I got an early XMas gift this evening. Mostly that was because it was too big to put under the XMas tree. It was also so heavy that it had to be taken to my house by van and moved with a dolly. The gift is an exercise bike. Despite what I took everyone about waiting until tomorrow, I decided to assemble it at once. It was not difficult to put together, because the instructions were clear and the parts were different from each other enough to tell apart.

The exercise bike consists of a magnetic motor, which provides inertia to the pedals. The panel in front sets how much resistance you give yourself as you pedal. Metal sensors on the handlebars measure your heart rate. The panel has several settings (rolling hills, mountains, etc.) of resistance. More on this after I buy and install the four D-type batteries that the panel requires.

My local telephone company is working to find out why I still cannot get a dial tone, just static, even though the DSL works fine.