Summer arrived early this year – May was noticeably warmer than usual, though it didn’t hit horribly unpleasant levels of heat. Somehow though, even with a late/non-existent spring, we’re having a record year for blooming. Remember the pollen carpet we had for weeks? Thankfully that’s been gone for awhile, but everything else has been blooming at a record rate – I’ve never seen our plants so lush.

After fearing last fall that our frangipani was nearly dead, it’s now been blooming for weeks at full foliage and with full blooms. Our little desert rose is so heavy with blooms that the branches are drooping. The oak trees are fully leafed, creating more shade than we’ve seen in ten years (they are also bigger by a factor of twenty!). From my desk I see a massive poinciana tree behind a neighbor’s house over on the next street; the huge expanse of lush, flame-colored flowers has been lighting up the skyline for weeks now.

The end of May and the beginning of June started with a heavy hit of heat and humidity, giving us a taste of summer to come. The bad news is that we spend a lot less time outside now and have to be religious about getting our bike rides and outdoor work done early in the day. The good news is that the pool water is like warm bathwater – awesome for relaxed swimming and pool play.

Bike maintenance

Chelsea did a deep cleaning on our bikes last week. It’s amazing how the dirt seems to sneak up. I had no idea how noisy our bikes were until she cleaned them and oiled the chains. Now they are whisper quiet – all we hear is the sound of the tires on the road. She also aligned my bike computer. It was seriously knocked out of kilter after a particularly brutal railroad crossing one morning.

Chelsea had been having flat tires, or more accurately, underinflated tires, for several weeks. Each morning she’d have to pump up the tire, but the air would only stay in for a day or so. She took the tire off and replaced the tube once, but the tube still leaked air. Finally she took the tire off and examined the tire itself even more carefully than she had the first time. To her dismay she discovered that her tire is disintegrating inside, causing a piece of wire to poke her inner tube.

I’d read of a cheap fix for that kind of situation – a piece of duct tape. Chelsea layered several pieces of silver duct tape over the offending wire, patched both tubes, and voila – her tires have been perfect since then. I guess we’ll have to move new tires up higher on our budget. At $60-$70 apiece times four tires, that’s a significant output.

Bike rides

We’ve been keeping up our regular schedule for riding, but we’re finding that we’re getting overtired, possibly from overtraining. We are reluctant to let go of our bike rides, even if it means a day off, because we have so much fun with them, so we may back off our speed improvement for a week or two and just cruise. We’ve been pushing pretty hard seven days a week with our workouts and bike rides.

We’ve noticed so many more types of riders this last month than we’ve ever seen. The usual teams/racers in their pace lines are out, primarily on weekends, but the biggest increase is in more casual riders who still appear to be pretty serious abut getting exercise. They are kitted out in spandex shorts and cycling jerseys, but they’re riding hybrids or other relaxed-geometry bikes.

Last week we spotted one mini-pace-line of about six men and women, all dressed in spandex and jerseys; the one in front was easily in his eighties; the others looked to be from seventy down to fifty. It was awesome! The age range seems to be from thirties to seventies – quite a range – but it’s a noticeable trend. What amazes us is that we are seeing more and more people as it gets hotter and hotter!

Memorial Day

Since the Boynton Inlet is the only boat access to the ocean from Lake Worth to Fort Lauderdale, holidays are always a zoo. We rode both Saturday and Sunday on Memorial Day weekend, so we saw the full range of holiday goers. Saturday was astonishing for the sheer number of boats headed out. We saw easily thirty or forty boats headed out just between 7:45 and 8:15. The Lady K and Sea Mist III fishing charters were very full.

Sunday was all picnickers and fishermen. The parking lot was jammed by 8 a.m. and all the tables and benches were taken. Chelsea pointed out that we were the only women in the whole place (!), but then we spotted another woman down at the end of the lot. Three women and about forty men… The guys were hauling coolers, gas grills, barbecues, fishing equipment, bags of food and drinks, even table cloths and napkins. I guess the women were home finishing up the cooking and the guys had been assigned the job of getting the best spots and hauling the gear.

Alex and Amanda came over late afternoon on Memorial Day with chips, Bud Light Lime, and new floaties for the pool. We hung out in the pool laughing and talking till almost eight-thirty. Tyler joined us for a short while – he was a refugee from one party and had an hour’s break till he left for his next party. Pretty unusual for him – he’s been putting in brutal hours with his two jobs the last month or so. By nine they’d all left and we were underway with our rice and steamed veggies dinner.

Cassie and the birds

As we relaxed over dinner on the couch after a long day last week, Chelsea said, “Hey, Cassie’s got birds chasing her…” I glanced up a minute later as I saw Cassie trot by the porch with a shadow in the sky above her. Years ago the mockingbirds used to dive bomb the cats, particularly Cassie as she’s outdoors more, but they’ve not done that in years. They may sit up on the wires and scold a bit, but nothing more.

Since it was so unusual for the birds to be dive bombing her, I got up to look. What a sight outside! Cassie had caught a mockingbird (very, very unusual) and was trotting off to the bougainvillea with her “prize”. Up in the sky and on every tree and bush were dozens of birds – cardinals, starlings, mockingbirds, mourning doves, blue jays, every bird in our neighborhood – all of them shrieking and diving at Cassie, non-stop. What a racket it was!

Apparently the old adage of uniting in the face of a common enemy is true even in the bird world. I tried to see if the bird was still alive – it wasn’t, and in the process most of the birds gradually flew away a bit, with the exception of a fiercely angry mockingbird or two who kept up the scolding for a bit longer. I’ll remember that scene for years…

Adios

Tyler is home this afternoon and is making noises about going to Costco, so I’ll get my list ready and have my shoes at hand just in case. We’re out of so many things…

I’ll be back again next week, so adios till then. Meanwhile, check out the new photo album.

Life’s been very quiet at the Inlet this last week. The winds finally died, and we’ve had increasingly higher tides, so fishing is non-existent. We’re expecting full-moon high tides on Thursday, which means the tides will likely swamp the seawall. That’s always a sight to see – water in the parking lot, fish coming up through the water drains, seaweed littering every possible surface.

Meanwhile it’s been quiet, quiet, quiet; today not a single soul was fishing and the parking lot had perhaps four cars.

We took a much needed break over the weekend – Chelsea was even more tired than I, and though we got up and headed out on Saturday, we got only three miles before I suggested we quit and return home. After only a moment’s thought, Chelsea gladly agreed. We’ve been doing serious exercise every day for over five weeks, seven days a week. It’s okay to let go now and then.

Monday (yesterday) marked our first day of the official Body for Life program – after today we have eighty-two days left. We’ve kept going with our full schedule, and that’s been rough – it’s catching up with us. I didn’t think I could get out of bed today, and yesterday we didn’t get up until two hours after our regular start time. We’re sure that we’ll get through this stage soon and be back to our normal energy; we’re looking forward to that time! Until then we’ve decided to quit earlier at night and hang out a bit.

We’re still swimming almost every day, though it’s more like playing than swimming. We’re also sitting in the hot tub for a half hour or so after swimming – it really helps the muscle soreness after workouts.

Mike and Terri

Mike and Terri at Pinch a Penny talked us into a new “Earth Friendly” system for purifying the spa – Nature 2. It sanitizes and purifies by gradually releasing silver ion into the water – a small cartridge sits inside one of the filters. After each use we toss in a tablespoon of OxySpa, a non-chlorine oxygen shock which oxidizes the contaminants on which bacteria feed. The silver ion cartridge is odor free, and the OxySpa has an extremely pleasant smell. It’s made our spa experience infinitely more pleasant. Best of all, it’s chlorine free and earth friendly.

