[TheForge] Staying in shape...

[Andy Vida]

For the past year+ I have been living in an apartment.  Sucks, right?
Right!  I have no forge of my own, which sucks, right?  Right!
I basically do no smithing, which sucks, right?  Right!  I'm way out of
hammerin shape, po' *po*' little Ahndee, right?  WRONG!

I've been taking my meager frustrations out on a small stack of old
phone books.  It works pretty well on keeping my arm and hands in
decent shape as well as my hammer control.  It is as good as the real
thing?  Mostly, no, but it's preserving something of my abilities,
such as they may be.

Also, I am further developing my ambidextrous hammering technique.  
Basically, my control in the left hand is just about as good as that
of the right and improving all the time.  Stamina isn't quite there,
but getting better as well.  I'm planning on developing a two-sided
technique in hopes of saving my arms so as not to end up in the same
state as Peter Ross, not that I do enough swinging to really need to
worry about it.  OTOH, I do get tendon problems in my right wrist, so
why not be able to give it a rest by using the left a bit more often.

Has anyone else tried this?

	-Andy