Tag: sun

Too Cold To Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Well, it seems that Summer isn’t quite yet here.  I have been waking up nearly every morning at 4am to go out bike riding thinking that it would be in the 90’s or 100’s during the day so I’m basically trying to beat the heat.  Well, we had heat for maybe a week but then it was gone.

The last 3 days (including today) it has been too cold to ride.  Yeah I could’ve just gone out when the temperature was in the 70’s but I’ve gotten so used to riding when there are no cars when the sun isn’t up yet that I don’t want to go out during the day.

Friday I checked the weather channel application on my computer and it said that there were going to be thunderstorms so I didn’t go out.  Yesterday when I went outside to go bike riding it was raining, well more like sprinkling but you know how it goes.  It starts out with a sprinkle then next thing you know it’s raining hard.  So I just stayed in.  This morning it was so cold outside and I just decided to wait until when it was warmer and now it’s too warm even though it’s only 68 lol.  Well, the weather channel says 68 but it’s warmer than that outside.

Hopefully tomorrow it will be ok.  It’s supposed to be 85 during the day and it says that I should wear pants and a jacket at 7am for exercising because it will be 65 but that is a good temperature in the early morning to exercise for me.

I never thought I would say this but I wish the heat would come back lol.

Muscles Used To Riding

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Since I started riding the bike in the early morning before the sun comes up to escape the heat, I’ve noticed that my muscles are already used to riding the bike so I don’t have to ride every other day to rest my muscles.  I can ride everyday if I want to.  In fact, I rode for 3 days in a row.  Well, mainly that was to burn off some burgers and fries I ate lol.

But, I have no problem riding the bike anymore at all.  It’s like my muscles are back to the way they were when I was a kid, that’s how used to riding I am now.

I seem to recall last year when I started riding my bike again, when I first found out about the bike trail after summer was over from one of those city park summer guides, in the back it has a map of the bike trail.  So I got the bike out of moth balls, filled the tires, actually I had to buy a new tube for the front tire because it had a hole in it that I couldn’t repair with the new tire repair kit I had bought lol.  Anyway, I started riding and my legs were so not used to it and I would get down to H and 3rd and my legs were already tired and it was just 1 block away from my house lol.

So I would ride all the way to California and H and I was like screw this, I’m going back home and that whole trip was 1 mile lol.  Then when I got home my legs were so stiff from riding that 1 mile that I could barely even walk in the back door.  I had to sit and rest and I had to massage my thighs because they were just in so much pain from that pitiful ride lol.

I think I was riding like that for a week before I was finally able to go maybe 3 miles then went up to 4 then 5 which altogether took about a month before I was even able to get on the bike trail.

By the time I was finally riding the bike trail I could only go so far before I had to turn around and go back but eventually I was able to do 11 miles per day which was a little over an hour.

Now, I can do that 11 miles in just 55 minutes so I have to step up my ride and go further and go 16 miles just to make up my time which is about 1 hour and 16 minutes.  But that 16 miles to me now is no biggy.

Early To Bed, Early To Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily Blog, ExerciseLeave a comment

I’ve been going to bed relatively early every night like 9 or 10pm which is odd for me because I’m usually up until like 1am but I’m making an effort to beat the heat to ride the bike to get my exercise.

It’s actually not that hard getting used to waking up at 4:30 in the morning and leaving by 5am and back around 7am.

It’s really nice being out there that early though because it’s in the 60’s or 70’s at 5am, there is no sun yet so the city hasn’t had a chance to get hot yet.  By the time I get home it’s still nice out even though the sun has been out for at least 45 minutes by that time.

I think that it’s going to be easy to get my exercise done and over with by going so early every day.  I just need to learn to take naps during the day to catch up.

Early Morning Bike Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Bike, Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Well, I did it.  I set the alarm clock for 4am and of course had to push the snooze and when it went off again in 10 minutes I decided ok, I need to do this, I need to wake up and get ready.  So I got up, went and got a bowl of raisin bran cereal.  I read my emails which weren’t that many since the last time I read them last night lol.

