Rule Number One

Today I am suffering the consequences of having violated the first rule of bicycle riding, which as we all know is "Rubber Side Down." Yesterday I fell over on my bicycle. Which is not quite the same thing as falling off my bicycle. I was standing still, lining up my foot with the pedal, lost my balance and fell over. Fortunately, no one was watching. The usual damage occurred. My knee hit first, then my elbow -- the order gets murky after that. It was cold enough (68 degrees) that I was wearing my favorite long sleeve UnderArmor base layer, which probably saved some skin on my arm. My first thought was "thank goodness for good bone density."

It took closer inspection to find more damage -- my hip hit the pavement, apparently.  Just a bruise.  And the opposing knee hit the bicycle at some point -- another bruise.  Falling down is jarring at my age, and doing it while tangled up in a bicycle isn't any better.  Sigh.  No real damage -- a couple of band aids worth is all.  The bicycle seems to be fine -- I cut the ride short and went back to the house to assess my injuries.  I haven't fallen for years and years.  I was about due, I guess.  Still.

The previous two photos are from either Wednesday or Thursday.  It rained Friday, and as you can see, we needed it.  Ollie's Pond and the Myakka River backwater.

Today was breezy -- the Mr. and I took a morning walk around the neighborhood, and I decided that I was still on the injured list.  I did want a little more exercise though, so I took my fat tired, upright, stable steel hybrid for a ride over to the local beach.  I was there in time for the glistening waters.

Rubber side down...  Rubber side down...  Rubber side down...  Rubber side down...........

Water in a Liquid Form

I have no story to tell today, just wanted to share the photos. Sunrise and sunset today.

Breaking the Tie

As of today's ride, bicycling edged out walking for this month. Not that it was ever really close in any meaningful way. Time spent, calories burned, miles -- biking wins all three categories handily. We're talking only about the number of times I've headed out the door to engage in exercise. Just to be clear.

Watching the mullet jumping in the waterway behind Sunrise Park.  Walking.

Spanish moss fascinates me.  At the corner of Ogden and Grace.  Bicycling.

I think this is an ad for Direct TV, but it captured our attention for a while yesterday morning.  Walking.

And biking again.  West Spring Lake.  I liked that I could see the reflections of the puffy clouds in the water in this shot.  On a totally unrelated note, I regret to inform you that National Pie Day was yesterday, so we all missed it.  Fortunately a second form of Pi(e) Day is not that far off.  March 14th, I believe.

Route Finding

I haven't been blogging much this month, my muse is apparently on vacation. Today I was encouraged by a flurry of comments on posts that are days old, so I thought I'd attempt an update.

First, I want to report that I have taken more walks this month that I have bike rides.  While that makes me just a little sad, it is definitely a good thing.  A bonus is that most of these walks have been with the Mister.  This morning we ambled on over to Sunrise Park and watched preparations for a class in kayaking.  Colorful.  Clearly we could use some rain.

The wind was forecast to be light today, and it started out that way.  This is West Spring Lake, about 3.5 miles into my ride.  It was beginning to cloud up, but there was very little wind to contend with.

It seems as though I spend my bike time down here trying to find the perfect route to ride.  The turn around spot last year for many of my rides was Ollie's Pond Park.  This year I find myself drifting further south, exploring the neighborhoods that back up on the Myakka River.  The sign on the bridge where I stood while taking the photo above said it was the Atlantis Waterway.  It's all the same water, though.

I haven't given up on finding a way to link up with Ollie's Pond from there.  While avoiding Forsythe and Garth, of course.  If I turn right at this spot -- Ogden and Grace -- I can avoid all of the abandoned roadways like the ones in my last post.  I still ride past a handful of them, but I don't need to ride down any of them.

Success -- the south shore of Ollie's Pond.  The sky was getting darker and the winds were starting to pick up, so I didn't ride all the way around it today.  It was raining in Tampa when I left the house and it was heading this way.

The last leg of the return trip took me past the Kiwanis Park.  There are some nice walking paths back in there.  I lingered too long, and faced a 100 mph headwind on the final 2 mile segment.  (That's the second ride in a row where that's happened.) The route still needs a little tweaking, but not much.

