Helmet Head

Yesterday I took my bicycle to the bike shop.   I had decided I needed a new bike.   The one I had was fine, but I’ve been getting into the biking thing lately and I have felt very uncomfortable on my current bicycle.   There were two main problems:  seat comfort and bike stability.   The seat comfort I thought was mostly a thing people with bony butts had to deal with, but I planned on getting a fancy, comfy, big as a house seat with some well-padded bike shorts to go with them.    The stability of the bike was going to require a total upgrade.

Kip came up to help me when I came in.  I brought my bike in, planning on not leaving with it and doing a trade-in.    Kip showed me crossover bikes per my request because I was doing trail and road/greenway runs. I have a neck issue with the spinal fusion, so I can’t lean way over as my neck doesn’t arch back like people with all their vertebral junctions do.  We talked about ways to possibly address that with changing out the handle bar part (the stem?  I can’t remember what he called it.)

Then he showed me mountain bikes.   They had big, fat tires that looked so stable to me.   The biggest thing I’ve not liked about the bike I have is I don’t feel stable on it.   I feel like the wheels could skip on a rock or slick terrain or fine gravel or mud and I’d be down and out.   It’s a serious concern I’ve been working through, especially since I have a thirty-pound child on the back on the bike most of the time with me.   So those big wheels looked grippy and solid and safe to me.

Here’s the thing:  I would have bought a new bike.   I would have paid twice as much as I did for the first bike I got, because I wanted to feel safe and I wanted to enjoy riding and being able to ride aggressively without worrying I was going to wipe out.   I wanted my neck to be comfortable and if possible, I wanted my ass to not hurt for two days after a ride. 

What happened was Kip talked me out of all the new stuff.   He said he thought all I really needed were some new tires on my existing bike.   He could replace the ones I had on my existing wheels and in so doing, give me a wider wheel that will be much more stable on both trail and roads.    

For the bike seat, he had me sit on this heavy foam thing for forty-five seconds so the bones in my backside (they have names, but I forgot them) would make a width impression.    He then showed me the seat that would work best for me.    It was tiny.  It was thin.   It was firm.  It didn’t feel particularly comfortable, but he told me to bring it back if he was wrong.    I asked about shorts and he pointed me to some that were made to go with that particular seat.   

I bought sixty dollars worth of tires and a fifty dollar seat.   Today, I went on a ride in the park.   Kip was right.   He was right about everything.   I love the tires, they make my bike feel like a totally new vehicle.   And the seat!  I forgot I was sitting on a bike seat.  I didn’t spend a lot of time scooting forwards or backwards because it was adjusted for me and it fit my body.    

I rode fourteen miles today on hilly trails.   I rode hard and made under five-minute per-mile average time for the trip, which for me, is great.   I was riding hard.   I was pedaling uphill and pedaling downhill—something I never did before because I was afraid I’d wipe out with too much speed on the old tires.   I was having a great time. 

At about eleven miles I reached up and scratched my head because I was pretty itchy.    Wait…I just scratched my head.   I shouldn’t be able to scratch my head because there should be a helmet on my head protecting me in case I fall.    Oh dear.    I rode very carefully the rest of the way home. 

Kip is working again on Thursday.   I’m going back to the bike shop to tell him thank you for the great advice and for helping me find a solution that worked, instead of just selling me a new bike. 

The Big Boy Tiny Girl Pool Swimming Update:   I was at the pool with my children today.  My daughter jump/dove (read belly flopped) in and then started swimming across the width of the pool.   I watched her swim for a while, take a breath, swim some more and repeat.   When she got to the far side I picked her up and cheered.   I told her I didn’t know she could swim across the whole pool.   Then, my son decided to do the same thing because he wasn’t about to be outdone.   When he got to the other side I did another hugging, cheering and kissing round.   I asked him, “who taught you to swim across the pool?”  He told me, “Margaret did.”   Margaret is Uncle Jonathan’s girlfriend.   She joined us for a pool date last week.   Thanks, Margaret for the swim lesson!

Fitness Update:  It was one of those days.   I ran seven miles this morning with my neighbor.   Then I biked fourteen miles to check out the new tires and seat.  I didn’t plan on biking fourteen miles, but I was having so much fun.    After that, we went to the pool and I swam some laps so my children wouldn’t glom onto me and instead, would play with the other children at the pool.   I got about a half-hour of laps in.   It’s interesting swimming laps with goggles on.   You can watch your children the entire time surreptitiously from under the water.    

"The Latest”

I tend to name things.   The things I name may have a name already, but there’s a name I think is more descriptive to the function, purpose, area or otherwise that causes me to coin a name or phrase that I believe to be altogether more informative of the thing’s true function.

