Since my treadmill was delivered Monday in the big refrigerator box, I’d made very little progress on it until today. I did take my pocket knife and slice the sides of the gigundis carton away from the machine itself. And I also read the first paragraph of the assembly instructions, but it had several words that I didn’t even understand, so I put it aside and waited patiently.

Today Eric came by and sailed through the instructions without even having to sweat. There were some pieces left over, but I’m pretty sure they were extras. There was also one part missing, but it was just cosmetic and won’t affect the way the treadmill works. Somehow Reebok packaged two left sleeves and no right, instead of one of each. I’ll give them a call next week and get the missing part, but I don’t really need it.

At least, I assume I don’t need it. I assume, also, that the treadmill will work once I’ve plugged it in. The reason I haven’t done that yet it that the cord isn’t long enough to reach from where we put the treadmill to any wall socket, and I don’t have any extra extension cords that aren’t already keeping vital equipment (this computer, for one thing) up and running. So I’ll head out in the next day or so and get an extension with a surge protector, because of how wanky the power to this place can be sometimes.

Since I’m not a handy person, I’m pretty lucky to have people around me who are willing to step up when I need help with something like this. If Eric hadn’t come through, I might have had to accept Reebok’s invitation to assemble the treadmill for me. You call them, and they call you back within five days to set up an appointment. Then they either show up or don’t, and you pay them $119.00. Or more, because the flyer says that “prices start at $119.00.” It doesn’t say where they stop.