly standing position.

                “Good boy.  Now, you’re rest stop is up…now.”  She said, looking at her phone.  Alex knew that meant he had to start moving.  He lumbered off around the track at a slow jog.  Rebecca smirked at his pace.  She calmly went to put her phone away, and then dashed to catch up with him.  Once she did, she immediately started berating his pace again, and ordering him to move faster.  Alex just took it all as well as he could, grumbling and complaining to himself the entire time. 

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Everybody, exercise!  Or, you know, don't.  Whatever you do with your body is fine by me.

Word: moor

 

moor

\ moor \  , verb;

1. To fix firmly; secure.

2. To secure (a ship, boat, dirigible, etc.) in a particular place, as by cables and anchors or by lines.

3. To moor a ship, small boat, etc.

4. To be made secure by cables or the like.

noun:

1. The act of mooring.

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                The docked boat rocked gently as the water lapped at its thin metal siding, the boat held to the dock by a mooring rope that was too thick for its purpose.  The group of three looked at it, one with joy, the other two with disappointment. 

                “Well, what do you think?” Dan, the only one who was happy with the boat, said.

                “It’s not really what I was expecting.”  Sarah, one of the disappointed individuals, said.

                “Yeah, the way you were talking about it, I thought it would be a lot bigger or something.”  Amy, the third member person said.

                “I said it was a boat.  I never gave any indication of size.”  Dan said.  While he hadn’t expressly said anything about how big the boat was, the way he had talked about it made it seem much grander in to the girls.

                “Well, it’s just that this is kinda…” Amy said, pausing to find the right word.

                “Tiny?  Pathetic?  Flimsy?” Sarah said, voicing her opinions about the boat.

                “Simple.” Amy said finally.  “I mean, it doesn’t even have a motor.”

                 The boat was all of those things.  The thin aluminum metal was arranged in a classical boat shape, and was of average length.  It lacked any kind of modern propulsion systems, having only a pair of oars.

                “That’s part of the charm.”  Dan said, defending the boat as best he could.  “I mean, you’d rather have a noisy, smelly engine than a calm, quiet, relaxing row boat?”

                “Yup.” Sarah said.

                “Of course.”  Amy followed.

                “You two don’t know what you’re missing.”

                “Oh, I can think of a few things I’m missing.”  Sarah said, more than a little annoyed.

                “Oh just give it a shot.  I promise, once we get out on the lake, it won’t even matter.”  Dan said, putting one foot in the boat.  The two girls looked at each other and sighed.  Neither had much else to do at that moment anyway.

                “Ok fine, but you’re doing all the rowing.”  Sarah said. 

                “Yeah, I know.  I was planning on that anyway.”  Dan said.  He had come in knowing he would be manning the oars, and so her comment didn’t bother him. 

Even though she accepted, she still had made no moves towards entering the thing.  Amy was the one who went in first, knowing the other girl wouldn’t move until someone was already in, if only to prove that no sudden leaks would pop up when it was weighed down a bit.  Once Amy was in, Sarah reluctantly got in and sat down.  Dan smiled at the two girls and went to work on the thick rope that was fastening the boat to the dock far more securely than was needed.

He had tied it very tightly, not wanting anything unexpected to happen to his vessel, and so it took nearly ten minutes for him to finally undo the knot and stash the rope in the boat near the front.  He sat down, taking the oars and began to push them out into the lake. 

“See?  Now isn’t this better than a motor boat?”  He said, rowing them out into the middle of the lake. 

“Well, it’s slower, that’s for sure.”  Amy said, trying to make it seem like a positive thing.  She didn’t do as well as she had hoped.  Even so, Dan still managed to see the positive side. 

“Yeah, isn’t it?  Nice and slow.  Calm, relaxing…”  He said.

“And boring.”  Sarah muttered under her breath. 

                “Well, if it helps, we’re probably out far enough now anyway.”  Dan said, taking the oars out of the water and allowing his tired arms to rest a bit.

                “Well, that’s good?  Isn’t it?”  Amy said, not quite sure what to say.

                “Oh god, you’re not going to take out a fishing pole, are you?”  Sarah said.

                “Nope.”  Dan said.  Sarah took a sigh of relief at that.  If he had said yes, she might have considered simply swimming back to shore instead of dealing with that kind of monotony. 

                Instead, Dan stood up, setting the oars aside.  He took off his shirt, not caring that the bottom of the boat wasn’t completely dry.  He smiled at the girls and put his foot up on the side of the boat.  Without waiting for any comment, he hopped out into the lake, the boat rocking for a moment from his foot pushing off against it.  The girls looked out over the side as he came up a moment later and shook some of the water off his head.

                “Well?  You two going to join me, or are you just gonna sit there?”  He said. 

                “Ok, this, I can deal with.”  Sarah said.  She stood up and quickly removed her t-shirt and shorts.  When the girls had been told about the boat ride, they had come prepared, wearing swimsuits under their normal clothes.  Amy soon followed suit, setting her clothes neatly on the bench she had been sitting on.

