A few nights I needed to make a phone call and reached for the cordless only to have it report that I have no line. WTF! I say to myself. So I check my other phone and no dial tone there. So off to the basement I go, this I hate as I've been struggling with a bat problem and try to avoid going there. Flipping the lights on, I walk over to the phone lines, hear a noise and damned if I don't have a squirrel problem as well. He takes off into another room and I follow along to see a destination. Looking around I notice that the vent flue of my chimney has a gaping hole in it! There is a bullet I've dodged for who knows how long! My carbon monoxide detector has never peeped at all. So after going for a ride today, I'll need to go down into the bowels of my house and work a temporary patch until I can get the furnace guy over to do a proper repair. What I find annoying is that the furnace and flue are not even 10 yrs old and it rusted through the flue. If I didn't like the neighborhood so much, I'd sell cheap and move into the local retirement community!

Last time I had a flue installed I insisted on Stainless Steel. Big difference in price but it avoids issues like the one your describing. Glad you dodged the CO issue, could have been trajic.

Well, at least now I'll no to keep an eye on it. I should take a pic because when the furnace guy and I went on the roof to check out the chimney cap, we discovered that the squirrel had chewed through the metal cap!

This morning I had to decide - work on the bathroom remodel project or go for a ride. It's a complete demolition remodel, currently in the drywall mud stage. Not my favorite activity.

So at about 100 miles into the ride, I came to a bridge out - I mean completely out as in gone. What to do - a 10 mile detour or scrabble across the creek? The construction workers had dropped chunks of concrete across the creek, making a haphazard walkway. Halfway across the creek, I wavered pretty precariously but caught myself and finished the crossing without incident. 140 miles for the day, but sadly I got home in time to add another layer of mud. I shoulda gone for the detour, I guess.

On the bright side, although we have no heat due to the power damper on our new furnace being broken, it's under warranty so not a DIY. Life is good.

Just popped in for a nightcap after a night in my local pub. No-one here, not even a barman, so I'm off to bed.

WTF ???
We dropped our land line service in 2005 and have had only cell phones since. Never have a problem of no phone service, etc.

I have a tracfone that I take when I'm riding out in the country but its mostly for placebo effect as I can go 1 mile out of town and have no reception. U.S. cellular has somewhat better reception but not enough for me to spend the money to switch.

Lightly snowing just a few miles east of Seattle on Cougar Mt.
First of the year at my elevation - about 800'.
Not expecting much accumulation.
But it does change the season.
For me at least.
Mentally.
Cheers.

to the freezer
for the Aquavit

May hit 83 degrees today....A little too warm for December but what the hell, it's Florida right?
Can't say I miss the snow.

Any body else have the "Empty Nest Syndrome" as a father of an only child/daughter?

We have been empty nesters for 11 years.
My 44 y/o daughter called a week before Christmas and invited us down to her house or asked if we wanted her family to come up and visit with us. She lives 1-1/2 hours south. We told her that Christmas is time for her family to be together and we would be ok. Every year we have a non-traditional Christmas meal. This year we had home made (from scratch) chicken pot pie with a small salad and pumpkin and mince pie for dessert.
We're happy.

My dad gave me his K&E Log Log Duplex Decitrig, from about 1948. I have about half a dozen, but no other K&E.

My parents indulged me with the K&E that had several extra reverse scales, and also a metal "speed rule" since we had interscholastic slide rule competitions at that time. I still have the warm fuzzies for the K&E because I learned basic trig from practicing on it.

I've long since lost my slide rules, and also the programmable HP (I think it was the HP-25) that I bought with scholarship money as a freshman.

*plop*

Newly 50. What's up in here?

Both kids out of the house, lots of time to myself. Thank God they're self-sufficient. I did something right. Downside is that, with snow all over the roads and no MTB, it becomes a struggle finding ways to fill time other than editing my manifesto.

Are you looking for ways to fill time?

