SpokEasy

SpokEasy

BACK ISSUES

Chopsticks

BACK ISSUES /

Many an Oriental restaurant offers inexpensive wooden chopsticks to diners. Next time you go for such cuisine, you might want to bring home a pair of those chopsticks. Here\’s why: With the weather cooling off, my hands are getting chapped and dry. I need hand cream; and I make my own! Maybe you\’d like to try it , too. My \”recipe\” is derived from the formula for Basic Waterless Wax Formula, on page 76 of Better Basics for the Home. I use 1/4 cup of grape seed oil; 1-2 tablespoons of jojoba oil; 2-3 tablespoons of  natural beeswax beads; and 1 teaspoon of bleached carnauba wax. I put all the ingredients in an 8-oz Pyrex measuring cup, and set the cup in a 1-quart pot half-full of water. I let it \”cook\” over low heat until the waxes have melted, stirring now and then. Here is where chopsticks comes in. A wooden chopstick is a great stirrer for anything you\’re whipping up that has wax in it. After the waxes are melted, I pour the contents of the Pyrex cup into a coffee cup; and beat the liquid with a fork until it emulsifies. I don\’t leave it in the Pyrex cup for this step because the Pyrex holds the heat too well; and it takes forever for the mixture to cool and thicken. Meanwhile I\’m killing my wrist. The entire process, from measuring the ingredients to cleaning up afterwards, might take 45 minutes. It seems like a long time in today\’s rushed world, but if I went to the store and bought hand lotion, it would take about the same amount of time. This hand cream keeps for 3-4 months. I think it\’s well worth the effort.  

Chopsticks Read More »

Scaling Back

BACK ISSUES /

YIKES!!! I sincerely hope that none of us weighs anywhere near this much. If so, some very serious scaling back would be required. Scaling back on what we eat, that is. Like so many people nowadays, I have a certain amount of concern with my weight. About 15 lbs of concern, and that\’s a lot when you\’re 60\” tall and have a small frame. There are oodles of books and other materials already out there about weight loss, so we hardly need to have me add my voice to the clamor. Besides, I couldn\’t say anything that we don\’t all know already. Some of my gain in the past 18 months or so is the result of my overly-zealous taste-testing of the various cereal bars I found at the salvage store. I\’m virtually always ready to go for anything sweet, whether I\’m hungry or not. Thanks to a sleep disorder, I\’m always somewhat tired. It\’s also been my experience that, once my stomach begins to growl, a major crash is imminent. Thus I\’ve become afraid that I\’ll get hungry. That\’s no help. When I get home from work, I often don\’t want to prepare a meal because I want and need to get to work on my web site. There\’s always something that needs tweaking, or even downright fixing. I need to be more careful to keep raw carrots cleaned and ready to eat, and do more cooking over the weekend so I won\’t have to cook during the week. My food intake really does need some scaling back.

Scaling Back Read More »

Print or Kindle?

BACK ISSUES /

Which do you prefer: print, or Kindle? From the start, I included cycling-related books in my Shop. It took me over a year to get around to stocking their Kindle counterparts. Personally, I much prefer the tactile sensations of holding a print book in my hands to reading something on a screen. I\’d rather have paper pages to leaf through, than to have to scroll up and down a screen, which my bothers my wrists. But whether I like it or not, Kindle seems to the the now and future wave of reading. And Kindle does have the advantage of taking up a lot less room than a collection of print books. As long as you have a nook for storing your Kindle device, you\’re good to go. On the other hand, drop  your Kindle device and it could be the equivalent of having your entire collection of print books burn up in a nanosecond. There\’s also the fact that electronics change rapidly. It is said that, by the time the \”new\” generation of any electronic device hits the store shelves, it\’s already obsolete. Who can keep up with that? Any electronic device needs, well, electricity. What do you do when the power is out for more than a brief time? With print books, you don\’t need to worry about that; and you don\’t have pesky charging blocks and cables cluttering up your space. Maybe someday I\’ll have a Kindle. Meanwhile, I\’m quite happy with good, old-fashioned BOOKS.

