Feb 2/3 - home reno's

For once it's not me doing the renovating. Stef and Aaron have just finished renovating their kitchen and two bathrooms, removing the old counters and putting in granite with new sinks and faucets. To save money, they removed the old counters themselves and Aaron did the plumbing - a new experience for him, not quite akin to bicycle repair !

The results are fabulous, especially in the kitchen. The old counter had a higher level that was more like a shelf dividing the kitchen and living room; the new counter arches around providing space for stools etc. It's quite a transformation in appearance. Stef sent pictures but I'm sure that real-life is even better.

Here in the deep south we are not doing renovations. Repeat after me ... we are not doing renovations. I've given Sandy the go-ahead to get "planning numbers" for what we want to do with the Master Bath. Hopefully that's not a snowball going down a slope !

So ... two days have gone by, what did we do ? It's easier to remember yesterday than Monday !

Monday, after breakfast, I went out for a short ride. With an eye on approaching clouds I turned around in Oak Hill about 16 miles away and headed home. As I was coming down Saxon I was hit by a few raindrops but missed the real downpour. Whew. I thought that I'd misjudged it. That got me home around 11:15. For the rest of the day I fiddled with Windows 7 and other computer-related things. We watched some more Stargate SG1. We had tuna -- bought at the fish store the prior day since it's closed on Monday. It was excellent. Sandy said -- I think that I would never tire of tuna ... but I'm sure that after a few weeks of only tuna she'd be yearning for some variety ! Heck, after a few weeks of only having me around, she's yearning for Marda, Mariadella ...

Tuesday, yesterday, was my day for a longer ride and my day for testing my lighting. My "normal" ride these days is 70 miles. I've got this ride coming up on Saturday that is 180 miles (actually 193.5 from the cue sheet). To test myself I wanted to do 120 miles.

The lighting worked well, although when I turn on the halogen bulb the LEDs dim and the halogen is not at full strength. That's ok -- the halogen is really for when I'm rolling down a hill at speed and need to see further out -- perhaps the eyes of that moose ahead next summer on the 1200 km ride. I can turn the battery-powered LED on and off. It nicely complements the dynamo powered lights. The most important part, though, is the lighting at the back. Everyone gave me a wide berth -- they could see me.

By the time I got to Port Orange it was lighter out. At that point I had a curious thump, thump, thump as if the pavement below had ridges every few feet ... but it didn't. I stopped to check my rear tire and sure enough, a one inch shingle nail was buried full length into the tire. The thump, thump, thump was me riding on the nail as the rest of the tire lost pressure. I'll bet that I couldn't get one of these nails to go in that way if I tried ... but I won't try. It took me a few minutes but this time I surely didn't need to look for what had punctured the tire !

When I set out, at the last minute I added a long-sleeved jersey to the mix with my short-sleeved jersey and light jacket. The temperature was 55 and quite humid. The wind was in my face at 15-20 mph -- quite a struggle at times. By the time I was two hours into the ride it looked like I'd be riding for 12 hours, barely getting home before dark. With the wind, it was 5.5 hours to the turnaround point ... the wind was dying on the way home but it was only 4 hours going back.

One of the reasons that it took so long on the outbound leg was the cold. I mentioned 55 degrees ? That was only as far as Port Orange and my shingle nail episode. I'd noticed around about the same time that I was not overly warm anymore and that the humidity had dropped. Well, the temperature dropped too -- into the low to mid 40's. My hands and feet froze. I had to stop every few miles and work my hands. My fingers didn't work well enough to open my fig newtons and gels. I stopped at the Hess station that is at my normal turnaround point for a 70 mile ride and had coffee. The girl in the deli was amazed that I was on a bicycle in this weather; some guys that arrived in a pickup truck commented that "you must have to work hard to stay warm". Yup.

It was much better after the 60 mile turnaround point though. By this time it was close to noon and warming up; I was facing the sun, so my hands got the benefit of the sun's rays; I was going with the wind ... At about 20 miles to go I could shed my jacket and put it into the rack-pack. When I got home I could see that it had "warmed up" to 52F.

What else went wrong ? Well, my water bottle broke. I squeezed it for a drink and it split lengthwise. Later in the ride when I stopped for lunch (small bag of chex-mis, bottle of V8), I also bought a gatorade that fit nicely into my water bottle holder.

Home at 3:30, showered & fed, it was time to relax. Somehow everything turned into a frenzy later though ...

One of my orders, the bread maker, had arrived. It was time to make bread. Oops, we don't have enough coffee for breakfast, it's time to roast beans since it will be too cold outside in the morning. What's for dinner -- potatoes, zucchini, pork chops (not fish!) ... all on the barbie. Ring/ring -- Jeffrey's faxing something to me. Five calls later and three fax calls later that's done. All this came together at the same time, bread maker finishing, checking the coffee roasting, flipping stuff on the barbie, rushing in to pick up the fax phone. I should have handed the fax operation off to Sandy but each time I thought it was the last call.

When I'd started the bread three hours earlier; when I'd started the coffee 1/2 hour earlier ... I had not properly thought through when they would finish. Starting all this was easy, spaced out. Finishing all happened at the same time. Ah well, at least this multi-tasking was accomplishing something -- far more than at work when I'd be on a conference call with my cordless headset, reading emails, walking to the coffee machine next door ... and nothing changed at the end of the day. Here -- we were well fed (the pork chops were properly pink / potatoes cooked and not burned / zucchini done); I just had coffee; bread is awaiting my pleasure for lunch; Jeffrey's W2's are sitting here for input to Turbotax. Mission accomplished !

Today is a riding day-off. I'll go out for a "normal" ride tomorrow. It's cold out there, showing 39F earlier, only supposed to get up to 46F today and down to 27F tonight. It won't get that cold here though, too secluded and too wet with the swamp (intracoastal waterway) behind us. It's supposed to be over 70 on Saturday ... here's hoping for good riding weather !

I need a haircut. Perhaps I'll get that done today but then my head will be cold biking !

It's time for breakfast for me and Abby ...