And what rough beast, its hour come round at last...

(Name that poem!)

I return from a long weekend -- buenos dias!

The gym's closed for the week so the girls can get acclimated to school and the coaches can rest up for the inevitable "omg middle school is like so hard lol wut" that awaits us.

Coach P. and I left a present. On Wednesday I decided it was time for the IGC girls to attempt squat-ons. I sensed this could be deadly. Instead of the try-it-and-pray-there-aren't-lawsuits method, I asked Coach P. if he'd help me move the resi mat.

I Google-imaged "gymnastics resi mat" and found a disturbing lack of images for what I describe. I link you, then, to a high jumping mat that looks similar. They are tremendous and squishy, and during our team sleepover, fights erupted over who got to sleep on it. They're also quite onerous to move, especially if the gym's small and you have to climb over a dozen items on the floor while moving it. Thus ours stays by vault.

Coach P., the girls, and I lifted it over our heads and traversed the dangers of high bars, medium bars, floor bars. We dropped it in place.

Not surprisingly, the girls loved it. Their squat-ons were scary as expected but showed improvement. Any mishaps? Just land on the mat. We went around about twenty times and they were still eager and excited. Just as eager and excited as I was to move the resi back to vault.

Coach P. looked at the red beast. It would have to return to vault for tomorrow's classes of small children. "We'll do it in the morning," he decided.

"I won't be here in the morning," I said, feeling responsible.

He waved his hand. "Don't worry about it."

On Thursday afternoon the mat remained under the bars. On Friday morning the resi mat was a huge hit, everyone jumping their classes from low bar to high. On Friday afternoon, the mat still hadn't budged.

I sense this will not change.