Me powered...my ass!...

...DON'T the bike Gods KNOW it doesn't count if you only go out ONE way and have to be picked up??? I am currently feeling SOOO cursed...here, let me set the scene for you.

I've been biking now for almost one full year. As a matter of fact, it will be one year on May 8th! I like to think I've come a long way in that almost year. Loss of 40 pounds, mad bike skillz...(still bad temper, but hey, two outta three, right?). Well in this "almost year" we have bought 5 bikes. TWO of which were for me! The first bike I bought for me was a GREAT Apple red Beach Cruiser with a wicker basket (see picture below), three speeds and coaster brakes! GREAT bike at first but after three months I was addicted to biking and required far more than "Apple" (what I named my red bike) could provide me. So we bought my second bike, her name is "Maisie". Well, like I said, we bought five bikes, four of which we bought from "Penn Cycle" and ONE we bought from "Erik the bike man!" (Maisie). Well the ONLY ride We've (I) have had ANY issues with is MY bike that I bought from "Erik the bike Man!"...and SO far I have had:

1. One stuck tube stem resulting in an exploding tube which required cutting to remove.

2. One broke spoke that happened OUT in the middle of no where 11 miles from home requiring $30.00 cab ride, leaving my bike locked to the back of an abandoned building then coming back with the car to retrieve it and bring it to the shop.

3. One tire removing itself FROM the rim at 4:15 in the morning as I am riding to work. That was fun AND stressful...

4. One flat today (4.18.09) 8 miles into our journey...only to be TOPPED later by...

5. ONE MORE BROKEN SPOKE! 14 miles into the trip locking up the back wheel to the point of not turning requiring me to life it across the 4 lane street to the picnic table while David and Aaron rode the remaining 6 or 7 miles home to get the car to retrieve me and the bike. Oh...SOOO not happy.

Long story short, we complained... A LOT. Brought up the fact that 4 out of 5 bikes bought from Penn have never ONCE had an issue and ONE bike bought from Eriks has been in the shop 5 times in less than a year. Now they say I need new rims, double layer or some such nonsense, grand total is over $200.00. We are going to speak to headquarters on Monday to see if they will take up some of the slack since a LOT of information was neglectfully passed on to us, as consumers, back in August when I purchased this particular model that would have SWAYED my choice a LOT. We'll see what decision they come to.

So I only got 14 miles today but on the bright side I did finish my book "Sundays at Tiffany's" by James Patterson...ate a whole bag of "Good and Plentys" (this was a bad choice)...soaked up some sun while letting my temper simmer down just a little. All in all not a TOTAL loss. I hope Eriks does right by us and at least pays for one of the two rims.

For your viewing pleasure (if you haven't already seen them) here are pics from my glorious flat from earlier in the ride.

Click for biggerness!

Goodbye, dear friend

Dear Joey,

You and I have been friends for such a long time. I remember so clearly the day you and I met. In the beginning, you were not destined to be my friend, but that of another human. I had just lost my friend Patches weeks before this fateful day and was lonely when approached by her. She asked if I would please care for you for a few weeks so that she could prepare her home and make it ready to welcome you in. Your previous home was the Bishop Animal Shelter and though a wonderful safe haven for hundreds of helpless, homeless and abandonded creatures, such as yourself, not a home deserving of such a special soul. I agreed at once to take you in, promising to care for you as though you were my own and relinquish you to her...when the time came.

The minute I saw your face, I knew...without a doubt...you were meant for me.

I took you in, cared for you, loved you and secretly struggled with how to approach her and ask that she find another friend, that you belonged with me. As the weeks passed the more worried I became at the thought of having to give you back.

The day you were to leave, I had decided to be upfront and honest and explain to her that this sweet, loving, gentle cat...truly belonged here. However, you beat me to the punch. Attacked her when she tried to pick you up, clawed her head and..well...scared the crap out of her. You were now mine.

We've been through a lot over the years. Other cats, dogs, two kids, a divorce, a trip to Minnesota (you were very brave!) a new home, a new husband, another cat and a new dog. And through it all you have been a constant and true friend.

I knew as the years past and your leaps grew fewer and farther between, your naps longer and your eyes more tired...that our time was drawing to an end. I tried not to think about it but it was always in the back of my mind. 18 isn't very old for a cat, we still have many more years together...I rationalized within my own mind. I was wrong. Borrowed time, is what we had...and all too quickly the time had come and I was not ready. I think you were.

In the end I wanted more for you than a cold steril hospital, strange people, sharp needles and barking dogs. I wanted peace for you, your sunbeam in the morning and the quiet comfort of my room in the evening. I hope it was the right choice to make, I hope it is what you would have wanted.

Unfortunatly the end came too fast dear friend, I wasn't ready.

Now you are gone and there is a big hole in my heart left behind. The house seems so strange without your presence and I find myself second guessing every choice I made on your behalf towards the end. I will never know if my choices were "right" but I will always know my choices were made because I loved you.

Now every time the sun shines through my window, I will always think of you.

Until we meet again

I love you

Happy New Saturday everyone!

Yikes, been eight days short of a month since my last entry...but it's been incredibly busy. More to come on that a little later today while the boys are off having their hairs cut. For now, suffice it to say, I've been busy. I have pictures to upload from Christmas / New Year, I have stats to post, goals to mention, so on and so forth. However, this will all come in the next installment, for now, I have a spending plan to work on and a yearly budget to try and complete, so, without further adieu...

peace out...

