My Bachelor Weekend Adventure Hike
March 12, 2022
My wife and kids were all at a swim meet this weekend, so Jack (the dog) and I were home alone. I planned to do a long ride on my indoor trainer in front of the TV Saturday morning, but then I remembered something I heard on Public Radio: Experiencing nature is good for your health. A ride outside was not in the cards, as it was about 12 degrees. I decided to put on my wooly adventure play clothes and head to Hixon Forest for a hike with Jack-o-dog.
We hiked along the bottom of the bluff and then up to the top. Then Jack suggested we add on an extra loop on the top to extend our mileage. We went a mile south and then a couple miles north by a different route. We stopped to eat our adventure snack – mixed nuts, raisins and chocolate chips – mostly to confirm that this hike was “epic.”
By the time we hiked the mile down to the car, we were both very tired. I thought about how my wife goes for 9-mile runs on the same trails... but then I decided not to think about. Too humiliating. Still, it was a wonderful, epic, adventure hike, and Jack and I are pretty sure no has ever before completed such an amazing feat.
My cold and rainy spring break
March 5, 2022
My wife and I spent the weekend in Dubuque, Iowa, because, um, Dubuque is south, and everyone wants to go south for spring break.
We stayed in a haunted house. Actually, it only looks haunted on the outside, and there weren’t any ghosts on the inside. They warned us on their web site (Richards House) that the outside is under renovation and looks rough, but they were downplaying the gravity of the situation. It looked so rough, we almost called and cancelled before we got out of the car. We built up the courage to walk up the sagging front steps and through the enormous front doors. A nice lady named Michelle showed us around the house and the inside was beautiful – old and rough in spots, but beautiful. I started the tour wondering how I was going to tell the lady we were going to cancel and stay in a hotel. But by the end of our tour, we were softened and decided to stay.
Michelle, who runs the place, was very nice, and she was an excellent cook. The room was comfortable. In fact it had two fireplaces. We watched romantic TV shows (Ted Lasso) in front of crackling fires every evening. We ate delicious breakfasts every morning. And we played Bananagrams in the huge living room, just to take advantage of every space.
We walked all over the town, as we usually do on our spring break weekends. We ate at a few restaurants. My favorite was
Salsas Mexican Restaurant. My Veggie Chimichanga was HUGE, and I ate the whole thing.
It was a rainy weekend. We decided to squeeze in a bike ride between showers on Saturday. But the rain that promised to hold off until 4pm, came at 1pm. We got soaked and shortened our ride, but it was still fun, sort of.
It was a fun weekend. I want to go again when the city is dry. And I will stay in the haunted house again.
Mourning turns to joy (and some anger)
February 12, 2022
Our yard is not fenced in. Our English Labrador is so chill he stays in the yard without a fence. He doesn’t bother people walking their dogs past the house. He sometimes barks once to greet them, but never goes out to bother them.
On Saturday morning my son let the dog out and I only half noticed. About a half hour later, someone said, “Where’s the dog?” I ran out the back door and whistled and called for him, but he was nowhere. I came back in and asked, “Was he wearing his collar?” Of course, he was not.
Grumbling, I got into my big coat and thick hat and gloves and headed out to find him. It was zero degrees. The dog is kind of a wimp in the cold. I didn’t understand why he would have wondered off in these freezing temps. I wandered around a couple blocks whistling and yelling. I felt like a fool wondering if people thought, “Maybe you should tie your dog out, so he doesn’t run away.” My lips were starting to freeze and I couldn’t whistle as well. I went back home dogless.
I drove my daughter to work at the coffee shop, then meandered through the neighborhood on the way home looking for a white dog in every snowy yard. I became very sad and angry. I was certain that someone had picked him up in their car thinking he was an abandoned stray.
I got home and walked in the house hoping the dog had returned in my absence. But there was still no dog. I sat at the computer to compose a "Lost Dog” Craigslist ad, and immediately I heard a bark at the back door.
There he was, happy as can be, as if he had just gotten home from school. I let him in the house and launched into a long lecture about what a bad dog he was. He pretended not to understand. I am still mad at him (but the anger wears off a little each day). I keep threatening to sell him, but he remains unperturbed. Anyway, he is under house arrest for the rest of his life.
Getting ready for the still life project
January 28, 2022
I like to do the still life illustration along with my Adobe Illustrator class, so this time of year you can find me taking photos of my favorite things. I require my students to take photos in direct sunlight, and I spend the whole weekend watching the weather. I might be doing dishes and suddenly grab some inanimate object and run outside and start snapping pictures with my phone.
