To put a bit of normalcy back into my day I took a twilight bike ride with Junie, 2.2 miles round trip. 🙂

My Wheels

In case you were wondering what my 29" bike looks like, which of course you were not. It now features a rear rack too.

I just biked here to the post office with Lisa and Junie

Biked to pick up the kids from school, then biked to the library with LK then home. We both nearly wiped out on a steep hill, and I'm afraid I may need to look at the brakes. Sigh. Still, a good day of riding

Biked with the kids to school, now just finished a 2.8 mile trek (round trip) to the bank. Aside from the bike ride with Lulu in the Bahamas, it's my longest ride in seven years. 🙂 Now contemplating a ride to the library before meeting the kids .

Biked with the kids to school, with me carrying Lu's trumpet in a bag on my handlebars. Baskets are quickly rising to the status of "necessity"

A Busy April Night

I biked to the store with Junie and returned with two full backpacks (and one large bag) of household staples like cat food, laundry soap, and margarita mix. I really need to buy a rear basket if I want these bikes to remain practical for more than recreation.

We grilled steaks, fresh asparagus, and sliced potatoes for dinner while the three youngest played on the trampoline. We've already grilled out more this year than all of last summer.

The food was grand, but the kids seem to have forgotten all their manners at the dinner table. It was like eating at a frat house. Not cool.

I took a bike ride to the library with Junie but it closed just as we got there, and KK is waaay too crowded on the weekends to comfortably ride on the sidewalk with a seven year old. So not the greatest trip. While we were gone YaYa and LuLu took their bikes out to Walgreens. Quite the mobile family now.

Momma was annoyed

Lisa was irked at yesterday's video (the one where the kids cross the road halfway down the block  due to construction on the nearest corner.). This morning when they tried to do the same thing she came out on the porch and yelled at them. "You want to cross the road, you go a block *that* way and do it," she said, pointing  the other way. "You know why? Because if you're butts get run over crossing here we get nothing. If you get killed in the crosswalk your Dad and I will get millions. Don't be selfish."

Just saying... I was laughing when I said it but there is a grain of truth in it. - Lisa

Want

Cool Rider

Lulu's new bike

I purchased this for $20 at a rummage sale this summer and surprised her with it :)

Smiley's new bike

You read a few weeks ago that Little Man finally learned to ride a bike; alas, the bike he owned was now too small, and Lisa found a bike on Craiglist that was rugged, manly, and cool - and all for $25. 

Oh, it took some getting used to; this Chopper-esque bike is big enough to last him a few years. 

But as you can see after a few days - and a much needed haircut, he mastered it!

Enjoy it buddy-buddy! We love you!

Question for the Room

Question for the room:

I was considering a campaign to replace Dan's recently stolen bike for his birthday or Christmas.

But then, in a recent post, Dan referred to himself as "middle aged."

So now I'm conflicted: bicycle, or big TRIcycle, of the type suitable for a pleasant ride to the shuffleboard court?

I mean, we must consider the problems that such geriatrics have with balance yes?

:D

-Fred Bryan 

RIP Dear Schwinn - You served me well

Last night, strangely sans kids for the first night in just under two years, Lisa and went out to dinner and drinks. We got home late, and I thought about putting my beloved  Schwinn Moon Dog Cruiser bike in the shed, but exhaustion and the idea of some ahem, alone time, ahem, got the better of me. 


The bike was stolen overnight. 


I do not live in a bad neighborhood; quite the contrary. It isn't 90210, but it isn't Times Square circa 1978 either. My thoughts immediately jumped to the scrap metal 'collectors' who prowl the alleys. My thought process and emotions spilled out on Facebook: 


My bike was stolen from my yard overnight, in what appears to be the work of the scrappers who drive through the alley, grab what they can from nearby yards, and take off. This is the first time in 5 years that I've been a victim, but neighbors have had run-ins with them before. Next time I see them, [redatcted]


Just off the phone with[my friend The] Socialist, who scraps part-time. He said he'll keep an eye out for the bike and the suspected crew in question. Nothings gonna come of it, but wth, the one chance in a thousand . . .

 I am beyond angry and at Lisa's urging I have temporarily forced myself to stay in the house. Earlier, seeing a man on a bike, I slammed on my brakes - at a green light - with the intention of kicking his ass and getting my property, but of course it was just some dude wondering what idiot stops at a green light.

Just looking at all the posts on Slapinions labeled 'bike'. So many good times with that bike. Road trips with the kids one-on-one, and they all look so young in the pictures . . .


