SpokEasy

February 2021

Come on Summer

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Come on Summer, we\’re ready for you! I\’m sure much of the USA is only too eager for the weather to warm up. I know I\’m ready for a real ride without miserably cold fingers. Thanks to my problems with Raynaud\’s, I\’m reluctant to ride outdoors while this cold snap lasts; and I\’m getting tired of it. New Orleans usually doesn\’t get this cold; and even more rarely does it stay so cold for so long. Some areas are even worse off than New Orleans, such as Texas. Those poor folks are really suffering; and my own problems seem trivial by comparison. At about 6:30 yesterday evening, I stepped outside to put a bag of trash in the bin. The wind was already cutting; and I was glad I didn\’t have to stay out there more than a minute. I knew it would feel even colder this morning. In fact, last night there was another freeze warning; and at 6 am this morning, the wind chill was 25 degrees. I want to go to the supermarket; but I can\’t face going out in that! On an unrelated topic, last night I thought of a new exercise. The hybrid has been set up in the trainer most of the week; so all was ready. I took a pair of two-pound weights; climbed aboard; and lifted the weights around as I pedaled. I tried to coordinate left hand forward/right knee up and vice versa; but wasn\’t doing very well at it. Tonight will get even colder than last night; and in the next few days it will finally warm up a little. But I sure feel like saying, Come on Summer! Maybe thinking of the Hotter N Hell 100 would help?

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Maintenance

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Maintenance isn\’t only about keeping that bike in good working condition. It\’s also about diet and weight. Over the last year, I lost some 26 pounds. Last February I was uneasily aware that my weight had climbed to 128; and considering how short I am, that was way too much. But getting myself to do something about it was another story. The catalyst was bloodwork that showed my A1c levels were in the prediabetes range. I definitely did not want to progress to full-blown diabetes; and I went to work right away. The first step was to cut way back on the candy bars and junky non-sweet snacks. I began replacing them with apple wedges and raw carrot sticks. I\’ve always had a humongous sweet tooth; and at first that seemed hard. But after a month or so I had lost 5-6 pounds; and it was easier to get into my cycling shorts! That provided the motivation to keep going. I kept at it; but by November my A1c levels hadn\’t budged. I started working with a nurse practitioner and a nutritionist; and they helped me to determine my daily calorie and carb needs. Day after day, I recorded my meals and snacks. Now my weight is back down where I want it; and here comes the hardest part: maintenance! This relentless meal tracking is a drag sometimes; but if I stop doing it, those pounds will pile right back on. Additional motivation is the desire to avoid actually developing diabetes. I suspect that I won\’t be able to go back to my pre-prediabetes eating habits even if my A1c levels return to normal; and I don\’t want to wind up having to take insulin! I\’ll take meal tracking, thank you very much.

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Extremes

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Don\’t take it to extremes! Extreme training isn\’t for everyone. Certainly it isn\’t for me! However, there are other extremes going on around here. Namely, the weather. Monday night it dropped to about 26 degrees; and that\’s phenomenally cold for us. Happily, I was able to keep my water pipes in action. Yesterday, it barely got above freezing. It didn\’t help that the sun didn\’t start breaking through the clouds until about 2 pm. Last night wasn\’t quite as cold; but a brief power outage prompted me to go to bed by 8:15 pm. For me, no electricity means no heat. I also decided that it would be wise to run a trickle of water overnight, just in case. This morning it was still barely above freezing; and I had a cold walk to work. I had to help my hands with warming packs. Then, during the day, the temperature rose to about 54 degrees. What a change! It\’s nice to have it feel warmer in here; but severe weather is possible in the Southeast region tonight and into tomorrow morning. We could get heavy rain; and that puts a damper (no pun intended) on my desire to make a pre-work run to the supermarket. Forty degrees and wind 10-15 mph isn\’t fun, especially when you\’re on a bicycle; and if it\’s raining as well, it\’s a recipe for misery. Besides, there\’s nothing that I absolutely must have right away. Tomorrow night and the next, it\’s back down to freezing. If I find this cold spell so hard to deal with, I\’d have a terrible time trying to live in the Northern latitudes.

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It\’s Running!

