#sunself

Been a few weeks since I posted a selfie, so here’s one for today!

Bruce is a cool guy who spends a lot of time with its dogs! Sol likes to play video games, and I hope suns dogs hang out with sun while sol plays! I think Bruce would enjoy having its dogs with it while it plays games or watches horror movies, or even when it’s just listening to its music! Sol seems really nice, and I hope sol’s doing well and has a good time!

The past week had plenty of variety and the occasional odd turn. Here's how it went.

Sunday I got off from the hotel and bicycled home with a stop at the local Kwik Shop for some needs for the apartment.

Monday I took a rest day. I have seen the memes that say "Never Miss a Monday" and I wasn't real cool with it after my minimal cycling the day before. But Monday there was pretty steady rain all day: the farmers in this part of the state no doubt are thankful for it, but I decided to pass on cycling in the rain.

Tuesady is my usual rest day, but this week I decided to bike to the Y for weight training. I'd done some reading about increasing reps and weights as I progressed on my journey, so I decided instead of the 3x12 circuit I'd been doing I would up it to 3x15. I felt good afterwards and decided I'd stick with 15 reps from now on. After weight training, it was a ride to Scooters for a white chocolate iced mocha, and then home.

Wednesday, June 2, I decided to visit another town I'd been to a number of times in my rides before my big layoff. I travelled north and west to Maize, Kansas, about 9 miles from where I live. Here's a pic I took of myself when I was there:

Some of you may have noticed in my most recents selfies that a lens had popped out of my amber sunglasses. I wear glasses on my rides for eye protection, and the dark glasses you see here are what I'm currently wearing until I get new amber shades. (I would have taken them off for the selfie if I'd realized how "motorcycle cop" I looked in the dark glasses and bicycle helmet!)

After a stop in the city of Maize I headed home a slightly different way, turning off to pass Maize South Elementary School and then south on a different road to give the ride a little variety. It started raining when I was a few miles from home, so I stopped at an abandoned gas station to get out of the rain and wait for it to clear. Luckily I didn't have to wait too long.

Thursday morning was a bike ride to Scooters for a WCIM (white chocolate iced mocha) for Becky. Then that afternoon was another visit to the Y for weight training, still doing 3x15 circuit. Then I biked home after that.

Friday, June 4, was quite interesting. I was out the door around 8:00am for a WCIM for Becky. I got home with the drink, and as soon as she was done with it Becky was wondering if I'd be a dear and get her another one. So it was back to Scooter's for another WCIM and back home after that. Becky sure does like those: after she was done, she dipped into the laundry money and asked if I could go get her one more WCIM. So it was back to Scooter's on my bicycle (by now the workers there were getting a kick out of seeing me!) and another mocha and another trip home. I thought that would be it for the day, but just before noon Becky got the quarters out of the big glass jar she throws her change into and asked me for one more WCIM! This time I insisted on having enough money to get myself a blended chocolate mocha, so it was one more scooter trip to Bicycle's -- oops, I mean one more bicycle trip to Scooter's -- for a couple of mochas and a trip home after that. I didn't really mind all the riding: it was good exercise, the weather was nice, and if my riding could benefit someone else then why not? Anyway, after the fourth WCIM Becky decided that was enough. I got some rest, and then showered and shaved and got dressed, and that evening biked to the Howard Johnson for the overnight shift.

Saturday morning, I got off the desk at 7:00. I got on my bike and headed to Scooter's to pick up two WCIM's and bring them home. I then hit the sack for a few hours, got up in time to shave, shower and shampoo, and then got dressed and headed back to the hotel on my bike for another double shift.

I have written a fair amount on other posts about how much of a mistake it was to take an 8½ month layoff. To be honest, I have looked over this blog, even going back into 2019, and I see my dedication to this journey was starting to fade even back then when I couldn't claim any pandemic was to blame. Maybe that time off was what I needed to get back onto the journey with a fresh perspective, to set my priorities in order, or just to clear some of the cobwebs and dross from my life. I am sure the important thing was I DID get back onto the journey and am now riding my bike and working out in the gym regularly... continuing to tell myself that one run or one workout was "getting back on track" was pretty much fooling myself. It's been over two months and I'm still doing it, so I think it's safe for me to say I AM back on track now!

Another thing I have to think about is the higher-end LIV Alight bicycle. I was so proud of it and I still miss it. But I have to wonder, was it really what I needed at this point in my journey? I tell people I ride my bikes hard and I ride them long. I found myself thinking, "Do I really want to take this spiffy, high-end bike out on the dirty old Prairie Sunset Trail or Air Capital Memorial Park with those gravel and dirt trails?" I cherish the memory of the street riding I did with the LIV bike. But if it was going to make me reluctant to ride on the dirt trails I enjoyed riding on... well, maybe it was just as well I got myself another POS Walmart mountain bike to spend a couple of years riding into the ground like I did to a dozen other WM bikes. And I'd rather ride the bike into the ground than watch it collect dust locked up in a storage unit because I thought it was too good to ride where I wanted to!

Captain America shirt in a Superman Blue yoga hammock. It's Superhero Sunday Selfie!