Jan 9 - another day, another ride

I wasn't in a hurry to get out, leaving around 11:30 and back just after 4:00. The wind was due East so I could have gone north or south ... I went south. Since the newly burned area on Merritt Island is on the West side of the road I did not have to deal with the dust. There were areas still smoking.

Toward the tail end of my 300k ride I was getting a "twinge" in my right knee. It was evident yesterday too, coming and going depending on my position on the saddle. It's something that I have to be careful of -- it's possible that some of my screwing around with the seatpost has changed my position slightly and it's also possible that just the sheer number of miles has something to do with it -- do you think ?

Otherwise, not much else happened yesterday. We had Pompano that Sandy had bought the day before (Monday is the day that the fish store is closed). Pompano is one of the cheapest fish that we can buy, at $5.99 per pound. Yesterday's fish was 1.6 pounds before filleting (with this fish you pay whole-fish weight) and 1.0 pounds afterwards. I guess that makes the price per edible pound just under $10 -- still cheap by fresh fish standards. Of course more fresh fish here is inexpensive -- tuna is only 12-something, vs 22-something in Toronto. Of course if we wanted to buy Pickerel or Pike here it would probably be expensive !

The Pompano is filleted with the skin still on. It's a scale-less fish, by the way. What I do, after she has put olive oil and whatnot on is simply mate the two fillets together and barbecue them in the fish holder. After cooking they come apart and we each get one, eating it off the skin. Trout and Salmon can be done the same way but they are much more fatty and the skin burns on the barbie unless you do it on a cedar plank.

For a change yesterday Sandy put a few fresh-cut sprigs of Thyme between the two fillets. Since the fish is not overcooked, the thyme flavoring is not overpowering, just providing a hint. The next time that we do Pompano I want to use a crabmeat stuffing -- that too would be interesting. I suppose that I could also do the same thing as I do with whole rainbow trout, wrapping it in foil -- and it would also be good with a stove-top stuffing baked inside. So many options !!

What else ... oh yes, I didn't mention it yesterday but I did do some shopping on the weekend. I bought (on the internet of course) an MP3 player to try while riding. While I see on the Newegg website that people leave lots of comments about usability of menus etc., my criteria were different, and simple. First, it had to be small. I'm going to have this in my pocket. An IPOD is too big. Second, I wanted a flash-memory type, judging that to be more durable for this particular use. My IPOD has a mini hard disk inside, for example. I didn't want that. Third, I wanted something powered by replaceable batteries. Having a chargeable unit that runs for 8 hours does me no good on a 16 hour ride. Fourth -- cheap, cheap, cheap -- I don't even know if I'll use it.

So ... I spent $18. I also spent about the same on some canal-buds. I don't like ear-buds, perhaps the canal-buds will be more comfortable and better at blocking out exterior sound. We'll see.

I also shopped at the Randonneurs USA website -- rusa.org -- for a better reflective sash & anklets. I guess that $5 is not too much to spend on safety. While I was at it I bought a couple of their branded water bottles. I forgot to mention that after that one water bottle cracked, the next day I checked the other and it was starting to crack. These were the bottles that I carried across the country -- they don't owe me anything !

We're planning on boating today since I biked yesterday (my goal is every second day) and it's supposed to be warm and sunny. It never got to the advertised 70+ yesterday but I managed to ride with a short sleeved jersey with the temps in the high 60's. I"d always rather be warm than cold and even yesterday, at times, I wished that I'd brought along my vest. High 60's sure beats frost on the rooftops though !!

Sandy has been painting the front door. On Sunday she put on a primer and yesterday the first coat of red paint, yes, red paint. I couldn't convince her to go with Dewalt Yellow ... darn. Speaking of Dewalt -- this is speed week, with the Daytona 500 coming up on Sunday. This is the first year that we're not going. Of course this is only our third year down here ... I' cannot say that we'll miss it. I enjoyed the spectacle, and would go again. Sandy would go again, with a little arm twisting, but it's not her favorite thing.

On Saturday, while I was biking, she went to Mount Dora for an art festival. Apparently it was very crowded, but she does like these crafty things. Mount Dora isn't very far away -- think Orlando only a little north. Is there a mountain ? Is this Florida ? That would be "no" and "yes".

Sandy did some catching up yesterday, talking to her cousin Carol who is wintering in Panama City FL and Molly Klau, from Philadelphia.

That's it, enough rambling for one morning.