Sort of relative. Weather forecasts and then there is what is going on outside. I check the Sedona weather forecast several times a day, for me now concern is precip for a firm desert track. Blinders are not on, I am only affected by local conditions. Presently there is a cold and snowy weather event for the SW from here. Texas with almost zero temps and freezing rain. Even Arkansas is affected. Rolling black outs.  How to recharge electric cars? The joy of living my lifestyle is I can be where I want to be. I am not there and won’t be until the weather improves, if I even got here. Like last summer when I was in Oregon until forest fire smoke blotted out the sun and irritated my lungs: I fled  to where air quality was breathable.

Weather event here in possible snow showers then warming up. parked at cultural park in anticipation of return of favorable weather. Presently snow showers.

Been riding down at VOC over the weekend to stay out of long weekend tourist crowds. Except Sat I rode on the S side of 89A: SSS: Old Post, Skywalker, Scorpion, Ramshead, Ridge, Sketch, Ridge etc back to recycling center. Right at the start a group of riders pedaled ahead of me. Thought I might have recognized some of them which shortly I did: bike club riders. Peer ages, and they were faster than me. Reality is a fact: I am slow. And am less skilled. I followed them out to start of Scorpion where they regrouped and visited. I chose to keep on riding. They never passed me on Scorpion but they might not have gone that way. They would have been faster. I just ride what I can and the speed my body will give me. Dunno what their heart rates are but I do: I force my body into anaerobic state for many minutes during a ride. I don’t do sprints, I just chug along.

3 rides ago I checked my saddle height by propping myself upright then rotating crank arm down to vertical down and put my heel on the pedal. I noticed that I needed to rock my pelvis to make my heel rest on the pedal. Way too high. Somewhere along the way I kept raising the saddle to eliminate knee pain at the front of me my knee. Solution was to raise seat. Over time knee pain went away but I had no pedal power. I dropped the saddle maybe 1/2 ” which prevents rocking pelvis, seems my knees do not straighten and I do have power. Seems also my calves are not so beat which was caused by full extension of my legs.

Yesterday I rode out Llama to Little Horse junction. I carry my camera in the left side pocket of my pack. During my ride I frequently touch that pocket for the camera. Yesterday at that intersection I felt an empty pocket. Shit, too much distance between checks. Nobody followed me. I turned around and rerode the trail. And kept pedaling, no camera. Possible it was hidden by vegetation. Well, you find what you are looking for at the last place you look. As such, there was the camera lying smack on the trail right below a drop that shook the camera free. I put the camera back in the pocket where I learned finally that if I position it this way it is trapped and should not fall out. I carry the camera where I do as I can get to it with less effort to take pics. Lack of attention to details. The LED screen is shattered but I can still see around the damage. Carried camera lodged into the pocket today, never a budge, good stash.

Snow flurry clouds moved on.

I lingered inside the warm van letting solar gain. It was somewhere around 11 that I finally pedaled away from cultural park. Stirrup starts off downhill over patches of embeded bedrock chunks. Hand built. Today i turned onto saddle up which is longer and rated blue than Stirrup. Made junction with Girdner where the 2 and only riders I would encounter stopped briefly for me to tell some joke. I pedaled for 2 hr 16 mins for 16.5 miles. I was essentially all alone. Took Girdner to junction with Anaconda that climbs over a knoll that Snake goes around.  Descend Anaconda turn onto OK for a ways until the secret handshake social trail takes off that I rode till it joined Aerie right at the shallow descending grade with small turning berms on firm dirt. A hoot before the grinding climb up traversing some big knob. Descend Aerie playing with all the small trails tech features. Bike is  sure dependable and capable. Question: skill or courage? Skill means accumulation of knowledge of how you and your bike are able to negotiate this feature. Courage can be what is needed to make a feature that I have the skill to make but won’t attempt. Courage with less skill can be just going for it, maybe you make it and maybe you learned how to make it. I pick and chose pushing my limits as I gain confidence. The lowered saddle puts more power on the pedals and lowers COG. Noticeable. Legs and body are much happier post ride.