Forsythe and Garth

Today was both a biking day and a walk day. Whew. Good thing I'm retired. Today I tried to link up two neighborhoods where I like to ride -- the Myakka River backwater area and around Ollie's Pond Park. I had a plan that looked good on paper, or at least on the Map My Ride website.  Not everything that looks good on the internet looks good in the real world.  This street has next to no pavement left on it, and I did some sideways sliding on my bike in the sand.  The intersection of Forsythe and Garth.  I won't be riding down either of those two streets again.

Eventually I did link up with Ollie's Pond, and got a photo of some of its wildlife.  It was a pretty nice day to ride, mid to upper 60's and sunny while I was out there.  The wind shifted a bit giving me more headwind than I wanted, but in the end I got in my longest ride of the year.  That wasn't too hard to do, only 13 days into a new year, but a 20 mile ride was one of my goals for this month, so it felt good to check it off.

JB has taken a few morning walks with me this week as a way to encourage me to get in the weight bearing exercise that has been prescribed.  He also bought me a new battery for my pedometer, so that's functioning properly again.  I rewarded us both for good behavior with feta fish for supper. The weekend looks cool and breezy -- but with no snow.

January 10, 1965

It was a cold day in Minneapolis that Sunday, 47 years ago. Nine people gathered in the chapel of the Lutheran church near Dinkytown. The bride and groom, her two "bracket" brothers -- one just older than she, the other just about the same amount younger -- the parents of the groom, the best man, the maid of honor and a good friend of the bride. Oh, and the minister made 10. Apparently that is all it took, as the glue held, and here we are 47 years later, still negotiating terms for next year.

It begins with chocolate. Good chocolate, from the Swiss chocolate shop in Punta Gorda.  For her.

For him, he likes to eat breakfast out.  So after the chocolate shopping is done, there was a stop at the Olympia restaurant so he could have his favorite eggs florentine.

His favorite afternoon 'activity' is napping.  She prefers biking.  Sunny and 70's.  Shorts weather.

This photo violates that 'rule of thirds' thing, but the sky was the most interesting part of today's ride.  The food theme will continue later in the day, with dinner out -- probably at Olive Garden. I have no idea how people are supposed to celebrate 47 years of marriage, but this is what we did.  

What Are the Odds?

I have replaced the batteries on both of my bike computers in the last three days. I'm not positive that the problem with the second one was the battery, but it had ceased to record mileage accurately. Today was a "ride" day (as opposed to a "walk" day) and I ended up at the end of my ride with 12.9 miles on my bike computer. I knew it was farther than that, so I ran it through "Map My Ride" -- a website that, well, maps rides. It came out 16.75 miles. We'll find out on the next "ride" day if changing the battery has solved the problem or not. I had kept the instructions for resetting both  of the computers -- though they only appeared to be in English.   It mostly seemed to work, eventually.

Today's ride took me to the backwaters of the Myakka River -- a nice low traffic neighborhood south and west of here. My fuel of choice (otherwise known as lunch) was homemade lentil soup and a BLT.  Otherwise it is pretty quiet here on the southern front.

Back from Orlando

The trip to Universal Studio was a resounding success according to all reports. The five of them packed a ton of fun into their two day trip to Orlando, I'm told.  TJ is returning home with two wizard's wands -- one each from Harry Potter and Dumbledore -- and the girl has Hermione's.  That's a lot of magic.

Today was more low key -- something of a recovery day for them. Dalt and Brad elected to hang out at the house while OSLO, the COTU and I did the traditional round of hot spots in Punta Gorda. By that I mean the Indian Tree, the Banyan tree and Fishermens Village. Replicas of the Nina and the Pinta were docked off the end of their piers, so we took the tour.  The COTU are both history buffs and seemed to enjoy seeing the working reproductions of Columbus' ships.

We got back to the house in time for them to spend some time in the spa on the back porch.  The cold weather back home made the news here, so they are aware of what they are facing when they head home tomorrow.  All good things must come to an end.