A Class in Nutrition and Exercise at the Vet's Office.

It is October.  You are talking about having a beach body.  Great.  That's a start.  The best time to start on a beach body is "before now".  The second best time is now.

Where did all that come from?  The Vet's Office, specifically, but really years ago for me.

Today I had to do something I don't like to do.  I went to the Vet's.  It isn't really the Vet's office that I dislike.  It is how I went there.

It was a beautiful day.  Even the car was feeling spry.  My 23 year old Jeep was quick on the road getting to the park.  Temps were moderate if not cool for South Florida.  The rains had washed everything and the winds were very light.  

I piled everything into the car that I needed for a workout and got myself prepared.  Carbo load, music on the phone, extra water because I knew I had a visit afterwords.  Even a brownie for my snack.

Dressed in my one size too small cycle jersey and my now one size too large compression shorts, I was ready.  The end result was that I now have a "Skin Suit" or so I tell people.  If the jersey was larger, I would be better off, but ordering clothes from TEMU can be a crap shoot.  It's tight but I'll get over it, I'll own that because returns are a bear.

My normal workout on the bike is 6 laps around the big gas bag in Pompano Beach.  I check distance on the GPS on the sport watch when I finish and if it is just under a mile marker, I ride enough to get the round number.  In this case, today was 27.09 miles.

Now, that distance is good but not great.   I know people on bikes who regularly ride 50 miles in a workout.  I don't think I can do that in one go.  

On inline skates, I can do that same 27 miles.  I am an elite inline skater, but intermediate on a bike.

I finished, put the bike on the car rack, tossed a few peanuts at the squirrels.  Before I went into the place I poured water on my head so I didn't look quite so Ick, and then brushed the hair.  I mean, come on, you don't want to offend, right?

Remembering that the desk staff is "Women of a Certain Age" and that I am a "Man of a Certain Age" I took a deep breath before I went in.  I have a feeling I made an impression.

It was a rapid fire barrage of questions but basically I said things like it's really just one foot in front of another and in order to bike 27 miles in a morning, you actually have to do the first mile...first.

After assuring them that they most certainly could but it would take training, and that 27 miles on a bike is significant but not unattainable, for the third time, I backed off.

I have the time to do this sort of thing and I count myself very fortunate for that.  Not everyone has that time.  I truly do not want to be that person who has the time and sits on the couch eating junk.  I did explain that the workouts are a "Get out of jail free" card for the diet, but that is tempered with being extremely aware of nutrition and "Macro Nutrients".  

I count every single calorie and know when I can have what and how much of it at any given time.  A slab of chocolate cake is not a big deal, I just budget the calories along with everything else.

If I had a slightly smaller snack or did so less frequently, my body fat percentage would be lower than my current 17% but as I explained to the ladies, it is my reward for a job well done.

Basically if you take a systemic approach, garbage in, garbage out, you can refine what you are able to do.  Otherwise, you are right, you can't ride 27 miles, or skate 20, or walk 5 miles.

Start out slow, divide and conquer, work within your own capacity but push a little bit more every day.

Fitness is a very good illustration of Compound Interest.  You do a little bit more than last time and eventually you are doing a lot more than when you started.

That Compound Interest thing was how I got started.  I was never allowed to be this active as a child or a teen.  When I moved away from home, I immediately changed that.  Never stopped.  So now, in my "Certain Age" I am working out at the level of a varsity athlete.  

You can too.  Start out slow.  Do those steps, then tomorrow do another few more.  

Your body is an amazing machine, you will be surprised with what you can achieve.  

Yes!  Yours.  Seriously!

Trust me, when I started, I could not climb a flight of steps without wheezing from asthma.  Now, maybe 50 miles in a workout is more than I need, but 27 miles on a bike in 2 hours with a break is just right.

It really is all about finding something you can do that will allow you to take things further.

In other words, Personal Choice.  Good luck on your search.  