Remember the story of Mike doing that really clever fix on our hot tub vacuum? (It’s still working like a charm.) He pulled off another engineering feat…we’d borrowed our neighbor’s pool brush which comes on a long pole. With a quick quarter-turn-twist, the pole will telescope out so we can reach significantly farther into the pool, thereby shortening our cleaning time.

We’ve borrowed and returned and borrowed and returned the pole consistently since last November with no difficulties. About ten weeks ago we noticed it was harder to twist, but thought nothing of it – we put it to its shortest setting and returned it. A month or so later we needed it again. Ivar, our neighbor, said we were free to borrow it, but told us the pole was jammed and would no longer telescope, despite his doing everything he could think of to fix it.

We really needed the pole and brush, so we just put up with the annoyance of the super short setting. Last week, on our way to Pinch a Penny for chlorine, I threw the pole in the car at the last minute, thinking I’d ask Mike for ideas. Mike’s motto must be “I never met a problem I couldn’t outfox”. He took that pole and twisted and worked, peered and poked and twisted some more, and in less than a half hour he’d loosened the pole, diagnosed the underlying problem, and fixed the faulty part.

That guy is amazing…we count ourselves very fortunate to have run into both Mike and Terri. And I gotta say that the telescoping pole has made the pool-cleaning process a whole lot easier!

More cycling

Back to our cycling – I said last week that we have met our thirteen mph goal. Though we had a few days of slightly less, our average is at least thirteen. One thing I didn’t tell you is that the average we are computing is for the entire ride. That includes stopping for stop signs and stoplights, slowing to turn corners, negotiating traffic through town, slowing for cars in front of us – everything that’s involved in getting from our residential neighborhood, through several other much busier neighborhoods, through downtown Delray, and up A1A (a very busy road).

That means it takes a lot more effort to reach an average of thirteen mph. It means we are pushing on the straightaway as hard as we can; standing on our bike pedals going up hills (what passes for hills in our area); and standing on our pedals at stoplights to get our speed up.

Imagine my unbridled joy when I broke the fourteen mph level last week. I kept pushing at every opportunity; in fact, when a pace line of five male cyclists passed us on the waterfront in Delray, I was surprised that they weren’t going by faster. A quick glance at my computer showed that we were at fifteen mph, so I made a split second decision to jump on the line.

I managed to stay with them at eighteen mph for at least a half mile. I chickened out when one called to the other to stop at a red light. I slowed down, not wanting to ride up their backsides (very bad manners) if they did stop, and that’s all it took to lose them. Ah well, the knowledge that I could stay with them at eighteen was nothing short of delirious.

Best of all is that Chelsea happened to be up with me and jumped on the line behind me. She normally tends to drop back, then sprint to catch up, then I lose her again, so having her have the fun of doing eighteen mph with me was truly great. Chelsea hasn’t had the prior years of experience that I’ve had; in fact she didn’t really ride a bike until shortly before we rode across country.

Her brain injury caused difficulties with sequencing, and cycling is nothing if not about sequencing, so that slowed down her initial learning curve (though that’s now a thing of the past). She has also tended to be very nervous, especially in traffic. We’ve been working lately on little things she can do to improve her speed – she tends to average about a half-mile an hour less than I do, which adds up over time. The improvement is already noticeable.

We are both dreaming of the day that we hit eighteen mph and sustain it.

Earth friendly

Speaking of earth friendly, I thought I’d pass along a bit of information to those of you who would like to reduce the number of catalogues and the amount of junk mail you get. Catalogue Choice is a website (www.cataloguechoice.org) where you can sign up for an account, go through their list of companies, and opt out of receiving unwanted mail.

My name and Chelsea’s were each clearly sold sometime in the last few years (we’re pretty sure we know the company that is the culprit), as evidenced by the number of catalogues we have been getting, catalogues in which we have no interest at all. In 2007 we started the process, but many companies back then weren’t on the list. Yesterday Chelsea logged back on to our account, and sped right through the process, dropping our name from a dozen or more catalogues and mailers.

It’s an awesome service – it’s free, provided by the non-profit corporation Catalogue Choice, supported by donations. Since we started with them, our junk mail has gone to nearly zero.

Adios

I’m feeling great that I’m keeping up with the news around here, and I’ll continue to do so. This last weekend I did start the writing of the book about our adventures, so the next few months will likely be very brief blogs. I’ll be spending a lot of time at the computer, and after so many hours I can’t bear the thought of more time, so brevity will win the day.

Till next time…

The Body for Life project is taking over our lives, in a good way. Each day starts at six a.m. or shortly thereafter. Four days a week we head out immediately for the Inlet for a twenty-three-plus mile bike ride. We take about two hours for the whole ride, including a short break at the Inlet.

Riding and the Inlet

The Inlet never fails to entertain us. Last week we saw a local fisherman catch a barracuda. As Chelsea took photos, the fisherman worked to get the hook out; he’d already promised the barracuda to three other fishermen who wanted to use it for bait. I was front and center watching the whole process, and when the fisherman got the hook out, he handed the barracuda to me, on the line, telling me to hold it.

There I was suddenly holding this writhing, twisting fish with a mouthful of razor-sharp teeth. I cautiously held it at arms’ length, keeping an eye on those teeth, but with no warning the fisherman pushed my hand in closer to my body – I’m guessing he thought it would make a better picture. I had to take a deep breath to settle my nerves – the two photos Chelsea got accurately showed my feelings – from “What the hell are you doing, shoving my arm in!” to my victory grin, “I’m doing it! I’m holding this twisting, writhing fish! Ha hah!”

I got a photo of Chelsea holding the fish, but her smile is totally relaxed and calm. She told me later that since I survived without losing any body parts, and since the fish was no longer writhing and twisting, she figured she was safe.

This week (so far) has been calmer. Our only excitement was seeing a parrotfish caught by a quiet guy fishing from the seawall. It’s unusual to see anyone catch anything there, much less a parrotfish, so we got a few photos of it.

Another bit of great fun was meeting Skip Reisert again on one of our rides last week. We first met Skip and Sid, two riding buddies, before we left on our trip in June of 2007. We originally met on a rest break at the Inlet, but once we’d met each other of course, we ran into each other regularly. Skip in particular was quite excited for us, and wanted to know all the details about our trip. For a variety of reasons we lost touch that first year.

Skip recognized us last Saturday on our way back from the Inlet, calling out to us as he passed. We had a wonderful chat on the side of the road, agreeing to catch up on more details soon over coffee at Old School Bakery. Skip looks awesome – since we last saw him he’s gotten a new bike that he built up with the components he wanted – it’s gorgeous – and he’s now up to 21-24 mph on average. Since we’re now on a speed improvement kick ourselves, we found Skip’s success story to be very encouraging.

Speaking of speed improvement, we’ve done pretty well ourselves the last week. Over our eight days of working to hit a daily average of thirteen mph, we met or passed our goal on four of the eight days. Averaging all eight days together, we met our goal of an average of thirteen mph. We’re very pleased because we’ve been really tired from suddenly increasing our physical output by so much, and because we had a two-week period of 15-25 mph winds, which meant strong side and headwinds for a good part of each ride.

Yesterday I managed to hit fourteen mph on our first eleven miles up to the Inlet, so now I won’t be happy until I see fourteen regularly. It’s really hard work trying to improve because we have to pay attention to every moment and every circumstance where we can improve our speed. Our workouts are infinitely harder than they’ve ever been.

