First of all, before I share the oh-so-exciting adventures that make up my life, I should acknowledge the change of appearance that my blog has undergone! What happened?!
It was all an accident. I actually liked my rather boring looking blog. It was like an animal camouflaged in the wild... blending into the background... then,
WHAMMO!
You're sucked into the twilight zone of my life...
All very unassuming.
Now, it's all "I'm cute and whimsical, look at me!"
**Sigh**
Now I'm gonna be all kinds of famous... Paparazzi, appearances...
...Life will never be the same...
Yeah, right!
Really, the couple of times I have put videos on my blog with the old format, they kept getting cut so you could only see half of the video. I couldn't figure out how to change the blog dimensions, so I changed the template. This was a sunny design that I kind of liked. :)
So, on to my day!
This morning it was really windy! I laid in bed for a long time trying to decide what I should do. Should I walk? Should I ride my bike? Both? Neither?
Eventually I got up, put on my exercise attire, and headed out of my room. I decided to go for a ride on my bike! I was doing really good bike riding before my last surgery. At least 3 days a week. I bike at Miramar Lake for 2 reasons: 1. I'm not a confident enough bike rider to ride with traffic on normal streets, other than in my quiet little neighborhood. And 2. My brakes suck. The back one doesn't work AT ALL, even though I have taken my bike in to get tuned up AND tightened it myself, and the front brakes work if I grip the brake REALLY HARD; but then it makes a very loud, disconcerting noise that sounds as if I am torturing small woodland creatures. Not good. It does, however, work great as a horn when people are in my way as I ride around the lake. (That's called "Making it work.")
Here's a picture of the Lake. It's 5 miles around on the trail. This picture doesn't do it justice. I would have taken a picture somewhere else on the trail, with a better view, but I was concerned that if I stopped to take the picture, I wouldn't want to start again after not riding for so long. So, just imagine...
I got a bike rack for Christmas, but the windshield wiper on the back of my car makes it so it doesn't fit. Boo. That's another reason I haven't been to the lake in a while. It's a MAJOR pain in my arse to put my bike in my car. It's ripped the fabric in my trunk, and left a gash on my bumper. Irritating. But I'm always glad when I get it in, and get to the Lake... until I have to take it out... and eventually put it back in again...
Here's a picture of my bike! I got it for Christmas in 2006 (I think.) It's not a very fancy bike, but it gets me from here to there. I put the bag on the handlebars because the little pouch I had previously just wasn't cutting it. It was not enough room for my phone & keys. In fact, the last time I used it was the day it cracked the screen on my phone. Harumph. Banished! The one I have now is big enough for my phone, keys, a bottle of water (when I remember one) and my gloves (which I bought in the hopes that it would relieve "dead finger," but I forgot to wear them today.) One other cool thing: There's enough room on the front that I can clip my ipod instead of wearing it on my hip, so if I need to change the song or adjust the volume I can do it without getting off my bike. Always a plus.
So, with the wind resistance and my undissolved dissolvable stiches poking me in my rump, I was ready to be done after 2 turns around the lake... so I went one more time. 15 miles! That's good for 2.5 months of not riding, right?
One bad part of my ride: Apparently the warmer weather has sparked a great migration... of caterpillars across the road to the lake. At first I was thinking, "What the heck are those creepy, black things?" I tried to swerve. Then I realized they were fast-moving black furry catepillars... and there were JUST. SO. MANY!
OH, THE HUMANITY!!!
I tried to avoid them as best I could, but I think a few went to furry catepillar heaven... oops.
After I got my bike back in the car, I headed to the mall. I had to go to Sears and return some stuff I bought my dad for Christmas. I have to admit, my Christmas gifting was a bit askew this year. Didn't do a very good job. So, I took the stuff back and got the store credit. ('Cuz I had already destroyed the receipt.)
When I was done, and before I continued my journey, I decided to stop and get my eyebrows threaded.
The lady in the brow salon was funny! She asked me if I had had my eyebrows threaded before. "Yes, but not since October."
"Do you want an arch, or a smoother shape?"
"Whatever you think is best. You're the expert. I just don't want to look angry."
"Well, you look angry now. Where did you go to get your eyebrows done last time?"
"Horton Plaza."
"Oh, that was my manager. She's not very good."
HAHAHAHAHA!
She finished one eyebrow, and there was a definite difference - a GOOD one.
"Oh, I like that much better!"
"Yes, She (her manager) just trims the brows. I shape them. She gave you man-shaped eyebrows. That's not very nice."
"Oh! That's not good! Thanks for fixing them! Maybe now I'll be able to get a date."
"Oh, yes. This will help."
"Good. I was tired of looking like a man."
And it continued on...
By the time I got done, there were two people waiting behind me to get threaded. They heard the whole conversation, so when I got out of the chair the first thing they did was stare at my face. Hilarious!
My favorite was the end: "I should have taken a picture of you before and then after to hang in the front window, so people could see the great work we do!"
Ha! Ha! Glad I could help!
So, after the "trimming," I continued down the 805 toward my grandma's house to take my dad the Sears credit from his Christmas gift via a quick stop at Walmart. Here's my loot:
I got out of Walmart without anything additional to my list jumping in my basket. The deoderant was to replace the little one I keep in my glove compartment. I went to use it between my bike ride and the mall, but when I pulled it out, due to the warm weather, it had melted. (Plus the expiration date was 2/08. I didn't know deoderant HAD an expiration date...) The dryer sheets made my car smell GREAT, and the other stuff, well, I'm sure you can guess their uses...
On to Grandma's house!
I visited for just over an hour. I had been there awhile when I started to realize that my knees where really hurting. "Why? Hmmm... Probably from riding today. But man, my knees HURT!" Then I started to go back through my day. What had I eaten? What had I had to drink?
...Huh. Guess I forgot to do both of those things so far today. What time was it? Oh, about 3:30.
I drank a bottle of water. It helped a little. :)
Then my dad decided to share with me his most recent Christmas gift. He put it on...
Well, looky here! I happen to have my CAMERA!
I'll have to re-evaluate future "dad gifts." For sure. (Insert creepy, evil smile here.)
By this time it was starting to get near evening rush hour, and I decided that the wind had probably died down, so I wanted to go for my walk before it got dark. Granted, walking in the dark isn't really that much of an issue. But, I'm not quite to the point where I want to end up as an episode of "Disappeared" on the Investigation Discovery Channel.
While I was waiting for the light to change when getting off the freeway to go home, I took this picture. Bluebonnets!
Bluebonnets are the state flower of Texas. They cover the sides of the roads in the spring, and look beautiful! Full fields that look like sheets of purple-ish blue flowers. We should have more of them here. They make life pretty. :)
When I got home, I unloaded my bike and put it back in the garage. I reloaded all the "trunk-stuff" back in my car, and went for my walk. I got back right before the sun fully set, and before it got too cold. My knees still hurt, and my kidneys (a little) but I'm glad I went!
Then I came upstairs, took two Tylenol and have been drinking my second bottle of water for the day as I write this post.
Oh, the joy!
Caterpillar carnage and man-brows. Welcome to my Wednesday!
I hope your day was as eventful as mine!
One more thing to hold you over until tomorrow: Ricky Gervais is amazingly hilarious! If you have not had an opportunity to see his new show, "An Idiot Abroad" on the Science Channel, I highly recommend DVR or TiVo'ing it. I leave you with a trailer... (Since I changed my blog template to fit such things.)