spokesNspin

The other day Andrew and I spent some time raking the leaves on the front lawn. 

 I told Andrew how much I enjoyed doing this type of work now and then.  I told him how much more I enjoyed watching him do it.  Andrew, like most teenagers, didn’t enjoy it.  He suggested we buy one of those leaf blowers.

I hate those leaf blowers!  They are just another one of those things we have added at ever diminishing margin of consumer utility.   With the creation of the leaf blower we have managed to add both air pollution and noise pollution into one small carry on your back package.

With a rake I can enjoy the fresh air. I got a little exercise.  And with a mindless job like raking, I could chat with Andrew.  Andrew being Andrew means that chatting took about 30 seconds of the total hour and a half we spent raking.

I enjoy feeling the sun on my back and just letting my mind wander.  It is a way to be productive and contemplate your life at the same time. 

I like watching the progress.  I like seeing windrows of leaves across the lawn.  It gives me a feeling of accomplishment.

I would get the same feeling when I was a teenager  doing some farm work.   Tillage work was like that.  I could drive the tractor up and down the field for a few hours and think about life and the world.  I had the pleasure of watching my progress as the soil was turned with each pass.  One side sort of a gray brown and the other dark and moist. 

Where I grew up we would never see a Seagull unless one started doing some field operation that turned the earth.  Then immediately the field would be covered with Seagulls gorging on the worms that were turned up.  I always wondered where they came from. 

They would come in flocks of hundreds or maybe a thousand.  They would land immediately behind the tractor and feast on the smorgasbord.  I would reach the top end of  the field and turn around and head back.   The birds would stay and eat with the tractor approaching.  At the last possible moment they would take off in huge cloud of birds.  They would fly just high enough to escape the tractor and then again light immediately behind to a freshly laid table.

I have been tagged by RBK.

Since I am a good sport I will play along.  At least partially.  I do find it interesting to read these things when other people do them but I don’t really care about tagging other people.  The rules are shown below:

1) Link to the person who tagged you.-Check
2) Post the rules on your blog (copy and paste 1-6). Check
3) Write 6 random things about yourself (see below). Check but tweaked to require they be regarding bicycling.
4) Tag 6 people at the end of your post and link to them. Skip
5) Let each person know they have been tagged and leave a comment on their blog. Skip. See #4
6) Let the tagger know when your entry is up. Will do.

Here is my list of six unknown bicycling related facts about me. At least unknown to most people.

1. I estimate that in about June of 2012 I will have logged 100,000 miles on a bicycle since 1994.
2.  I was once shot in the arse with a BB gun by 3 juvenile delinquents. They took off running leaving their bike behind.  A couple who were walking nearby and saw the incident picked up their bike.  The man said if they wanted the bike back they would need to come see him.
3. I have had three very dangerously close calls with automobiles.  No major injuries but I did end up on the hood of a car.  More importantly, no major bicycle damage.  The time I ended up on the hood, a car was turning left in front of me.  I didn’t collide with the car but I stopped so fast that I did an endo, flew off my bike, along with my panniers and ended up on the hood.
4. I have had about half a dozen or so crashes on my bike since 1994.  One was using toe clips and having them too tight when I came to a stop light. Talk about embarassing.  Once I slipped off the edge of a stretch of road where there was some construction and  the drop off was in the middle of the road and it was dark.  The rest were on either snow/ice or after a rain. What does that tell you about riding in inclement weather?
5. I once found a bird from a pet shop in a box while bicycling.
6. I was riding home from work one day a few years ago when I saw three 13 year old boys who I taught in Sunday School.  They had just finished building a jumping ramp for their bikes. “Hey brother Red how about trying our ramp?” I told them I would if they lowered it by half. They did.  I did.  I landed it and really wowed them but I don’t recommend this for men pushing 50.  It was quite a jolt.   I might do it again sometime but I think it is better to try practice runs at a lower level.  I think I got lucky.

As stated above I won’t tag any others. But if any of you cyclists out there read this I would be interested in some unknown bicycling facts about your bicycling experiences.

A few weeks ago the power cord separated from the battery on my commuting head light.  The light was rather old.  I decided it was more cost effective to just replace it.  I hate that.  My old light was a Niteryder Head Trip or something like that.

I replaced it with the Niteryder MiNewt Mini USB.  What an impressive little light!  The light is very small but gives off an amazing amount of light.  The batter pack also mounts on the helmet.  I think the light and battery pack seem like less weight on the helmet that just the light from the old Head Trip.

I liked the light so much that this past weekend I bought another one for my handlebars.  I have been using a Cateye Triple Shot that was about two years old.  The Triple Shot has been a big disappointment and the MiNewt costs much less.

The bicycle parking where I work is very close to the smoking area. There is a painted area where the smokers are supposed to stay. They of course don’t stay there and wander into the bike parking.

The irony is that all these people riding a bicycle to work for their health have to walk through a blue cloud of tobacco smoke to get to their bikes. And then there is this:

What is it about smokers that they feel it is okay to just throw their butts on the ground?

It is the same thing at intersections. I have found that when bicycling or walking when I come to a major intersection that the place reeks with stale butts.

I am a butt man myself and can appreciate a nice butt. These don’t count.

Now you can take your butt over to Candid Carrie for Friday Foto Fiesta.

I think I may have mentioned here before the problems I have had since January with Plantar Fasciitis. It has pretty much kept me from running or doing any significant walking or hiking since that time.

Initially I tried an anti-inflamatory, ice packs and a night splint.  No help at all.

In May I tried ESWT(Extracorporeal Shock Wave Therapy).  I had limited temporary success with that.  I had five treatments at $250 per treatment. It was supposed to have taken three treatments. They were not covered by health insurance.  In a short time my foot was pretty much back to being in pain most of the time.

You might think I was crazy to spend so much money. Let me say that when your foot is in constant severe pain you will try just about anything.

I felt like the podiatrist didn’t really take time to talk and think about my case.  I would come in for a treatment and pay the $250 to pay for his machine and go out the door.  His comment was that at least I was still bicycling so I needed to be patient with running.

I started to think about what could be the root cause of the problem and why it wasn’t improving.  Even though it didn’t appear that bicycling caused the problem could bicycling somehow be related?  Bicycling does amazing things to calves and quads.  My calves are connected to my feet.  Could over use and all the years of cycling be causing the problem?

I discussed this idea with a few people and decided to try massage therapy.  I have been going weekly for about six weeks. 

Each day I make sure to do some calf and ham string stretching on my own.  I have been really impressed with the results.  I have had much better improvement than with the ESWT.

One day this week I took my first run in several months.  I wanted to be careful not to damage anything so I only ran for 15 minutes.  My foot seemed fine after the run and 24 hours later.

I think the problem was the ESWT was like trying to repair a tightly stretched band without taking the pressure off first.  You just can’t fix it.  I believe the podiatrist should have considered this.  Sometimes I think doctors don’t take the entire lifestyle and body into consideration.  My doc was a podiatrist and my problem was the foot in his mind.

I am keeping my fingers crossed for now. Maybe once I get to a certain point with the massage therapy I could go back to ESWT to put the final nail in so to speak.