Oh, and if you are on a bike or skates at The Park, don't be too surprised if I draft you and give chase. It's how we all say let's play!

Why don't anteaters get sick? Because they are full of Anty-bodies!

 When I got started putting jokes up on the weekend it was because I was trying to fill space.  It is devilishly hard to do new content every single day and at the time I was finding my schedule was loosening up to be able to do other things than sit in front of a keyboard.

On the other hand, I have been quoted my own little jokes by readers, so I suppose I shouldn't be quite so sheepish.  

In that matter, here you go!




 Two rednecks are out hunting, and as they're walking along they come upon a huge hole in the ground. They approach it and are amazed by the size of it.

The first hunter says, "Wow, that's some hole. I can't even see the bottom. I wonder how deep it is?"

The second hunter says," I don't know, let's throw something down and listen and see how long it takes to hit bottom."

The first hunter says, "There's an old gearbox over there, give me a hand and we'll throw it in and see".

So they pick it up and carry it over, and count one, and two and three, and throw it in the hole.

They are standing there listening and looking over the edge and they hear a rustling in the brush behind them. As they turn around they see a goat come crashing through the brush, run up to the hole with no hesitation, and jump in headfirst.

While they are standing there looking at each other, then gazing into the hole, and trying to figure out what that was all about, an old farmer walks up.

"Say there", says the farmer, "You fellers didn't happen to see my goat around here anywhere, did you?"

The first hunter says "Funny you should ask, but we were just standing here a minute ago and a goat came running out of the bushes doin' about a hunert miles an hour and jumped headfirst into this hole here!"

And the old farmer said... "Why that's impossible, I had him chained to an old gearbox!"

Why isn’t energy made of atoms? It doesn’t matter ..

 I think this particular thing may have happened here with all the ducks around.



 So this guy walks into a bar, looking like he just wrestled with a dumpster raccoon. He says to the bartender: “Listen, I know this sounds crazy… but if I show you the most amazing thing you’ve ever seen in your life, will you give me free drinks tonight?”

The bartender shrugs. “Sure, why not.”

The guy pulls a tiny piano out of his coat pocket. Sets it on the bar. Then he pulls a tiny man out of his other pocket—about a foot tall—and this little guy just rips into the piano like Stevie Wonder on Red Bull.

The bartender’s jaw hits the floor. He pours the man a drink, then another, then another… soon both man and miniature musician are hammered.

Finally the bartender can’t take it anymore. He leans in and says, “Okay… I gotta ask. Where the hell did you get him?”

The guy slurs: “You’re not gonna believe me… but there’s a genie’s lamp in your dumpster out back. Rub it, you get one wish.”

Later that night, bartender’s taking the trash out. Sure enough, there’s a lamp sitting in the dumpster. He rubs it, poof! Genie pops out.

“Congratulations! One wish—anything you want.”

Without hesitation: “I wish I had a billion bucks!”

The genie snaps his fingers, disappears—then suddenly a duck falls out of the sky. Then another. Then another. Before long the whole alley is filled with quacking, flapping ducks.

Freaked out, the bartender runs back inside, grabs the guy by the collar and yells: “I didn’t ask for a billion ducks, I asked for a billion bucks!”

The guy just sighs, points at the piano, and says: “Yeah, you really think I asked for a twelve-inch pianist?”

Brown Anole on a Fence

 These little anoles are just about everywhere here in South Florida.

Shortly after I moved here, one jumped on my foot, then ran up into my shorts.  Luckily my backyard, where it happened, was secluded enough that I could extract it and not offend anyone.

Not even the little anole who skittered off into the bougainvillea.

I was surprised to find out that they are also invasive and not from here.  Since they tend to be unobtrusive and not really harmful, I have a live and let live attitude with them.

In the case of this little one, it seemed to really want its picture taken.  Basking on a fence post it had been living there all summer.  There is a lot of traffic on that particular spot so I suspect it has gotten used to the fuss of being on display.