                Dan looked appreciatively at the two girls.  While they weren’t exactly beauty queens, they were hardly bad looking.  Both were slender girls, but had very different ways of achieving this.  Sarah had the lean, athletic build of a tennis player, and wore her two piece suit reasonably well.  Amy on the other hand, was simply a health nut that had sworn off all forms of fat years ago, and was clad in a simply one piece.  Although they lacked certain features of Dan’s ideal female figure, he couldn’t really complain either. 

                Now that they were actually doing something, Sarah had cheered up considerably, and jumped out into the water head first, staying underwater several second longer than Dan had, coming up on the opposite side of the boat.  Amy was much less energetic about entering.

                “It’s not too cold, is it?”  She asked.

                “Nah, its fine.  I mean, it’s not a heated pool, but it’s not freezing cold either.”  Dan said.

                “Alright.  Here I come.”  Amy said, and hopped lightly into the water, hardly staying under at all.  When she did though, she looked at Dan wide eyed, and shivering.  “I thought you said it wasn’t cold.”  She said.

                “Yeah, it’s not.  I’d say it’s kind of chilly.  But it’s definitely not cold.”  He said.  Sarah swam around to join them, taking long, leisurely strokes.

                “He’s right.  This time anyway.”  She said when she had come to a stop.

                “You’re both crazy.  It’s freezing.”  She said, doing her best to keep her arms close to her body while still staying afloat.

                “Maybe you just need some extra insulation.”  Sarah said.

                “Oh come on, you’re thinner than me.  How can you be fine in this?” 

                “I’m hot blooded.” 

                “That doesn’t make any sense.”

                “Sure it does.”  Dan said, “It’s like how she can walk around in the dead of winter with only a long sleeve shirt on.” 

                “Winter’s here are wimpy.  Up north where I grew up you get some real winters.”  Sarah said, proud of her ability to tolerate cold more than her friends.  “Now come on, are we just gonna float around all day or what?” 

                She pushed a small wave of water in a broad arc, hitting both Amy and Dan in one shot.  Amy acted like she had been hit by a tidal wave, pushing herself back towards to boat.  Dan on the other hand, retaliated, soaking Sarah as much as he could by sending waves her way as fast she he could. 

                Their little splash fight continued for quite some time, the two repeatedly trying to get Amy to join in. She seemed quite content to float around, her body rocking gently with the waves as she held herself flat on the surface, enjoying the sun a bit once she had gotten used to the temperature of the water.  Suddenly though, she yelped a bit and thrashed around, recovering her more upright position as she looked around with panic in her eyes.

                “What happened?”  Dan said swimming over to her.

                “Something touched my leg!”  She said quickly. 

                “Don’t worry about it.  It was probably just a fish.”  He said.

                “It was not a fish.  I think it was a monster.”

                “Oh yeah, there’s lots of monsters in this artificial lake.”  Sarah said, not quite able to contain her laughter at Amy’s outburst. 

                “Well I’m taking no chances.”  Amy said, swimming over to the boat and lifting herself out of the water.  “You can stay in there all you want, but I’m staying right here now.”  She said.  Dan sighed.  There was no way to talk her down when she was in this state.  He looked at Sarah and rolled his eyes.  She knew just as well as he did what had to happen now.

                “Alright, fine, I get it.”  Dan said.  He pulled himself out of the water, quickly followed by Sarah. Without a word, he took up the oars and started rowing back, only a little disappointed that the day had been so suddenly cut short.

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My little attempt to help you all think warm thoughts with a small dose of summer.  Ok, so it's not a very good dose, but every little bit helps, right?  

Word: howdah

 

howdah

\ HOU-duh \  , noun;

1. (In the East Indies) a seat or platform for one or more persons, commonly with a railing and a canopy, placed on the back of an elephant.

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              “I want to get off!”  Screamed the child.  The kid had been screaming his little head off for the entire ride, much to his mother’s—and everyone else’s—chagrin.  Carry was tempted to actually go and do something to shut the kid but, but since it wasn’t hers; there was nothing she could do other than put up with it.  She was just glad her own kids were much better behaved, and in fact were making a very pointed effort to enjoy themselves despite the boy who was most likely just acting out for attention.  After all, that particular kid had been the most eager to go on the ride in the first place, yelling that he wanted to ride, instead of wanting to stop riding. 

                The ride in question here was on the back of an elephant.  The local zoo had started these elephant rides in a desperate plea for additional funds, and had taken a page from circus acts and trained a few elephants for the purpose of taking kids and their parents around a track with various colorful paintings of other animals and nature scenes scattered around.  They could see some of the other animal enclosures from their heightened perch as well, and was really the only part of the ride worth looking at in Carry’s opinion.

