When I realized that I had destroyed my turquoise water bottle with bleach, I went searching on the Internet for a new one.

The Contigo brand is very cool, and I wanted to stay loyal to the company.  What came up on Amazon was not the 1 litre size I had, but 1.2 litres.  With appropriate obsession, I found the dimensions of the bottle, including the width of the base – 10 centimetres.

And then the mind unravelled …

Will this bottle fit in the cup holder on the elliptical cardio machine?

Will this bottle fit in the smaller cup holders on the strength training machines?

Will it fit under the spout of the flavoured water dispenser in the gym?

So my brow furrowed and my skewed research began.

I hoped to find the image of a tape measure on my phone so I could guess the width of the cup holder in the photo.  All I found were apps that took pictures of things.  Then I Googled “dimensions of an S25 Samsung phone”.  Thus fortified, I went over to a strength training cup holder and held my phone over the opening.  Then on to the cup holder of the elliptical.

Conclusions:

1. If I buy this lovely-looking blue water bottle, it’ll fit in the elliptical cup holder.

2.  If I buy this lovely-looking blue water bottle, it probably won’t fit in the strength machine cup holder.

3.  I really like the blue!

Feeling the angst of an expenditure that may or may not produce success, I bought the bottle.

It arrived the next day.  I took it to the gym and walked towards the elliptical.  I stood meditatively in front of the cup holder.  I sighed.  I moved my hand forward … and the bottle slipped into the hole.  Yes!

On to a strength training machine.  I stood meditatively in front of the cup holder.  I sighed.  I moved my hand forward … and the base of the bottle was too big for the hole.  (Oi!)

And then to the flavoured water dispenser.  I slid the bottle forward.  It banged into the spout of the machine.  Not enough room.

So … I worked out on the strength training machines, placing the bottle on the floor each time.  The blue shone so nicely!

I later discovered that if I tilted the bottle a wee bit at the water dispenser, and then straightened it, there was just enough room for it to sit straight under the spout.  Yay!

I asked Kimberly, a gym staff member, to walk around with me as I re-created my bottle adventures.  She even seemed interested!

See the photo?  As I bemoaned the bloated base of my bottle, she pointed at something.  “What’s that beside the cup holder?”  I looked.  And lo and behold, there was a … hook.  “No need for the floor.”

***

Another humbling of Bruce

And the blue is so pretty!