I posted here back in January about ordering an eBike and how I reached my decision to do so. I’ve had that bike, a 2020 Rize-X, for a couple of months now- more than enough time to develop some opinions….
My Rize-X on one of my slightly regular rides
Yesterday was our last day with Nimbus. He wasn’t feeling or looking ‘right’ for some time, with obvious signs of abdominal abnormality as well as reduced activity.
Nimbus’ last day
It has been snowing a lot here in Cloverdale the past week or so. This naturally leads me to start thinking about Spring, from which follows feeling out of shape, and somehow mumbly-jibbly-brain stuff bicycling.
Bicycling is something I used to do out of necessity. From about six years of age, I always had a bike: and from about 15 onward, including that time I failed to get a motorcycle license when I was 18 or so, I ended up using said bike to get to places I wanted to go without having to use a bus. At times, I rode a lot: hundreds of kilometres a season, which it bears mentioning was a rather short season as I was living in Edmonton at the time. I used to like riding a bicycle quite a lot, actually: like riding a motorcycle, it was a mentally ‘focused’ process that led to a kind of zen state when I was in decent shape so that the mechanics of riding weren’t to physically challenging.
NOT AN EBIKE- Similar model to the bicycle I bought in 2015: same brand (Achielle)
A few years back with those memories in mind I bought a ‘city’ bike with the idea that I could use it to enjoy being outside a bit and get back into shape. What I didn’t count on was just how incredibly out of shape I was/am. I carry a good 40-60 pounds of ‘excess’ weight: pure fat. And that bike darn near broke my heart: I couldn’t make it up any of the hills in my neighbourhood. And one day trying to ride along while Irene (my wife) rode her horse was a complete impossibility. I ended up getting off the bike that day and never getting back on. So why am I buying a bike again this year? Read on…
I have had an interesting year or so for me in terms of health. Strange pains and fear of tumours culminating in discovery of damage from a couple ’silent strokes’, tiredness and increased depression leading to a finding of extremely low testosterone: aging sucks.
My testosterone treatments have been helping a lot with my low energy, but when my doctor asked I had to admit to still feeling exhausted most days. This led to a sleep apnea test, and discovery that I have a rather severe problem with, well, breathing rather poorly while I sleep.
Bane: he has some breathing problems too
I have holes in my brain. As I discussed in my previous post on this topic, the next diagnostic planned was a CT scan with contrast, and the analysis is back in.
Brain hole: not exactly as illustrated…
It all started with a sore nipple and a lump that I noticed in May of 2018. Why do men have nipples anyway? It is the very definition of ‘useless’, starring in phrases such as ‘like tits on a boar’. But we guys have them, and sometimes things go haywire as they did with me. But the nipple wasn’t the real problem… therein lies a tale.
I upgraded this site from PHPNuke to WordPress in 2005. The cut over was rather abrupt and poorly thought out by yours truly. At the time, I believed I had successfully migrated all of my old content to the new environment. But several years later (!!), I realized the migration had left any article from my old site with a ‘read more’ tag without more to read in my WordPress configuration. This bothered me, and today I decided to see what I could do to ‘fix’ it.
Many years ago, in my late 20s, I briefly had the habit of carrying a pocket knife. It wasn’t a very good knife to be honest: I’m not sure where I got it from. But I liked having it- it was handy, particularly given the fact that I was living a somewhat ‘rural’ life at the time. But I got out of the habit, and misplaced the knife.
Several instances recently convinced me that it would be good to start carrying a pocket knife again. This time, though, I did some research. I probably bought more knife than I really need: say hello to the DPx HEAT/F Titanium.
My brother Ron and his two daughters, Rebeca and Sophia, visited a couple of days ago. We had a barbecue and some good conversation: I really enjoyed the visit.
My niece Rebeca is about to enter high school, which is amazing in itself. More amazing is that she asked me for some advice on whether pursuing computer science / IT was a good choice. I tried to share some ‘wisdom’, but I found it surprisingly difficult to give good advice. This is a crazy old world, and who knows what the future holds? So I thought I’d post some of my thoughts here in a bit more detail.
A senior Republican member of the US Government went to Auschwitz recently as reported in the Daily Beast. Rep. Clay Higgins decided it was perfectly acceptable to record a video blog while standing in the gas chambers where over a million Jews were murdered. Possibly worse, his recorded message revealed a complete lack of understanding of what happened in Nazi Germany, what the Holocaust was about, and what it should have taught us to fear.
Nazi Germany: Fascist xenophobic racist ultra-nationalist state, *not* terrorists