And speaking of workouts – after seeing Skip and having him comment on how “sturdy” our new bikes are (he knew us when we had entry level racing bikes, weighing eighteen pounds) I finally weighed our bikes. I have gone from that lightweight eighteen-pound bike to a forty-five pound bike (counting front bag, rear bag, and contents); Chelsea’s is thirty-five pounds. I’d bet anything that my speed would increase several miles per hour just riding my old bike. I content myself with the fact that we are getting much, much stronger this way.

Body for Life

The days we’re not riding we do a full body weightlifting session that lasts just under two hours. Together we revised the daily workout sheet so we could move through the workouts faster. After each workout we revise the weights as needed and print the next workout sheet. The night before each workout we make sure the proper weights are on the weight bench and that it’s set to the right position. Our workout sheets and timers are set to go on the desk.

Each day after our rides or workouts we have our protein berry smoothie and hop into the pool for a half hour or so to cool off and work out the muscles slowly. We use our alligator kickboards for doing laps, then spend a few minutes playing ball in the pool. By that time we’re a bit chilly, so we climb into the hot tub for twenty to thirty minutes to relieve any upcoming muscle soreness.

Most days we think we can’t possibly do another thing; we’ll need to either read or watch movies for the day. We’d agreed in advance that we’d rest as much as we need to at first, till our strength gets up to speed; that’s taken a lot of pressure off us.

Ironically, we seem to get more done now in less time. We are very organized about getting chores done, and we focus more effectively on what needs to be done, figuring that we’ll “die” really early each day. Of course we feel great that we made our goals that day for the Body for Life program; then we feel great that we got our most important tasks done, too.

There have been days, I’ll admit, where we just read quietly for an hour or two, and maybe watched a movie, but not often (though nearly every day we tell ourselves that’s what we’ll do). Taking the pressure off and allowing ourselves time to build has added to our efficiency in a most unexpected way.

We have no trouble sleeping these days.

We did finally make the decision to join the Body for Life contest. This weekend we’ll weigh ourselves, take our measurements, and write up our goals. We plan on competing to win. Each morning when it’s horribly hard to wake up and do two hours of tough exercise, we tell ourselves, winners get up and go do it! We apply the same thought to everything that’s hard during the day.

We haven’t decided yet if we’ll do the family group, which limits us to a $10,000 prize, or aim for one of us getting Grand Master, which is a $25,000 prize. Winners are chosen 50% on physical transformation and 50% on inner/emotional transformation.

Food

We’re doing pretty well with the recipes and menus, but things would be easier if we had a stash of cash to go to Costco and buy the high-ticket items to have on hand, like the steak and salmon and tuna. We are making do with substitutes while keeping to the original idea, but it’s a lot more work this way figuring out what to do and then making it.

One of our ideas was a definite loser. We defrosted our frozen veggies (which we don’t really like) and put them over brown rice. Thinking to make it more fun, we added low-fat mozzarella cheese. On a whim, I sprinkled the plates with a few tablespoons of ground flaxseed. It was not a good idea.

The wetter-than-usual rice, the flaxseeds that swelled and turned mushy, the slippery vegetables, and the gooey texture of the cheese were definitely NOT an appetizing combination. I managed to get about halfway through before I put my plate aside – I was in danger of gagging with each bite. At the risk of being too descriptive, I felt like I had huge mouthfuls of phlegm that I was expected to chew and swallow.

I admitted to Chelsea the next morning in the pool what my reaction was – we’d both agreed the night before that we wouldn’t do that again. She looked at me with a straight face and said, “Next time we’ll pass on the phlegm brulee”.

Our one serious disaster aside, we’ve done okay with the food.

Adios

Time to run now – we’ve got to prepare our next meal and get ready for tomorrow. I’m also feeling a bit queasy after writing about our “phlegm brulee”, so I think I’ll go take a few deep breaths and put my head between my knees.

I’m aiming to write roughly once a week, so till next week… Adios!

Mother’s Day morning we bicycled back through the same route, but wandered through the French Quarter on our return, stopping for the world famous coffee and beignets at Café du Monde before heading back to Darryl’s house.

Mother’s Day 2009 found us in Oak Grove, right on the Gulf in southwest Louisiana, staying with Jo Ann Nunez. By the time Mother’s Day rolled around, we’d been staying with Jo Ann for over a month and had begun to feel a part of the local community. Mother’s Day started at the Baptist Church, celebrating the first use of the main area of the church after its post-Hurricane Ike repairs.

We had lunch with Donny, Jo Ann’s son – who gifted us tickets to the Lake Charles Chorale in Lake Charles – Jo Ann and Chelsea and I drove the hour or so over to Lake Charles for the program. After an already wonderful day, we ended with dinner at L’Auberge du Lac in Lake Charles with Jo Ann’s daughter Ruby and her husband JA, stuffing ourselves on a wonderful buffet.

Mother’s Day 2010 was a completely unexpected family day right here in Delray. On Saturday Paul called, asking if we wanted to get together – I am never going to turn that offer down!

Paul and Denise and Chandler showed up around three p.m., ferrying in food. Paul got the barbecue going while Denise took over the kitchen, cooking quinoa and putting together an impressive salad.

Alex and Amanda and Cocoa showed up by four thirty, completing the family. It’s the first time the family has been all together in at least three years, and we now had Amanda to share the day with us.

Eating, talking, laughing, eating some more – the afternoon rolled peacefully along. After dinner we swam, even Cocoa. Chelsea couldn’t resist the opportunity to get a great family photo in the pool. She set up her new tripod to timed release, then ran and jumped in.

Alex kept us all laughing during dinner – he was in great form, and he continued on in the pool. During dinner we’d been laughing about our slow bike speeds, telling the family how the guys in the pace lines pass us saying, “Mornin’, ladies; Hi, ladies; Mornin’, girls; Hi ladies;” one after another after another.

In the pool Cocoa had been chasing our pool exercise ball and popped it in her eagerness to grab it. Alex picked up the pieces, pulled it over his head like a helmet, crouched down in a cycling posture, and mumbled, “Mornin’ ladies; Hi girls”. Chelsea got a hilarious photo of him doing his routine.

After the swimming pool we all migrated to the hot tub, where she got another family photo; all seven of us were in the hot tub at once.

Chelsea and I aren’t the only ones on a weight improvement program…both Amanda and Alex are in the midst of their own, too, with good success, as is Chuck, Amanda’s brother. We were really tickled to find out Sunday that Paul and Denise are doing their own program!

One of the first major alerts for me that I was truly sick in 1999 was the fact that even though I was eating perfectly and doing my cardio and workouts at LA Fitness faithfully, I was gaining in body fat while losing weight (one of the liver functions is processing fats). I’ve been interested ever since then in knowing what my body fat is, but short of joining a gym and paying to have it done, I wasn’t sure how to find out.

In my research the last few weeks I came across a highly rated set of skin calipers that measure body fat and a nifty little tape measure to do body measurements. The prices were really reasonable so I bought one of each. I’d told Denise and Paul about it; Denise was emphatic that she wanted me to test her.

So we ended Mother’s Day by lining up the family and testing body fat with the skin calipers. It was hilarious. Amanda suggested that I could earn grocery money by setting up in front of a gym and charging, oh, say five dollars, to have body fat checked. Hmmm….there’s a thought…

We’ve made an agreement to get together once a month for the next three months for dinner, a swim, a hot tub, and a measurement of body fat. I am so going to win for losing the most – I have to have some reward for starting so far behind the others.