I like to eat then wait 30 minutes to go, so 4:45am came and I left the house and it was pitch black outside.  Thank goodness for bike lights.  Although I didn’t realize until I got there that the back light wasn’t working at all.  It wasn’t until the sun came out that I realized that it was because the wire snapped off.  UGH!  It’s easily repairable.

What I especially liked about riding that early is that there are absolutely no cars.  0 cars.  Well, there were a couple but none that I had to worry about.  Of course being that early I had to stop and push the walk button because certain lights just won’t turn green unless the sensors detect a car sitting there and they don’t detect bicycles.

While I was on the bike trail that early in the morning before the sun came up there were no other riders which isn’t odd for me not to see anyone because in the daytime there are barely any other riders.  So it really didn’t make much of a difference.  But when the sun did start coming up I did start to see a couple of riders.

Even coming home with the sun up at 6am there still weren’t any cars.  I finally got home at 6:22am so I was gone about an hour and half but my total time was 1 hour 5 min.  Hey, I have to take a break during my ride lol.

Now that my muscles are getting used to riding I’m gonna experiment with going out again tomorrow and then the day after that.  I want to go out every day, not just every other day.  I want to get as much exercise in as I can because the weight is coming off.  So, we will see tomorrow if I go out or not hehe.

The Heat Is Gone

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I know the song is “The Heat Is On” but for us in Bakersfield, it’s gone.  This is for the time being.  The last few days has been really hot, like 95°F-100°F temperatures.

I went bike riding this morning and it was nice and cool but not too cold.  I thought for sure it was going to be a scorcher today but it wasn’t.  Although there were times that I had to pull over into the shade because the sun was beating me down.

I looked at the forecast until Monday and it’s going to be in the late 70’s to mid 80’s all week.  Then the 6-10 day forecast it shows next week is going to be in the mid 80’s too.  Even on May 1st which is usually the day the 100°F temperatures start coming.

Although, you can never rely 100% on the weather forecast because it’s not always accurate.  So perhaps by May 1st it will be so hot I’m gonna be bike riding at 5am.

Sunblock

On By Michel McDonaldIn CyclingLeave a comment

A few years ago when we were working on getting the house by the college ready to sell I bought some sunblock.  I forgot when we started but it was taking far too long.  We were supposed to be finished before summer time so we wouldn’t have to deal with summer but we became extremely lazy.

Well, Summer came and we were working outside most of the time and I have sensitive skin so I bought some sunblock one day before going to the house.  I didn’t know what to buy as far as SPF because I wasn’t clear on all of that.  So I bought 2 kinds.

Hawaiian Tropic Ozone with 70SPF because it was the highest they had.  I figured that this would be for me since my skin burns in minutes compared to most people.

Banana Boat Sport 30SPF for Darrin.  But we didn’t use it all back then so I still have the bottles and it’s a good thing I do because now I need it for the bike.

My arms from my elbows down are really tanned which is surprising that they aren’t constantly in any pain lol.  My face and the top of my bald head get red very fast and easy so I’m going to be using this for my face since I have a skull cap to wear on my ride.

I think for now I’m going to use the Banana Boat Sport 30SPF but when summer comes and it gets really hot I may decide to start using the Hawaiian Tropic Ozone 70SPF just to give me a little added protection against the sun.

It’s too bad an umbrella on the bike would just slow me down LOL.

Bubble On The Sun

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

Yesterday I was thrown into a total panic.  Just before Darrin went to work he told me about this story he saw on the news about this bubble that is on the sun and that by 2012 there will be a solar flare that will knock out all the satellites and will end all life as we know it.

Now, when you hear this what comes to mind?  I’ve watched the Nostradamus specials on the history channel and the discovery channel all telling that he stopped writing about what will happen in the future so they think that since there is nothing after November 2012 that it will be the end of the world.  Basically judgment day right?  Well, when Darrin told me that the sun will “end life as we know it” it put me into a total panic.