In general, they do good by keeping the insect population down.  In fact I am sitting in my living room watching one eat a bug on the fence outside of my window right now.

When I described their antics to a friend Up North, she did not like that they were so common.  Not to worry, they don't bite.  In fact if they have teeth they aren't terribly sharp.

I have read stories of people keeping these in their apartments in big cities to keep the unwanted pest population down.

I will say that while I am gentle towards this type of animal and have a plastic cup I use to catch and release them outside, I neither have the insect population inside the house to keep them alive, nor the desire to find one in my rooms at strange hours.

Mind you, the black racer snake that got into the house caused a bit more fuss than the periodic visits of these anoles but that is a very different story indeed.

The snake seemed to take the hint and went back out of the back door when I opened it and went back to it's own life, whatever that might be.

I have an aviation joke, but it will probably go over your head.

I am just about ready to fight the winds and go do a couple laps around the big gas bag for fun.  I will say that this guy is lucky he has such an understanding partner!

 


 Bill wakes up with a monster hangover.

He cracks open one eye and sees a glass of water and two aspirins on the bedside table.

His clothes? Clean and pressed.

The house? Spotless.

He heads to the kitchen - hot breakfast is waiting, newspaper laid out, and a note: “Honey, breakfast is on the stove. I went shopping. Love you".

Even more confused, Bill turns to his son and asks, “What happened last night?”

The son replies, “You came home after 3 A.M.- drunk, broke a chair, threw up in the hall, and gave yourself a black eye walking into the door.”

Bill blinks. “Then… why is everything perfect?”

His son shrugs and says, “Oh, that’s easy. When Mom tried to take your pants off, you shouted, ‘Lady, leave me alone - I’m married!’”

A bus station is where a bus stops. A train station is where a train stops. On my desk, I have a work station.

Ok, so you don't have to "Know Computers" for this one, but it does fit my own skewed mindset.

I have been using Linux since "The Mid 90s".  It was a curiosity, then, but I found it quite useful.  Later, I had the good fortune to be given an "Off Lease" laptop, so I installed Red Hat Linux on the machine and made it my own.  

When I found that the bad "Mains" power here in South Florida murdered my desktop machines, I was able to recover the data but had nothing to install Windows on so I used Linux full time.

Now, a good 10 to 15 years after that, I have a solid "contempt" for corporate computing.  I will say that the original install of Linux I did on a Pentium 3 laptop was working as I left it when I retired the machine without a software problem, due to bad batteries and a frayed power supply.  Great little machine though.

Reading the tech sites I understand that Windows 10 has reached "End of Life" - they killed it.  There has been a spike in downloads of Linux for these machines, and while there is a learning curve, trust me, you can make it work for you.



 
 Microsoft CEO, Satya Nadella, walks into a coffee shop and sees a young man feverishly working on his laptop. He walks over to the him and asks, "Whatchya workin' on, young man?"

The young man looks up and says, "Welp, I'm making a custom Windows 11 operating system."

Satya replies, "Oh? And how do you do that?"

The young man replies, "I take the Windows kernel, add my custom GUI, add some bloatware and then a ton of spyware!"

Satya gets angry and has him kicked out of the shop.

The following week, Satya Nadella strolls into another coffee shop and sees the same young man feverishly working on his laptop again. Again he walks over to the young man and asks in a stern voice, "Still working on your custom Windows 11?"

The young man looks up and proudly says, "Nope, today I'm making a custom Ubuntu Linux operating system! I call it Ubuntu Loaded."

Satya asks, "Oh? And how do you do that?"

The young man replies, "Welp, I take the Linux kernel, add my custom GUI, and finally I add the usual bloatware and then some more bloatware on top of that."

Satya replies, "I see. But no spyware?"

The young man looks up and replies, "Naw, that would just make it Windows 11."