Several days ago I made electric fudge and I am still learning dosage. Tonight it was maybe 3 tbsps back at 5:30, it is now 8:54. Appears that i am affected and afflicted.

Pedaled out of Dry Creek on Axis, I like this climb better than Outer Limits and above Girdner. 2 miles.

Checked that trailer out: no license plate.

The latter 2 items are out of my sphere of influence, they will be what is outside. However, after 7 days of not riding  taking care of my body in its defeat of a chest cold. Days earlier I had a wet hacking cough telling me that  when it is below the collar bone rest. I might have ridden yesterday but I gave healing an extra day. I tracked my O2, pulse, and temp for a week. I did have a 100 degree temp that has since fallen to 98s which is warm for me. I rode today, sort of gently, with no ill effects. Lungs worked as per usual.

Lungs, it’s not about fairness but it is what it is and it is painful. Today I rested at Slim Shady and Coconino. I watched several riders go by, several in each direction. I watched them just sit an spin going uphill. Maybe I was able to do the same when I was their age….. But, that is the past, If I learned their ages I might have racked my memory to that age and imagine my performance. Reality is what I am pedaling in, accept it.

I pedaled from art show crowded outlet mall lot a mile up to access to FS trails at Bell rock. Right from the TH a mini ex track was laid on the trail, then fresh worked dirt. FS was using  a machine to build heavy duty water diversions. Dirt is wet and workable. Visited with a trail worker as he remembered me from last year. He said maybe March volunteers will be allowed to contribute to trail building. Soft loose dirt. Single track bypass, Over to Llama to its end at Little Horse. Turn left skip down the rock stairway, bounce over more big chunks, ride under each lane of RT 179, ride Templeton on the slick rock bench to Breezy drop in wash. Breezy to Hermitt into Yavapai TH, Coconino on the other side to that mentioned junction with Slim. More hikers than bikers.

13.8 miles climbing 1164′ in 1 hr 56 mins. X speed was 7.14. Turtle don’t move unless it sticks its head out. My speed is figuratively the same. I am still propelled solely my my mitochondria, ATP is converted to ADP, glucose converted to energy. Is my heart effort relatively similar to a younger rider going faster, performance common to his age. Some future ride I will be called an old man.

A guy set up his trailer at MP4 at the first spot. He was setting it up when I drove by causing me to drive to choice B way out the way. I appraised him as a taker because he occupied the spot but has not stayed there yet. He is legal but he chaps my butt because he took a spot and is not occupying it.

For last 3 nights I have stayed at what was once my most likeable spot on the left side of the road tucked up in clearing in the junipers. Stronger internet signal that here. Driver of white Sprinter pulled up and dropped anchor about 3 feet away. Saw mountain bikes on the back. Still I am steaming as he has intruded, he violated my space when more distant choices were available. We said Hi as I drove away in the morning.

Quarter of a cookie is kicking in. My vision is less sharp.

Enjoying the now  always working Propex. 44 degrees at 9 PM, elevation 3845′. Sundown was 6:08.

Back in college I was turned onto blues music , that enjoyment continues to this day, Friday. Back in Spokane an EWU college radio station played a 2 hour blues show on Friday evening that I listened to. I listen to the XM blues station all day long. Friday is blues, Sat is Willie’s roadhouse. Other days Outlaw country and NPR. Thursday I do my laundry.

Recovering allowed me to listen and watch the impeachment . Democrats documented events for history recall. He should be impeached and prevented from any future elected public office. Dog Catcher? Mar a largo employee pooper patrol would allow him to live there as an employee. Tragic thing is the republicans are siding with him and not enough of them will vote with Dems to impeach. The defense’s legal council is almost bottom rung. Because decision has already been made by trump’s crowd that having a better performing more expensive representation is not necessary which another poke in the public eye by dump.

Hey hey, the blues are alright.

Bedtime.

