General Chat Thread - Please Participate
Replies
-
Good show, @Farback!
Recreational bike rides also increased for me during retirement, especially much so during the pandemic, because spin classes ended for a long time; double especially when my rowing club was closed temporarily (indoor facility in a public park, city rules); and biking has stayed in the picture since, because . . . fun.
1 -
Some skinny old dude I saw at the firehall gym.
2 -
While leaving the gravel parking lot at a farm market a few days ago I managed to drop my steel horse on myself. The back wheel slid on some rocks I guess. Fortunately it landed on me and didn’t damage the bike.
I was a bit bruised and beat up, but combat effective. Apparently dropping 550 pounds of bike on a 68 year old man is contraindicated. Back to full capacity this morning.
Follow me for retirement tips!3 -
There are two kinds of bikers; those who have dropped their motorcycles and those who are about to do so. Yeah, I've dropped every bike I've owned, luckily at low speed and never more than a scratch. The ego injury, however...
While leaving the gravel parking lot at a farm market a few days ago I managed to drop my steel horse on myself. The back wheel slid on some rocks I guess. Fortunately it landed on me and didn’t damage the bike.
I was a bit bruised and beat up, but combat effective. Apparently dropping 550 pounds of bike on a 68 year old man is contraindicated. Back to full capacity this morning.
Follow me for retirement tips!3 -
I don't think I've posted this here before. Maybe I'm just being a weirdo, but it makes me chuckle every time I go by it. (It's the former public phone box outside a local brewpub/restaurant near my rowing club.)
And yes, that's exactly what you'd think: A tin can on a string. (The electrical box to right of photo serves a car charger for customers, so it's not that these guys are just low-rent about things like the phone box.)
3 -
Ann, that's hilarious!! Good to see someone has a great sense of humour!!
How windy is it in my area of Prince Edward Island? Well... I think this is an apple tree in our backyard. Not sure... I don't know much about trees... but I'm fairly sure the tree should be growing straight up, not on a 30 degree angle...
0 -
While leaving the gravel parking lot at a farm market a few days ago I managed to drop my steel horse on myself. The back wheel slid on some rocks I guess. Fortunately it landed on me and didn’t damage the bike.
I was a bit bruised and beat up, but combat effective. Apparently dropping 550 pounds of bike on a 68 year old man is contraindicated. Back to full capacity this morning.
Follow me for retirement tips!
I'm glad you're OK. My second-to-last supervisor at the job I retired from had been retired for 18 months when his bike fell on him while he was working on it (or was he taking it off a trailer - I'm not sure). He got a blood clot in his leg, and it killed him. Be careful out there.1 -
I don't think I've posted this here before. Maybe I'm just being a weirdo, but it makes me chuckle every time I go by it. (It's the former public phone box outside a local brewpub/restaurant near my rowing club.)
And yes, that's exactly what you'd think: A tin can on a string. (The electrical box to right of photo serves a car charger for customers, so it's not that these guys are just low-rent about things like the phone box.)
Along the stretch of river I paddled on Friday is an old phone booth. Yeah. Funny stuff. There's a mannequin in the phone booth with a sign that says, "Have you seen my girlfriend?" The owner of that property also has a line hung out over the river that he hangs a four-pack of Rainier Beer from. Yeah. Good stuff. So on Friday I helped myself to one. I just tossed it in my canoe and had it at the take-out. It was a club trip, so not even one Rainier is allowed while on the water. I'm OK with that. My favorite flavor - free! Fun to paddle right under the little thing and reach up and grab one. Made me smile.
The day before someone I knew met us at our campsite and took me up to meet up with another fellow in a different paddling club to go rescue the raft he had to abandon a couple days before when he went under a log (novice crew on more advanced stretch of river), lost their paddles, and ended up in the ER for hours later that night. We paddled it four and a half miles to the next ramp where we rolled it up and stuffed it in his car. About a mile into our paddle, we found the cooler he had lost. We never found the paddles.
