SpokEasy

October 2019

Shopkeeper?!

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Shopkeeper is what I do NOT feel like today. I only came to realize a few days ago that the \”Shop\” I had set up was the equivalent of a brick-and-mortar store with a show window crammed full of merchandise; but no way for would-be customers to gain entry! I feel like a dumbbell now. And embarrassed. I apologize to site followers who have had trouble with that \”store\” of mine. At least now I know what to do; and because I\’m on vacation, I can spend lots of time on it. Soon, I hope, I\’ll be a better and more efficient Shopkeeper. Meanwhile I\’m doing what you might call \”baby bike rides\”. I still have to take it short and easy because of my pulled hamstring, but now I can ride up to 4.5 miles instead of barely two 🙂 It\’s progress. This morning I didn\’t go out until past 9:30. It was getting rather warm by then; it still doesn\’t feel like October. This is a far cry from Laura Ingalls Wilder\’s description of the severe winter which began with an October blizzard. At this moment, it\’s 79 degrees here! Oh, well, that\’s better than 81 degrees at 5 am. Now, back to the shop.    

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Dropout?

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Hey, where\’s that dropout been? Where are the blogs? I know I seem to have dropped out of sight lately. Fear not, I\’m still here. I\’ve been on vacation, and working like mad on my web site. In fact, I pretty much rebuilt it. I\’m learning that a web site is a work in progress: it\’s never truly finished! Now I\’ve gotten to thinking of dropper seat posts!  These allow a rider to quickly and easily adjust saddle height while riding: just press a button! Dropper seat posts have been popular among CX riders for years, and the technology has improved enough so that it is now a viable option for recreational MTB riders and racers. Having a dropper seat post allows a rider to have the best saddle height at all times, whether hammering the flats; climbing; or bombing down the mountainside. I take it that would be especially helpful on highly technical singletrack. I\’m nowhere near serious enough to consider a dropper seat post. Especially not if it makes this weakling\’s bicycle heavier! On a long tour, that might lead to my becoming a dropout.

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The Rocky Road?

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The Rocky Road? “Rocky Road” sounds to me like ice cream. For some cyclists, it means gravel riding. I’m a complete neophyte in that field. If I wanted to try it, this video might get me started. But common sense dictates that I not start with the Dirty Kanza. That’s 200 miles in a day, after all. I wonder which of my bicycles would be better for gravel riding. Probably the hybrid, because of its wider tires. I might want to remove the fenders for a gravel event, though. Gravel riders are warned about mud build-up possibly catching on the fenders and causing a wheel to come to an abrupt halt. If the front wheel does that, there’s the danger of flying over the handlebars and landing on the top of your head. If possible, I might also want to switch to wider tires. Oe even, if my budget could stand it, a gravel bike! It has disc brakes, which are more powerful than rim brakes. Disc brakes are also said to do better in mucky conditions than rim brakes. Well, maybe some day I can do the Dirty Kanza, and kick back with a pint of Rocky Road ice cream afterwards.

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Not Jousting

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I\’m lucky I\’m not jousting: I\’ve been unseated! A while back, the upper part of the cover of my hybrid\’s saddle began to separate from the rest of the cover. I tried patching it with duct tape, but the tape rubbed agains my thighs as I rode. I also knew that, in this humid climate, it wouldn\’t be very long before the tape got gummy. So, off to the bike shop for a new saddle. It must be a cousin to my road bike\’s old saddle; it\’s a Selle. It seemed quite comfortable, but the very day that I bought it, I tripped over something after I got home. In keeping myself from falling, I pulled a hamstring. I would rather have fallen and skinned up both knees! It hurt to ride; it hurt to walk. Even minimal, very easy riding hurt that muscle. Pressure against the seat of a chair when sitting hurt it, too. So there I was, out of the saddle for at least a few days. For a day or two I didn\’t ride at all. Then I began riding to work, slow and easy. I hope I don\’t stay unseated like this for too long! On October 7, I began a two-week vacation. The next day, I tried a gingerly ride on the road bike. Again, I had to keep it slow and easy, and rode barely over two miles. That\’s better than nothing at all, but I\’m eager to be back in the saddle for my usual riding. As I said before, I\’m lucky I\’m not jousting.

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Head-splitting!

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New things are often head-splitting. I\’m learning how to work with a Plug-In called SEO Yoast. Like anything new, it\’s quite a headache. It seems, however, that I needed to be working with Yoast all along to create links to Google, and attract traffic to my site. I wish I had known that months ago! If anyone mentioned it to me, it went over my head. Well, better late than never, they say. Luckily I\’m on a two-week \”staycation\”, with still a week to go, and I can devote plenty of time to it. It means going over the products in my Shop, a most time-consuming project. In fact, I\’ll probably be working on that project for some time to come. Working with SEO Yoast, or \”yoasting\”, isn\’t the only thing keeping me busy. I also re-did some of the slides in my site. I had come to think that the slides in the Home part looked too chopped-up and amateurish. Just wait, though. Six months from now I might want to re-do them again! Then I\’ll be spending hours a day with more head-splitting construction. So, where did I put my hard hat?