Be sure to check out our latest photo albums in the photo gallery. It’s got our Mother’s Day photos, some photos of our bike trip up to the Boynton Inlet (can anyone identify the fish?), and a wonderful photo of Alex dressed to the nines in his new black suit, heading out to a wedding.

I’ll finish up now…we’re running low on groceries so I’m thinking of heading to Delray Fitness up the street to measure some body fat…

Whatever happened, the bottom line is grim. We need to lose inches, lose weight, and replace body fat with muscle weight.

We did well after arriving home in terms of “normalizing” our eating, but letting go of the Blue Bell Moolenium Crunch and Mocha Almond fudge was a struggle. We bought Alex a Ninja smoothie maker and started drinking healthy smoothies; I ordered the herbal formulas LeanCare (helps maintain normal processing of fats) and LiverCare (supports normal liver function); we started taking them regularly.

For me the final straw was when I knew we wanted to buy the specialized cycling clothing from New Zealand, but no way would I fit into my regular size. I told myself it’s time for a change. A major change.

Ten years ago after returning from the Czech Republic I discovered that I had serious liver damage. I was one sick puppy for quite a while, but as with everything else I don’t like, I decided that had to change. I created and embarked on a several-year-long health program for my arthritis (which was getting worse), my liver damage, and Chelsea’s brain injury.

We were incredibly successful. I completely reversed all the damage from my arthritis and improved my liver functioning by a significant degree. Chelsea regained her eyesight to pre-accident levels, lost the food allergies precipitated by the injury, and significantly improved the levels of her cognitive functioning.

All that improvement required quite a focus. I knew we needed a structure to accomplish our goals, so I created one. This time around, I knew we needed a structure once again so I went to Body for Life, the program I was on when I discovered my liver damage.

Body for Life is a program created in 1999 by Bill Phillips, a weightlifter and coach, who wrote a best selling book by the name of Body for Life. The program integrates exercise, nutrition and supplementation in a very specific methodology. Participants are required to eat six meals a day and do three intense twenty-minute cardio workouts each week, alternating days with three intense weightlifting workouts.

Bodyforlife.com offers a multitude of support, from animations of how to do the weight workouts properly, food recipes, a two-week meal plan, letters of encouragement from past winners, training tips and nutrition tips, to write-ups on how to calculate body fat.

The big attraction to this program, besides that fact that it’s been around for a relatively long time and is going strong, is the potential to win prize money of $25,000 for the Grand Master and $10,000 for each of six category winners.

In order to win, you need to take a “before” photo, follow the regimen carefully for twelve weeks, submit your “after” photo, and write an essay describing your inner transformation resulting from the twelve-week program. Winners are judged on the “quality of their inner and outer transformation”.

Coming from as far down as we’ve been, it’s taken a bit to get our lives turned around enough to even consider the program. We started with the food, getting a menu plan set up, figuring out the ingredients we’d need to have on hand, figuring out the recipes, and getting our lives organized around eating six meals a day.

Then we brought our workout bench inside from the porch where it’s been languishing for the last few years. It needed cleaning and oiling. The foam rubber padding on the rollers had disintegrated so I cut up an old white cotton dishtowel in sizes to fit each roller. We secured the dishtowels with black hair ties and sewed the edges up, and voila – we had a working weight bench in our newly refurbished bedroom.

Cardio was our next challenge. Neither of us likes running, so we decided to try swimming in our backyard pool. Chelsea was a lifeguard at sixteen; she even got her qualifications to teach swimming. How could we go wrong with her as a knowledgeable resource? Chelsea insisted on getting kickboards and a ball; a quick trip to Wal-Mart solved that.

It’s been a few weeks now of eating regularly. We find that the recipes are great, and we are plenty full after each meal. Even though we may feel like the portion sizes aren’t big enough (that nasty old conditioning kicking in), we know we’re okay because we can eat again in two hours. Eating smaller portions more often, with slightly higher protein and very little fat (and no sugar), has greatly stabilized our blood sugar levels and has increased our energy levels.

The swimming has turned out to be great fun. We set a clock on the porch ledge and start doing laps. We’ve been religious about sticking to the twenty minutes and swimming steadily – no fooling around till the session is over. After our twenty minutes Chelsea usually takes a few minutes to teach me how to do the kicks and strokes properly, then we play ball for a few minutes in the pool. The water has warmed up to delightful levels lately, so just being in the water is fun.

In addition to the swimming we’ve set a schedule of bike riding that we’ve stuck with for the last two weeks. We swim Monday, Wednesday, Friday; we ride Tuesday, Thursday, Saturday and Sunday. We’re still only doing twenty-three miles a day, but we’ve decided to increase our average speed to get the energy output up.

Over the years we’ve ridden an average speed of twelve miles an hour, and somehow we never seem to get beyond that. That’s about to change. We decided that before we leave we’ll be able to ride eighteen miles per hour as an average. We developed a spreadsheet on our computer; every day we record how far we went, the wind speed, wind direction, and our average speed. We’re aiming to break thirteen, then fourteen, then fifteen and so on. Having a goal makes the rides more interesting, and we’re getting a much higher intensity workout.

The weight workouts have been the last onboard in our program. We’re not as proficient with weights as we are with riding and swimming, and we’ve been really tired from the increase in cardio. But yesterday we did our first workout. It’s quite different from a normal weight workout – we do a succession of reps on each exercise with increasingly heavy weights, then switch to a different exercise, following the same pattern of increasing weights with each. The idea is to provide faster results with a more intense workout.

Our results with the food and cardio have been extraordinary. In only three weeks I have lost three inches on my waist and two inches on my hips. Chelsea has lost two inches on her hips and two on her waist. And this is without trying! We’re eating well and having fun and losing inches…how great is that?

We’ve been so pleased with our unexpected results that we are now seriously considering joining the program “for real”; that is, we want to win the Grand Master for $25,000 or one of the categories for $10,000. We’ve taken our “before” photos, taken our body measurements, and measured our body fat. All we have to do is sign up and get really serious about this. I think we’re leaning towards entering to win.

Whatever else happens, one thing is absolutely certain – we’ll end up much healthier and looking significantly better!

I promise to keep you updated on our decision and on our progress.

Note: I’m not admitting my beginning body fat percentage (it’s ghastly) or my weight until it’s over, nor will I share my “before” photo until I have a glorious “after” photo. You’ll just have to wait.

We continue to work on the fundamentals of preparation for leaving. It’s been a combination of gradually acquiring the clothing, gear, and equipment that we need for being on the road; doing research for what we need; and doing essential organizational projects.

Research projects

Finding what’s out there to make our lives easier feels like a full-time job. That’s my job. I spend hours on the computer looking up products, reading reviews, checking prices, till I find some decent possibilities.

For example, mosquito repellants and sunscreens are essential to our lives, but we’ve not yet scored the ultimate product on either one, though we’ve tried many. Thanks to my time on research we now have several very promising choices to try.

In the last few months I’ve researched world phones (GSM), GPS units, world band shortwave radios, clothing, travel chairs, camping kitchen items, shampoos and lotions, sunglasses, camp items, nutrition bars, food dehydrators, portable hard drives, new touring bicycles, and dozens of other items.

I’m happy to report really good results. We haven’t purchased everything I’ve found yet – budget constrictions are always there – but when the budget allows, I’ll do a last minute check, then get the best product for our needs.

