Distance: 13.82 miles
It’s been really warm but a strange crispness in the mornings… so cool that there have been balloons most every day!
This was just a quick ride to help get ready for all my walking in a couple of weeks. Must try to take advantage of this…
This was the moon over the volcano cliffs, just looked kind of cool…
Distance: 13.82 miles
This ‘once-a-week’ thing on the bike is not helping me. I think it’s making me ramp up my calorie intake but then only riding once a week doesn’t exactly help the lb’s. Must work on that…
Today I wanted to get out before the heat and think I started about 8:15 am or so. It was great bike riding weather!
Today I thought I would go help my sister set up her swamp cooler. She has been saying that she was just one step away from having it finished so I thought I would go see how that was going. She had it all done so to not make it seem so worthless of a trip, I helped fix a leaky toilet. I received some turnovers and hashbrowns so it was all worth it. Her turtle came out to visit me while I was there, she came with the house and is pretty funny.
I needed to investigate how much gym memberships are in our area and figured that today was as good of a day as any. First stop, Riverpoint. Not exactly friendly people there and really kind of expensive. They go a bit crazy saying that the price is MUCH cheaper if I fall into a ‘group’ – employer, military, student. I don’t, and they don’t have a middle-aged-white-guy category. Damn.
Next stop was going along the bosque to Defined Fitness. Almost half the cost of Riverpoint and again the people were not so friendly. Let me qualify that one, the workers were not exactly friendly but the people coming and going were MUCH more polite than the other club. I needed to get somewhere else so I didn’t stop by the other Planet Fitness that’s nearby. I’ll hit it sometime during the week.
TOTAL Distance: 13.82 miles Time: 1:35:00 Average Speed: 8.73 mph
Distance Up: 7.05 miles Time: 1:00:00 Average Speed: 7.05 mph
Distance Down: 6.77 miles Time: 00:35:00 Average Speed: 11.6 mpg
Yup. I needed another bike ride today. The afternoon winds are still crazy but not as ‘they’ had predicted.
I also so some pictures from last weekends’ wedding and my gut made me even more self conscious – as if the 11 year old girls did give me enough of a complex two weeks ago! Argh.
The volcanos were calling my name today so I went up that way. When I got to the apex up by Paseo del Vulcan – that’s my last turnaround spot before the ride goes from 12 miles to 27 miles. The winds had picked up and I opted for the short ride.
The other surprising thing is that there were more paved areas than before. That makes me feel like they are trying to develop parts of it. That seriously impacts my long term plans for my B & B….
Here’s some pix for today…
Distance: 4.4 miles
It was supposed to be ‘CRAZY windy’ – like up to 50-60 mph winds in the afternoon today so I hopped on my bike early after watering the grass and doing some laundry. Getting the watering done was perfect – no winds. Hopped on the bike and took off and…. wind.
Not gusty winds but just enough of a head wind to make it not fun anymore. After a couple of miles I turned around.
Wind coupled with too much whisky from the night before makes for a bad bike ride.
I will try again tomorrow!
Distance: 16.18 miles
I was going stir crazy from not being on the bike – a mix of a lot of work hours and too much wind! But today…
I hadn’t really wanted to go to the river again but my legs and bike just kind of took me to that direction.
I went down to the river’s edge and mucked around in the mud. That was not my intention but by the time I had noticed that it was sticky mud – it was too late!
I took some nice photos but was covered in mud. There were also SO many mosquitos! My calves are covered with about 50 bites on my left leg and 20 on my right. Stupid bugs… I came upon a recently used campsite/home of a homeless person. Their area was trashed. It made me want to call it in if not only because of the filth and trash. Yuck.
I continued to my ponds and the turtles were out so I snapped them.
Continuing south, I went more in the bosque instead of on the trail. It was nice through there. I am always amazed at the runners through this part of the city. I think I would be a bit spooked to be there by myself as there are still a lot of homeless ‘campers’ in the area. Sure enough, coming out by the drainage ditch was another camp of two or three men.
I started back home and opted to go to Montano and up.
It felt SO good to be outside and not be blown around by the winds.
I know it’s my ‘civic duty’ to serve on Jury Duty and I know that if I were ever accused or in in court for something that I PRAY that there are twelve people who I would be counting on being fair sitting across from me over there – but it’s just such a PITA. This is my last week of three on duty. You can either call in or look at a website to see if your juror number is called and your presence is requested.
The system is pretty amazing – they know how many jurors they may need and obviously after all these years know how many the attorneys go through and call that many. I’m juror pool #364 so there’s at least 400 called each week for District Court. You pretty much get the opportunity to be called once each week – they just rotate through. I’m sure there’s more to that based upon the questionnaire that they get in advance. The people who work in the courthouse should be commended for doing that day after day. They keep a good face on and I’m sure that they could tell some stories.
In a room of hundreds I saw two people that I know – one who used to work at the State Fairgrounds back in the day and another wife of a guy who used to do marketing for us. Lots more ‘looked’ familiar. I was not so talky to everyone as I was still a bit tired.
I apparently missed two Mondays ago and they scolded me. If you miss your whole three weeks’ worth they issue a warrant – I think. I don’t think that they throw you in jail but they they want you to treat it seriously and they’ll just reschedule you. They show a fifteen minute video about what it means to be a juror and the history of jury and America. One of our country’s founding beliefs was that EVERYONE was entitled to a jury of their peers as opposed to the English way of a Magistrate ‘telling’ the jury which way to vote. In the video they show how one jury voted against the Magistrate and were all thrown in jail. The Magna Carta included a provision for a fair jury. I have forgotten most of my history and civics lessons.
Since it was my first time in the jury room for me I was amazed at how dressed up everyone was. There was only two slackers in yucky t-shirts but for the most part – everyone was nice appearing. There were two guys that were wearing baseball caps and when they were called to go upstairs to be interviewed – they make them take them off. I think that’s cool. I’m still one who misses the days that people dressed up to fly….
Anyway. After 3 hours we found out that the person accepted a plea agreement and I was let go. Luckily for me, I’m off on Mondays and this wasn’t a big deal. If it were in the middle of the week I would be screwed as I would have to go serve from 8:30 to 5:30 and then have to go work for six hours afterwards. Ick. Three more days….
Distance: 14.75 miles
After all of this crazy weather – sun, rain, snow, wind – we had a great day. I was in jury duty in the morning and wished I was on my bike instead – it was SO nice. I was released about 11:30 am and my sister was downtown doing some stuff so I turned around and had lunch with her instead. The wind started, like it does here and by the time I actually got on the bike it was after 3 pm and it was a constant 15-20 mph. I didn’t care. It was great to be out.
Nice ride.
This year is just flying by. In some ways, I am happy. 2010 does not look to be a banner year in any way and the sooner it goes by, the better. On the other side, this accelerates everything like – summer coming, summer going, high school for Jaeden, winter, Christmas – UGH!
The strangest thing is that the weather – after all these days of over 80 degrees – it’s back down to freezing overnights and highs in the 50’s. It may even snow tomorrow in the city!
I’m looking to changing some things for ‘me’ in the immediate future. More on that later.
Happy May Day.
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