Under Construction

June 1st is theme day again, and for a change it is a theme I can easily relate to. Under construction. Well, I have a photo for that. Here's one. The view from the south window of my new bedroom, currently under construction, looking out over the roof of the original cottage.

And the view from the north window of my new bedroom, also looking west over the cottage roof.

And here's the third window in that room.  The drywallers are still working on taping and mudding, or whatever it is called that they do.  It's a messy job, but it is finally starting to look like a place to live.

Here's a question for you .... I was asked by Wireless if the Auckland Rule applies to walking?  Hmmmm.  I'm not sure.  (The Auckland rule simply states that if you don't ride in the wind you don't ride.)  It was windy here today, 23 mph from the SSW, gusting to 32 when I left.  I applied the Auckland Rule and rode today, since I'm still trying to figure out a way to balance my need to walk with my preference for riding.  Wind is clearly less of a factor for walking than it is for biking, but it most decidedly is a factor.  I tend to apply my other biking rule to walking -- head out into the wind, tailwind on the return trip.  So.... I'll need to think about that for a while.  Still doing fine here.

Memorial Day Weekend

I know it was a three day weekend ... However, Saturday is sort of lost in a mist. I'm sure I did something, but I have no idea just what it was. Although according to my blog I took a walk. Good enough. Sunday was cloudy and I tried to sneak in a bike ride before the rain hit. I swung by the beach,  leaned Ruby against the house for a photo, and heard the thunder. Ooops. I did just barely make it home before the rain hit, with a new record average speed for a ride for this year.  Sunday was also Indy, and my Indy 500 picks were mostly at the back of the pack. I watched the beginning and the end of the race, as usual.  The rest is just riding around in circles.  And it has gotten awfully gimmicky, in my opinion.

Sunday was also our ASG's 15th birthday, and we all met for dinner at Wild Chef.  OSLO and her crew had spent Saturday on an overnight camping trip -- the first time the COTU had ever done any tent camping.  Funny ... I know what they did on Saturday.  A good time was had by all.  Speaking of good times, Monday was the first day of summer, apparently.  Temperatures away from the lake were close to 90, and OSLO and her family spent the afternoon with us at the beach.  The water was still pretty cold, but not too cold for the young 'uns to put on their suits and try out the big lake.

Totally Jammin' and Brad mowed and trimmed the grass, I made a devil's food cake with chocolate frosting for the birthday boy (who brought his 'girl friend' along for the day), and we ordered in Papa John's pizza.  So even though the place is still under construction, we managed to make it work, and kicked off the summer season quite satisfactorily.

Not Paris, either. But still pretty good.

I stole the theme and title for this post from A Traveler at Home, also  known as Wireless.  I hope she considers it a sincere form of flattery, rather than outright theft of 'intellectual property.'  She posted some highlights from a walk she took today.  Very nice, BTW.

Another family member posted a photo today of a walk he took a year ago when, oddly enough, he was in Paris.  And my photos are from a short walk I took this evening, around my neighborhood.  I think we have a theme going here.

 By now everyone who reads this blog regularly is aware of the change in my -- well, our -- health status.  It has lots of consequences, not all of them are clear or obvious yet.  One thing, though -- I have had to rethink my exercise priorities.  It is soon going to be difficult to do much biking, at least for a while.  Or so.  Well, more difficult than this week -- when it rained all week?  Probably.  Anyway, one thing I do know is that for the next 5 years I will be taking a drug that accelerates osteoporosis as one of its side effects.  So while I will likely return to riding my bike "after", my exercise of choice for the foreseeable future needs to be walking.

In what an English teacher might call foreshadowing, I started walking quite a bit last fall with Lynne.  I walked a fair amount with GZ and JQ in Florida this past winter, as well.  I like walking.  It's kind of slow, and at no time do I feel like I am flying, but it's just fine.  And twice this week JB took a walk with me -- quite nice.  If it has a drawback, it might be its lack of gear.  Although I do have a nice pedometer, so I can measure my walks and write it down.  (Yeah, yeah.  It's just who I am.)  It is, in fact, the same kind of pedometer that Wireless got for her father for Christmas.  And I have shoes and a camera.  So I believe I am ready to move along here.  Just so you know, we're both feeling fine.  One foot in front of the other.

May Apples

Today it rained steadily for most of the daylight hours, finally clearing briefly after supper.  My front yard has a big cluster of May Apples in it, in the middle of the wooded area.  It's a neat looking plant.

I assume they are called May apples because of the little fruit like thing that is hidden underneath the leaves that looks a little bit like an apple.  And they blossom in May.  We've had these things in our yard for years, and only recently did I realize that they bloomed.  Observant.  I took this pictures as I headed out for a walk after supper.  This weather has been lousy for biking, but walking is a reasonable alternative.

In other news, carpet and tile have been selected, the drywallers were hanging wallboard today, the insulation is mostly in, and siding may (or may not) be next on the list.  It is beginning to look like a house. 

