What I Saw Today

Things I saw on my Bicycle Ride to Work Today:

• A nail in the street. (Missed it)
• Copulating Birds
• A car being towed by a car that will soon need to be towed.
• The River
• A 70 year old man in a 52 year old body riding his bicycle to work.

My back is very sore and stiff today and I almost talked myself out of riding. But I have missed so many days that I couldn't allow it on a day when my only reason not to was my aching back. What better way to un-ache it than to stretch it out on the bike.

Another Test!

I have an afternoon appointment at the downtown office of my Cardiologist to run more tests. They want to determine my Ejection Fraction, which is a percentage of the amount of blood a heart pushes out as it pumps. A healthy heart is somewhere between 55 and 70%. My ejection fraction is somewhere south of there...about 30 to 40%.

If I am below 35%, they will install the defibrillator. If I'm above 35%, there are other alternatives. The test today will give us a number.

Rain Day

It is a turbulent torrent of terrestrial showers and therefore, today does not count against me in the bike riding goal-a-rama. However, I don't think today was included in my original count due to a Doctors appointment that precludes me from riding.

Fluid Skies and Goals

The forecasters are calling for the possibility of rain today and everyone can thank ME for preventing it. I have prevented the showers by NOT riding my bike. Yup! I wussed out.

I was all set to ride too. I was to the point of rolling my bike out into the driveway. I stopped at my car to retrieve my sunglasses. That gave me the chance to stop and really survey the skies. I ended up decided to take the car.

Partly because of the skies, but also because I have a couple of errands. I could have put them off until after work, but if I get them accomplished at lunch, I will really put myself ahead of schedule after work, allowing for more goofing around time.

By the way, I have decided that if it does indeed rain today, that will not count against me in my riding goal. Goals must be fluid.

Slept In

I slept a little too long this morning and really had to hurry downtown to make the bus. My legs are feeling a little fatigued as I sit here and type but it turns out that I had plenty of time. I rolled up just as the bus arrived.

I think my fatigued legs are more from the head wind I cycled into when I arrived at my stop at Liberty Lake. It was really blowing and made my ride a struggle. It didn't help that I met another guy from work as I started into the wind and he just cruised on like it was nothing. He was a full minute ahead of me in the span of just half a mile.

Last summer when I rode the bike a lot, I mentioned some of the other riders on the bus. I went so far as to draw characatures of three of them. (See July 14, 2008)

Only one of those guys is still on the bus. I called him Tatt.

I have had to update him because he has lost the shaved head look. He still manages to look scruffy though. It makes me nostalgic for last summer and I wonder what has become of Jasper and the Polynesian. Actually, upon further reflection, I think I determeined that the Polynesian should have been called the Injun.

And that's all I have for Politcally Incorrect Thursday.

Bike Riding Again

I made it to work today on my bicycle. The first of many days of riding...I hope. I'm not making any predictions. I'm just going to ride as often as I can. I'll do my best to arrange my life so as to allow Bike Trek.

Okay, who am I kidding? Of course I'm going to make predictions. My life is all about setting goals and then falling short of them.

There are 21 days available in the month of June where I could ride my bike. I have already missed two of those, so I'm down to 19. I know for sure that I will not be riding next Monday, as I have a Doctors appointment. That leaves 18 days.

Okay, here's the goal. I will ride my bike at least 12 days this month. I think that is doable.

I took a picture of the river as I crossed this morning. It is flowing pretty high. The newspaper reports the flow at 19,200 cubic feet per second. It will be interesting to watch this channel as they shut down the water flow. In a month, it will be a flow of rock with a trickle of water.
I took another picture when I got down to the Bus Depot...I'm sorry...the STA Plaza. The sun was casting it's rising glow upon the skywalk and I just had to snap a picture.
It looks pretty good and I know the guys who did the work.

By the way, I forgot to weigh myself this morning so no data there. Just as well. I don't want to get to manic on the weigh-in.

218.7 pounds

One good thing about being sick; it's a good way to lose some weight. I haven't eaten much over the last few days and it certainly paid off this morning on the scale. I'm eating watermelon today so I expect the slide to continue.

I was going to ride my bike today but I decided I needed one more to to get over my cold. What a difference a good nights sleep makes. The weather looks great for the next week so I'll be riding as much as I can.