This weekend the sun was especially recalcitrant. It only came out two and a half times. Each time I ran outside and took photos of the front brakes on my favorite bike. Later, I would run out again and retake photos to try to beat the first set. At one point I was kneeling on my front porch trying to hold my bike in one hand and snap photos with the other hand and not cast shadows while I did it. The bike was trying heartily to fall over. I rushed and kept looking over my shoulder at the sun flirting with the clouds. And then the sun was gone, and I went back to doing dishes.
I got some okay shots. I have high hopes of making a fun vector illustration out of it.
How do you not fall off those?
January 22, 2022
I have a set of rollers. They are an indoor training device for cyclists, on which a cyclist can set their bike and ride as if they were on the road. Except the road is only 24 inches wide. And if you ride off the 24-inch-wide road, you drop four inches to the floor and of your spare room and jump gracelessly off your bike and knock over lots of furniture. So, you try not to ride off the thin strip of “road” created by the rollers.
Because pedaling a bike only makes the rear wheel go around, a belt goes from the rear rollers to the one front roller to keep it spinning under the front wheel. The trick is to pedal fast so the wheels spin fast (a fast-spinning wheel does not tip as easily as a slow spinning wheel) and keep your front tire aimed down the center of the front roller. When you get well practiced, you can watch TV, use a remote control, drink water, and even go no handed to rest your palms.
Sometimes my kids want to ride my rollers and I have to wait to use them. Lame! I need another set. So, I have been keeping my eye on Craigslist and Marketplace hoping to find someone who wants to get rid of theirs. Recently, I found someone selling a set of Kreitler Rollers! I know you are saying, “Not really! Not Kreitler rollers! How much did they want for them?” I will comfort you that they did not cost very much — less than a meal for two at Texas Roadhouse.
I contacted the guy and typed, “I will buy them!”
When we met in the parking lot at Walgreens, the rollers felt rickety and loose. I bought them anyway. They were Kreitlers after all. At home, I tightened every bolt, put them on the floor and set my bike on them and rode. I was amazed at how quiet they were. My other rollers are so loud, it is hard to hear the TV over their roar. The new ones fairly hum.
Two strikes against my new Kreitler rollers
- These rollers are narrower than my older rollers – 15 inches wide compared to 24 inches on the old ones. I have ridden off the side of the Kreitlers four or five times in the week I have owned them.
- Each Kreitler roller is also a smaller diameter. A smaller roller is more difficult to spin, so every ride on these Kreitlers is more effort than a ride on my older rollers. I know it should be about the workout, but sometimes it is fun to go on an easy ride. Not on these Kreitlers. They are for people who want to work. So, I ride my old, loud rollers on easy days.
So, yippee! I found a sweet set of rollers at an excellent price, and now I have another thing to store in my already cluttered house.
Things I watch while riding rollers:
- Old bike races on Youtube
- Netflix programs
- How to ride better videos
- Netflix adventure documentaries
A Lazy Couple Days
January 17, 2022
On Thursday, I started feeling like I was catching a cold, so I made an appointment for a covid test at UWL. I walked to the Cartwright Center and got swabbed, and I was negative. So, I walked back to Western and taught my afternoon classes.
Friday and Saturday my cold got worse. I tried doing a workout on my indoor bike trainer, but all I could do was spin easy.
How I spent three days slouching
I spent most of Sunday and Monday lying around like a lump. To avoid work, I said, “Hey kid! Give me that book and go do the dishes. I will read to you while you wash.” It was a great trick. They balked at first, but they like being read to, so they enjoyed it. I started a trend. Soon, if someone saw me unoccupied, they handed me their book and asked me to read to them. I felt like I spent the whole weekend reclined in a chair reading teen fiction. (Or watching football. There was a little of that too.)
Reading to people is a pretty good gig, as long as you don’t have any other work you should be doing. I had a nagging feeling that I should be working on my web design class, but I said, “Hey, I’m sick. School work can wait.”
On Tuesday I went to UWL again for another covid test. I wanted to know for sure I could go back to classes at Western on Wednesday. But I don’t get to go back to classes, because today my covid test was positive! Darn. The nurse said because my symptoms started five days ago, I have to wait until I have three symptom-free days before I can return to work. I guess I’ll go lay in a chair and read books to a kid.