Rack, I have already paid the Cheese Tax, this snack is not for dogs!

I am extremely active.  My doctor thinks I'm either crazy or a Child of Zeus.

7 hours of cardio in 3 days.  5 miles of walks on the other 4 days.

So as I say, it takes a lot of fuel to run that motor.  

I am up and down all day doing things in the house.  Every time I pass through the kitchen I tend to grab a nibble.  Nice excuse to keep a lot of food in the house at any given time.  I'm baking cookies and cupcakes all the time on off days.  I have kept brownies on hand simply because I can cook them in little cupcake papers and bring them to the park to snack on mid-workout.

While baking is on the agenda for today, there's a problem with all of that.  You see I share this house with a little furry shadow.  Rack, the McNab SuperDog has learned my pattern.

If I stand up, he is up.  Off to the back door to be let out.  Many, many times a day.  Sometimes it does not take standing up, merely shifting in the chair might do it.  

If I do go to deal with the wash or get something to drink, he is on my heels.  He is smart about it.  His hearing is not the best, after all, he is a 14 year old dog.  But if he senses that I am about to open a bag of chips or grab a "little something" I will hear paws on the tiles approaching.

There are two ways I have to grab a few chips though.  Chips aren't the best for man or beast, but either way, if he is outside sniffing a hibiscus flower, I can grab some on my own.  Also I am doing laundry frequently so I can even go into the laundry with the bag and dine at my own leisure.

All that baking takes time as well.  I'm in the kitchen for hours since I am a rare person - I have churned butter and I know how to use that food processor for nefarious purposes like making bread.  After a while, Rack will sit focused on me in the dining room, staring in on my progress and hoping for a morsel.

Since he isn't a "Counter Surfer", I am lucky.  I broke that behavior very quickly after he moved in with us by putting metal bowls on the counters balanced precariously on the edge.  Metal bowl hitting the floor makes a rather loud noise falling from 3 feet.  I think Rack broke the sound barrier running from the resulting clatter.

Of course if we had a Labrador Retriever we would have problems keeping food on the counter.  But as they say about this breed - if you can't train a McNab, you can't train a dog.  Labs are a very different sort of dog anyway.  Very sweet but always hungry.

In Rack's case, since he frequently takes as much as an hour to eat a bowl of food in the morning, it is easy to say food is not his highest priority.  Lunch time is a different matter and that hour can get cut back to about 3 minutes.

But having a shadow is a reason to have a dog.  Rack is my shadow, I will just have to keep sneaking snacks next to the dryer.  It's better for me anyway, I shouldn't be eating all the snack food.  Too much fat, too many carbs, it will not help me hit my macro nutrients.

Ok, shadow is fair, but maybe he's my conscience.  Just stop begging for potato chips, they're not for dogs!

I have a golf joke but it’s a little under par.

I'm someone who can't stand the cold.  I left my native Philly area on a day there was still on the ground.   I hope never to see it in person again.  Might explain why I never expect to go to the Himalayas, or at least one reason.


 
  An English explorer was taking part in an expedition to the Himalayas. Led by a grizzled local guide, they ascended one of the less frequently climbed peaks.

Roughly halfway up the side of the mountain, a member of the expedition came across a set of large manlike tracks in the snow.

"Yeti tracks," the sherpa said with a gruff voice as he passed them. "One thing you must know before we proceed; DO NOT, under any circumstances, touch the yeti."

The expedition heeded his warning and continued to climb the slope. Night fell, and the explorers set up their tents. In the dead of night, the Englishman awoke to the sound of his tent entrance unzipping. Half-asleep, he looked up to see an enormous eight-foot yeti standing above him.

In fear for his life the explorer jumped up and ran out of the tent, banging into the yeti in the process. The yeti, after being touched by the explorer let out a deafening howl and began to chase the explorer down the slope.

The explorer ran away from the camp as quickly as his legs could take him, after he rounded a corner he looked behind him to see the bounding form of the yeti still chasing him.

