Six minutes into my workout it started this massive grinding noise and now when I use it on a resistance level of 1 it feels like a resistance level of 5. I’m not that good.

The last time this happened, in February of ’06, it took me well over two months to get someone to actually come out to the house and fix it, including multiple very heated calls with the customer support center. That was when it was under warranty and the repair was free.

I don’t know that I’m up for that challenge a second time.

So essentially, we’ve owned it for 20 months and it cost around $1000.00. So it cost me about $50 a month to have the thing here, which isn’t all that bad, even if we didn’t use it as much as we should have. Compare that to spending $50 a month for two people to not go to the gym, and it’s a pretty good deal.

Am I annoyed? Damn straight. But if I get rid of it, I can either a) replace it with something better or b) regain a significant chunk of my livingroom. Both are very tempting offers.

Now the question becomes how the hell I get rid of it. Whee.