ALMOST HAPPY NEW YEAR1
On Tue, Dec 30, 2008 at 10:21 PM, Bill Dowden wrote:
> OK, MR. MARK!! PANSY, HUH!! I’LL HAVE YOU KNOW THAT I, A GENUINE > SENIOR CITIZEN, PEDALED, MANUALLY (OR IS THAT FOOTALLY) UPHILL AND > DOWNDALE, THRU THE SUBDIVISION, ACROSS THE WIDE INTERSECTION, PAST THE > SCAREY CHURCH WITH THE BIG LAWN, UNDER THE TREES HEAVILY LADEN WITH > MISTLETOE, PAST THE HOME OF THE DREADED GIRL SCOUT LEADER, SHOWING NO > FEAR AS I PUMPED PAST THE STOP SIGNS, FIGHTING EXHAUSTION, STARVING > AND WITH NO WATER, THRU THE BITTER COOL, UP THE DALE AND DOWN THE > HILL, ACROSS THE CULVERT, DARING TO NOT STOP AT SAM’S CLUB, WHIZZING > BY THE MANHOLE COVERS, GRINDING EVER ONWARD, HUFFING, PUFFING, BRING > PRIDE AND HONOR TO THE GREAT AMERICAN WAY AS I GLIDED THE LAST FEW > FEET TO MY DESTINATION - A GLORIOUS ADVENTURE - ALL 10,560 FEET OF IT. > > > YUP, ALMOST A FULL MARATHON - TWO FULL MILES! FOR MY COMMUTE. > > > > > > (Yeh, your motorcycle wouldn’t like it - not even far enough to warm > it up. But, it was 15 degrees warmer than normal today…. And the > new Fuji hybrid rides like a dream. And all of that reliving the epic > adventure - think I’ll have a few more Christmas cookies….) > > HAPPY NEW YEAR, Y’ALL!! > > 
> > Bill > > HAH@! I love it! Yep, I know! but you can’t help being soft there in flora die. (How did Flora die boys, how did flora die, she died in Missouri! HAR! old song I remember from my mis spent youth!)
Actually, I managed to put about 2000 miles on my BICYCLE this last year before the weather turned too cold. the little Honda gets deployed when the weather is iffy or when I really NEED speed! Typically my Bike gets 1500 -2000 miles a year, my motorcycle about half that, my car about 2000 also and my WIFE’s car about 5000. My current car is an ancient rusted out Ford Ex-Coca Cola Cargo van with about 385000 miles on it (yeah, 3hundred and eighty five thousand miles! She won’t ride a bicycle and the 125cc HOnda won’t carry both our fat…uh …full size, selves. My dialy commute is about 7 miles each way. and I often ride my bicycle with my ENTIRE Balloon and magic show aboard! My part time business is children’s entertainment, which is why the two cars are a cargo van and a passenger van. I can HAUL stuff in either of them, but the dirty stuff goes into the three quarter ton cargo van.
Basically the cargo van gets used when I am hauling stuff during good weather and when the weather is too cruddy for riding on 2 wheels. There are super advantages to a bike. Last summer I spent maybe $25 on gas (filled the little Honda something like 5 or 6 times @ about $4 each time) for MY transport, while wife went through about $15 a week. But My bicycle got a LOT of use.
Oh, and I am not a fully acredited senior, but I am a…well, Junior senior citizen. with my grey mustasch and baldy head, I look old enough to buy alcohol without an ID check despite my youthful 55 years.
To make this somewhat Pond related, I have transported fish on my bicycle too! I adopted a large goldie from a Petco that had been threatened by the flooding last summer. A terrible thing. We had about 8 feet of water in our downtown area. some 4000 homes were badly damaged and aobut 400-500 of them will have to be destroyed. a large part of the city (about 20-30 THOUSAND people) were flooded out of their business, their home or both. Only one life lost to the flooding thank God, but the devistation was unbelievable. this wan’t a Hurricane, but for about a week we had a lake where the middle of our city was supposed to be. Getting from my home on one side of town to my Daughter’s home (and the grand children) on the far west side of town, went from a 20 minute drive to about an hour ordeal! All the east west traffic in the city which normally flows on 4 or 5 multi land bridges was funneled into an interstate overpass that is normally heavily traveled in any case.
Ugly
anyway, this is far too long, my apologies!
Papa Mark
Category: Philippines Internet Koi Society
