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Pain is temporary. It may last a minute, or an hour, or a day, or a year, but eventually it will subside and something else will take its place. If I quit, however, it lasts forever. That surrender, even the smallest act of giving up, stays with me. So when I feel like quitting, I ask myself, which would I rather live with?

Lance Armstrong.

The last couple days  we’ve had heavy rain and the temperatures have dropped.  Currently it is 40F and windy.  There are only two seasons in Ohio, Winter and Summer.

Yesterday I drove 257 miles to participate in a banjo workshop in Bedford, PA.  I helped teach banjo and had a great time.  Looking at the pictures I am still incredibly fat and have a long way to go.

A bicycle does get you there and more…. And there is always the thin edge of danger to keep you alert and comfortably apprehensive. Dogs become dogs again and snap at your raincoat; potholes become personal. And getting there is all the fun.

Bill Emerson, On Bicycling, Saturday Evening Post, 1967

Went for a nice ride yesterday.  It was a beautiful day but time was not on my side.  I was with my mother for her chemotherapy much of the day with supper afterwards.  I decided to head out to one of the small towns near me.  I rode out to River Corners.  It is a crossroad with a few houses and not much else.  I had read somewhere that there was a gold rush in the 1800’s and for a while it boomed.

Riding there was great.  It was warm and the smells of Spring were everywhere.  From the smell of turned dirt from the farms to Spring flowers.  This is what I’ve been waiting for.  The ride was perfect.

Unfortunately heading back from River Corners I was running out of time.  I needed to be home by 6:15 to make my poker tournament.  Then I got lost for a bit and added a mile or so to my ride.  It was no big deal as I had the iPhone and was able to get back on track.

This is just the beginning.

Bicycling is a big part of the future. It has to be. There’s something wrong with a society that drives a car to workout in a gym.

Bill Nye the Science Guy

It’s amazing how simple things can change you.  I’ve been trying to drink more water since I started this quest and it’s been hard.  Then I found Fred.  It’s a flask water bottle.  The size and shape of the flask is perfect.  Plus it’s a thicker heavier plastic.  At the poker table I refill mine every half hour and have dramatically increased my water intake.  Such a little thing can have such a big effect.

Thanks to my friend Kerry for turning me on to it.

Let a man find himself, in distinction from others, on top of two wheels with a chain — at least in a poor country like Russia — and his vanity begins to swell out like his tires.

Leon Trotsky

I was browsing the internet and came across my favorite cover of a bicycling magazine.  

After your first day of cycling, one dream is inevitable. A memory of motion lingers in the muscles of your legs, and round and round they seem to go. You ride through Dreamland on wonderful dream bicycles that change and grow.

 H.G. Wells, The Wheels of Chance

Yesterday was a beautiful day and I had a chance to get on the bike.  My rides have been short and intermittent but fulfilling.  Although I had limited time (as always) I got a nice eighteen mile ride in.  For the first time there was no sluggishness in the legs, no aches and from the first turn of the wheel heaven.  As dumb as it sounds I was one with the bike.  I shifted unconsciously and rode and noticed so much nature around me.  It was total joy,

I felt like I used to feel twenty-five years ago.  I’m back.

A day without sunshine is like, you know, night.
Steve Martin

I haven’t been posting as I’ve been so busy.  I spend a great deal of time with my mother.  Her cancer is progressing slowly.  I’ve been on the bicycle nearly every day if only for short rides.  The weather has turned into perfection and longer rides will soon follow.

Now it is time for the summary.

Current weight is 256.7.  That is a 7.1 pound loss from last month. It is not the 8.2 pounds that I wanted to lose but I am happy.  I blame getting sick in the middle of the month and the horrid weather.  That is the past. Here are the boring graphs for those interested.

To me, Satan ultimately represents rebellion.
Marilyn Manson

Back in the late eighties I was a cycling fool.  When I tell the wife that she says I’m half right.

