52 at Fifty: Week 3

Yeah.  I know I said Saturday was my posting schedule.  But here we are again on a Wednesday.  Oops...

So I got the old girl back on the road again.  The transmission is still slipping a little.  There are a couple of things that can be tried for that.  Not a deal breaker.  The new battery has her starting up like a champ!  I am not concerned about being stranded due to power issues now.  Now... for the other stuff... Well, different story.  The tires were replaced in the last 18 months.  They don't match but they are all meaty and full of air.  I will make sure to install a set of matching NEW treads after I get the mechanicals straight and before I start working on the visuals in earnest.  Up next is suspension.  My suspension components are OEM.  Not bragging because the car was manufactured in 1994.  So you can probably imagine what the ride is like if you have ever had a jalopy of your own.  BUT the bobblehead ride HAS TO GO!  As you probably know, cars work better when the tires stay in contact with the ground.  I am not confident that is happening with at least 1 (okay all) of the wheels at this point.

Once the slipping and bouncy suspension are fixed, I can be confident it will travel the distances I need it to go.

Still not happy that I need to go through all these changes to travel 75 miles to do the exact same thing I can accomplish from my bed.  But at least now I don't need to bum a ride to get groceries and such.  Oh yeah, I guess I left out the part where the tag was expired.  And the other vehicle needing repairs had it blocked in.  But now free!  Free I say!!!

Speaking of irritations with things that we need to do to eat.  So I found myself thinking STRONGLY of investing in the future of OURS instead of the future of THEIRS.  I kinda have a love/hate relationship with OURS partly because of THEIRS.  But on Monday it was strongly in my mind that OURS was the correct path.  Seems I was being slightly prophetic since THEY have decided to change out performance goals in such a way that pretty much eliminates the idea of paid vacation.  So now we basically have to make up the hours we take for our time off.  This also happened later on Monday.  Really?  So now I pretty much have to work a full 52 weeks PLUS enough weeks to cover my vacation time?  I am so done.

More later!

52 at Fifty: Week 2

So I started this week off NOT drinking all I intended on drinking for St. Paddy's day.  Which was also supposed to be my spill over Saturday for missed drinking for last week.  Oh well.  More for later I guess.

Sunday was a nice day.  I decided to overcome laziness and Winter and blah and "I'll wait until the temperature is stable" and fuck it.  I did manage to do just that.  Which is saying something because that is a pretty strong cast of characters.  Especially fuck it...  In spite of them I logged the first official mile of 2018.  That's right y'all.  Cycling season has started!

And in another first, I got chased by a dog!  What the hell?  What is this saying about my 2018 season when there is a dog in the first mile?  Hell it wasn't even the first mile!  I hadn't even made it off the block!  Not that it was a major dog incident.  It was some Chihuahua mix.  Needless to say, I wasn't feeling much in the way of mortal peril.  The thing barely made it up to the foot on the down stroke.  So if I kept the foot on the upstroke side she was just practicing.  So I had a little fun with it.  I said "You're not gonna catch me.  You're not gonna catch me.  You're not gonna catch me!".  And I accelerated slightly to keep it's little legs working hard.  I think the cat that had been cornered and was being terrorized was happy I breezed by, because I seemed to be more tempting than the cat.

Just as I was about to turn the corner and leave the little thing in the dust, I hear a voice.  "Please don't run, she is only going to chase you!".  My immediate thoughts were as follows:

• Chase, yes.  Catch, no way in hell!!!
• Lady you don't have to worry about that.  Kinda hard to catch what you can't see.
• Even at 50 AND having not been on since October, my sprint will still quickly destroy any hopes it will have of it being a good chase.
• Not really my problem... Meep Meep!

Then I heard "It is only going to make it harder for me to catch her.  Can you come this way and help me sir?"  I think it was the sir that slowed me up.  Because I looked back at her to see the cane she was walking on.  And I remembered how much fun catching my idiot dog when he was running loose.  So I checked the traffic to make sure somebody wasn't gonna run me down, and executed a u-turn.  Sure enough the little terror turned with me.  I rode slowly back toward the lady so she could convince the fur ball to give up the shenanigans.  It almost worked too.  You could see the dog was considering running back up on the porch.  Even paused a little.  I know I only imagined hearing it, but the dog definitely said "fuck that" to that plan.  Off in another direction for more terror.  I guess having people chase you is more fun to dogs than chasing cats and bicycles.  After that the lady basically said "Fuck it, you will be out here until my husband gets home.  He can chase you!"