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Playing Catch-up

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I\’m playing catch-up. BIG time. I don\’t have time for fishing! My web site, or parts of it, are once again under construction. I\’ve been re-doing slides, but that\’s not the biggest task. Learning that I should have been working with  Yoast SEO for months has been rather dismaying.  I\’m not only faced with learning something brand new, I have to go over an enormous amount of work; it\’s almost re-writing everything! The main thing that I have to work on is the Shop. There are over 400 items to be edited! Since that SEO thing is still unfamiliar, it\’s slow going. At least my advisor has said I don\’t really need to go over past blogs posts. I\’m thankful for that! Re-working one item from the Shop can take what seems like forever. This catch-up is going to take a LONG time! Today I spent so much time hunched over my laptop that I gave myself a crick in the neck. My pulled hamstring is still keeping me from riding more than a very few easy miles per day. At least I don\’t have to fight the temptation to go out for long rides; I need the time for \”yoasting\”, as I\’ve named it. Luckily I\’m still on vacation through next week, and will be able to put in a lot of time on it. It might take months, but eventually I\’ll catch up.    

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Cue Me In

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Hey, cue me in! Which way am I supposed to turn? Many a long, organized bicycle ride, such as Tour de Cure, involves a cue sheet. It  might say, start from X location; ride Y miles along Z path/road/whatever; dog-leg at A (i.e. turn whichever way from A into B, and after a very short distance turn the opposite direction from B into C). I must confess that I haven\’t had too much practice following such printed directions. Whenever I\’ve ridden Tour de Cure, the turns have been marked on the road in spray paint. If your event doesn\’t provide that crutch, you\’ll need to refer to the cue sheet. Having to stop and dig it out of a pocket every time you need to check it would be a big nuisance, so a cue sheet clip would help a lot. Being able to hang with more experienced riders would also help. They probably won\’t mind helping you learn how to read the cues. If the event in question invariably takes the exact same route, riders who return year after year might not even need printed directions. Personally, I say it would be wise to read over the cue sheet before starting the ride, just to be on the safe side. You don\’t want to be overconfident, and wind up behind the 8 ball as a result. Sometimes you\’ll find yourself riding by your lonesome. Then I, for one, would want to holler: Hey, somebody cue me in!

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MIPS

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  What!? MIPS?? That\’s a weird word. Prithee allow me to explain. Head protection while cycling — or, for that matter, in many sports — is much advised. When head impact occurs, two forces are involved: linear and rotational. Brain injuries of any sort are no joke. MIPS,  or Multi-directional Impact Protection System, is designed to lessen rotational forces to the brain should you crash and your helmet hits the ground. I cringe when I see people riding around on bicycles without helmets. Or riding skateboards and attempting all sorts of fancy tricks, again with no head protection. Or whizzing along on roller blades, or … I can\’t help thinking of what could happen if they land on the ground, and their heads take the brunt of it. When I was a kid, which was a LONG time ago, we never thought of bicycle helmets. Neither did my parents. Long ago, Tour de France riders didn\’t wear helmets. These days that\’s unimaginable. Kids on balance bikes wear helmets. Kids riding as a passenger on a bicycle wear a helmet. Many cycling events won\’t allow riders to participate without wearing a helmet. Times sure have changed! So choose your helmet, and look for the MIPS dot!

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Glad I\’m No Pro!

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Yes, I\’m glad I\’m no pro! One can certainly daydream about being a pro cyclist. Even KOM! Watch a video clip of the Tour de France, and it looks exciting and glamorous. But judge not by appearances. Things are tough all over. Job security is rare these days. We hear of companies going out of business; mergers; downsizing; layoffs. Pro cycling is no exception. It must be hard on pro riders, wondering as each season comes to an end whether they\’ll still have their jobs when next season begins. Not all pro teams have mega-budgets, as we know. Will they retain their sponsors, and/or attract new ones? If not, what next? Even leaving such uncertainties aside, will they stay healthy and injury-free? One crash can end a career in an instant; even a life. Then there\’s the rigorous training: all the planning; being prepared to change, or even scrap, the training plan if need be; core work; stretching; proper diet. Not to mention adequate recovery between training rides! There\’s always the post-pro-cycling stage of a rider\’s life. I imagine it can be difficult for pro cyclists to plan for it when their days are full of training rides, massages, jetting off to do a race halfway round the world, etc. But what will they do when they retire from pro racing? Become coaches, or sports commentators? Turn into professional \”wrenches\”? Oh, and let\’s not forget the drug-testing! Taking an OTC medication for allergy symptoms might result in big trouble, from what I hear. Or eating tainted meat. So I\’m glad I\’m no pro cyclist. The general consensus seems to be that pro cyclists love what they do, and wouldn\’t exchange it for anything else. But I\’d rather stay an amateur.    

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Hot Dogs

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Hot Dogs Hot dogs with mustard. Or with ketchup. With relish. Same old, same  old. Let’s get exotic, and make hot dog tikka masala. I like it that “hot puppies” (as my mother used to call them) are pre-cooked; so I shouldn’t have to worry about salmonella, or E-coli. It also means I don’t have to cook the mixture until the onions are soft, in order to be sure that the “franks” are fully cooked. I prefer the onions to have a bit of crunch. I wish that little video had better sound quality. My voice keeps fading out, but I hope my instructions are clear. I also wish I could try more things from The Feed Zone Cookbook. The trouble is that many of the recipes seem high in fat to me. I’m not a pro cyclist who can burn off those fat calories during a long day of training or racing. In addition, my kitchen isn’t that well equipped. Hot dog tikka masala, of course, isn’t for every day. In fact, I make it only every three or four weeks. If I’m feeling ambitious, I’ll cook up a pot of brown rice and have the tikka masala over rice. It’s good over toast, too; and I like it with a bit of cheese on top. Naturally it’s good all by itself. Or if it all sounds like too much work, there’s nothing wrong with hot dogs with mustard, or ketchup, or sauerkraut…

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