Self destruction

I really hate my "inner critic". She says the meanest things and makes me sad =(

Snow, snow, snow...

Well, here I am at work feeling like a complete wuss. My "plan" was to bike to the transit station this morning and bus it to work since David had to leave the house at 3am. Burnsville got a ton of snow last night but I didn't care, I was biking to the bus! David wanted me to drive, said it wasn't safe, said he was worried...but I wanted to bike. I miss biking. So I spent the extra hour preparing myself to head out. Several layers of clothing, face hood, ski goggles, ear covers, 2 pair of gloves, etc...open the garage and the plows hadn't come. A good 2+ inches on the ground (on top of ice), I still tried to go...but had to turn around and come back home, park the bike, de-layer myself a little and drive the car. NONE of the bike path was plowed yet. It was a mess and as much as I love biking, miss biking...and even though I ride on the road for about 70% of my commute. There is one section where it's just too dangerous and I need to use the bike route...I didn't feel it was worth taking my life in to my own hands to attempt that stretch on the road since the path was inpassable. Feel like I've failed =(

I want the snow to melt!! I don't mind the cold but really...the snow...sucks. Maybe as I lose more weight and get better it won't bother me so much. Will let you know.

...Peace out

Baby it's cold outside...

Biked in to work today, when I left the house to head to the bus station it was 15 degrees outside with a slight wind, weather man says 9 miles an hour. I Felt good and toasty on the inside though, only a little bit of remaining snow on the path with patches of ice, nothing major. One thing I hadn't counted on was when I arrived at the transit station, the snow plows had pushed the snow from the parking lot up in front of the bike lockers...whoops. Had to do some kicking to get the door open but otherwise went smoothly. Got the bike tucked in to her locker for the day and went to stand in line for the bus which was, in the end, late arriving. Was funny to listen to all the complainers about the cold and breeze, really, I didn't think it was all that bad. If you dress for the weather you should do just fine. There is never bad weather, only bad apparel. Supposed to be light snow today, tomorrow and tappering off on Wednesday...we'll see how it goes.

Learned three things this morning. First, don't bother bringing the coffee along, make it at work. It was luke warm once I arrived at the station and cold by the time the bus arrived. Two, wear hiking boots and two pairs of socks. My feet got very cold standing on the concrete waiting, biking I was fine. Go figure. Third and finally, bring a scarf! Again, riding was fine, it was the WAITING that sucked. Hmmm I am seeing a pattern here...biking is great, toasty and fun...waiting around is cold, sucky and boring. Could it be moving is better than standing? I really must resist the urge to start singing "Everyone move your body..." Time to get cracking on the J.O.B thing.

Peace out!

...Who knew??

...That spokes were so important! I can honestly say, I did not. I just thought, for all intents and purposes, spokes were there merely to make a wheel, I don't know, look like a wheel. Wow, was I off base on that one! Long story short, for a while now, David and I have been trying to figure out how to get across the river over to the "other side" for the longest time. The one bridge we knew about (pedestrian, bike etc.) has been closed for a while now and the only other bridges we knew of were for motorized traffic only.

We KNEW there had to be a way across and after much research a glimmer of hope did shine through. Hope came in the form of the OLD "Bloomington Ferry Bridge". So we decided to give it a whirl and left from our house in Burnsville and headed in that general direction.

About 10 miles in to our ride, I heard a loud pop coming from the rear of my bike but nothing that jarred me or made me suspect I had run over anything so I slowed down (mind you, didn't stop) and tried to asses the situation. Everything seemed ok so I kept riding and David, being quite a bit ahead of me, had no clue anything had happened at all. One and a half miles later, after slowing down for a stop sign, my bike definitely was not functioning properly at all. I called ahead to David, who came to a stop right away while I coasted the rest of the way to meet him.

We checked my bike and saw what "seemed" to be the rear brakes completely hugging the back wheel. Thinking they had seized up we tried to loosen them, just disengaging them proved to be harder than we had expected. No matter what we tried we could not get things to line up properly. At first we thought the wheel was not sitting true to where it should so we kept trying to readjust it but at this point it wouldn't even spin.

At this point our main thought was how do we get home. Do we disengage the rear brakes and drive home? This seemed like a good idea until I thought of all the hills we had gone over to get to this point and trying to go back down some of them without a rear brake just didn't seem like the smartest thing to do. So we did what we could to get the wheel to just spin and walked the bikes to the back of an old building to lock them up and try to get a cab to come pick us up.

We called a friend to get a cab company phone number but the only pen we had on us decided to take the day off and did not work so with stick in hand David scratched the number in to the dirt. We called the cab.

45 minutes later and $30.00 poorer we were home and picking up the car to head back out and fetch our bikes. We took my bike to the shop, told them the story and they took a look at it. VOILA! I broke a spoke and just riding on the wheel with the broken spoke for 1 1/2 miles bent the rim of the wheel throwing the whole thing off balance. Who knew spokes were so important???

As always...Click to super size...no extra calories included!

Didn't see many cars while we waited...but we did see some horses!



This was the final resting place...because it was Sunday, it was closed, of course





Etch-a-Sketch...the original version...
(cab number)


(my feelings on the whole situation)


(Waiting for the cab...)


(...Still waiting for the cab)


All in all it was an adventure to be sure. And in the end...we never made it all the way to the bridge but we came within a mile...we will be back! We WILL make it across the river!

Until then...

Peace out!