681.0; 25.3
When one of the loiterers along the less-savory portion of the Joe Rodota trail says "Nice Bike," I want to say, "No! It isn't! It's a piece of crap!" (knowing as I do that people HAVE been mugged on this trail). I have really tried to cultivate an atmosphere of goodwill, courtesy, and friendliness around myself, and I trust that to work for me. My bike is pretty unique, also, and easy to spot, so maybe not as desirable for theft as it might otherwise be. Anyway. Good to get out on another temperate autumn day, and to get more than 20 miles.
You with the headphones? There are MANY more certain and less potentially painful forms of suicide--why don't you try one?
I kid.
My numbers as of today:
Total miles since start (July 13): 1031.2
Calendar days since start: 89
Average miles per day: 11.6
Total riding days: 50
Average miles per riding day: 20.6
October:
Total miles: 113.9
Calendar days: 10
Average miles per day: 11.4
Riding days: 6
Average miles per riding day: 19.0
I keep track of all this on the same spreadsheet where I track my blood sugar, and there is some general correlation between bike-riding and sugar levels day by day (the effect really is more long-term than daily, though). FWIW, then:
Average fasting BG reading July 1-Sept 30: 121.2
Average fasting BG reading October so far: 121.5
No need for panic! These are good numbers. Doc was pleased. 126 and up will get you diagnosed as diabetic. I'm taking a variety of medications that help keep that number down, but the exercise REALLY helps--and more, helps to "normalize": my numbers don't range as widely when I'm riding regularly.
Friday, October 10, 2008
Wednesday, October 08, 2008
Eh?
655.7; 18.5
Hearing aid fitting appointment today.
I have trouble hearing soft sounds, and individual sounds with a lot of background noise, and at work, I was having a LOT of trouble understanding people with heavy accents. Analyzing this last, I felt that it might be the different emphasis on different syllables common to some ESL speakers.
So, I went to get my hearing tested three months ago, while I was still employed and fully insured. These people thought they could do something for me, and they said it would cost $2500, with $500 going to me. I paid the $500, and was laid off the next week. At the point of being laid off, I would have canceled the whole thing except for the fact that it was already paid for, and I was pretty certain there was no way I was gonna get that $500 back.
So I waited.... and waited... How long does it take to prepare a hearing aid for a person? They didn't take a plaster cast of my inner ear or anything! Finally, about a month in, I called them, and they informed me that they were waiting for payment from the insurance company.
So I waited... and waited... FINALLY, last week, they called me to make an appointment for a fitting, and I went in today (1111 Sonoma Ave., Santa Rosa, hence Monday's 1111 blog entry title, and the ride to scout for a bike rack).
After sitting in a tiny room for 20 minutes with nothing to do, hooked up by a wire to a laptop, the doc (or audiologist?) came in and ran a few test wherein I could barely ascertain any difference between the hearing aids' being on or off, and when it was on, there was a tinny reverb-y sound to everything he or I said. Okay fine. It surely would take some getting used to, and they usually try to set it low and move it up gradually, so I was ushered out to make an appointment for a couple of weeks hence.
At that appointment, the woman nonchalantly added, "and eight hundred fifty-three thirty-five" or something to that effect.
Had I not been wearing a hearing aid, I wouldn't have believed my ears! Still I had her repeat it.
Upshot, she will run it by the insurance company again--"sometimes they are wrong"--and get back to me, so at least I get a brief reprieve, but jeeze! Eight Hundred Dollars is not small change, especially for the underemployed. And I don't really even need the damned things anymore, for now--the reasons I originally went are all but absent from my life now!
On the ride home, the wind noise was amplified so much I couldn't hear anything else.
On the lighter side, as of the end of this excursion, I have officially biked 1006 miles, in 87 days. Whoopee.
Hearing aid fitting appointment today.
I have trouble hearing soft sounds, and individual sounds with a lot of background noise, and at work, I was having a LOT of trouble understanding people with heavy accents. Analyzing this last, I felt that it might be the different emphasis on different syllables common to some ESL speakers.