                On this ride were three small families:  Carry and her two kids, a single father and his sulking early teen daughter, and the poor mother with the screaming kid.  She could guess why the latter was there, and she had taken her kids up even though they had been largely indifferent at first.  The man had probably gone up there on the slim chance he could meet a single mom, and took his daughter, who was obviously too old to enjoy a ride like this, to make him seem more fatherly.  Unfortunately for him, Carry was happily married, and the other woman seemed to be wearing a wedding ring as well, and so he was out of luck and had to put up with the screaming kid in addition to his own daughter’s sulking.

                “Now, now dear, let’s not make a fuss.”  Said the kid’s mother, looking at the other two adults apologetically.  The kid ignored her pleas for quiet and went on screaming.  Carry was sure he would have gotten up and stomped around if there was any room to do so.

                As it happened, there wasn’t. All three groups had been crammed together in a small rectangular platform that had been strapped to the large animal’s back.  There was no room to move very well in the cramped space, let alone throw a tantrum, even for the young child.  Her own kids were too busy looking over the railing of what they had called the saddle at the animals.  Carry knew it had a different name than that, since the man leading the elephant had told them it. Her kids just called it a saddle because they thought the name sounded like ‘howdy’, which to them meant cowboys, which meant saddles.  Carry just thought it was cute and couldn’t bring herself to correct them.

                She was very glad they were so occupied, otherwise they might try and do something with the screamer.  If that happened, the screaming might become infectious, and her own kids might start screaming.  Of course for them it would probably be more of a completion to see who could scream the loudest, but that would only make it worse. 

                “She should just stick a piece of candy in the kids mouth and be done with it.”  The teen girl muttered to herself.  Although most probably didn’t hear it, both Carry and her dad were close enough that they did hear her comment.

                “Now, Tina, that’s not the solution to every problem.”  The man said quietly.

                “Why not?  Works for the kids I babysit.”  Tiny said, much louder than her father did.  Carry made a mental note to never enlist this particular girl for babysitting duties.

                “Because if you do that, you’re teaching them that they get a reward for acting badly.”  He said. 

                “Not my problem.  By the time that kind of stuff matters, they’ll be out of my hair.”  She said.  Carry was suddenly tempted to ask where the girl babysat, just to make sure there was no chance she would be looking after her kids any time soon. 

                The man looked around, not sure what to say to that.  His eyes met Carry’s and he looked at her like he was seeking some kind of support.  Carry wasn’t really sure what to say either.  She didn’t have any experience with teens, since her kids were many years away from that milestone, and so couldn’t really offer any kind of meaningful advice.  When it was clear that she wasn’t going to be of any help, he looked at the other woman, who was still engrossed in trying to get her own child to stop screaming. 

                “Just, try to find a different method of dealing with them.”  He said finally.  Tina just slumped back in her already cramped seat with a huff and crossed her arms over her chest. 

                A furious giggle erupted from her kids, and she looked over at what was happening, glad for any kind of momentary distraction.  The zoo had placed the elephant ride track very close to some of the other animal habitats, one of which was the giraffes.  One of them had leaned its long neck over the railing and was apparently very interested in her kids, much to their delight.  Carry probably figured it was the lingering smell of the popcorn they had been eating earlier rather than them, but the result was essentially the same. 

                Her younger child, Joe, reached out to pet its head before the slow moving elephant moved away, and the giraffes’ long, black tongue emerged, licking the boy’s butter and salt stained hands.  The boy laughed furiously, the wet tongue ticking his hands more than anything.   The furious laughter had the side effect of drawing the screaming child’s attention long enough for a moment of relative peace to come to the small group.  The little boy reached his hands out to the giraffe as well, hoping to gain its attention.  But his arm was too short, and the elephant was already moving away, and so was well out of reach. 

                When they moved outside the range of its long neck, Joe sat back in his seat, very happy with how the ride had turned out while her older boy, Mike, just looked out for his opportunity to show his brother up with a different animal.  The interruption also seemed to have calmed the screaming boy down a bit.  Instead he had taken to sulking quietly, apparently imitating the teen girl.  It was a step up though, and his mother looked to Carry gratefully, as if she was the one who orchestrated the entire thing.

                By that time, the ride was over anyway.  The zoo worker got the elephant to kneel, letting the families get off of the small platform.  He thanked them for the ride with faked politeness, his eyes showing just how tired the job was making him.  Her boys bounded off happily from the back of the elephant, already looking for the next attraction to see.  The mother of the screaming child had picked her son up and was taking him over to the nearest food vendor.  Apparently she had heard Tina’s ‘advice’ and was going to give it a shot.  The girl herself was walking quickly away, her shoulders slumped as she moved, with her father in close pursuit. 

                Carry just watched her owe kids for a while as they scrambled over each other as they raced over to the next animal exhibit.  As she went over to join them, she was now very, very glad she had the kids she did.

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Yeah, we all know these kids, don't we?  Or at least we've seen them around at various locations.