Training Log Archive: PG

Went down to Northampton (by car -- it does seem silly to drive to bike, but it happens....) to meet up with Phil and take a ride up in the hills on the west side of the valley, on a route he had picked out especially to make sure I did a little work.

A beautiful morning, some nice back roads, and quite a lot of hills. And I sure did some work. Mainly because he is just a little stronger than I am, so it was always a bit of a struggle to keep up. I could keep up, but I had to work at it. Also had to drink a lot more than usual, think I took 5 or 6 sips. Started with about a third of a bottle, now it's down to a quarter. Still probably enough to get a couple more rides in before I have to refill it. :-)

By the way, Eric Buckley would love Northampton's streets. Potholes everywhere.

So counting yesterday late afternoon and this morning, that's a little over 60 miles in not that long a time period, and the butt (and the hands and the neck) are not really complaining. Not so bad!

Back home, barely time for a short nap (30 minutes) then off to the eye doctor. When you get to this point in life, doctor's visits are more likely to result in bad news than in good news, so there is always some amount of anxiety. And I had been unhappy with my eyesight -- on my last visit, 18 months ago, I had gotten a new prescription for my glasses, for the distance vision part, and the result had been a great improvement, could read road signs better and (most important) could see a golf ball at a much greater distance, pretty much as far as I could hit it.

And since then my distance vision has gotten worse, the acid test being on the golf course where seeing a ball 100 yards away is usually beyond me.

And at the last appointment there had been mention of cataracts, not serious yet, but starting.

So some anxiety.

First thing, I complain about my vision. He puts up a chart and I'm struggling with the second line, and those letters are pretty big! So he put some gizmo up in front of my eyes and asks if that is any better.

Holy shit, yes! Well, maybe I didn't say exactly that, but suddenly I could read a couple more rows. And that was really cool, because maybe on the golf course I'll be able to do more than just see what direction the ball is starting in and then go try and find it.

So that was the good part.

But of course he had to examine the insides of the eyes, and things are a little off (a sheen on the retina, the optic nerve entry point is enlarged), maybe a sign of not so good things to come, maybe not. But the pressure is good (i.e. not high), and that's good as far as glaucoma is concerned.

Nothing serious enough to do other than say come back in a year. Could be worse.

And we're about finished, and I ask him how old he is because I'm wondering if he'll still be taking care of me for the next few years. And he says he's 55, but he figures he's going to be working forever, because he's supporting his ex and the two boys who are living with her, and he doesn't have any retirement savings. He's not bitter, just very matter of fact, he grew up in a family with 8 kids and you never got anything new. So he can manage now on not so much, certainly get what he needs even if not so often what he wants.

Interesting little conversation, a glimpse inside someone else's life, totally out of the blue....

And then off to the optician, a client of mine, order the new lenses, they are quite complicated and not cheap, various corrections for this and that, and he will put a rush on them so hopefully I will get them before we head west.

And then home, and another short nap, and then I can't put it off any longer, it's time for the first mowing of the "lawn" for 2010.

Yes there is a little gas, maybe it's stale but it should work, fills up the tank about 2/3. Push the little primer thingy to get some gas wherever it needs to be to start the engine, but the little primer thingy doesn't seem to be working, a leak or something. Yank the cord a few times just in case. Nothing. Damn.

So I think, what would Jeff do? Jeff sure wouldn't put it in the car and haul it off someplace to be fixed. Jeff would fix it himself. And I looked at the machine, not much idea what any of the parts were, but on top of the part above this little primer thingy was a screwhead. So I pulled a penny out of my pocket, and unscrewed it, and this long screw came out, and then this superstructure came off, and under that was this little container. And it looked like that was where the little primer thingy would deliver some gas to get the engine started.

So I got the gas can and wiggled it this way and that and enough gas game out to fill up this little container about half way. Put things back together, pulled the cord once and it started right up. Son of a gun, I am not totally incompetent.... :-)

Ah, but still somewhat incompetent. The "lawn" got cut, but in the process I converted a perfectly nice 50' hose into 3 somewhat less useful hoses, two of them averaging about 24.5' and the third about a foot long.

These sorts of things just seem to happen to me. I really don't think there is anything I can do about it.

C • What would Jeff do... 8