So, I went to get my hearing tested three months ago, while I was still employed and fully insured. These people thought they could do something for me, and they said it would cost $2500, with $500 going to me. I paid the $500, and was laid off the next week. At the point of being laid off, I would have canceled the whole thing except for the fact that it was already paid for, and I was pretty certain there was no way I was gonna get that $500 back.
So I waited.... and waited... How long does it take to prepare a hearing aid for a person? They didn't take a plaster cast of my inner ear or anything! Finally, about a month in, I called them, and they informed me that they were waiting for payment from the insurance company.
So I waited... and waited... FINALLY, last week, they called me to make an appointment for a fitting, and I went in today (1111 Sonoma Ave., Santa Rosa, hence Monday's 1111 blog entry title, and the ride to scout for a bike rack).
After sitting in a tiny room for 20 minutes with nothing to do, hooked up by a wire to a laptop, the doc (or audiologist?) came in and ran a few test wherein I could barely ascertain any difference between the hearing aids' being on or off, and when it was on, there was a tinny reverb-y sound to everything he or I said. Okay fine. It surely would take some getting used to, and they usually try to set it low and move it up gradually, so I was ushered out to make an appointment for a couple of weeks hence.
At that appointment, the woman nonchalantly added, "and eight hundred fifty-three thirty-five" or something to that effect.
Had I not been wearing a hearing aid, I wouldn't have believed my ears! Still I had her repeat it.
Upshot, she will run it by the insurance company again--"sometimes they are wrong"--and get back to me, so at least I get a brief reprieve, but jeeze! Eight Hundred Dollars is not small change, especially for the underemployed. And I don't really even need the damned things anymore, for now--the reasons I originally went are all but absent from my life now!
On the ride home, the wind noise was amplified so much I couldn't hear anything else.
On the lighter side, as of the end of this excursion, I have officially biked 1006 miles, in 87 days. Whoopee.
Tuesday, October 07, 2008
Fresh Oil
637.2; 16.5
Occidental Road is being repaved and so has a lovely shoulder-to-shoulder coat of oil.
Autumn is definitely here, and it's nice to coast through whirling leaves and cool brisk air (and have perhaps relatively fewer people on the trails).
I think the little nubs on the sides of my tires are almost entirely gone now.
Occidental Road is being repaved and so has a lovely shoulder-to-shoulder coat of oil.
Autumn is definitely here, and it's nice to coast through whirling leaves and cool brisk air (and have perhaps relatively fewer people on the trails).
I think the little nubs on the sides of my tires are almost entirely gone now.
Monday, October 06, 2008
1111
620.7; 18.6
Oh the numbers! I had really hoped to get in the habit of regular "short" (under 25-mile) rides this month, and then got off track with work, rain, and the weekend, so now I'm playing catch-up. I now have my spreadsheet tracking average miles per RIDING day AND per CALENDAR day.
I have an appointment at one of the medical offices in Santa Rosa Wednesday afternoon, and wanted to see if there was a place to lock the bike so I could ride there. No bike rack out front of a medical center! Isn't there something wrong with that? There's a bike rack in back, at the STAFF entrance, where most people won't look, and I might have to walk around the building to actually enter after parking and locking, but...
Oh well, good to get back on the bike.
Oh the numbers! I had really hoped to get in the habit of regular "short" (under 25-mile) rides this month, and then got off track with work, rain, and the weekend, so now I'm playing catch-up. I now have my spreadsheet tracking average miles per RIDING day AND per CALENDAR day.
I have an appointment at one of the medical offices in Santa Rosa Wednesday afternoon, and wanted to see if there was a place to lock the bike so I could ride there. No bike rack out front of a medical center! Isn't there something wrong with that? There's a bike rack in back, at the STAFF entrance, where most people won't look, and I might have to walk around the building to actually enter after parking and locking, but...
Oh well, good to get back on the bike.
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