Acquiring clothing, gear, and equipment

We’ve had a few major purchases that we are terrifically happy about, purchases that have already made a big difference in our lives.

Camera

First is our new camera, a Nikon D3000 with 18-55mm and 55-200mm lenses, along with a camera tripod. The Nikon D3000 is an entry level DSLR. While not the ultimate camera that we’d like, it had a couple of compelling advantages: cost – the price was very reasonable (Costco had a great price with cash back at the register); it’s a huge step above what we’ve had so far; it’s got great reviews; it gives us a chance to get used to working with a DSLR before moving on to really expensive cameras.

So far we love it, even without having the time to explore how to use it. With the first photo we noticed much greater clarity, much better color, and a much faster “capture” speed. I wear glasses or contacts, and really struggled with the LCD on our Pentax Optio – I could never get it at a good position to see the scene clearly, and had trouble with the reflections on the screen. Since the Nikon only has a viewfinder, suddenly I can take great photos again (Chelsea’s had to do it till now).

Check out some of our favorite photos with the new camera – the ones of pelicans at the Boynton Inlet, and the ones of the baby possum in the pool, for starters. We figure if the photos are this much better so far, imagine what they’ll be when we really learn the camera.

The tripod is pretty awesome, too. It’s designed like tent poles, with a quick snap approach to opening and closing it. It’s super lightweight and amazingly compact. Chelsea has wanted a tripod for ages…she’s happy now; and she is in group photos at last.

Sunglasses

The second major purchase was sunglasses for Chelsea. I’ve had Oakley Half Jacket sunglasses for at least four years and I’ve loved them. They stay on my face even under hot and sweaty circumstances; they are stable in high winds, and protect my eyes from grit in windy situations; they are excellent under sailing conditions; they have replaceable lenses for different riding conditions; and perhaps best of all, they have excellent optical vision.

Chelsea always felt that she didn’t need decent sunglasses, so she has gotten by with inexpensive pairs or hand-me-downs. Somewhere in 2008 she started realizing how much she too needed a decent pair of glasses. I think it was being out in hot sun so much that turned the corner for her – she started getting headaches and was generally miserable.

In late January we headed over to the Oakley store in the Boca Raton mall. In general we avoid Boca shops as they tend to live up to their negative reputations – lousy attitudes for customer service, and other customers tend to be aggressive and annoying. I bought my Oakleys in South Beach and had a wonderful experience, but we weren’t expecting much locally.

We were delightfully surprised. Max, who’s a manager, and Katie, a clerk, couldn’t possibly have been more helpful and more delightful. Chelsea opted for the Flak Jacket XLJ with two sets of lenses. Max and Katie patiently answered all our questions, and spent forever teaching Chelsea how to switch lenses on a store model so she wouldn’t get home and damage her own lenses accidentally.

While we waited for Chelsea, I showed Max how badly scratched my lenses were. While he couldn’t replace them, he did give me a pair of other lenses that have allowed me to use my sunglasses again (I’d been using a pair Chelsea found). I still need the right kind of replacement lenses, but these have been a lifesaver short term.

We were there a long time, but Chelsea came out happier than she’s been in ages. She dearly loves her sunglasses, and not a day goes by that she doesn’t comment on how much she appreciates them. Major kudos to Max and Katie for being so amazing.

Camping equipment

We felt pretty iffy about our MSR kitchen sink that we bought from REI a few months ago for washing dishes, washing clothes, and carrying water to be filtered. After putting water in it we realized that it would be a real challenge to wash in it because the sides have no stiffening, so the water spreads out sideways, giving no depth.

In my research I heard about the Ortlieb folding bowl, which sounds a great deal more like what we want. We returned the sink unused to REI, combined the refund with a 20% off coupon and our annual dividend, and bought a set of two titanium pots and pans.

The jury is out about the pans – they are very lightweight, we love the handles, and we’ve had great success with our titanium plates and mugs, but these puppies are just so small. They’re still sitting on my desk awaiting a decision to keep or return (we’re leaning towards returning). We may opt for returning them and just get a large aluminum pot (think cooking pasta) and a large fry pan. REI has a 10” fry pan that would be perfect.

Meanwhile, looking for something that will fit the bill requires us to measure what we already have, think carefully about sizes, how we’d pack it, and picture ourselves using it under all circumstances. It’s fun, but time consuming and a bit wearying.

Personal care

One of Symantha’s (Whole Foods) recommendations to us was Burt’s Bees lip balm with color. It’s really wonderful – the first lip balm or chapstick that Chelsea has liked. It makes the lips feel great, prevents dryness and chapping, and adds a bit of color at the same time.

I also did research on organic face and body lotions and shampoos. We ordered them and have tried them for the last month or. The lotions are better than what we’ve tried so far, the face scrub is awesomely wonderful, but the shampoos weren’t a big hit. We’ll keep trying…

I’ve been looking at Rosemary Repel organic hair care since 2008. Formulated for lice, I read several testimonials that it may work on mosquitoes as well. We finally found it locally and got a bottle of shampoo and spray on conditioner. Sigh…neither of them worked for us – we ended up with heavy sticky hair. We’ll likely bring a small bottle with us anyway as it seems to be a sure-fire cure for lice. I’m also going to try spraying it on my skin when mosquito season kicks in around here to see if it works.

Clothing

For almost four years I’ve been looking at Patagonia’s Bandha dress and blouse. We urgently need clothes that are more suitable for our trip than most of what we are presently carrying. I found a blouse and dress on eBay in my size and joined the auction. I won both auctions – getting an $80 dress for $25 and a $50 blouse for $26 (each one arrived in the mail with a personal thank you card).

Best yet, they are the most amazing pieces of clothing I’ve got. Though I haven’t worn the dress yet (no occasion) – I’ve worn the blouse constantly. It fits every one of the rigorous criteria we’ve got. Now that we know we have two winners, we’ll order another one each for me and two each for Chelsea before we go.

Chairs

Yet another wonderful find has been our Travel Chairs. Rather than writing more about it here, read the article I wrote on our Travel Chairs. We may have a chance to do field testing on the Larry Chairs – we’d love to try them – they could be perfect for us, even better than the Teddy aluminum chairs we bought. Meanwhile the Teddy Chairs have been amazingly comfortable.

Organizational projects

Organizing has taken up a great deal of time. We took out every bit of clothing and equipment we’ve had on our trip and sorted it, making decisions on whether it will stay or go, and deciding whether we’d like to replace a particular item or not. We still have several shelves full of items we’re thinking about.

I’ve already written about our massive music project – we still have more to go, but we reached a major milestone by getting all the albums ripped and getting the music from our old hard drives.

We’re looking at food as part of our reorganization, including doing a study of nutrition bars, though that would be a short term solution.

One of our high priorities is to find a food dehydrator and get at least a year’s supply of food dehydrated. Lynn Hair, from Gueydan in Louisiana, took us to Lafayette in 2008 where we attended a wonderful seminar on dehydrating foods for the trail.

If anyone has a food dehydrator we could borrow for a few months, please let us know – we’d be incredibly appreciative.

Technology

Our Toshiba portable hard drive solves a big problem for us; we are deeply relieved that we have it. It’s not completely organized yet – that’ll take some more time and attention, but again, we’re a lot farther ahead.

I’m looking at replacing my laptop which is almost six years old (though it’s still running strong) for something lighter, and something with more USB ports. I need an upgraded wi-fi card with newer antennas, and we are thinking about upgrading to Windows 7 and Office 2010.