So the explorer continued to run, reaching the bottom of the mountain in just two days, exhausted he paused to rest awhile. After just a few moments, the explorer began to hear the soft 'thud thud thud' of yeti feet on snow, he looked up the slope to see the yeti still chasing him and only moments away.

The explorer took off again, reaching a supply shack a couple of miles away, once there quickly buying a mountain bike and pedaling his way to the nearest town, some fifty miles away. The journey took him several days over the rough terrain and after his arrival he booked into a hotel to recuperate.

Two days later the man left his hotel to see about booking transport back to England. As soon as he turned around though he saw the form of the yeti on the horizon, bounding towards him at great speed. Horrified by this sight, the explorer hurriedly bought a car and drove it away from the village all the way to Delhi. Once he arrived, the man wasted no time in getting on the next plane to London.

After his arrival back in London, the man went back to his London home for a while to recover and to plan his next expedition. He had been there less than two weeks and was gazing out of a window when he saw a familiar large bounding, manlike creature running down his street; the man couldn't believe it -- somehow the yeti had followed him to England!

The man had little choice but to run away again, he used any means he could, bike, car, or on foot to try to escape the yeti, but each time he looked behind him, it was just moments before the yeti came into view.

Eventually the man made it all the way to Edinburgh and from there ran into the open Scottish countryside. He continued to run but the yeti just kept getting closer and closer, and in the end the man could run no more.

With the yeti less than a minute away from him, the man finally stopped and turned around to face the oncoming creature. With the last of his strength he stood up straight as the yeti caught up with him. The eight-foot tall yeti towered above the man, who could only stare in terror. The yeti extended his hand and poked the Englishman squarely in the chest with one long finger and in a low rumbling voice the yeti said, "Tag! You're it!"

Evening news is where they begin with 'Good evening', and then proceed to tell you why it isn't.

Seems pointed, doesn't it?  I can't tell you when I listened to or watched news from the US other than via CBC or BBC, but that is a very different story.



THE DIFFERENCES BETWEEN MEN AND WOMEN:    #2

Desserts:
    A woman will generally admire an ornate dessert for the artistic
work it is, praising its creator and waiting a suitable interval before
she reluctantly takes a small sliver off one edge.  

A man will start by grabbing the cherry in the center.

Car repair:
    The average man thinks his Y chromosome contains complete repair
manuals for every car made since World War II.  He will work on a problem
himself until it either goes away or turns into something that "can't be
fixed without special tools".
    The average woman thinks "that funny thump-thump noise" is an
accurate description of an automotive problem.  She will, however, have the
car serviced at the proper intervals and thereby incur fewer problems than
the average man.


I will say that most issues are prevented by simply servicing the fluids at the proper intervals, and taking your car to a professional when needed.  After all, if they are professional, they will spot things you missed.

Oh and I want that cherry.  Always have.

Degreaser recipe, safe for many uses.

Degreaser.  I use a lot more of this stuff than most folks.  So this allows me to make it for pennies, and use what I need.

When I saw the pile of black grit on my floors, I knew it was time to clean up the bike chain.  It worked well and even got the black grit that was ground into the tiles.

Three ingredients.  Vinegar, Soap, Water.

Some recipes add baking soda but you don't want that.  It will neutralize the vinegar and all you end up having as an active ingredient is the soapy water.  Vinegar will help cut your grease.

As for the bike?  I used this stuff on my chain and used this as an excuse to refurbish the rear derailleur.  When I went on my next workout, everything was working great!


Ingredients are both in a ratio and volumes.  

Ratio:

• 1 part Blue Dawn Dish Soap
• 4 parts White Vinegar
• 12 parts Water.

Volume:

• 1 ounce Blue Dawn Dish Soap
• 4 ounce White Vinegar
• 12 ounce Water.