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It\’s running! No, I don\’t mean a foot race; I mean my water. We had a hard freeze last night. Such weather is unusual for us; and it often means a lot of burst pipes all over the city. My pipes froze during the 2018 cold snap. Naturally I wasn\’t eager for a repeat performance; so I did what I could to prevent it. I had saved several of those insulated bubble-wrap envelopes that Whole Foods uses to ship cold/frozen items. They\’re handy when I go grocery shopping by bicycle, and want to get frozen stuff! But if those envelopes can keep cold stuff cold, why can\’t the material keep cold out? Day before yesterday I cut pieces out of one of those envelopes; and I duct-taped the pieces around what exposed outdoor pipes I could reach. I had no idea whether that would provide adequate insulation, but I figured it was worth trying. It was certainly better than nothing. When a freeze is expected, the usual advice is to run a spaghetti-thin trickle of water overnight. Of course I did that, too. I wanted to have a water supply if possible. And today it\’s running! I think I\’ll leave that insulation on the pipes. Maybe, when hot weather returns, it will mean that my cold water faucet will produce cold water; not water that\’s lukewarm. And who knows; we could still get more freezing weather. It\’s only mid-February; and a cold snap in March isn\’t impossible. I suppose that this day will go down in local history as the Mardi Gras Deep Freeze. The hard freeze warning remains in effect until noon, and tonight it will be barely above freezing. Don\’t put away the heavy jackets just yet!

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WATER!!!

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A blog about water?! This seems like an appropriate time for it. We\’ve got a deep freeze coming! With such weather comes the risk of frozen pipes; and I\’ll bet drinking water is flying off the shelves in any store that carries it. I\’m glad I keep several gallon jugs of Trinkwasser on hand. I did what I could to protect my pipes; but if it isn\’t adequate, and my pipes freeze anyhow, I won\’t have to worry about dehydration. I also did my laundry yesterday evening; and as always, I saved the water for \”flushing\”. If the pipes freeze, I\’ll still be able to, well, flush. Parts of the state might get sleet; and they say that power outages are possible. As things stand now, I\’d prefer frozen pipes to a power outage! I have to rely on electricity for heating; and without my electric heater, I\’ll be miserably cold in here. After all, I can drink only so much hot chocolate. I must keep mindful of the carbs; and I went over my count yesterday. Plain, hot H₂O doesn\’t appeal to me much; and more than small amounts of it make my stomach feel bloated. Green tea? Maybe. I\’m trying to ease more of it into my diet, to replace sodas; but I\’m not doing as well as I could wish 🙄 At 8 am, it was a relatively balmy 40 degrees. I decided to hike to the drug store to get a few things. It\’s a good thing I went when I did. Before 10 am, the temperature had dropped to 33 degrees; the rain was getting heavier; and the wind was 24 mph. If I tried to go for a ride, my water bottles might freeze!

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Wild Ride

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It was a wild ride to the salvage store yesterday. The wind chill was in the mid-30s; and there were gusts up to 22 mph. I\’m glad I decided not to use the trailer. As it was, it felt like I\’d never get to the store! Of course I looked through the grab-bag bins — and found an RXBar! There were some packs of BelVita, too; and I got a few candy items for portioning out. Then I took a leisurely stroll through the store. I found corn tortillas; mild green taco sauce; canned chicken; and more. Thanks to the weather, I decided I could leave the cooler at home. That left more space in my panniers; and sure enough, the large bag of frozen peas I bought stayed cool. Then came the wild ride home. The wind direction meant that I got a lot of headwind, both going to the store and riding back home. At least I wasn\’t in a hurry on the way home; and thank goodness it wasn\’t raining! It was a good thing I fueled up a bit before I began that ride. If I hadn\’t, I would have gotten too hungry! My foraging in the grab-bag bins unearthed a 4-piece package of SnackWell\’s; and I ate two of the cookies. Even so, my stomach was growling when I got home. And Today And today — well, I tried. I knew that the weather would be cold; and I knew it would be cloudy. At about 8:30 am checked the NOAA site. Temperature, 39 degrees (or 4 degrees, if you prefer Celcius). Wind, 10 mph, from the North. There\’s a hard freeze watch in effect, starting tomorrow evening; and a wind chill watch, too. I had already prepared my ride food; and last night I fixed a recovery drink: cashew milk with Vega. So I decided to be brave and go out on the road bike. Muy plan was to ride out 15-16 miles before turning back for home, but I ran into several problems. One, last Friday I forgot to recharge my Garmin. It almost certainly would have given me the Low Battery signal halfway through my ride; and it\’s aggravating when that happens. Two, I put warmers in my gloves; but my fingers were freezing before I had gone one mile. Another problem is that getting a bite to eat is awkward when I\’m wearing those heavy gloves; and today I ran into mist about half a mile from home. Over many miles, that means getting quite damp; and with a headwind on the way home, I would have gotten miserably chilled. So I decided to turn around before I had gone even two miles. On the one hand, that makes me feel like a cowardly wimp. On the other, however, wisdom is the better part of valor.

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Chill Out!