In the park in which we do much of our running and biking, there is something I named, “The Hateful Route” mostly because going the other route is a far friendlier option (unless you want rapid hills and switch back turns early on in your workout.  We get water at these spigot things that also have outdoor water fountains.   There is a bucket and a hose for dogs and horses to get water and I decided naming it, “The Watering Hole” made more sense to me (even though there was no hole.)

In our house we have, “The Hub” which is positionally at the center of the house and tends to be a dropping of and picking up spot.   There is, “The Share Spot” which is where we put things needing to be given to or returned to other people.  

I’ve been on another rearrangement of the children’s toys recently.   While I’ve done this, I did what I always do first, which is clear out the under cabinet shelves of theirs that seem to collect toys and junk faster than anywhere else in the house.  Its sort of their and our dumping ground as we clean up the area.   (It is also no coincidence that this central dumping ground is also close in proximity to The Hub.)  I’ve told my husband before that I empty it completely, because it’s just going to fill up again in a few weeks.

What seems to be in that area are all the latest toys or presents or trinkets or coloring books or stickers or you name it they’ve gotten recently or have had a renewed interest in.    It’s basically the latest stuff my children have been playing with.   Shove it all back in at the end of the day and tomorrow more will come back out.    (I’ve been working on having them shut the cabinet doors behind them, lest they remain open all day.)

So, “The Latest” is what that spot is now named in my mind.   Mostly because that’s what it’s holding of my children’s.

The Big Boy, Tiny Girl Garbage Truck Watching Update:  My children heard the garbage truck last week and were very excited.   They both ran outside to watch it lift up the garbage containers with the fork lift and dump it into the back of the truck.   They carefully stayed out of the road while they watched the truck dump all of the containers on our street.   As the driver passed back by them he honked his horn and waved back at them.    

Fitness Update:  My husband and I biked twenty-four miles today on mostly road and greenway trails.   We had a very nice ride in the summer morning while the children were at camp.

Swimming In The Lake

Yesterday I got some bonus exercise in after I wrote my blog post for the day.  My husband and I drove to my in-laws house where my children had been on vacation for the past three days.   One of the things we were going to do during the day’s visit was go out on their pontoon boat on the lake they live on.   There was to be a boat parade for the Fourth of July and some swimming for the rest of us.

My husband had eaten a lot earlier in the day and so decided he wanted to get in some exercise swimming.   I didn’t particularly want to get in, even thought I knew I’d have fun once I did.   After we got to the center area of the lake we dropped the anchor and the swimming began.  

My husband was swimming away and then back towards the boat.   I yelled out, “I’ll swim home from here if you will.”   He thought I was joking.   I wasn’t, although it did look a little far away.   I figured we could do it.  

We then had an anchor problem accompanied by some strong winds that blew us closer to their house.   I made the mistake of offering the challenge again, and this time, my husband accepted.

The next thing I know, we’re swimming towards their lagoon.   We’re in the center of the boat parade area, so we had to hold for two or three pontoon boats to glide past (everyone on both sides made sure to keep good distance.)    Then we swam on.  

We swam on for some time.   I was expecting to get into an easier cardio swim shortly, but the wind and the waves was frustrating and I wasn’t swimming as well as I should have been.   That, coupled with the frequent stops for re-orientation and location of my husband and it took us longer to get in than I thought it would have.

No one timed the whole thing.   I estimated fifteen minutes of swimming, but my mother-in-law said it was more like twenty minutes.   We got home at the same time they did and I can tell you this: the best thing about the whole swim was being able to exit the water via the ladder on the side of their boat instead of walking through the deep muck in their lagoon.

It was fun.   It was more tiring than I had expected.   But it was definitely fun.

The Big Boy Update:  We were out on my in-law’s boat yesterday afternoon.   Most of the family was in the water but my son and I were up on deck.   It became apparent when the wind picked up the anchor wasn’t holding.   My son suddenly laughed out loud and said, “hahaha, just like old times!”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  You’ll know my daughter is about to tell you she’s hungry when she lifts her shirt, sticks her tummy out and starts to rub it.   This behavior will be accompanied by comments such as: “my tummy is telling my it’s hungry,” or “my tummy says it wants some more carrots.”  My daughter’s tummy is a powerful force in her life right now.

Fitness Update:   I ran a fast four miles this afternoon in-between visits with friends and outings with the children.