Yeah you didn't expect me to make the math difficult either for you or me.  Double it or scale it down.  It "should work" just the same.  Shake well before using.

Oh and standard internet warranty applies:

Use this at your own risk.  Just because it worked on my bike doesn't mean it will work for you.  Test it out first and decide because you are a big enough person to be able to judge for yourself.  I'll make and use more of this stuff but I am not responsible for anything you ruin with this mix.

When I used it, I used it as a soak on the derailleur, and as something to wipe things down like the chain.  I'm pleased with what I got but everything I worked on was pretty non-reactive.

How do you fix a cracked pumpkin? With a pumpkin patch.

 When you roast your own coffee, you can tailor it for what you like.  I prefer a lighter roast.  Unfortunately it also means that the caffeine content is increased and man this light roast I did yesterday is kicking me in the goolies!


And since my morning will be spent going around in circles around the giant gas bag in Pompano Beach, this is appropriate.



 Inflatable Isaac lived in an inflatable country, with inflatable parents and inflatable friends...

One day, when walking to inflatable school, he found a pin on the side of the road. When he got to inflatable school, he excitedly showed the pin to his inflatable friends. But they were careless, and accidentally pricked themselves, and began slowly deflating.

Panicked, Inflatable Isaac ran out of the inflatable school with the pin, intending to get rid of it. But on the way, he accidentally scraped a wall with the pin, and the inflatable school began deflating.

As Inflatable Isaac left the school, he saw the inflatable headmistress chasing after him. In his panic, Inflatable Isaac accidentally pricked himself with the pin.

As the inflatable headmistress stood over Inflatable Isaac, now slowly deflating, she said: "You've let your friends down, you've let the whole school down, and worst of all, you've let yourself down."

What position does a ghost play in hockey? Ghoulie

 Ok, while I think it is odd that some folks decorate their houses to look like something out of The Addams Family, even I do get some enjoyment out of halloween.

I'm just not a Monster, Frankenstein or otherwise!



I will say I use this punch line frequently so hold onto your 10MM Socket Wrenches here...




 One of my fathers old-timey jokes

A man was driving by an insane asylum when he got a flat tire. He pulled over to change the tire, when he noticed one of the inmates watching him from behind the iron gate. The man nervously jacks up the car and removes the hub cap of the flattened tire. He then carefully removes each of the lug nuts and places them in the upturned hub cap so they will not get lost. All the while, the inmate silently watches him.

He removes the damaged tire and replaces it with his spare tire. As he reaches to retrieve a lug nut he accidentally tips over the hub cap, and all 4 of the lug nuts fly out and fall down the storm drain.

Now the driver is in a real panic, he cannot replace the tire and he dare not ask for help... when suddenly the inmate speaks. "Why don't you just remove one lug nut from each of the other tires, install them on the replacement tire. Then drive down the street to the auto garage and buy four more lug nuts?"

The driver looks up in astonishment at the inmate and says... "That's brilliant! But if you're so smart, what are you doing in there?"

To which the inmate responds... "I may be crazy... but I'm not stupid"

Two Hurricanes Will Have An Effect On Each Other, And On Your Week

Whenever Florida gets any kind of big storm, my friends and family, gotta love them, will ask "You ok?".  This time there were three tropical storms in the North Atlantic.  I decided to pay close attention and write things down, in my typical rambling fashion with too much detail.

The early bird might get the worm, but the second mouse gets the cheese.

Sunday Morning.   It is about an hour before sunrise.  I'm sitting in a dark house drinking some "jet-fuel" coffee, Home Roasted Ethiopian Yirgacheffe medium roast if you are curious.  Rack, my faithful sidekick McNab SuperDog is at my right elbow smiling and panting for some reason.

I check Radar trying to decide whether to Inline Skate or Cycle today.  The Pompano Air Park is sitting under a "Dark Green Blob" which means it is currently raining enough that there will be ponding on the trails.  Ok, Cycling it is.