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Let\’s chill out with this delicious frozen dessert! Maybe I\’m crazy for wanting ice cream on a day like today. In fact, at 8 am, the chill factor was down to the mid-30s. It was a cold ride to the salvage store; and with wind gusts up to 22 mph, it almost seemed that I\’d never get there! And it\’s cold in my apartment. I get tired of sitting in front of the electric heater. If only I could have central heating! But sometimes the ambient temperature has nothing to do with my desire for ice cream. It\’s all about sweetness. Enlightened Mint Chocolate Chunk® combines the coolness of mint with the richness of chocolate; great when you want to chill out on a hot day. It\’s great on a cold day, too — as long as you\’re parked in front of the heater! This dessert is keto-friendly. I\’m not on a ketogenic diet; but I do need to watch the carbs. Enlightened contains no high-fructose corn syrup; and no hydrogenated fats. I was very tempted to ride over to the store before work yesterday to buy some of this stuff. I finally decided to skip it. The very cold temperatures hadn\’t arrived yet, but it was drizzling; and starting to thunder. Maybe some other time!

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Wet Journal

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It\’s a wet journal today! At 5 am, it was raining. Not very hard; but raining nonetheless. I debated whether to try a short ride while I had a bite to eat. Here and there I heard a grumble of thunder. It seemed to be moving this way; and there\’s no telling when distant lightning might suddenly move a lot closer. I was of half a mind to poncho up and ride around the park a few times; then head for Whole Foods and get ice cream. But I spent a lot at a different grocery store yesterday; and it seemed a bit crazy to make a trip to the store for one item. It was also a cool 50 degrees; and wet hands and feet are cold hands and feet! This would have been a great chance to test hand warmers in wet conditions; but I just didn\’t feel like it (read: I was LAZY!) By 7:20 am, the temperature had dropped a few degrees; and the wind had become stronger. Gusts up to 22 mph! Staying in gave me time to wash yesterday\’s cycling shorts; and I hauled out the trainer for an indoor \”ride\” later. This is a work-from-home day, so the pedaling had to wait. To continue the wet journal, when I clocked out for lunch break it wasn\’t raining; although it was still overcast. The wind was picking up too; but I decided to ride over to the drug store. All week long, no matter what I did, I couldn\’t shake the desire for ice cream! Since I was going to be bad anyhow, I decided to go for broke; and bought a pint of Talenti. Salted Caramel Truffle. YUMMY! Tomorrow, 50% chance of rain; and mid-40s in the morning. Going to be a cold ride to the salvage store!

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Hunker Down

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It\’s time to hunker down again — but not for a tropical storm this time. We\’ve got rain and much colder weather on the way. It already rained today; and more is coming. The coldest weather will be Monday night; down to freezing or even below. That does not bode well for a Tuesday ride. The chill factor will be frightful that morning; and I simply don\’t have the right clothing for excursions in such conditions. I\’d have to bundle up such to a degree that I could hardly move! Sometimes it\’s better not to try to tough it out. We all have our limits; and we need to know them. I can hunker down at home with a cup of hot chocolate; and then put the bicycle in the trainer. But I\’m getting ahead of myself. One day at a time, they say! How about tomorrow? It likely will be raining, and a T-storm is possible. Fifty degrees and wind 10 mph. Not fun. Maybe I\’ll don the poncho and go ride the hybrid in the park. I\’m glad we didn\’t get any rain today until mid-morning. It was very foggy, though! I\’m also glad that I made a run to Winn Dixie. They open at 6 am, and that gave me more time to get what I wanted; and still reach home by a little after 7:00. There were few other shoppers there at that hour; and that\’s important in these masking days! Saturday\’s trip to the salvage store will be chilly; and possibly wet. As of now, it\’s a flip-of-the-coin, 50% chance of showers. Sunday, a 20% chance. That looks better for riding, but it will still be cold and windy. Now for the paradox: despite the approach of frigid conditions, I want ice cream!

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Not So Gras

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It looks like Mardi not so Gras this year. Ordinarily New Orleans sees fat profits from Fat Tuesday. Tourism is a major source of income for the city; but this year is different. New Orleans will be pretty much shut down. Bars will be closed for the weekend, beginning on the 12th. Hotel occupancy is well below normal; and there will be no parades. All that is a major blow for industries that are already struggling. The reason for the shut-down is, of course, the effort to keep Mardi Gras 2021 from becoming a super-spreader event. I must say that I\’m not confident that it will work. In a way, maybe the \”no parades\” is just as well. The weather will start getting colder tomorrow night; and Monday night won\’t be much above freezing. The high temperature for Mardi Gras Day won\’t reach 50, if the forecast is accurate. Some die-hard parade-goers would be out there anyway; but it\’s too cold for me! At least it will be sunny, but rain is predicted for tomorrow and Friday; and I hope it holds off long enough tomorrow morning for me to hit the supermarket before work. There\’s a chance of rain Saturday, too; and that\’s not so good. I want to go to the salvage store! Rainy weather and a long weekend make a good time for me to stay home a lot, and do some not so gras cooking. I try to keep things low in fat: limit cheese; use only small amounts of oil; and so on. It\’s time to take inventory of what I have in the freezer! I also have to plan the weekend\’s riding. With cold and rain about to set in, I think I\’ll emphasize use of the hybrid. It has fenders.

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