Another wonderful winter desert day here resting in Village of Oak Creek (VOC). Letting my body recover from what I imagine to be a chest cold which hit hard Friday driving my temp into fever range. Hard chest cough. Elevated pulse but 98% O2 saturation. Data is very important as I recorded those 3 vitals. At this morning’s check and reaffirmed moments ago the vitals are where they belong. Rest today because tomorrow is same weather. I will only know if it was / is covid will to be tested. I stayed the entire day out in desert. Stayed inside reading Killer Angels, the classic novel of the Civil War, the battle of Gettysburg. 

So, lungs need to be protected and the brain wants to be distracted. Solution: cannabutter. Yesterday I put a liberal piece of my creation on my skillet corn bread made on the stove top into my mouth and let the chemicals take over. Hmm, I lost track of dosage time, I felt “Huh”, as the day progressed. My butter lacks the pazaz. Help is nearby. I now have 3 cannabutter gluten free chocolate chip cookies not Tollhouse. Raw material is a mix of shake and flower of maybe I guess this looks like enough quantity. Cannabutter made with resulting unknown THC content. Important thing about learning from your mistakes is to apply those lessons. I quartered a cookie then entered it into my psyche. Now 2 hours later the effects of that action has long been felt. A quarter was more than adequate. The thing about eating is the buzz creeps up and builds all the while too far removed from the stimulus to make a change, raising the when will I top out question. You just don’t know what you’re going to get until you got it. Don’t try this at home as this has been performed without adult supervision.

Convicted felon facing the sentencing judge  asks the defendant any words before pronouncing sentencing. To that the defendant replied, ” Your honor, I feel like a bride on her wedding night, I know what I’m going to get, I just don’t know how big.”

Superbowl Sunday parked behind the outlet mall. First superbowl was 1967, the year I graduated high school. Perspective. XM radio needs additional money from me to hear the game on XM.

Remember manual typewriters that had a margin bell before you typed off the edge of the paper? Prolly not party telephone lines. This word editor does its programming intelligence to keep the right hand margin and words whole, and it corrects the spelling real time. Just keep hitting the keys and the computer will take care to eliminate correction tape. My parents gave me a manual typewriter for graduation and my college paid for. Typing was not main stream college prep course load, it was done usually by women in an office, not college graduates, the skill was not permitted in my education. Hunt and peck learning where the keys were for my 1 finger key pounding. I used many inches of correction tape. That manual typewriter and the slide rule are in the museum. I sure owe it to myself maybe, to teach myself touch typing. Facia is a covering over muscle that is said to prevent a muscle form completely relaxing, it is relived by, for me, a ridged foam roller. The brain is convoluted offering multitude of possibilities for bridging something like facia which stiffens the brain not allowing it to learn new things. Yeah didn’t Cliff on Cheers say something about that? 8″ portable black and white TV set was all I could afford on foundry labor’s wage. I have yet to learn if this is real or not but I will stick to it to justify my stick in the mud approach.

The past is so great because there is a lot of it, as one ages there is more time behind than in front. We can search our past for remembered events that are filtered for the desired emotional feeling we want to wrap ourselves in. Pick high spots and reward yourself. What does the future offer but uncertainty. I remember if he incoming call was long distance it was something. Paid by the second. Get on and get off as it was money. Hollering Long Distance brought the requested person to the phone quickly. Leave it to Beaver. Movie came from Moving Picture when it was introduced, it has ben replaced by digital projection yet they are still called movies. Recorded music was captured on a record and was hence called an album which might be a cassette tape. Yet music is still called album. I am safe with this labeling. To what will the future more descriptive names be and when and who? Early Christians coopted Paganism  by incorporating  same events till eventually the Pagan meaning was forgotten. The money people won out. Albums and movies, what will name change be?

See, my lack of blazing touch typing speed keeps my posts short, perhaps doing the reader a favor to free up more time for their choice.

Been listening to the classic music XM station all day. While under my parent’s roof on Sunday they played the OSU AM radio station in the car on the way home from church that played classical music such as what I am listening to now. Ah, reliving, comfort memory. The car did not have seal belts. Manual station tuning.

Off to the desert.