On the way home yesterday I stopped at the dam of a little reservoir to meet the dive club. I got buddied up with a novice. It was a reminder how far my dive skills have come. I was a novice once, and someone would look after me. Now I get to return that kindness. It did mean I had a pretty short dive. My buddy had a bit of a panic from down around 60 feet and bolted to the surface. I came up slowly (safely) and she was OK. We still had plenty of air, but I suggested we just drop down to 30 feet and swim back. She wanted to dive more, but I thought we should head back. I impressed myself by swimming right back to the place we had put in. During the pre-dive brief, I showed my buddy all my equipment even though I didn't expect she'd be able to rescue me if I were in trouble. I checked out her kit so I could help her if needed. I said I don't have any need to go deep. She said she likes to go deep, but there's really nothing to see down there. My plan was to stay above 60 feet, but we ended up down closer to 70. I brought us back up, and that's when she started to drift down the steep slope. She was able to come back up, but then she didn't stop. She just kept going up, up, up, and out of sight. I followed. I'm glad she was OK. I think one issue was she had too much lead. She also just didn't have good buoyancy control. I hope she keeps improving her skills.3 -
@mtaratoot, I'm right there with you on the integration of novices into our activities: Everyone was new at some point, and it's good to remember that and support new folks enthusiastically.
Every year for some years now, I've volunteered at each session of rowing club's learn to row class (sort of an "assistant coach" role, at this point), 4 days a week for a month. The enthusiasm is contagious, but sometimes startling. (My favorite was someone, late in the classes, who said "one more row, and I think I'll have mastered this".
)
They've now "graduated", and we're testing them on specific skills, after passing which they can start integrating into the club's normal groups and activities.
One of those activities is "open rowing", two specific evenings where an experienced rower volunteers to help carry boats, make sure folks launch/land safely, give tips, etc. I supervise that program, but don't necessarily attend every single session. (I'll go the first times for sure, because I'm coach-approved to observe/record the skills tests' completions.)
Besides that, I coordinate what's probably the biggest "friends rowing together" group, more recreationally oriented than a once-a-week that the classes' head coach coordinates. Our group rows M-W-F-Sa mornings at 8:30. I need the new folks to have passed the skills tests to be safe to row a single on their own when needed, but we usually try to get them to get in bigger boats (quads or doubles) with more experienced rowers to start, if we have the numbers to support that. It gives them a chance to get a little casual coaching, maybe focus on rowing skills without worrying about steering and traffic pattern, maybe sit behind a technically skilled stroke rower to copy movements, etc. Twice a week, that group is also getting coaching from the university's crew club coach.
Often, the new folks worry (especially in a quad) that their mistakes are messing up our row, but none of us feel that way. (Sometimes the "terrible" thing they did isn't even much noticeable to the rest of us in terms of needing to row differently to adjust.) In a month or two, if they join in regularly, they'll be a lot more relaxed . . . and more safe on the water.
It's a fun time of year, but maybe just a tiny bit more stressful.
2 -
Or some really sturdy 2-post staking system? But that can reduce trunk strength, too. And a really tall fence might help with deer, if those are an issue for you.1 -
Stake them for the first year or two. The trunks will stiffen up. The tall grass bends in the wind. Trees do too. Either that, or like they do along the Oregon Coast, they can become Krumholtz.
2 -
PEI doesn't have any deer. Plenty of smaller critter tho. I wonder if it's already too late to stake?
Or some really sturdy 2-post staking system? But that can reduce trunk strength, too. And a really tall fence might help with deer, if those are an issue for you.
Stake them for the first year or two. The trunks will stiffen up. The tall grass bends in the wind. Trees do too. Either that, or like they do along the Oregon Coast, they can become Krumholtz.
Not sure how old this one is... but I'm confident the tomato cage wasn't doing anything.1 -
Sunset from our upper deck...
4 -
Goals: Get back in shape, gain muscle strength, increase mobility and flexibility for overall healthy active lifestyle.