I was rolling inside!  Hey I did my part.  I got the little cuss to the porch steps.  Sealing the deal was someone else's job.

The rest of the ride went without incident.  I remembered how wonderful it was to ride my old Cannondale.  So wonderful in fact that it had me believing untruths about my conditioning.  Then I remembered that strength gives out as endurance wanes.  I can only feel for all these people who I will be dragging around the area over the next few months.

Shifting gears... (heh, heh)
I generally do not enjoy being compelled to drive 75 miles to do something I can do from my bed.  Especially not multiple times a week.  But such is my life.  There were a couple of small benefits to having done so.   One day lunch was provided.  This was along with meeting the leadership on my current project.  The other was an encounter that is making me smile right now...  The set up: Me heading slowly towards the stairway so that I can generate some awake.  I am overtaken by a lovely woman in an above the knee skirt, right at the choke point.  Since I didn't want to hold her up, I deferred access.  I seemed to have lucked up into access to more than just some calves.  Those thighs were wonderful and flawless and thick.  I had not previously realized just how long those legs were.  Seemed like they went right up to heaven for more than one reason... (it was a long starway also...)  I only hope I managed to maintain enough composure to not be seen noticing.

52 at Fifty: Week 1

Happy Birthday to me!!!!!
I am now Fif-ty
The AARP card is coming
And I'm drinking Remy!

March 10:
This taste of the Remy goes out to three very special people:
Mom, I wish you could have made it with me this far.
Dad, this is to you too. I will have to visit more because without you and mom there is no me.
My Wife, in the trenches everyday, we share the struggle.  We shall share a drink too when you are awake.

You other important people will have to wait until the next glass is filled.

52 at Fifty: The Prologue

So I have decided to try something new.  I believe in the olden days it was called blogging.  Okay, so not new.  I will call it renew...

What my intent here is to do a weekly log of how things are going on my 50th anniversary of being me.  My format is to do a single post each week (hence the 52) on my journey at this milestone.  I'm starting off in the week before my birthday.  So Saturday to Saturday is the new post cycle.  Everything that happens after Saturday will be posted as an update to the current post.

Hopefully I can keep this party rolling and complete this task while actually keeping to a regular schedule.  We will see.  That is one of the things I am working on.

So...

Saturday, March 10, 2018.  Ya boy hits The Big Five-Oh.  A fact that has a little humor attached for a few reasons.  One of them is that I have been calling my high school classmates old.  Hell they have been turning 50 for the better part of two years now.  I was mildly justified.  But it was done in fun and out of love.  Now some may strike back!

The journey up to Saturday has been an interesting one to be sure.  Ups.  Downs.  Triumphs.  Tribulations.  Ah, y'all know how it goes.  So you know there is a bunch that could be said.  I intend on catching folk up bit.  I know it has been kinda quiet around here for the bulk of the decade.  Or should I say A decade...  So those updates will come during the upcoming weeks.

Honestly, I didn't know what to expect this close to pulling into that station.  Well, maybe I had some expectations.  I just don't know what they were.  Or I don't know how to express those thoughts and feelings.  What I do know is that I feel that I was not expecting to be where I am now.  Where am I?  I am at the point where you say to yourself Oh Shit, You Haven't Done XYZ!!!!

Yep.  Pulling into the station at OHSHITYOUHAVENTDONEVILLE

There seems to be quite a bit of X, Y and Z to go around here.  I find that disturbing.  And not in a Dyssturbing way either.  So I am trying to wrap my mind around doing some of those things.  And these will be things discussed in coming posts.  A sample of said to do list goes a little something like this:

• Stabilize finances
• Get a car under my butt on a consistent basis
• Ride my bike more days of the week than last year
• Actually put a bike on this resistance trainer that I bought for "winter cycling/conditioning"
• Be a better leader
• Get these health conditions under control for real
• Stop feeling years older than I actually am
• Learn welding 
• Learn powder coating
• Build your own bike frame because that is why you learned the two above
• Build a new bike this year whether I accomplish the three above or not
• Communicate with loved ones on a more regular basis
• Eat better
• Consume WAY more water than I have been because I think I am drying out
• The bike is a good start, but do more
• Less staycation, more vacation
• Be more fearless
• Grow the business
• Post them damn pictures

I could go on but I was just dropping a sample.  I also am not trying to do it all at once.  See ya Saturday for Week 1

Damn! I Missed A Year!!!

No post for 2017?  At all?  I done really fell off.

Pouring one out for the missing post from 2017.