The summer of ’89 was hot.  I used to ride south of Elyria into Amish country.  I would take two water bottles and usually after an hour or so I’d run out of water.   First time that happened I was passing a farm with a pump in front of the house.  There was an old man sitting on the porch.  I rolled up and asked if it would be okay if I filled my water bottles at the pump. He told me to take as much as I wanted and after I filled them he invited me to sit on the porch for a bit.

The water was cold coming from the well and I put the one bottle back on the bike and carried the other up to the porch and sat down. The man and I hit it off immediately.  He told me about his life and family.  As he talked I took a swig of the water and my eyes bulged out.  The water was heavy in sulfur and hit me like a rock to the side of my face. I had to get back to my ride so I bid farewell and headed off.

I drank that nasty sulfur water and it was brutal.  It affected me in many ways and I can guarantee that no one drafted me after that.

Every time I rode south I would stop at his farm, load up on the sulfur water and have a nice visit.  One time he pulled out an old guitar and played a beautiful spiritual.  I took my turn with the guitar and played an old Mississippi John Hurt song.

This went on all summer long and as Autumn came in I rode up to his house and we talked and told him I probably wouldn’t be on the bike until Spring.  He said he enjoyed my visits but had a question.  Why did I drink that nasty water from the well all summer?  He said that he had city water and that no one drank from the well because it was so nasty.  He said his grandson drank from it once and called it Satan’s Well.

I went back a few months later and the farm was up for sale.  The old man had died right after Christmas.  I’m lucky that I got to know him and it was worth it, even if I had to drink from Satan’s Well.

The truth is you don’t know what is going to happen tomorrow. Life is a crazy ride, and nothing is guaranteed.
Eminem

Playing in four tournaments in a row this weekend.  I’ve cashed in three and I’ll be leaving for the fourth in an hour.  Yeah I know, this is a weight loss and cycling blog but it’s also about my life.

Due to the craziness that is my life I was barely able to get on the bike yesterday even though it was a beautiful day.  I hopped on for a short ride and immediately I could tell that my legs were coming back.  Plus I’m relaxing.  As I rode that short bit i saw some vultures, some wild turkeys and a fox.  It’s nice to live in the country.

It’s supposed to be in the seventies starting tomorrow so I’ll definitely be on the bike.  Now it’s time to get the miles in and take some pictures.

Everything…affects everything
Jay Asher

Life is funny.  You make plans in a vacuum and then everything gets in the way.

I’ve been playing poker and I’m butter, on a roll.  I’ve won or cashed in four of the last five tournaments I’ve played in.  Last night I was in a tournament and while playing got a message that my niece’s ex-boyfriend, now her best friend committed suicide.  Depression is a horrible disease.  I stayed and cashed in the tournament, nothing I could have done.  Today is another matter.  I will spend time with her and hope to console.

I went to Century Cycles yesterday and picked up a book called Pedaling to Lunch by Stan Purdum.  It is a collection of rides around the area along with history of the places and where to eat lunch.  I will be doing many of the rides and will preface them with PTL Ride #7 or such.  It will be fun.

To be idle is a short road to death and to be diligent is a way of life; foolish people are idle, wise people are diligent.
Buddha

I had a friend ask me what this blog and especially what I’m doing at this point in my life.  At first I wanted to say that I wanted to lose weight and get in shape but after a few seconds I thought about where I’m at and revised that.

Year and a half back I retired from a job that I had done for thirty-seven years.  The stress of that and my brother dying at the time was incalculable.  Six months later he died.  I did what I could.  Shortly after my mother was diagnosed with lung cancer.  Over the past year I’ve watched the person that I’ve admired more than anything fade, ever so slowly.

Back in 1997 my older sister developed a brain tumor and a year later died.  The very next  year my older brother developed colon cancer, the same cancer that has killed numerous people in the family.  He died of a heart attack during treatment.  All three of my siblings died at the age of 48.

I see this weight loss, this cycling, this effort of mine as a coping mechanism.  I see it as a way of taking back some kind of control.  As I age I realize how little control we have over our lives.  I’ll do what I can.