First time...........

Today was the first time I ever headed out for a ride when the heat index was over 100. Wasn't a very long ride (about 90 minutes) and I was very happy I didn't have any mechanical issues.

till later.

I am in charge...........

My boss is taking a well deserved vacation this week and I am in charge. It's been awhile since I've actually had the chance to run a bakery.

I was stuck on 3rd shift for 18 years, it was just me and the donuts.

So far, I have managed to not burn down the bakery or screw anything up....I still have 3 more days yet, so anything could happen. I kinda doubt anything bad will happen, everyone in our bakery pretty much knows their shit......I'd have to be a moron to have dumb things happen.

Been having tons of issues with my bike, first the clutch broke a spring and locked up. I didn't stress too much as this point as I have a backup motor.

Unfortunately, my back up motor wouldn't start. After that it was a comedy of errors between me and the vendor I bought my equipment from. After everything got figured out, the guy who built my motor is sending me a free motor for me to beta test.

Yay for me....somehow I started with one motor and after it's all said and done- I will have 3 brand new motors. I'm not exactly sure how that happened but I ain't complaining.

If you are new to my blog.....I am not talking about a motorcycle-I have a motor assisted bicycle.

Unfortunately, I have fairly bad arthritis in both knees and the motor isn't really a luxury, if I want to ride my bike....it's a necessity for me to bolt on a motor if I want to ride.

To be honest....I'd prefer to just be able to ride with a motor buzzing away behind me as I really like the peace and quiet of a good bike ride, but sometimes...ya gotta do what ya gotta do :-)

till later.

Nice to be back...........

After 2 weeks off the bike due to mechanical problems......it was nice to get out for a ride Sunday afternoon.

I'm not sure how the *real* cyclists cope with this weather.

All I was doing was making the pedals go around so it improves my range of motion and I was sweating like a stuck pig.

I can't really put any force into my pedal stroke because it hurts like a MF'er.

My lovely wife says it's good for my arthritis to get as much exercise as possible flexing both knees through a full range of motion and cycling is the perfect thing as I can use them and not have to put any pressure on them......the 4.4 horsepower motor I have mounted on the rear tire does all the work.

I know the hot weather makes peoples tempers flare, so I have been sticking to wide roads with large shoulders and mostly empty back roads.....I don't want to end up on this map.

I did about 50 miles today, rode over to Lancaster and back.....sounds like a pretty healthy sized ride, but you have to take into account that my average speed is probably close to 25 mph for most of the ride. The bike is probably capable of 40 mph, but 25 mph is quite fast enough thankyouverymuch.

I did have one small problem that I think is heat related, the centrifugal clutch on my bike got really hot on the last climb and got stuck in the fully engaged position...which meant that every time I came to a stop the motor would die......solution?

I didn't stop very much.

till later.

New motor........

Yeah, I know most folks with bicycles don't usually have a 4.4 horsepower motor mounted to the rear wheel.......

....but I'm different.

With this bad boy installed-it will hit 30 mph on flat ground-no sweat.

I used to be able to ride at 20-22 mph on flat ground with just human power-it's just nice knowing I have my little helper mounted over the rear tire ready to help out when my knee pain gets too bad.

Put the damn fork down.

Seems like we are getting hammered with a nasty heat wave here on the East coast.

While it's warm working in a bakery....you have to consider the fact that the bakery I work in is located in an air conditioned store......things could be much worse.

I've noticed that since I've lost weight.....I don't seem to mind it nearly as much as I used to. Some of our customers however.....lets just say that some of them wouldn't die if they skipped a meal or four.

We had a customer this week that was a very large framed woman, okay, lets be blunt and call it like it is-she was morbidly obese, probably in the area of 450-500 pounds. She was heavy enough that her ass was hanging off of both sides of the seat of her motorized mobility cart.

I'd say more ass was hanging off the side then was actually on the seat-you get the point, she was a big woman.

The part that gets my goat-she called me over the the front of the donut case so I could pick her out 2 dozen donuts.

2 motherfucking dozen donuts?

By the looks of all the other junk food she had and the half-dozen 6 packs of regular soda hanging off the sides of her cart-she isn't really watching what she eats.

When people like this claim that they are disabled and should be able to claim government assistance....that pisses me off.

Put the damn fork down.

till later.

So....where the hell was I for the last 8 months?

Let's back up to Thanksgiving week of last year.

After my dad passed away unexpectedly 3 days before Thanksgiving, I mostly lost the desire to write this anything on this blog or pretty much anything else for that matter....so that explains that.

In February of this year, a day shift job (asst bakery manager) opened up at another store and I applied for it and lo and behold- 18 years of night shift came to a close. I chose to work night shift so there was always a parent home in the morning for our kids while they went to school and since our son was a senior at the time- I thought it was a good time to have a normal life again.

With my dad's passing, I was able to use my parent's 2nd car to commute back and forth to work...so everything worked out ducky.

After so many years of working 6 nights a week and never really having a full day off ever....moving to first shift and being able to have an entire day off from sunup to sundown is like having a mini vacation every week.

I work at a smaller store and while it has had it's challenges, overall- I'm glad I made the move. There is a lot of work stuff I can't go into here on this blog, all I can say is that I am working towards getting my own dept to manage....the sooner I make that move-the better for me and my mental health.

One of the benefits of having a normal schedule is that I have lost a shitload of weight, as I write this-I have lost a total of 46 pounds and I need to lose another 19 pounds to reach my goal weight of 199 pounds.

Next time-who knows what I will blather on about.....I used to touch on quite a bit of politics on my blog, to be honest- I have lost hope of any thing good ever coming out of Washington, so I probably won't be discussing that subject much....it just pisses me off too much.

Maybe I'll write about how senior citizens and fat people that ride around in fat carts piss me off....who knows?

till later.

Gots me a new motor........

As many of you may know (or not) I used to ride my bikes quite a bit before I developed some fairly serious arthritis in both knees.

Here is a pic of my current ride.....notice anything unusual? Yup, my bike has a motor. Since I took this pic, the original motor I had on the bike was ruined by the 10% ethanol gasoline that is now sold.

Solution?

Buy another motor.....and use this stuff.

Problem was that the motor I bought lasted about 2 weeks before one of the head studs pulled out and it ceased running. Since the place I bought the motor from has very good customer service- they are shipping me a new improved version of what I previously bought and they are throwing in a new high performance carb.

From my past experience, this means I will be able to cruise along at 25 mph all day long with enough power in reserve to get up some of the steep hills we have around here. I carry enough fuel with me to go about 120 miles without stopping.

So, at some point in the next week or so, I'll have my bike back up and running and hopefully blogging and taking some pictures of where I travel. Having the motor on my bike gives me back my ability to get out and smell the flowers....so if you see me out there putting along and not pedaling....I'm not lazy- it just hurts.

I'm back........

Okay.....so I took a few months off from blogging. Quite frankly, I was burnt out, I pretty much lost interest last year after my father's passing in November.

That and the fact that I have mostly lost the abilility to ride a bike due to some fairly serious knee pain....I just sorta stopped writing.

I am gonna give this another shot and we'll see where it ends up.