I was thinking all day that you know, there’s nothing we can do about it.  There is no way we can fill up a spaceship and board it with all the humans and animals and leave because we don’t have one yet.  Stargate SG-1 is just a TV show, not a reality.  The government can’t just start gathering people and animals and take them to Colorado and bring them to the Stargate and put them on another planet.  It’s not real.

The government might have some contacts with aliens from other worlds and contact them and ask for their assistance to find us a new planet and come beam us up Scotti and take us to our new planet.  But I highly doubt they know any aliens and if they did they’d probably want to eat us.

Darrin calls on his lunch break and by then my world is in complete chaos.  In my head people are running in the streets looting stores and turning over cars.  Digging underground bunkers which would do no good if the earth blew up.  I asked him what he was talking about.

He said that the ozone layer wouldn’t be enough to protect the satellites and they would basically turn off or be disrupted or something.  That the electrical grids would probably shut off too and we would be thrown back in time by 100 years, not literally but as far as our technology.  The earth is not doomed to destruction and Jesus is not coming to claim the souls lol.

WHEW!  Basically we wouldn’t have satellite TV or radio and they would have to find a way of repairing the satellites and/or replacing them and they would have to work on fixing the electric grids to turn our power back on.  We probably wouldn’t have cell communication or email or tv or whatever.  We would have to start reading again and the stores would have to use their brains to sell things instead of a cash register because no electricity and all…  And all the food would go bad because they need power to keep cold.

But, time will tell what will happen.  Perhaps they will have it all figured out by then and they will have Solar panels more in play than they do now for grocery stores and any other business.  People will be able to afford solar panels for their houses.  I need that because of my bipap machine.  If I have no electricity then I’m going to die because I have to sleep with a mask pushing air into my lungs, no air = no life.  I die.  So this isn’t good for me.  Unless I can lose 75lbs in the next 4 years I’m pretty much screwed.  That is if the fat is what is causing sleep apnea.  I don’t know that it is or it isn’t.

At any rate, now is a good time as any to start taking this diet seriously.  I mean, dead seriously if you know what I mean.  Maybe if I can lose all this weight then I won’t need the bipap machine anymore.  That’s 1 less dependant.

As far as my electronics are concerned.  I have a little solar charger that I can plug into my electronics to charge their batteries.  They also sell backpacks that have a solar charger on them so you can charge things so while I’m riding my bike I can be charging things like my mp3 player, PSP and Kindle (if I have one by then).  If the cell phones don’t work then it won’t matter if my cell phone is charged up or not.

If the TVs don’t let us see TV anymore then we can all start talking to each other again and read books and maybe the kids can go outside and play and get skinny again.  Perhaps this would be good for humanity to shed all these pounds of fat.  If the kids can’t play with their PlayStation 6 anymore because there is no electricity then they can go play Basketball 2.0.  I mean, that’s why people have back yards right?

Maybe the bike trails will be packed with people and they will have to turn it into a 4 lane bike trail instead of it’s 2 lane bike trail.  Who knows.

All I know is that 4 years isn’t too far off.  Yeah it might seem like it is to some people but I’m 38, going on 39 in a couple of months.  These last 4 decades have gone by too fast so 4 years is nothing to me.  4 years can come in the blink of an eye so be prepared for it.

No Energy Today

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I was woken up by the doorbell today at like 10 something am cause this guy wanted to mow our lawn since we have let it go lol.  I had already planned on mowing it today and so Darrin told him we were going to do it today.  I got in the shower to wake up then sat and watched TV for maybe 20 minutes and decided OK, I’m going to go mow the lawn.

I did our tenants lawn then I did the front of our lawn but not the side, I filled 1 green can with just all the cut grass but I really didn’t feel like I had enough energy to finish.  Besides that the lawn mower kept stopping and it won’t turn back on now so I’m going to leave that to deal with tomorrow.  The green cans go out tomorrow night so I have a full 24 hours to get it done (git-r-done hehe).

I went to the kitchen to make a ham sandwich for lunch and I got all the dishes from yesterday that I had no energy to do plus there is a dryer full of t-shirts that I have to fold and a washer with whites I need to dry.  I really need to get some energy.  I don’t know what’s wrong with me, I just feel very lazy today.