Just started the Macros thing and I’m sure that will be confusing for a while
Ive been into making “ bowls”
Greek chicken and Korean beef bowls for this week
4 -
Those are great overarching goals. You might want to add some smaller, more easily achievable goals. I can be anything from fitting better in your favourite jeans to specific numbers or distance of walks per day. Set yourself up for success by creating goals you are confident of achieving. Success breeds success!!ymnv7bt8hy wrote: »Goals: Get back in shape, gain muscle strength, increase mobility and flexibility for overall healthy active lifestyle.
Just started the Macros thing and I’m sure that will be confusing for a while
Ive been into making “ bowls”
Greek chicken and Korean beef bowls for this week5 -
Those are great overarching goals. You might want to add some smaller, more easily achievable goals. I can be anything from fitting better in your favourite jeans to specific numbers or distance of walks per day. Set yourself up for success by creating goals you are confident of achieving. Success breeds success!!ymnv7bt8hy wrote: »Goals: Get back in shape, gain muscle strength, increase mobility and flexibility for overall healthy active lifestyle.
Just started the Macros thing and I’m sure that will be confusing for a while
Ive been into making “ bowls”
Greek chicken and Korean beef bowls for this week
Welcome, @ymnv7bt8hy! That's great advice from @UncleMac.
I've found it really helpful to set what I call "process goals". Those are the things we actually do, i.e. actions we take. The outcomes - like fitness, strength, mobility, flexibility, etc. - flow from those actions we take, but they happen on their own time schedule and sometimes progress comes in fits and starts.
The actions, though, are 100% in my control, and I can be very specific in thinking about them and holding mysefl accountable. For an arbitrary example, if an outcome I want is to improve flexibility, maybe a process goal is to spend 5 or 10 minutes stretching every morning after getting out of bed. I control those actions. If I take those actions, flexibility should improve as a by-product.
In your case, an example process goal might be to hit or exceed your protein goal at least X days per week.
It's not necessary, maybe not achievable, to set process goals right away for every desired outcome. That can be overwhelming. It's fine to set one or two specific action-oriented goals, and practice those until they're mostly on autopilot, then start adding something new.
Wishing you much success!3 -
Nice job with the diver Mtaratoot. Despite lead dives in Jamaica old rescue diver habits are ingrained. The dive leaders have gotten used to and depend on me for another set of eyes.1
-
Nice job with the diver Mtaratoot. Despite lead dives in Jamaica old rescue diver habits are ingrained. The dive leaders have gotten used to and depend on me for another set of eyes.
The one time I did tropical diving (Roatan right as COVID was hitting in February 2000), we had a dive master. I'm used to "California Style Diving" where the captain anchors up the boat, we get a briefing, and the gates are open. We are on our own for being safe and navigating. Following a dive master was really easy. I asked her maybe the second day (after five or six dives) if she ~REALLY~ wanted me to tell her when I got to a half bottle of gas. I'd have to go get her attention which took away from the dive experience. She said (about me and my buddy), "No, you guys are fine and I'm not concerned about you." Clearly we had good gas management. I did sneak off for one little mission on one of the last days without checking in first. I didn't want to ask just in case the answer was no. I apologized to the (different) dive master when we got back to the boat. He said I was fine because as soon as he followed me I gave him a big OK sign and came back to the group.
I'm hoping to get out for some diving during this time of small tide exchanges over on the coast. Trouble is, it's so hot in the valley, that makes lots of wind on the coast, and that makes visibility go to just a few feet. Braille diving isn't as much fun as diving when you can see things.
2 -
Am I the only one who misses the Newsfeed? It is so much harder to keep up with the people whose progress I was following and from whom I learned some interesting things.3
-
Yup, I miss the Newsfeed too.nikkib0103 wrote: »Am I the only one who misses the Newsfeed? It is so much harder to keep up with the people whose progress I was following and from whom I learned some interesting things.
