Killer day on the trails at White Tanks. The blue trail that leads to the black trail I wanted to hit was closed, but instead of turning back to take the other way to the black action I jumped on the Maricopa Trail, and was kinda glad I did as the Klein is so light, fast and aero it excels at what is essentially flatbar gravel biking.

I got to ring the cowbell too. I didn't quite do it right so it kinda hurt, no blood though.

But it's a dry heave!

Yeah. It’s the humidity. Make me swear like a pig. You walk outside and feel like you’re in a steam room.

It’s cool, dry and windy here now. I have all my windows open. Loving it.

I try to keep a maintain a vivid memory of this one day in July in Rocky Mount, NC. Stepping outside on a breezeless day
Air was so thick we could hardly breathe in it and obv we got soaked in sweat within a minute.

That's enough to keep me west of the Pecos.

Touring through Kentucky we had a short day planned. I wore a tee shirt instead of a jersey in spite of the humidity. At the end of the ride it was like I was in a wet tee shirt contest. Had a hard time getting that shirt off.
Went to my friends' house in Arkansas and they had been having torrential rains. It was 95 degrees with 95% humidity. Steam room, like you said. It was awful. We drove to the store in his car with the a/c on and it was nice. It rained so hard we could hardly see the road even with wipers on high. Rain stopped and when I got out of the car it was steam room again.

Because we LOVE good corn and tomatoes, and can't get either here as good as PA, we used to visit The Folks in August. We joked about how it was to remind us why we don't live there. One time, it was 90+ degrees out, with typical August humidity. We were all huddled around AC units the way our ancestors huddled around a fire on cold nights. I had a question I wanted to ask Dad, but he wasn't huddled with us. I looked all over the house and didn't see him. Finally I headed out to the garden. Just walking from the house to the garden, maybe 50 yards, I was running with sweat. And there he was, at 91, on his hands and knees hand-weeding his garden.

That was Dad. That's not me.

Yesterday's ride was almost chilly at times - long sleeve jersey on May 29th? - but once I got going it was fine. I've been riding the Ironman, just because I wanted to. It's one of only 2 bikes that DON'T have an Avocet saddle, so it's more of a challenge to set up. I figured out a way to take comparable measurments, and the saddle was about 0.5-1 cm lower than prefered, AND it's got 172.5 cranks, so I raised it 7mm or so, and that felt much better. It's such a nice bike, much better looking than later tri-bikes became.



This pic shows it with its original medieval torture device "Bernard Hinault" model Turbo saddle.

We rarely, if ever, open our windows. Just doesn't work here. HVAC system runs 24X7.

First hot day riding this year. High temp heading into the 90s, and it was in the 80s at ride time.

Yeesh. We have our windows open A LOT. Some months it's most days, and even if it's 100 out during the day - it'll be at least in the low 60s overnight, if not the high 50s.

Well, "The Coast" is a pretty big place in Calfornia, and not all of it is crazy expensive.

If you get far enough away from the big metro areas, the prices start to become reasonable. Some examples, home median sold prices August 2025:

• Sonoma $832,500
• Ventura $937,500
• San Luis Obispo $935,400
• Humboldt $422,500
• Mendocino $469,500

We've considered moving, but our deal killers are capital gains tax and access to quality medical care.

How did you lose the tooth?

There are some more affordable places in Oregon. I thought about it but it's scary to just move someplace without knowing anything or anyone. I'd actually be ok staying here if the rent doesn't go up, despite the problems.

Can't you get an exemption from capital gains 1 time if you're over 65?

An existentialist would say that it's all voluntary.

No A/C in the Northern abode, but central air in the Southern digs.

My sister and husband moved to a coastal town in Oregon. They ended up hating it there, saying it was a "cultural desert", and they eventually moved to Napa.

There is a $500,000 capital gains exemption for a couple selling their primary residence, but for us that would cover only a small fraction of our home's gain.

We had a super windy day for our 100 miler today. I was a bit concerned about keeping up with some of the fast guys, so I did choose to ride the bike with deep section wheels. The winds were mainly crosswinds and a few times we got buffeted, it was unnerving but everyone did ok. Towards the end of the ride I hit a rock with my rear wheel. It ricocheted off to the side. I thought I must have pinch flatted as I suddenly slowed down despite keeping my power up. I dropped back with one friend and asked if my tire was flat, but it wasn’t. I figured maybe I coincidentally bonked, but that never happens to me. I then asked if my rear brake was rubbing. It was! I reached back and flipped the brake QR and instant power! It felt great.

Mrs. GJ keeps telling me she doesn't want to be "stuck in the middle of nowhere", but I'm not exactly sure what she means because she also doesn't want to be anywhere too crowded.

MTG was proposing a "No tax on home sales" bill, which left me in a quandary. On the one hand, it's basically subsidizing the well off at the expense of everyone else.. On the other hand, it would be subsidizing ME!

The kicker is, what is a median priced home?

One frustrating thing about looking for someplace to settle Back East is that if you set all the filters to what we have now - even excluding climate! - you end up with a Venn Diagram with no overlap.

If the gubmint ever throws money into your lap, take it regardless of your political values.

Oh, no, make no mistake - I'd take the money and run! But I wouldn't support such a bill, because it's a bad idea.

So is current plan to stay there indefinitely? Can you drop in an ADU for side income??

NMD

Almost looks like some kinda funky floor jack

My floor jack is one of the things that didn't come to Virginia.