The Alcohol Consideration

I stopped drinking alcohol last year.   It took me a while to write about it here because I was distressed about the whole situation.   I had been drinking what I felt like was a lot.   Perhaps it was frequency more so than amount.   Or it could have been both, but either way, there seemed to always be a reason to have a drink socially.   One morning I woke up and I was still drunk from the night before.  It scared me so I stopped drinking.

I didn’t mark the date at the time but later I went back and figured out it was right before Labor Day in September of last year.   The question I have asked myself many times since then is, “how long do I need to stop drinking?”   Should it be forever?  I don’t think I was (or am) and alcoholic.   I was just drinking a lot.    Was I craving alcohol and did I have an unhealthy relationship with alcohol?    Perhaps I did.    So when do I want to have a drink?

There are many events in the summer that are fun.   Having a margarita or beer today, on the Fourth of July, would be a great way to add to the enjoyment of the day.  But I’d be fine without a drink too.   Going a full year would be nice as well.   I might wait until Labor Day, but I might not.  

I have said I will definitely have a drink to celebrate when we finish the Rock and Roll marathon in Las Vegas in November.  

The Big Boy Update:  My son said the other day in a firm and exaggerated tone: “I…Want…My…Daughter…Back!)   My husband and I were totally confused at where this came from, (he was playing with some toys and talking to them at the time.)   Then, we remembered the main scientist in Big Hero Six, one of my son’s favorite movies, and realized he was quoting a line from the movie.

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter’s chin wound is looking better all the time.   We still put scar cream and sun screen on it daily in the hopes it will diminish in visibility more.   We’re going to have to do a “revision” surgery on her chin in the next year or so though, because of the original wound.

Fitness Update:  Ten miles in the neighborhood this morning to celebrate the Fourth of July and watch the sun rise.

The Someday Shorts

I got married in 2001.   This was my first marriage, which was to a very nice guy.   After some years we realized we weren’t meant to be and got an amicable divorce.  Not unlike me, he is now happily married and has two small children of his own.   But this post isn’t about him or that marriage.   It’s about a pair of shorts.

A young lady (or in my case not so young lady) engaged and planning on getting married needs to find a dress.   The day of the wedding the bride is supposed to look spectacular and that involves being just the proper weight.   That commonly means going on a diet in the months before the wedding.  

I did do the diet thing and I lost a good bit of weight.   I hadn’t figured out the exercise part back then so all I did was eat a lot less calories.  That summer, I got this pair of green beach shorts.   Bright, day-glow kind of green.  I loved those shorts.    They fit me well when I was at my lowest weight at about 110 pounds.  

I got married and didn’t care quite as much about my weight after that and those shorts got renamed to the “110 pound shorts.”   I tried every so often to wear them but dimensionally, there was no way.   Then there were the pregnancy years and there was triple no way during that time.   Someday I would wear them, I would think when I saw them.

And then I learned to exercise.  I really got into exercising.  Exercise became a significant component of my daily routine.    My weight wasn’t terribly low at this point, mostly because muscle weighs a lot more than fat.   So this morning I’m in the closet and I look at the shorts and see those fifteen-year-old green “110 pound shorts” and I think, “I wonder…”

I figured the shorts would fit, but I weigh ten pounds more today.  How would they fit?   They were loose.   I couldn’t believe it.   They not only fit, they were comfortable.  So now I can wear my Someday Shorts.   The bit about diet and exercise together really works.

The Big Boy Update:  My son has had itchy eyes on two occasions now.  He’s done something both times that is terribly poignant.   He will get a little bit of water and delicately daub it at the corner of his eye.  When I asked him if he’d like eye drops he was grateful and stayed very still for me to put drops in his eyes.  

The Tiny Girl Chronicles: My daughter forgets the number sixteen.  She likes to count and loves to sing and frequently does some sort of made up counting song.   She always forgets sixteen.   It’s so predictable now that my husband and I jump in and say, “and sixteen.  Don’t forget sixteen.”

Fitness Update:  Eight miles today, although it was indoors due to weather.   But eight miles, even at a slow pace, is eight miles.

Waisins

Children go through phases of eating foods.   Or, at least mine do.   Maybe that’s from me because I love to eat something for a while and then I’m done with it until some point in the future when I suddenly think, “I seriously need some tater tots right now.”   Usually this is followed by me going to the store or restaurant and eating a lot of said item.    But this isn’t about me.

I am on a perpetual mission to give my children the opportunity to try different things.   Since they’re young, this translates to, “you have to have two bites of X before you can have more of the other thing you like on your plate you ate first.”   I want them as adults to be able to go to any restaurant and enjoy eating any cuisine.  