2 -
Hey everyone!
Now that my fitness challenge group is on a break for a month, maybe I can remember to pop in here more and post until the next session starts up. We have a chatty group and by the time I got done reading and posting, I had run out of time since I still work and have other activities.
Hope everyone is doing well and having a great summer! Hard to believe we are over half way through 2024 already.
~b3achy 😎2 -
Doing well here for the most part. Life is expensive but yeah... it's good!!Hey everyone!
Now that my fitness challenge group is on a break for a month, maybe I can remember to pop in here more and post until the next session starts up. We have a chatty group and by the time I got done reading and posting, I had run out of time since I still work and have other activities.
Hope everyone is doing well and having a great summer! Hard to believe we are over half way through 2024 already.
~b3achy 😎2 -
@b3achy, nice to see you here!
How's the SUP going - is it still going? If so, any races or great outings?
Things are fine with me, still doing lots of rowing. A feature of this particular summer has been lots of good local coaching, a couple of days a week from the local university's quite successful club coach, once so far from the local NCAA Div 1 women's varsity assistant coach (with more in expectation, and she's rowing in with us on other days), and a bit from our club's good learn-to-row coaches.
I keep recruiting more participants for my "friends row together" M-W-F-Sa outings, and with folks from this year's quite-motivated learn to row class now joining us, we're having as many as 9 people rowing together sometimes. Makes me happy!
One of the things I enjoy about rowing and the rowing club is that all ages/strengths can row together. Folks I've rowed with recently range from age 18 to 78, brand new this season to people who've been rowing most of their adult lives (30+ years in some cases), and from those total newbies to a Big 10 champion and some other high-level collegiate competitors. With sculling (the two oars per person version of rowing) we can even put those extremes all in one boat, and row together quite harmoniously and successfully.
2 -
I learned I became briefly newspaper famous in an article about the local urban farms (and how they relate to the local farmers markets). This was (kind of horrifyingly) a published photo of me at my favorite farmers market, looking both grumpy and disoriented, and standing in a shocking hips-forward posture. All publicity is 100% not good publicity, at least if this is an example.
On the brighter side, I went there again today, and got a perfectly delightful blueberry/lemonade ice pop, with whole blueberries in it. It was excellent, especially with temps around 87F (30.5C) at the time.2 -
I learned I became briefly newspaper famous in an article about the local urban farms (and how they relate to the local farmers markets). This was (kind of horrifyingly) a published photo of me at my favorite farmers market, looking both grumpy and disoriented, and standing in a shocking hips-forward posture. All publicity is 100% not good publicity, at least if this is an example.
On the brighter side, I went there again today, and got a perfectly delightful blueberry/lemonade ice pop, with whole blueberries in it. It was excellent, especially with temps around 87F (30.5C) at the time.
So easy to be self-critical. You look fine!!2 -
I don't see grumpy or disoriented. I see awe.
I see a person who has just spied a delicious offering across in the distance and is thinking about snatching it up and eating it with relish. Not relish the food. Relish the emotion.
I see a potential customer hooked by something amazing and unable to do anything other than go check it out.
So what was it you were looking at? Too soon for that winter squash you love so much.
Around here the Hermiston melons have arrived. They are the sweetest, crispiest melons I've found. Hot days, cool nights, and ample water. Mmmmm.....1 -
I'm not sure what week that was. I have a general idea what vendor I was looking at, probably. I may've been deciding whether I wanted the black cherries or not. But I still look grumpy and disoriented to me! I've been working on my posture, but this doesn't make me happy about my progress.
This video really made me grimace about my posture, too. I've been trying to improve it since.
https://youtu.be/RW8VzNeRIEA?si=0-XKki3rkPa3Jg-7
There: I have doxed myself. Fun fact: Much of the video where we're looking at the lineup in the quad (from one end of the boat) as they're rowing on the water is me in the cox seat holding the reporter's GoPro video camera above my head. 1