There is a Tropical Storm trying to form into a hurricane.  It won't be "Our Storm" and we will be safe.  Or so I hope at this point. 

There is a significant breeze coming in off the ocean.  This is South Florida after all, this is what the weather is like.  You are a bowling pin and a kid is down the alley tossing a too big bowling ball at you and it may or may not hit you and knock you over. 

You get up, check radar.  Temps are basically like yesterday.  If you liked yesterday, you will like today.  Or tomorrow. 

I am an endurance athlete.  I have to plan for a solid 5 or 6 hours of weather.  I don't have that today.  I'll let you know if I end up getting that water stop at the Jeep or will I have my mid workout "dousing" provided by Mother Nature.

Rack is up, getting curious.  I guess it is time to get up and motivate.

It's Sunday which means amateur day in any athletic pursuit.  The "Civilians" are out clogging gyms, trails, and other active places.  The rain did arrive, all of 5 drops, and the winds are up here but not appreciably so.  Good day for a little wind surfing.


This business of having two hurricanes within a certain distance has the Fujiwhara effect.  (Spelling courtesy of the link, sorry if I botched it)  The smaller of the two gets drawn into the larger.  It means that the smaller one that was heading for us here in Florida got stripped of a lot of its energy.  It also means that the prevailing winds here got turned around and we had a cool morning.  Storm isn't coming here, but the morning was cool and dry.  I guess that's from the North.

I went out into the yard.  Started messing with the irrigation.  During the 1970s a lot of these houses were built with this flimsy plastic tubing for pipes.  My house missed that but the prior owner used some of that stuff for irrigation.  I have been in the house for 20 years.  So instead of spending my morning enjoying the somewhat unseasonably cool 76F morning, I got started chasing after irrigation leaks.  You have irrigation, you will have leaks.  Especially if you used substandard pipes plumbing the yard.

It started a task that lasted all day.  I suppose it would be better off if I did not admit to people that we know how to work on sprinklers, it's a big business here in Florida.  It's also an annoying one to work on.  The glue takes 12 plus hours to set, closer to 24 hours, and it means everything has to be screw fit together or else.


Tuesday, Both storms, Humberto and Imelda, have moved somewhat North of where I sit.  That cool air that they pulled down from the North is still here, but the winds have shifted.  So as I prepare to go to the park to go do circles around the giant gas bag,  it will get warmer.  While yesterday had a low that was lower than normal for us at 75, like it is now at 5 AM, the high today will go up to higher than normal for us at 90.

I go for that workout because, despite the winds gusting over 25, it's dry.  Today will be a day for placing myself with the wind at my back for the longest leg of the workout and enjoy a rest at too fast a speed.

It was gusty but not obscenely so.  One of those days where the gusts would slow you down to almost a runner's pace, and then when you return, you find yourself going at the traffic's pace on the main road next to you with little effort.  

It's one of those days that slow you down overall but doesn't matter because you aren't being a lump on the couch.  But, definitely on a bike.  All the inline skaters were missing on the trail.

For us, this is not a big deal.  I have lived here for 20 years and you get to the point where you can read the radar for the weather, and you end up second guessing the Weather Guys on the TV.  

Why not, I have been doing that since I was a child.  I'm getting good at this.  But if you are North of me, keep an eye out and hone your weather forecasting skills.  You never know if it will save your hide some day.


It is Wednesday.  I usually release this stuff on Wednesday morning.  It's not our storm, nor did we expect it to be.  The storms are off the Outer Bank of NC and are making trouble for Bermuda.  I expect this to pretty much end the hurricane season, at least for a while.  

These storms have "Spun Fish" for enough time to pull colder water up from the depths and cool the ocean surface down.  That's the engine for the creation of the storms after all, warm surface water at 86F/30C.  

Our own forecasts in South Florida are dropping from the upper 80s to the mid 80s for the rest of the week.  

Enjoy your weather, I certainly will be!