Print or Kindle? Read More »

In the Velodrome

BACK ISSUES /

What goes on in the velodrome? I remember hearing a Boy Scout song when I was a kid that said something about, \”The horses run around, their feet are on the ground\”. Want to see cyclists ride around (and around and around!), or try it yourself? Track cycling might be your thing. The track cyclist rides a \”fixie\”.  Getting used to a fixie would take a bit of doing. If I understand what I\’ve read correctly, fixed-gear bicycles don\’t allow coasting. It would take a while, and possibly a couple of falls, for me to remember that. I guess that riding on a smooth, wooden, indoor velodrome track is a welcome change from outdoor events, where riders never know what Mother Nature might throw at them. I suppose that an indoor track also makes it harder for over-enthusiastic fans to create hazards by getting in the way of oncoming riders. The only velodrome in my state is located in a city about 80 miles away, so I don\’t suppose I\’ll get to try track riding any time soon. But if I can get there with my bicycle, maybe I\’ll see you in the velodrome.

In the Velodrome Read More »

On the Wing?

BACK ISSUES /

A cyclist on the wing sounds like flying down the road at 25 mph. Riding like that would leave scant time for birdwatching. My father always enjoyed the outdoors. I never saw him ride a bicycle (although he may have done so when he was a kid), but he was quite a one for bird-watching. A slow-motion trip to see and hear our avian citizens would have thrilled him. In fact, I\’ll be he would have preferred to take such a journey on foot. That way he could have gone even more slowly, with more time to look around and keep his ears open for birdsong. Daddy was absolutely amazing. He could see a bird on the wing from a block away, and identify it: its relative size; whether it looked dark-colored or lighter-colored; whether its wings were pointy or rounded or squarish at the ends; how it flapped its wings; whether it flew low to the ground or higher up; whether it maintained a consistent height from the ground or \”swooped\” as it flew. Next time you\’re out for a long ride, keep any eye peeled for what\’s on the wing. I\’ve seen bald eagles, kingbirds, and more. Incidentally, what would Walt Whitman have a thought of this?    

On the Wing? Read More »

Thinking It Up

BACK ISSUES /

Thinking it up, and a great deal of it, is behind our present-day bicycles. Their precursor, the Draisine, was invented during the notorious \”Year without a Summer\” following the eruption of Tambora. Crops were failing, and it was hard to get feed for horses. The \”hobbyhorse\” didn\’t need either feed or stabling. But what of the inventions that we don\’t hear about? Let\’s take a look at some of them: The Mavic Mektronic sounds peculiar to me. Shifting the rear gears via radio frequency? With the plethora of electronic devices these days, I imagine that such a shifting system would suffer endless interference! That banana hammock looks too \”load-specific\” to me. That is to say, I get the impression that the only thing it would be good for is to carry a single banana. I\’ll stick with my top-tube pouch. WHAT is that Cyclomer thing? If I had to cross a pond, I\’d rather have a pirogue. My arms need more exercise, anyway. FLIZ? That\’s the Draisine upside-down. Bird of Prey looks like something for stunt riding.  I don\’t think I\’d be comfortable with my stomach pressing against that saddle. Maybe some of these, like the Draisine, were invented out of need. \”Necessity is the mother of invention,\” it is said. So let\’s all keep thinking it up!  

Thinking It Up Read More »

Far to Go

BACK ISSUES /

I sure have far to go before I get back to my pre- hamstring injury fitness, although I\’m not about to abandon my poor bicycle in the middle of a field when the process is frustratingly slow. I\’ve been gradually increasing the distance that I ride, but am still taking it easy. That muscle isn\’t quite ready to to resume the gearing and speeds that I had been using. My cardiovascular fitness had most definitely taken a hit. I had been able to ride up the access ramp to the top of the levee and barely get into heart rate Zone 3. This morning the climb put me in Zone 4! Because I wasn\’t going to be out there for hours, I skipped the Camel-Bak. I took along a cereal bar just in case, but didn\’t use it. For a long, long time I had been somewhat aware of a quirk of mine: tensing up the left ankle, pulling the heel down, and jabbing at the pedal. I\’ll bet that had a lot to do with the tendonitis I got in the foot! I suspect that a weak quad is involved. So now is a great time to keep aware of what my left leg is doing as I ride. I must make a constant, conscious effort if I don\’t want to drift right back into the old habit. The harder a gear I use, the easier it is to start using \”old-style pedaling\”, so it makes sense to stay in easier gears. Here and there I\’ll shift up to the big ring for a bit; but as soon as that ankle starts to misbehave, I shift back to the small ring. Years of incorrect habits aren\’t corrected in a few days, so I\’ve still got far to go.  

