200 Miles

As stated in this Blog previously, I have set a goal to have 1,000 miles on the odometer by Labor Day. 

I am happy to announce I am one fifth of the way there. And it's not even Memorial Day yet!

I hit it today while on a ride to the Winco Grocery Mart in North Spokane. It's 5.5 miles each way and took about half  an hour to get there.

The 200 mile milestone occurred at Standard Avenue and Addison Court. I was pretty wiped out after my little 11-mile jaunt. My legs get a little shaky by the end of the ride.

I'm thinking that I should be able to easily make my goal. I guess I'll have to reevaluate as we get closer to the date and/or goal.

I have made it through my first week of Tai Chi for Seniors. I have not lost much weight nor have I improved my stamina. I have discovered that my balance is quite horrible.

Tai Chi Day One

On a wild hair, because it showed up in my email feed, I signed up for an exercise program called "Tai Chi for Seniors". It's costing me about 20 bucks for three months. After that it goes to $70.00 for three months. I don't plan on renewing unless I get some truly amazing results.

So, there is an App on my phone now and I'll be checking in on it each day at 8:00 AM. It will then lead me through about 20 minutes of low impact Tai Chi moves. They are all pretty basic and doable for me. A couple were really difficult. That's good. I need the challenge.

I'm weighing in at 219 today and this program is promising to get me to 200 pounds by mid-July.

I must say that I feel taxed by the first workout. It wore me out.

It's a nice day out so I think I'm off on a bike ride.

3:35 PM: I had a quite a nice bike ride. I logged 14.2 miles in about 2 hours and I'm 30 miles away from reaching 200 miles on the odometer.

Going Bald

 We have just completed a 10 week course through our church entitled, "Gospel Basics". It was a good course, reminding me of a bunch of stuff I've forgotten or taken for granted, as well as some new info.

The course was video recorded each week. I checked out the video a couple of times.

Since Susan and I sat at a table up front, the back of my head was prominently displayed. 

I discovered to my displeasure that the hair on the crown of my head is getting sparce. Here is a picture for the record.

It actually doesn't look too bad in this picture. Perhaps I need a picture from a higher elevation.

I will be checking this sparsity issue from time to time, leading to the day when I just give up and shave my head.

Ride in the Rain…Almost

The weather hasn’t been very conducive to bike riding for the last few days so when I got what seemed like a little opening in the bad weather system, I decided to jump on the bike a go for a ride.

I barely got down the block before deciding I needed to put on a hat and my heavier gloves. I’ve turned into such a wimp about colder weather. It’s amazing I even get out to ski.

I stuck it out and had a nice ride down to the park. I decided to try taking the Centennial Trail eastbound. I took a little detour to the bridge to nowhere. It’s a footbridge they built a few years ago that seemed like a boondoggle at the time. It cost a lot of money and went to a part of town frequented by unsavory women. 

It turns out that I’m pretty glad it’s there. I think it gets used a lot by students at the nearby extension campus for WSU and EWU. I like to use it to get up to the South Hill. I also like to cross half way, stop above the railroad tracks and see how long it takes for a train to pass by. Today it took five minutes.

Just before the train came, the rain came. Just a drop or two at first. But it was enough to prompt me to head for home. The sky didn’t look that promising, kind of dark and gray and laden with moisture.

So I retraced my ride back through the park and headed for home. With about a mile to go, the rain started falling and I decided today would be a good day to take advantage of the “E” portion of the bike.

Besides, it’s been a few rides since I charged it and I would rather charge it when it’s running down. I have found the best way to run it down is to hit the throttle and ride. And it’s fun!!

I made it home in plenty of time to beat the rain, but just barely. It really started falling about ten minutes after I got to the house.

I logged about 5.7 miles on the odometer. Tomorrow is looking like a day to go for a ride.

E Bike Service

I was out doing some errands today and decided to stop at a couple of places and look at bike helmets. I ended up at Walmart in Post Falls and bought the same helmet I had before. After taxes, it was about 32 bucks.

I also stopped for gas while in Idaho. It's a good 50 cents cheaper there. About six weeks ago I paid $2.18 a gallon at the Amerimart at State Line. Today it cost me $4.75. Thanks, Donald!

The problem Mark is having with his bike and trying to get it services has caused me concern for my own bike and it's inevitable breakdown. 

I have sent an e-mail off to the Support Dept for Lectric Bikes. I told them I was considering buying a Lectric Bike but wanted to know what to do when I needed service. 

Now I wait for response.

E Ride

I went out on a bike ride today with Mark. He had his e-bike and I had mine. You may recall that I've been borrowing Mark's bike since last Spring. I put a good 600 miles on it.

Today the course took us downtown, down into Peaceful Valley, out on the Bloomsday course to George Wright Cemetery, onto a great paved trail high above the river back to Doomsday Hill and then work our way back to the house through the neighborhoods.

Mark was complaining that his bike wasn't acting right, surging to high speed whenever he peddled. Just before we got to the cemetery, his bike died. There was no power from the battery.

Mark had to ride it all the way to the house under human power. The worst part was Doomsday Hill. I tried to pull him up the hill, but it didn't work.

So, he got a really good work out for the day. Good thing he's in pretty good shape. That would have killed me.

E-bikes are heavy.

Epilogue: It appears that Mark’s battery may be toast. He charged it overnight and got nothing. He is investigating what to do next. He’s hoping it may be as simple as a blown fuse on the battery. A new battery is about 600 bucks.

Another casualty of the ride was my bike helmet. I took it off while waiting for Mark to climb Doomsday Hill. I got home and realized I didn’t have it on my head.

I drove back but it was nowhere to be found.

Yard Work 2026

I should be posting this on my other Blog that deals more about the house and stuff we do in, on, and around the house. But I have a streak going on this Blog and I don’t want to break it…yet.

It’s been another nice day and we finally got into the yard and got some clean up going. 

Susan worked in the side yard and got up a lot of leaves from under the arbor vitae. The Pruners are coming on Monday and we want to get ahead of the clean up and mess they are going to generate.

I got a fire going in our fire pit and burned up a crap load of sticks.

I’m going to go out for a little while on the bike. It’s just nice to waste this great day.

I am setting a goal of getting the odometer on the bike up to 1,000 miles by Labor Day. I think that is a totally attainable goal and I’m already 100 miles ahead.

I might actually surprise us all and get way over that mileage.

It remains to be seen.