But since they’re three and four, this is an early work in progress.   One thing they ate a lot of in the past and seemed to love was raisins.   They loved those little boxes of raisins.   They liked craisins as well.   They even ate the dried cherries, which I thought were really good.   Then, for no apparent reason, they just didn’t want to eat them any more.    We tried but they just had no interest.

I’ve had an airtight container of craisins and white raisins for months now.  I would send a small container to school as part of their lunch and it would come home untouched.   Then, two days ago, suddenly they both wanted to eat them.   My son was grabbing fistfuls and my daughter was deciding which she liked more.    I asked them if they wanted a second serving of, “Mimi’s favorite white raisins” and they agreed they did.

Then, my son told me they were “waisins” and not raisins.   He was combining ‘white’ and ‘raisin’ to describe the white raisins.   I told him I liked the name and we’d call them that from now on.   He smiled and then ate some more.

The Big Boy Update:  My son came down in the middle of the night again the other night, saying his hand itched.   I’m not sure that was the real reason, but he did want to get in bed for a few minutes with us.   I told him it was time to go back upstairs a few minutes later.  He got out of bed and walked up the stairs just ahead of me.   I told him he was my favorite Greyson in the whole world.    He then said something nice and touching—which he rarely does.   He said. “I have the nicest mommy and the nicest daddy.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter has lovely blonde hair.  But it’s a mess.   It’s fine and frail and it is wavy but goes into fly away mode at the slightest provocation.   I’ve had it cut once (twice really, but the second time was right after to adjust something) in her over three-and-a-half years.  It’s a little below her shoulders.    Part of the reason it’s that short is it grows very slowly.   The other part is it breaks off from being so delicate.   It gets in her face and so I put it up in various types of things. It looks like she has bangs now, even though we’ve never cut them and always try very carefully to remove the hair tie/band/elastic/etc.   It is pretty hair…every third day.    It’s cute hair though on her every single day.

Fitness Update:  I did an unexpected lazy biathlon today.   I ran eight miles with my neighbor this morning.  Then I took a shower, got some errands run and came home after lunch.   I asked my husband if he wanted to go for a bike ride and he said sure.   We went eighteen miles on the bikes in very nice afternoon weather.

Home Alone

I am home alone.   I don’t have a husband.   There is no dog.  And there are zero children either away or asleep.   I didn’t lose them, I promise.   It’s a strange feeling though, having a place that has some portion or all of my family here to be empty entirely except for me.

My husband is out with one of our neighbors watching the new Terminator movie.  My children and dog are on the way to my in-laws house for three days of fantastic vacation fun with their grandparents.    I’m not sure they realize what’s in store for them.  Nana and Papa have a full schedule of activities and events planned for the two of them.  

We packed them up today and I had them pack their backpacks with whatever they wanted to take.  My son put in some transformers, an Etch-a-Sketch and some Lego-type bricks that light up as well as some other small items.   My daughter filled her backpack almost exclusively with the ABC wooden blocks Aunt A gave to our children two years ago.  

We’re joining the children on the Fourth of July for some family fun.   I’m looking forward to hearing about the fun they will have had.   In the meantime, I’m not sure I remember what it’s like to have no children, no laundry, no dishes, no cleaning up after little people and keeping them fed and being an argument arbitrator and all the other things that go on with being a parent.  

I guess I’ll find out shortly…

The Big Boy Update:  My son, “Daddy, do you want to be a dinosaur?”  Daddy, “no, I like being a person.”  My son, “but dinosaurs are tougher.”  My husband, “I know.”  My son, “If you were a dinosaur you could protect me better while I sleep.”

The Tiny Girl Chronicles:  My daughter handled disappointment well today and I was proud of her.   She decided she wanted pop tarts for breakfast (a special treat) and selected one from the chocolate box.   I told her she had to go to the potty and get underpants on since it was now morning and I’d get it ready for her.   I then did a switch on her and got out the brown sugar cinnamon pop tart opened a while back that hadn’t been finished.   I put the single pop tart on her plate and went back to my work.   I heard her making sad noises.   When I came to see what was happening, I saw her breaking off pieces of the pop tart and looking sad.   She said, “I picked the one from the chocolate box but this is the one I got.”   I said I understood how sometimes it’s hard when we don’t get what we expect and I understood how she felt.   Had she tried the pop tart and what did she think?   She eventually tried it and ate it—which I had expected would happen—even though she was disappointed.   She didn’t complain or yell.  I was proud of her.

Fitness Update:  It was a mishmash day of a little bit here and a little bit there.  I ran two miles in one mile increments and got some cardio in while at the house this morning.   It doesn’t seem like I did much looking back on it, but it is a whole lot more than I ever did before I had my children.