I’ve also been looking for an affordable world band GSM phone. Alex loves his Motorola Droid, and they do have a GSM version, but that version doesn’t get great reviews.

We need a good GPS and we need a world band shortwave radio for our south-of-the border years. I’ve researched extensively, but haven’t found anything that suits our needs and is affordable. Suggestions, anyone?

In addition to all the other organization, we’ve done more mundane things, like fixing the elastic on our fleece pants and sewing up Chelsea’s sleep sack. We’ll be in such good shape when we go!

Purchases and New Zealand

The next thing we are looking to do is to raise about $800 by mid-June for the purchase of clothing from New Zealand. We’ve been looking extensively at specific wool jerseys, rain jackets, and riding capris for over four years. I still haven’t found anything better than what Ground Effect in New Zealand carries.

One day on one of our many trips to our local Home Depot we ran into a neighbor of ours. After chatting awhile we discovered that she is from New Zealand and is heading back there for a visit for the first time in several years, to the same town where Ground Effect is located. She has very graciously offered to buy our clothing and bring it back with her, saving us shipping and possible customs fees. Needless to say we are pretty darn excited about it, but we do need to pull enough together to send her off with the cash to buy what we need.

Leaving

When all is said and done, we will be readier than ever for a vastly improved experience on the bike trip. We’ll be organized, we’ll have what we need, and we’ll be a lot more comfortable and secure.

It’s time to finish up this entry for today – we need to eat and I still have to caption several photo albums. I’ll write tomorrow on our riding plans for the next section.

Paul and Denise and Chandler

My oldest son Paul lives with his wife Denise and son Chandler in Fort Lauderdale. Paul and Denise are extremely busy and that might be understating the case; they are real estate agents – Denise is also a mortgage broker. With the mess the real estate market is in here in South Florida, they work every day, often up to eighteen hours a day. Sunday is their only day off, and they are usually incommunicado, needing to recover to be ready for the week.

Chelsea and I don’t have a car, Paul and family live forty-five minutes away by car, and it’s a miserable long bike ride down there. That means we see them intermittently at best.

I couldn’t stand it any longer, so in early February we borrowed Ivar’s van to take a drum set back to its owner, down in south Palm Beach County. I called Paul and asked if we could keep coming down to Broward and visit them.

We had more fun than I’ve had in ages. The good thing about Paul and Denise is that, no matter how infrequently we see them, we pick up right where we left off. They are both very funny and very smart; conversations flow fast and easily.

We loved hearing their stories about the local real estate conditions – it brought to life in a very real way the articles we read online. Swapping stories about being overwhelmed; talking about old family issues; covering Chandler’s life in great detail; talking about our own adventures on the road – we covered it all.

Chandler was a particular treat. Now twelve, he’s doing well in school and is going for his second black belt in karate. He’s really good-looking, really bright, really quick, and is forever grounded for one reason or another (Paul and Denise run a tight ship).

Early in the evening Chandler and Chelsea split a turkey wishbone, with Chandler getting the “winning” end. As he threw the bones in the trash, Denise said, “So, Chandler, what did you wish for?” “Well, I guess I’m off grounding now,” he said to the room in general. While Denise and Paul rolled their eyes skyward, Chelsea and I laughed till we cried.

Chelsea and I really enjoy Chandler and we want to take him with us on parts of our tour. He’s very, very interested – we have to get him a bike and get him out riding. We haven’t figured out all the details yet; we might try to go on a Florida tour this summer. We’d love it – three generations out on tour together.

What started out to be just a two-hour evening ended up with us driving away at nearly midnight, still laughing, and waving madly back at Paul, Denise and Chandler, who waved madly back at us from the front lawn.

Alex and Amanda

Alex, who lives here in Delray with us, now has a serious relationship in his life (her name is Amanda), so he spends most nights at her place. Rather than losing a son, though, I have gained a new family.

Amanda works with Alex at the Ale House (she’s a bartender, he’s a server), where Amanda’s brother Chuck (two years older than Amanda) is a manager. Formerly from New York, the brother and sister moved down to Florida a few years ago, followed by their dad. Amanda and her brother Chuck are close, spending a lot of time together (they live only a few apartments apart in the same complex). Alex really likes Chuck too, so the three of them are frequently doing things together.

Meeting Patricia

Amanda’s mom still lives in New York. Last fall, after Thanksgiving, Amanda brought Alex home to her mom’s house so they could meet. The trip was a big hit, with Amanda’s mom really liking Alex. Patricia, Amanda’s mom, even sent home with Alex two charming Christmas gifts for us.

In early March Patricia made a visit to Florida to visit her kids; during her stay here she wanted to be sure that she met us. Amanda, Chuck and Patricia planned a family dinner – Patricia had decided to cook an Italian meal for the whole crowd.

The evening was wonderful. Chuck and Amanda and Patricia hosted us at Amanda’s apartment; Tyler came with us, and Chuck’s friend Frankie came. With Cocoa, Amanda’s chocolate Lab; Prince – Chuck’s big Golden Retriever; and Lola – Kaleena’s little dog, it was quite a crowd.

What can I say? The food was great, we talked and laughed all night, the dogs were everywhere, and meeting Patricia was wonderful. We came away with a strong feeling of family, and we look forward to more get-togethers.

Easter Sunday

Amanda and Chuck are really good about holiday get-togethers; Easter was no exception. The day included Amanda and Chuck, Alex, Chelsea and me, Tyler, Kaleena, with Chuck and Amanda’s dad (also called Chuck), and his girlfriend Kat.

All the dogs were there in force – Prince, who’s really a lover but a very exuberant dog who thinks he’s a one-hundred-pound lap dog; Cocoa, who’s always looking for somebody to throw a ball; and Lola, Kaleena’s little dog.

We had all the usual fabulous food; the table was set in a festive fun manner; and Amanda had baked an ice cream cake in the shape of an Easter bunny. They had even set up the plan for an Easter egg hunt – the girls hid the eggs for the guys in Amanda’s apartment; the guys hid the eggs for the girls in Chuck’s apartment.

I haven’t hunted for Easter eggs in years…we don’t remember now who won the most eggs, but we sure had fun tearing apart the house to find them. Tyler got the award for most dedicated “hunter” – he did a pull-up on one of the ledges in the dining area to see if an egg was in a basket up on the ledge (it was).

Amanda sent us home with the remains of the Easter ham and the hambone, so I made split pea soup with ham a week later, sharing it with Alex and Amanda.

I think it’s impressive, even as horrendously busy as we all are, that we manage to see each other socially. I for one really love my kids – I feel like the luckiest woman in the world to have three such amazing kids.

Movies

Late in January an old friend of Chelsea’s (a former boyfriend) called and invited us to a movie and lunch. Needless to say we were delighted to accept. After a lunch at a local Greek restaurant, we watched Sherlock Holmes in theaters. We’ve only seen movies in theaters twice since June of 2007 – hard to believe…! The last time we were in a theater was with Lynn and Hansford Hair (and Lea and James) in Lafayette LA when we saw the new Batman back in 2008.

We didn’t think the movie (Sherlock Holmes) was that great, but we loved getting out to the theaters. Lior, Chelsea’s friend, came back to the house afterwards and talked programming on websites with us.

Meanwhile we signed up for Netflix. For under $10 a month (we’re sharing it with Tyler so it’s only $5 a month each) we can watch unlimited movies online and we get one by mail. Chelsea and I have taken full advantage of that; we’ve caught up on a lot of great movies, watched many classics (all the Bogie movies), and seen some really, really terrific films. It’s our favorite way to end a long hard day, or to “veg out” on our few rest days.

