Presidents Day Ride

I remember many years ago my friend Klaus describing a paid day off as a “Blessed Event.”  Long weekends for me are times to get things done I haven’t taken time to get done.  Time to catch up.  Imagine if our nation’s first president was the same sort of self-serving popinjay currently infesting the White House? We wouldn’t have lasted 10 years; we may not last another 10.  I propose to enjoy and use my freedoms, given by my Creator, for as long as I can.

Saturday morning, I helped clean off an already pretty clean stretch of highway with the bicycle club I joined last Fall.  Spending time with a few other local cyclists while performing a public service was a pleasant way to spend the morning.  Afterward, I got to visit in a neighboring city (identified elsewhere on this blog as Pixilie or Pixiley) some of the people I like best hereabouts.  Then, back to the house and did laundry, some cleaning, and played with my son.  We ran a few laps around the house, kicked a ball, and went for a neighborhood walk.  I planned to go for a bike ride, but my wife had to work in her classroom and prepare lesson plans, so I stayed home while our son slept.

Sunday, I thought I’d get to ride, but for some reason unknown to me, I spent a lazy day doing nothing but attending worship service and laying around the house eating oranges and cashews like a barbary ape.  I also watched a lot of TV on Netflix.

This morning, my son and I cleaned.  He picked up a few of his toys in the den and I cleaned my bathroom, did some laundry, swept and mopped my bathroom, the kitchen, nook, and laundry room.  Reorganized part of the kitchen, threw away some four-year-old Snapple, and sorted some other odds and ends.  We drove over to my mom’s house for lunch, then Mom looked after my son while I went home for a bike ride.

I managed to get out on Miyata for a little while.  The high temperature today was supposed to be about 66 degrees, Fahrenheit, but there was a howling wind.  Here’s what National Weather Service had to say about it:

And here’s what Cyclemeter reported about the ride – my friend, Adrian, charitably suggested that I reckon the effort I made pedaling today would have sufficed for twice the distance on a less windy day:

I took a few photos during my ride, here they are.  One of the Christmas gifts I was given last year is a medium-sized seat bag.  I’ve put it on the Miyata because it doesn’t have a rack to carry stuff.  Today the bag held not only the usual contents of all my trouser pockets, but also a Park multi-tool and four generic fig-newton cookies in a small zip-lock bag.

Monkeying Around

Yesterday, 2/9/13, I took my first real bike ride since getting sick over the Christmas holiday. Just monkeying around, I rode out to the local airport exploring all the side streets thereabouts, thence unto a community college. I’d wanted to ride to a fire watch-tower overlooking a neighboring county, but found I was hungry by the time I got to the college and had not had the foresight to bring anything to eat. I rode around the college, took a short break off the bike on campus, and rode back toward town on a different highway. Just under 23 miles by the time I got back to the house; my legs were getting tired and I was pedaling more slowly that last couple of miles which means I’m out of shape.

I think the temperature was around 43 to 45 degrees, Fahrenheit, and I wore a cheap pair of cycling tights, a non-matching (material and style) New Balance inclement weather running ¾ zip top, polypropylene long underwear, warm socks, cycling shoes, and summer gloves. I was comfortable – neither too hot nor too cold.

Cyclemeter (http://www.abvio.com/cyclemeter/) on the Iphone tracked my route. This app measures time, ascent, descent, fastest and slowest speeds, GPS maps the route, and reports calories consumed. Additionally, the app allows one to save different bicycles and wheel measurements, as well as routes. My “Monkeying Around” route varies in distance from 3.5 to 22.98 miles, so the “leaderboard” feature was of no real use on yesterday’s ride.

I took a few photos of my bike while at the airport. There’s a World War II era hangar on the grounds that houses a Korean War era jet fighter or trainer. I propped my bike up outside and snapped a couple of pictures. A final picture of the view from where I sat during my few minutes’ break at the college.