Talked to my neighbor across the alley. I asked him if he thought it was someone after my bike or the scrappers, and he said there's no question it was the latter. He said he now keeps a padlock on his gate at night to keep them out (they once stole the aluminum awning from above his back door!). Unfortunately, that didn't prevent them from stealing a strut from his garage door when he left it open to go inside for a leak.

So, my beloved black  Schwinn Moon Dog Cruiser I hope you are sold for scap, only so that you are recycled and come back into the care of a rider who deserves you. But, if said thief chooses to ride you - kindly lock your brakes and send him spiraling headfirst into traffic. 

My Bike was Stolen!!

My bike was stolen from my yard overnight, in what appears to be the work of the undocumented scrappers who drive through the alley, grab what they can from nearby yards, and take off. This is the first time in 5 years that I've been a victim, but neighbors have had run-ins with them before. Next time I see them, it's 1519 and I'm f--king Hernan Cortes.

Just off the phone with Socialist, who scraps part-time. He said he'll keep an eye out for the bike and the suspected crew in question. Nothings gonna come of it, but wth, the one chance in a thousand . . .

Talked to my neighbor across the alley. I asked him if he thought it was someone after my bike or the scrappers, and he said there's no question it was the latter. He said he now keeps a padlock on his gate at night to keep them out (they once stole the aluminum awning from above his back door!). Unfortunately, that didn't prevent them from stealing a strut from his garage door when he left it open to go inside for a leak.

Just looking at all the posts on Slapinions labeled 'bike'. So many good times with that bike. Road trips with the kids one-on-one, and they all look so young in the pictures . . .

LuLu and I take our first bike ride together!!

Tonight Olivia and I hit the road for our 1st ever bike trip together. We went up to Howard Ave & back (about 2 miles), w/ a few added detours through the park, around the block etc. Tip: if you need to clean rust off your bike, take a ball of wet aluminum foil to it. Not only will it remove the rust, it doesn't scratch the paint.

:eye roll:

Just got back from a brisk 30 minute bike ride with YaYa, then practiced some hitting. After all that when I went on the computer (robbing her of her precious Club Penguin) she spazzed out and said she hated her bike and baseball too. Jeez kid, learn to cope.

Wrapping up Yesterday

After I posted yesterday I went over to the DMV, where I was very disappointed that I didn't get to read more of the Joe Hill book I'd started. There was a line out to the door and I was still in and out (with new registration tags and an updated driver's license) in less than ten minutes. WTF? What's the world coming to if you can't depend on the DMV to provide fodder for your blog?

[sidenote: I was sad about renewing that license tho'. With a eight-year expiration I'm pretty sure the picture on the front will be the last one to bear witness to my hair. {sob]

I was out so quickly that I headed to the hospital to visit my Mom before taking Smiley to school. I was stymied at the information desk when I was informed my Mom was not, nor had ever been, a patient.

Fortunately I was taken aside by someone I knew and slipped her room number, with a stern warning not to divulge where I'd gotten the information. She had been listed as 'Jane Doe' for security reasons - what security reasons I can't fathom, lest she's been slipping cookie recipies to Al Queda - but no one was supposed to know she was there. (Yeah, that suprised my Mom too)

Anyhow, she looked awful. As I walked in she was asleep with her head to one side and her mouth open. Her arms were bruised and her legs heavily bandaged. She told me the story I'd heard yesterday was very nearly accurate. She had been told of having an 'e factor' after my sister's birth and warned to divulge the information whenever she needed a blood transfusion.

"I carried the little card with me for twenty years before I threw it out," she said. "I figured, I hadn't needed it this long . . "

By the time I saw her the transfusion had taken place already, two pints of 'blood or whatever', and scans of her legs had revealed no clots, which was certainly good news.

Her speech was very  slurred and incomprehensible at times. She had no explanation for it but told me the doctor was sending her home that evening. I couldn't believe it. I'm not a doctor but she looked and sounded awful. I told her she must be mistaken.

* * *

After saying goodbye I hurried home in time to take Smiley to school via bike, just to show the morning's disaster hadn't dampened my resolve. It was again eezy-peezy, but I had the misfortune of talking to his classmate's Mom, who (naturally) bikes her kid in via a twelve mile roundtrip each day.

"You got tired after only a mile? How odd," she said. I think she was honestly oblivious to the lack of tact involved in saying this to a 300 pound man, so I don't hold any anger towards her.