I can’t forget to mention that Alex came through with season five of House. We ran through the episodes in record time. I hate it that we have to wait till September to see season six – maybe we’ll break down and watch the episodes on our computers.

Symantha

We made a couple of trips to Whole Foods again for supplies, and ran into Symantha again – she impresses us even more every time we see her. We’ve asked her advice on any number of things, and she always has a very thoughtful, measured and informative response.

This time we took time to share some personal information – she started in the natural foods industry when she was really young – maybe seventeen years old or so. She’s now finishing up her master’s degree in art (I think art history) and will go on to get a doctorate.

I can think of at least ten different items that we wouldn’t live without anymore, especially for our trip, and Symantha introduced us to all of them. We wish we could clone her and bring her with us.

Alex and Amanda

Late in January, Amanda and Alex came over for a barbecue one evening. Great food – Alex ran the barbecue – and great company. We had a chance to get to know Amanda more, along with her dog Cocoa.

They’ve been over a few other times, too. It’s hard for Amanda being here as she’s allergic to cats, and we have two cats that spend lots of time inside, so we’re delighted every time she’s here.

Super Bowl

Talk about fun! Alex managed to get us tickets for Super Bowl at the Ale House. In honor of the occasion, our neighbor Ivar loaned us his sedan (we usually get the old work van), so we traveled in style. I was at the San Diego Charger’s games back in 1969 and 1970 (we had season tickets for several years – the only home game I missed was the Thursday Paul was born), so I was tickled to death to see the Super Bowl this year, knowing they’d almost made it all the way.

The Ale House closes down each year for Super Bowl and holds a private party. Admission includes a full buffet and an open bar. Everyone’s in a glorious mood. Alex introduced us to more staff – our waitress was Tiffany, who was just a doll.

We spent the night eating and drinking and shouting ourselves hoarse during the game – every seat in the house had a view of at least three large television screens. As usual, some of the staff came and sat with us off and on – Dave Havoc, Bryan Currier, Chuck, Amanda, Alex.

We had an absolutely wonderful evening – work the next week went a whole faster because we were in better moods from having so much fun.

St Patrick’s Day Eggs ‘n Kegs party

Last year Alex had a St. Patrick’s Day party that he dubbed Eggs n’ Kegs, though Tyler tells me that he and Alex were the only celebrants, with a brief appearance by Amanda and Kaleena, and another brief appearance of a roommate.

This year Alex invited Amanda and her brother Chuck, Amanda’s roommate Kaleena, Tyler, and Chelsea and me for his second annual eggs ‘n kegs party (Terry was here of course, and Amanda brought Cocoa). To ramp up the party mood, Amanda showed up with St. Pat’s Day earrings and a St. Pat’s Day hat for me; Chelsea got earrings and a headband.

The party started at 6:30 a.m.; we had our first car bomb at 6:35. Alex cooked hash browns and bacon, I scrambled up a pan of green eggs, Tyler did corned beef hash, and Amanda provided baked goodies. Breakfast was great – good food and juice – it was a feast.

We spent the morning horsing around, playing beer pong on the back porch, swimming, hot tubbing, and playing football in the back yard. Car bombs are a tradition for St. Pat’s Day around here, so we had two more before the morning was over.

Our part of the day ended by noon; the others had lunch plans arranged with Amanda’s dad. We were just as happy – I am definitely not used to that much action so early in the day. Chelsea and I were only capable of watching movies the rest of the day – the others came home and spent the afternoon sleeping.

We had an incredible amount of fun, but I’m tellin’ ya, we moved slowly for a few days after. Once a year is for a party like that is just about perfect.

Roller blading adventure

One afternoon Amanda and Chuck showed up with Alex. Chuck had his new bicycle; Amanda and Alex had rollerblades. Chelsea and I grabbed our bikes and headed out with them. We spent a couple of hours in the late afternoon cruising around our neighborhood on bikes and blades, getting some easy exercise. Once again, it was great to see someone else besides each other, and to get outside, especially getting exercise when the weather was so beautiful.

Super Heroes costume party

Last week both Tyler and Alex were invited to a Super Heroes costume party. Neither of them had time to think much about it till a few hours before the party. Chelsea and I sat back and laughed while they tried out several ideas; we helped out by digging for eyeglasses or whatever else they needed.

The guys finally decided on Peter Parker (Tyler) and Harry Potter (Alex). Check out the photos in our albums.

Baby Possum

About two weeks ago Chelsea hollered at me one morning to get outside. I can always tell from the sound of her voice when I should run, and this was one of those times. She was next to the pool with the pool leaf skimmer, apparently trying to fish something out of the pool.

She came up with a teeny little baby possum! Check out the photos – they are priceless. The little guy sat the in the skimmer for a few minutes getting oriented, then started crawling around the skimmer exploring. Within a minute or two he was hanging over the side, looking for all the world like a little captain of his ship.

When he started squirming around we carried him over to the very edge of the yard so he could squeeze through the fence in an area where he’d have a better chance of escaping the cats. We haven’t seen him again, and the cats didn’t bring any fur or skeletons home, so we’re hoping he made it out of his adventure alive.

Like the rest of the country, we’ve had our fair share of unusual winter weather. We had an all-time record breaking cold spell in January, and one of the coldest Marches in memory – in fact, it’s been the coldest winter we remember in the ten years we’ve lived here. As if that’s not enough, it’s been the wettest winter in years.

Spring came really late, along with a record pollen year – I’ve never seen anything like it. To make matters worse, we had looong stretches of twenty to thirty mph winds, often gusting up to thirty-five mph or better. Not only did it wreak havoc with the pool, blowing an unending supply of pollen, leaves, and grit into the pool (which then had to be cleaned out), but it made riding really unpleasant.

Riding

Despite the cold and very dark mornings, we have kept up our riding, although intermittently. When the alarm goes off at 6:15 and it’s cold and pitch black in the room, it takes a supreme act of will to roll our feet out onto the floor and get ready to go. Once we get out the door we’re fine, because we really love the riding.

We’ve been so tired with our projects that awakening to a fiercely windy day, or rainy day, or 35 degree day didn’t inspire us to want to ride, especially since we had a huge backlog of tasks to do. We figured that when spring really arrived and the weather got better, or we got rested, we’d start our rides in earnest.

Despite the intermittent rides, we’ve managed to have great fun every time we’ve been out. In late December and early January we only rode as far as downtown Delray; we’d sit in the gazebo at Atlantic and A1A and chat, then head back home.

Check out the photo album – we got some photos of the great chairs in downtown Delray. The chairs sit right on the corner of Atlantic and A1A for the use of anyone who wants a nice rest in a great spot. The chairs are Adirondack style, each one custom-painted to show a unique part of Delray’s heritage.

Haircut

One of the days we sat at the gazebo we met another rider, Jonathan. Distinctive with his cowboy hat, dark glasses, and beard, sporting panniers on his bike, he clearly gave the impression of someone who’s on the bike a lot. We’d seen each other several times, so when he spotted us looking at him, he called over to us.

We chatted awhile – he’s a real character – very opinionated about virtually everything and willing to share his thoughts and opinions freely. During our chat we discovered that he is a hair stylist, in fact, he worked for many years in and with some of the greatest salons and hairdressers in New York. Needing a haircut rather badly, I made arrangements to meet him the following day to have him cut my hair in Veteran’s Park.