You know how when it’s a crappy gray day outside with storm clouds and you tend to feel depressed and it makes you lazy?  That’s how I feel but the sun is shining and it’s nice outside.  I don’t know why I’m feeling this way.

I also want to read but don’t feel like it and I have to watch the first 3 episodes of Dollhouse on Hulu so I can talk about that.

Maybe I’ll go make a latte.  I’ll have to go to Albertson’s on my bike to get some creamer because a latte isn’t a latte with just milk, it tastes so much better with flavor.  Yeah, I’ll go do that, I bet you then I will have so much energy I won’t know what to do with myself.

Delivery

On By Michel McDonaldIn Daily BlogLeave a comment

I was supposed to get a package this morning and the driver rang the doorbell but the batteries in our doorbell are dead or dying so we didn’t hear it.  They left a note saying they showed up but there was no answer and so I got a call from my pharmacy who delivered the package saying that they will call the delivery company about a 2nd attempt.  They called me back saying that I’d have to wait until 5pm.  I told them that the delivery company will have to bang on the metal door and I can’t count on Darrin being awake to get it for me so I gotta stay home until they show up.

I just hope they come before too long because I can’t ride my bike if the sun starts to go down because I don’t like riding it at night.  First of all the generator on the bike gives me more resistance, which isn’t bad if I wasn’t so heavy I guess because then it would give me a better workout but I would rather get that better workout when I’m thinner heh.

If I have to just end up staying home today and not getting any exercise that’s fine I guess.  I know it’s going to take at least a year to get this weight off so what’s one more day eh?  This just means that I won’t take Sunday off.  Normally I like to ride 5 days a week and take 2 days off but I don’t mind riding 6 days.  I actually don’t even mind riding 7 days but I do like to give my legs a break every so often to help recharge them.

I was just hoping that this Friday when I weigh in I will actually show that I’ve lost some weight.  I don’t see any weight loss so far from last week.  I could weigh in every 2 weeks, it doesn’t have to be every week.  I mean, actually I could weigh in once a month.  It doesn’t matter when I weigh in, as long as I weigh in.  I would prefer not having to weigh in on a weekly basis because it makes me feel bad when I constantly weigh myself because I feel discouraged when I do weigh myself.

Edit: The package finally came at 1:45pm and I had plenty of time to go on my bike ride but just decided not to.  I like going at 10am when it’s still early.

Getting Ready For Ride

On By Michel McDonaldIn Cycling, ExerciseLeave a comment

Just a couple more hours before Sergio, my neighbor, comes a knocking on my door to go bike riding to Beach Park.  I’m positive that I can make it all that way but once I get there I have to stop and rest before going back home.  I’m actually looking forward to actually making it all that way.  I really don’t know why I always punk out when I do go on my bike ride.  I mean, it’s actually a very good idea to go all the way there, this way I can stop and lay down on the grass for a bit to give me the energy I need to go back home.

I bought a new pair of sunglasses at Walgreens this morning for $10.  They are the wrap around kind, the sports sunglasses.  I’ve had 2 other pair but both have broken and I’ve ended up having no choice but to throw them away.  It’s my own fault for breaking them though so this new pair I plan to keep with my helmet and only wear when bike riding.  This way I’m not  having to hold them while I’m at the store and accidentally break them lol.  That’s what happened to the last pair.  Oops.

I’ve been doing laundry last night and today so I have clean clothes to wear.  Normally when I go on my bike ride it’s in the morning and I don’t ride with anybody so I just put on sweat pants and my hoodie sweater along with thermal underwear because when I go by myself it’s usually when the sun is coming up.  But since it’s a little warmer in the daytime I had to wash and dry my shorts and since I can’t wear my hoodie then I need a nice clean shirt that isn’t too tight, isn’t too loose.

Going to have lunch now before I go.

Edit:  I waited until 3:15 because he said he would come to my door but never did so at 3:15 I went to his house and he said he just woke up and had to get in the shower because a friend called and is on his way so the bike was a no go hehe.