I'm a bit overprotective since I was 37 when my daughter was born (only child). She turned 20 in Sept, and just moved to Florida with the deadbeat boyfriend.
The wife and I are separated right now, she's trying to decide what she wants to do with rest of her life.
Recently sold our big house with acreage in the country and moved to town.
I'm retired on disability so, no job to go to. Yeah, trying to fill time. Been riding my bikes as much as possible, going to start a Tai Chi class and do some volunteering. Thinking about some bike touring, maybe travel.

Do the touring, and make it big enough so it qualifies as travel. When I took early retirement I was living on my own. Almost the first thing I did was buy a touring bike and take off for two months, doing a loop from Toronto to the Atlantic, then back through New England and upstate New York to Toronto. Bigger deal for me than it would be for you, since I'm UK-based.

it was one of the best things I've ever done. It seemed to mark the end of one phase of my life and clear the decks for the next one. And I was glad I went alone, it meant I engaged with the people I met along the way rather than just talking to a companion. Hghly recommend it. Europe has some fabulous destinations for the bicycle tourist, if you feel like a temporary change of scene...

Empty nest....what's that?? Our 25yr old son and grandson are with us because of his verbally abusive wife just cant be lived with fulltime. We have 3 bedrooms and dont mind it much. Our other one, the gypsy-like "blowing in the wind" 21yr old daughter recently left for Phx area, probably on her way to Cali. She is gone couch-hopping every summer and somehow drifts back every winter. Honestly, my wife and I seem just as involved or moreso than when they were children with the exception of no diapers and we dont yell at or ground them anymore.

My wife and I will celebrate 37yrs of marriage this summer. Someday we will grab another RV and travel.

Wow, it sure quieted down in here. 3.141592653 or 3/14/15 at 9:26:53 I'll have a mouth full of Pi

Edit: Here's me eating a slice on Pi Day at 9:26:53

Come to think of it....pizza does qualify. It always does.

Whiskey, please.





Leave the bottle.

I prefer this

Jeez ... I love the Organ Symphony. And this version is amazing. For those who don't have the patience for the whole thing, skip to 27:15.

Alright kids I think ya'll have to get out more,got to get your exercise,,,,,

Do you "Pray" while riding?

I’m a frequent poster to Bikeforums, not only as an avid cyclist to communicate with the like-minded, but also to record my thoughts (“journal”) about my cycling lifestyle, which I would not write about otherwise without such a Forum as BF.

I don’t have permission to access P&R, and am not interested in applying, but I thought the topic was worthy enough to me at least to record my thoughts. Furthermore I think this topic will likely get buried in all the snarkiness on that subforum. SO FYA, if interested (or not) I have written my reply to the Pub 51 sticky thread on the Fifty-Plus Forum, because this thread is

And furthermore, as SammyJ, OP of the aforementioned thread wrote, “…How about you?
(and NO, I'm not evangelizing here!).”

I was disappointed to see this thread moved to P&R. For the first few years after I joined Bike Forums, I liked the Fifty-Plus subforum because while it was composed of like-minded cyclists of my generation, it featured posts about how cycling fit into a more broad life outlook (Weltanschaung). Nowadays, it seems much to be a mish-mash of topics that could easily be found in Road Cycling, Bicycle Mechanics, Touring or whatever…important and relevant, but mundane and not overarching.

Anyways, my reply to the removed thread itself, without getting into my specific theology, is that mostly my thoughts on the road are about work, family and more immediate issues; sometimes even composing posts to BikeForums in my head. On occasions I might ponder and give thanks for the Existence of Life and the World.

On my first major ride of last year, down in Rhode Island, I did adopt this roadside statue as an icon of my Guardian Angel of the Road. It reminds me of this Guardian Angel figure from the illustrated cartoon strip, who assumes that protective warrior image in times of danger to his ward.



One other spiritual benefit I enjoy more frequently and usefully on the Road is:

This thread may encourage me to more often ponder and give thanks for the Existence of Life and the World. (BTW, my job, to which I cycle commute also encourages such meditations, even more frequently than bicycling, but I won't go there... ).