[I will say however, that a  pre-Rennasaince era Danny might, conceivably, have looked at this unnattractive woman and  thought something like "If I biked twelve miles every day I'd look a hell of a lot better than you do now sister"

But this is a new era, and so a thought like that never crossed my mind. Not once.]

In the evening the kids had dance and in their absence I took Lump on a ride too, although I concede this was nothing but showing off to my readers. While I was wrapping up my Dad called to say his car had died taking my Mom home from the hospital, so I drove out to pick them up.

While in the car my Mom told me a story about dreaming of a bright tunnel with a peaceful white light at the end.

Malarky.

"Ma, I've known you for thirty years. With that mouth of yours there's not gonna be any 'white light'. The best you can hope for is to avoid a red glow and pray  for puragatory," I said.

She laughed. "Your [paternal] Grandma used to tell me the only way she'd get into heaven was if Grandpa Mike died first and held the ladder for her. She used to say that to me all the time. Remember Eddie?"

"Yeah, but it didn't work out that way, did it?" my Dad said, being a buzzkill and referencing my Grandma's early demise.

Anyhow, that was it for the day. A busy day, and productive.

Tags: blogplugs

On overdoing a bike trip and an update on my Mom

First things first. Yesterday I decided to use my bike to pick up Smiley from school. It's only a mile or so away (if that) and was an easy-peezy ride with the litle guy. Because of that success I nursed the idea of taking both LuLu and YaYa to their school [~ 2 to 3 miles away] via the bike trailer, and at 7:35 this morning I pulled the trigger and loaded 'em up.

Big booboo. Together they weigh 80 pounds, not Smiley's thirty-nine, and those extra forty pounds makes quite a difference. There also seems to be a dramatic discrepancy between the hills  I remembered being between here and the school and the number that actually exist. It was like freaking San Francisco out there.

On three different inclines I had to ask the girls to get out and walk while I caught my breath. I got them to school five minutes late and was holding back from heaving my breakfast. Not a ringing endorsement for the activity, to say the least.

Both girlsseemed thrilled with the novelty of it and were happy, but I felt like shooting myself. Not out of depression or disappointment - just to put myself out of my misery.

It took me 25 minutes to get there and a scant 10 to return.

Will I do it again? I think so, but it'll probably wait until next year when (hopefully) I'll be in better shape.

* * * *

My Mom is still in the hospital and not yet on the upswing. I'm told she'll need a stent (?) in her leg and a blood transfusion, but some antibodies in her blood, present since a difficult pregnancy with my sister C, precludes most donors. It's very confusing to me and so far I'm hearing it only second or third hand.For all I know she's A-OK and milking it for the free applesauce in the cafeteria, God willing.

I'm going to try and stop and see her sometime today to get the scoop and wish her well.

Tags: blogplugs

On bikes and hospitals and sassy little kids

Today was the first day in quite awhile I've been on my bike. It was out of action for a few days because of heavy rain and when I brought it back out of the Wacky Shack I found I'd ruined the back tire by running over some glass. Cue a  stay at the bike shop, where as Dork among Dorks I also bought a nifty collapsible basket :)

Anyway, I had a nice 20 minute ride with YaYa. We even stopped and shagged balls at a local baseball practice along the way. The bike shop adjusted my seat so high I no longer have to wonder what a colonostomy feels like, but it was a godsend to finally get some exercise into my schedule.

You see, yesterday night my Mom was taken by ambulance to the hospital, where she was admitted with blood pressure of 180 over ?, a 102 degree temp, and badly swollen legs that were leaking water.

I love the woman dearly, but if you don't decide to just get up and move God's gonna make your decision permanent. Her hospitalization, which may turn into yet another stay at an extended care facility,was another little 'push' to keep up my diet and exercise plan.

That plan has only been 40% on schedule the last week or so, thanks to that Olive Garden trip. I can safely ignore temptation, so long as I'm not given a taste.  No 'one drag of a cigarette' or 'just a slice of pizza' or 'only an hour with the transvestite' - no, for me that way leads to the Dark Side.

So for the foreseeable future it's ixnay on the Italian food, that's for sure.

* * * *

Quote of the Day, and coincidentally on the subject:

Completely in jest as we horsed around outside.

Me: You be quiet you Punky Brewster or I'll break ya in two!

LuLu (laughing): No you won't! I have bones!

Me: I can do it. I'm strong!

LuLu: [snickered] How? You barely even work out!

Tags: blogplugs