Wow ow ouch!!
2007-05-21, 9:49 p.m.

Day 1002 Wow ow ouch!!

Ok. One of you could have warned me. I�m sure you all knew, but I�m just now catching on to the idea. Fifty miles is a long ways. Longer on a bike even. But it�s done. Ask my butt about it. Ouch! The stock Raleigh saddle isn�t all soft & cushy. I never got any chafing problems, but there was pressure on some odd places that caused a certain lack of sensation . . . I�ll be making some saddle adjustments very soon, with some additional test rides planned. Funny part is the saddle has a groove in it to accommodate certain anatomical features. I�m at a loss to explain how the numbness even happened.

Anyhow. Left bright & early Saturday morning (8:13 actually) It was a wee bit cool, something around 40 � 45 or so. I wore sweats over shorts & a t-shirt. Took a back pack with wallet, phone, snack bars, some other odds & ends. Really only took the back pack in case I decided to strip off the sweats � needed someplace to carry them. Good practice for the tour too. Weather was great. Cloudless sky, very light breeze. Coulda been warmer, but I�d rather it was a little too cool rather than too warm.

Whole trip was pretty uneventful. No serious climbs, traffic wasn�t bad on the main roads and drivers were for the most part very gracious. I was able to manage to snack on the fly on stuff I kept in the saddle pouch. That�s good to know. I can re-stock that out of the back pack at rest stops along the way. I never took any breaks on this trip, but for the 100 miler, breaks at 35 & 65 miles would be a good idea. It�s not a race � we just have to finish.

Other thing I need to work on is finding some high potassium snacks that I can tolerate. Bananas are out. Can�t stand them. Been told that making french fries out of sweet potatoes can work, and yogurt is a good source of potassium. At the 5K race last week, there were a couple of energy bars in the goodie bag. One had 230mg of potassium per bar � on the high side of anything I�ve seen so far. Decided to try it. After the first bite I was checking the ingredients to see if they snuck a banana in on me. That thing tasted SO MUCH like bananas! But the nasty plantains show up on the ingredient list. Only thing I was unsure of on the list was papaya�s. Do they resemble bananas in taste? At any rate, I may check that particular companies OTHER bars, but the one I had (whose name I conveniently can�t recall now . . .) is out of the running. Raw yams would be preferable.

Dishwasher works fine. Will take some getting used to, figuring out where the best spots are for particular dishes, etc. but overall the racks on this one are huge. And yes, it never fails, there is always one more trip to the hardware store than planned for any project.

But!! To bolster my repair stats, I managed to actually fix a vacuum cleaner tonight. Eric had used it up in his room, actually vacuuming stuff up off his floor. Maybe too much stuff. Seemed to have gotten a towel sucked up in it, over-currented the beater brush drive motor and tripped the internal breaker. Seemed like an easy enough problem, but the breaker wouldn�t reset. Had to open it up, only to find that the breaker had twisted in it�s mount and the external reset button couldn�t get to the breakers internal resetter thing. Easy fix. Saved us having to buy a new power head.

It�s Monday evening now. Had an easy day today. Took the Bob to an oral surgeon�s appointment early, lazed around the house late morning, went to my own Dr.�s appointment this afternoon, then hit up the gym before heading home to do dinner (Turkey Gumbo. Yum!!) Dr. B is going to let me live another year, is reasonably pleased with blood pressure (120/80 in the middle of the afternoon), resting pulse (a whopping 52) Tomorrow I go to get the blood work done, should have the cholesterol results back in a few days. Expecting good numbers (hoping for <180, with a good ratio), but one just never knows. Next visit? Late next year. Time for the 50 million mile check up, complete with colonoscopy. Hope I got my diet switched over in time to avert the worst of the risks there.

Dr. B did ask if I was still doing the AL Anon thing. I was only too happy to confirm that I was in fact, still attending, and haven�t really noticed any changes (in a positive sense) in what drove me to it to begin with. Bummer, eh?

Dishwasher seems to have survived it�s install, bike seems to have survived it�s first long ride, my butt needs some work on that new seat, saved a vacuum and have my doctor allowing me to go on for another whole year. Guess I ought to be happy. Except for that sore butt part. Ow.

If you use a pop-up blocker, hit "Ctrl" when you click to leave a comment