Far to Go Read More »

Tikka Masala Goes Abroad

BACK ISSUES /

Tikka Masala Goes Abroad Tikka masala goes abroad! Time for a travelogue, here. My experiments in the kitchen have included hot dog tikka masala, a twist on the Chicken Tikka Masala recipe in The Feed Zone Cookbook. Now, the tinkering continues. Tikka Masala is, I suppose, an East Indian dish. A while back, I found a jar of gochujang Korean cooking sauce when I visited the salvage store. I bought it with the idea of figuring out some way to use it, and today I finally got down to it. I’m making what I think I shall call Gochujang Dogs. I followed the same procedure as I do for hot dog tikka masala, but substituted the Korean sauce for the tomato sauce; and I omitted the curry powder. Gochujang sauce is a bit sharp, and I suspect that curry would clash with it. The mixture is marinating in the fridge even as I type this, and I think I’ll have some for supper. Incidentally, I finally got to the salvage store today! It seemed the hardest ride I’ve done in a while. My hamstring isn’t completely back to itself yet; I was riding the hybrid; and had loaded panniers on the way home. It was great to get to that place again, though. I got my usual load of cheap snacks from the make-your-own-grab-bag bins. On the way home, I saw the AmTrak train crossing the bridge. For some reason I really enjoy that, even though I’m many years beyond the “look at the choo-choo” stage! Maybe tikka masala abroad travels by train, and I yearn to go with it. This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” ABOUT ME © This website is the property of its author. DISCLAIMER I am not a cycling coach; nor a health professional. This site is based on my own experiences, opinions, etc. If you need help, please consult the appropriate professional. FRESH FROM MY JOURNAL ✍🏻 Facebook Twitter Youtube INTERPRETER

Tikka Masala Goes Abroad Read More »

Paradox

BACK ISSUES /

What a paradox we\’ve got here! Weatherwise, things don\’t seem to add up. The temperatures are finally feeling more like Fall. At the same time, there\’s a system out there in the Gulf of Mexico that has high potential to reach tropical storm strength! Not the time to take off for a century ride, that\’s certain. Currently it\’s moving NE, and if it keeps going that way, New Orleans might feel only minimal impact. The trouble is, those storms, in their own way, are as erratic and unpredictable as tornadoes. I might go out for a ride later, depending on conditions. I can always \”spin\” in the trainer for a while if it\’s pouring and/or there\’s a strong wind. I hope the weather allows me to ride to the salvage store tomorrow. I think my hamstring might be able to take it now. Next Monday I go back to work, i.e. my regular job. I\’m still working like crazy on this site, and have been for hours a day during my vacation. Another paradox; or, rather, an oxymoron — a working vacation. A web site is far from static. Always something to update, delete, or add. I must admit, it adds up to a lot of time. In effect, it\’s a second job.

Paradox Read More »

Feeling Jumpy?

BACK ISSUES, bicycling /

Feeling Jumpy? Are you feeling jumpy from hanging around home? Tired of your local bike path? How about cycling the Australian outback? It would be interesting for me, after a lifetime in the Northern Hemisphere, to go stargazing in the Land Down Under. No familiar constellations such as Orion, Taurus, the Big Dipper, etc. If nothing else, I’d need to learn how to find the Southern Cross. I once read a book by a scientist who was studying one of the mass extinctions; one that occurred long before the famous K-T extinctions. He was in either Australia or South Africa. One night he was looking at the moon, and puzzling at its odd appearance. Then he realized that the Man in the Moon was upside down! I’ll bet that would be interesting to see. Crossing the outback on two wheels possible; but no picnic. I wonder whether my Camel-Bak full of water would last from one “watering hole” to the next. And that’s when staying on the main route!   Electrolyte drink mustn’t be forgotten; and food! The ride across the outback described here took two momths; and can you get  food and other supplies en route? I wouldn’t want nothing but bars, so what else could I carry? It would need to be compact and lightweight. Nuts, perhaps? Or maybe I’d be nuts to think about cycling across the outback! Actually, the very idea has me feeling jumpy. This blog/page may contain affiliate links. “We are a participant in the Amazon Services LLC Associates Program, an affiliate advertising program designed to provide a means for us to earn fees by linking to Amazon.com and affiliated sites.” ABOUT ME © This website is the property of its author. DISCLAIMER I am not a cycling coach; nor a health professional. This site is based on my own experiences, opinions, etc. If you need help, please consult the appropriate professional. FRESH FROM MY JOURNAL ✍🏻 Facebook Twitter Youtube INTERPRETER

Feeling Jumpy? Read More »