Living in the Czech Republic, shortly after the fall of communism, I had some amazing experiences with getting my hair cut. This haircut rivaled those in terms of being an experience. Admittedly wired on caffeine by the time we met him, he talked non-stop. His first step was to pull a large tie-dyed piece of cloth, smelling like oil, out of his pack and fasten it around my neck. He then spent nearly an hour carefully oiling his scissors while he talked about his life in the hair industry.

While he oiled the scissors, he had Chelsea take a spray bottle to the public bathroom to fill it up. She told me later that she cleaned, rinsed and washed it three times before filling it up and returning (I thought maybe she’d gotten lost, it took her so long).

We needed cash to pay him, so before arriving at the park we’d stopped at a CVS pharmacy where we bought a small bottled frappuccino to be able to get cash back at the register. When he finally started cutting my hair (meanwhile I’d been sitting with this oily-smelling cloth around my neck for quite awhile) we saw him eyeing our frappuccino. After all the caffeine he’d already had, he then drank most of our frappuccino.

It was definitely an unusual experience. I sat at a picnic bench in the park, under an overhang, wrapped up in a cloth, for over three hours to get a simple haircut that normally takes a half hour. I was so glad when he finished! The good news is that the price was really reasonable, and the haircut was a huge improvement over what I’d had. I’ll stick to my regular guy next time; it’s only $10 more.

Boynton Inlet

By mid January we started riding up to the Boynton Inlet again. We love to watch our favorite boats go out, especially the Lady K and the Sea Mist III, local fishing charters. One day we saw a manatee in the water entering the inlet, but only got a shadow of it in our photos. It was great fun seeing it though!

Several times we’ve seen the Sea Tow towing in unlucky boats.

We love watching the fishermen, too, especially when the pelicans crowd around begging for handouts. Just last week we sat watching the pelicans watch a fisherman who was cleaning his fish. We had glanced away for awhile when the fisherman suddenly hollered at us, in a heavy accent we couldn’t place, to come over and take a picture.

As he waved a fish head and spine at us, we realized he wanted me to come over and feed it to the pelicans while Chelsea took a picture of me feeding them. For as many years as we’ve hung out near the pelicans, that was my first opportunity to get so close to them, and my first chance to feed them. What fun it was! You’ve got to check out the pictures Chelsea got – they’re hilarious.

Cyclists, Jamie, library

We see lots of cyclists, particularly on the weekends when there are literally hundreds of them riding, primarily in the early morning, coming through in pace lines of two to thirty at a time. The weekend riders are more aggressive and far less mannerly and friendly. We’ve discovered that we like the weekday riders much better; they are much friendlier.

One sunny and beautiful day we headed downtown to meet Jamie, a very dear friend of Chelsea’s. We changed shoes at the library downtown and walked our bikes with Jamie through the downtown area down to the Intracoastal at Veteran’s Park. We spent the afternoon swapping stories and experiences (Chelsea hasn’t seen him since Anastasia State Park in St Augustine in 2007).

We continue to make regular runs to the library, although we’ve been so busy that we’ve not read much lately. When we do want books to read, it’s very easy to stop by on our way back from the Boynton Inlet to check out new books, and drop them off early in the morning on our way up to the Inlet when they are due.

Delray Affair

The Delray Affair is a huge four-day street festival that takes over downtown Delray each year in early April, drawing over 250,000 people. We’ve not been there since we left on our trip, so Chelsea and I did our usual ride to the Inlet, then stopped back for the festival. We spent almost three hours checking out the booths, the people, the street entertainers, and the gorgeous arts and crafts.

It was a quiet crowd – there wasn’t too much to see that was outrageous; just lots of people spending money on arts and crafts and food. I should add that the goods for sale were really, really nice. It’s the oldest street fair in South Florida – this is the 48th year – and it attracts top quality craftspeople and vendors.

One thing we noticed that astounded us was the number of booths for animals, particularly dogs. It appeared to be at least 25% of the booths! And even more astonishing was the number of dogs in attendance, most of which were in dog strollers. I’d estimate the number of dog strollers was easily the same as the number of kid strollers. Amazing…

Yes, we finally got the money organized to get a new dirt catcher and filter. (Check out the before and after photos in the blog. It’s really astonishing.) Combined with two rounds of chlorine; running the pool pump with its new filter for forty-eight hours; and a last vacuuming to suck up the remaining bits of grit and leaves on the bottom – voila – a gorgeous pool.

The pool, with its sparkling blue water, looked like an ad for Florida, tempting us to leap in and relax on pool floats with a drink in our hands (picture tiny umbrellas and little chunks of fruit in the drink).

The bad news? We were thoroughly entrenched in a lengthy unseasonable cold spell, and being in the pool was the last place we wanted to be. We had hopes, however, that the weather would change soon. Meantime, Alex scheduled his second annual Eggs n’ Kegs party for St. Patrick’s Day, a month away.

Then the pool started turning cloudy again. We’d returned some things to Home Depot and had gotten a store credit, which we immediately traded for a leaf basket and a pool vacuum, but our new vacuum wasn’t vacuuming up the grit. Discouraged, we let it go for a few weeks, thinking it through – we were so busy with other things we didn’t have time anyway.

By the time March 17th was nearly on our doorstep, we had to take action. We could not have a pool party without a swimmable pool. My best guess was that we had a clog somewhere in the pipes, so we carefully looked at the likely possibilities. I zeroed in one section of pipe, which we might be able to take apart.

Too insecure to do it without help, we fired off an email to Mike and Terry at the Delray Pinch A Penny pool store, our lifelines and partners in our pool project. We sent off pictures, followed up with a phone call. Chelsea took careful notes as Mike walked her through the process, step by step.

Success was ours within the hour – we carefully cleaned out the pipe joint and reassembled it. It was so horribly clogged with leaves and debris that it was astonishing that we had any water flow at all. After the cleaning, we vacuumed again, and had to do another filter cleaning, finishing at 6 p.m. on March 16th.

We couldn’t resist tossing the pool floats in the water for St. Pat’s Day, though we figured it was still too cold for anyone to swim. It was, but that didn’t keep people out of the pool.

All that work, over all those months, was so well worth that feeling of success!

I can’t finish the pool saga without giving credit to Mike and his wife Terry at Pinch A Penny in Delray. We’d been so discouraged with the other store – I haven’t been so annoyed in a long time. Both Mike and Terry are unfailingly upbeat, and always gave us the lowest-budget option when they could have sold more product by suggesting something else.

When everything started working so well, with so little cash output compared to that “other” store, we knew we’d be loyal to them forever. We got to where we liked going in to the store just because we could always count on clowning around with them a bit – we never once left without a good laugh.

There’s even more – we had a spa vacuum that broke about four years ago, just a little piece, but the darn thing was useless without that piece. Trying to get sand out of the bottom of the spa is virtually impossible without draining the whole spa. On a whim, we brought the piece into Mike and asked if he had any ideas besides a whole new vacuum (a fifty-dollar outlay, minimum).

Mike looked at it and said, “Just leave it with me and let me think about it.” About two weeks later we got an email from Mike saying “Come and get it!” Much to our amusement and delight, Mike had carefully glued pieces of a pink plastic Q-tip stick in place of the broken part.

But does it work? Indeed it does. I couldn’t end the pool story without checking to be sure, so Chelsea just now cleaned the sand out of the hot tub easily, with our repaired spa vacuum. How can you not love people like Mike and Terry? Meeting them was an awesome result of our months-long pool challenge. Be sure to check out our photo gallery to see them, and to see the pool progress.