White lilacs, purple tulips, ducks

What do these things have in common? Nothing, really. Except I took a walk after supper tonight, and these were the three things that caught my attention while I was out wandering around the neighborhood.

It would have been a great day for a bike ride, but there were other, more serious things that needed to be done today.

I've gotten out of the habit of walking since we returned from Florida, and I need to get back into it.  Good for my bones and all.

One foot in front of the other.  Repeat.

Sand Bar

Is it Spring yet?

Totally Jammin' took part in his Middle School's choir concert yesterday evening.  He's the third one from the right end in the back row.  He was the best one.

Our construction project continues, more or less on schedule.  Next week the siding goes on, and the drywallers arrive.  Things are shaping up.  The carpet layers arrived today to measure for carpeting, but I'm having second thoughts about  my original choices.  I think at least one more trip to the carpet store will be required.

I spent about an hour and a half on my bicycle today -- the weather cooperated, though it got a little cool as I got closer to the big lake.  I was greeted by a petal shower on my return home -- the first of the season.

The water supply has been restored to the cottage, so OSLO and her family will spend part of tomorrow afternoon helping me get some basic clean up done out there.  My hope is to get the cottage whipped into usable shape.  Refrigerator, kitchen, bathroom, that sort of thing.  The grass needs mowing and trimming as well.  I have a capable crew of helpers showing up, so it looks good that the summer beach season can begin, even though construction is still on going.

Park to Park

It was a nice day for a bike ride.  A little cooler than normal for this late in May, and breezy.  Just facts, no complaints, of course.  I rode with an 'old' friend -- we called it our Park to Park ride. 

This is not really a park, I guess.  It is the prayer garden at Lynne's church.  But it has a walking path past the 12 Stations of the Cross, plenty of benches and at least one very nice lilac bush.  We were in no hurry, and spent some quiet moments there just enjoying each others company and the beautiful day.

We eventually moved on to Riley Park -- and finally back to the beach house.  I left a bike in her garage to make it easier to bike out of there without having to haul a bike out there.

Bicycle Therapy

The Park Township board has issued a new ordinance making it illegal to park on the local bike paths.

Spring means lilacs to me.  I love their color and the way they smell.

I had an afternoon appointment, so it was not a long ride -- my turn around point was Tunnel Park.

It felt good to be riding again after so many days off.  Bicycle therapy, the light at the end of the tunnel.

Hanging Around

TJ's tennis match got cancelled due to rain today, leaving us with a bit of a hole in the weekend schedule.

We contemplated taking a walk on the beach, but couldn't quite convince ourselves that we really wanted to do that -- in the rain.  Instead we are all spending the afternoon sitting around with our computers in our laps.

A Park and a Beach

Earlier this week I rode over to Quincy Park. The ornamental crabapple trees are in full bloom.

Mornings this week have been taken up with details on the remodel.  Today we settled on the final choice of cabinets and vanities for the bathroom and laundry room.  We also did a walk through with our builder on the placement of electrical outlets, light switches, lights and such.

Today's ride was a short one -- just to the Holland State Park.  There was a pretty good crowd of people for a Wednesday afternoon in May.

There's been a lot going on, and it has been hard to bike, and even harder to blog.  Today I did both. 

Photos of Mothers Day Activities

TJ and his friend, Wilson.  The Fruitport Middle School was the location of today's matches.

The first match.  TJ and his partner won the tie breaker, so 7-6, I believe.

A little bit of celebrating before the second match.  A different partner, different opponents, and this one went 2-6.  He seems to be enjoying learning how to play the game.

Later we visited the big lake.  OSLO is pointing out the change in the shape of the house, I think.

The COTU are nearly as tall as OSLO.

The water is still cold.

A nice day.

1,000 miles

Today's ride put my mileage for the year at just a hair over 1,000 miles. I rode Ruby, and stopped at the beach. Any day with a bike ride is a good day.

One day at a time.

Tulip City

It really was too windy to ride very far yesterday, so I rode into town to check out the tulips. That's always a slow ride anyway, and the wind was from the southeast, giving me an easy bail out option when I got tired of fighting the wind.

The flower bed next to the fake windmill next to the bridge should be full of blooming tulips this time of year. Tulip time starts next weekend, and the big buses full of tourists are already showing up at all the usual locations.

This is Window on the Waterfront Park, another spot that is supposed to be brimming with blooms by now.  Not so much.

There were a few tulips in full flower on the sunny side of the main street through downtown, but they were few and far between, so I continued on to Centennial Park, where the Klompen dancers will be performing in less than a week. (Note the name of the shop across the street.  Tiny Tim, anyone?)

A few beds were showing some signs of color, though I didn't manage to get any photos of them that were in focus.  I'm blaming the wind.

Sadly, most of them look like this.  Tulip Time will have make do without much in the way of tulips this year. I did find three nice benches to add to our series, though.