Treadmill Tales

My treadmill was delivered last week.  You should have been here to watch John & I bring this thing into the house.  It would've been an interesting experience for you.  The item description said that 2 people were needed to carry it.  It didn't indicate that these 2 people should be body builders.  I should have known something was up when we met the deliveryman in town & he had us back up to his truck so he could just slide the treadmill box into the van.  We got it home & it sat in the van for 2 days before we attempted to unload it.  I already figured we'd have to open the box in the van & bring the treadmill inside piece by piece.  The evening we decided to do this it was 88 degrees in the shade with what had to have been 100% humidity.  I got the box open & then we removed all the pieces that will need to be assembled to the treadmill base.  We discovered that we could not take the treadmill base out of the box because the walking part sort of swings at the base.  It was then that I remembered the description saying something about it being able to be folded up when not in use.  We went ahead & carried the box ... which seemed to weigh a ton ... over to the garage, but uh-oh ... the car was in the way.  Had to put the box down on the gravel driveway & back out the car.  We had second thoughts the moment we set it down because we figured it would be more than difficult to pick it back up from a flat-on-the-floor position ... & it was.  John was concerned about picking it up from there & getting it over to the door leading into the house without dropping it.  I suggested we place it on the yard cart & wheel it over there.  That is what we did.  We managed to get the cart to the door, then picked up the treadmill in the box & carried it through the door, through the hall, & into the kitchen where I knew I couldn't hold out much longer & told John to just put it on the kitchen counter which was remarkably (& thankfully) rather clutter free that night.  At this point I thought we would just leave it there until the next day but John said we had come that far, we may as well get it upstairs.  The plan was for him to carry the box with the heavy motor side up the stairs with me following with the only slightly lighter walking side.  We felt ready, got the box off the counter, walked into the gathering room, pivoted around & started going up the stairs.  At the 8th step the box caught on the handrail.  There was nothing to grab onto on the box, like handles, & John was afraid his hands were giving out & he was going to lose his grip & then the whole thing would come flying back at me & knock me down & fall on top of me.  He managed to bend down & put the box on that 8th step.  The box was just about as wide as the stairwell so there he was "stranded" at the top with me at the bottom still holding my side up so the whole thing wouldn't slide back down.  We talked for what seemed like forever about what to do ... make a sling for it & try to carry it that way, or maybe John could lift it enough to get it up one step at a time, or John's favorite ... take it back outside, pack it all back up & send it back.  I finally had this bright idea that if he could get downstairs & crawl underneath the box, he could position himself to lift the box on that heavy end enough to get it a bit above each step at which point I would then push it so it would lay on the step.  There were a few inches of space between the box & the wall & he was able to make it back down the stairs so we could give this a try.  He crawled underneath the box & at that heavy end he used his shoulders to push up on the box to get it high enough for me to push it on the next step.  We did this step by step, sweat pouring down our bodies & John's head almost being crushed between the box & the step at one point when he didn't think he was going to make it.  I needed to take a break just before we reached the landing.  We did get the box up there with that "shoulder lift & push" maneuver ... then picked it up & put it in the middle of the room.  That is where it's been ever since.

I will tell you one thing ... if & when we do move, the new owners of this house are going to have themselves a nice treadmill because there's no way anyone is ever going to get that thing back down the stairs.  Hopefully I'll get it all put together with less trouble   : )