Category: Off the Bike

The recent snow storm was warm so the snow was wet and heavy. When the snow plows cleared the state highway the almost blew the door off!

My main job today was to get things upright and stable. We shall see how it holds up.

The forecast had been for snow today. Sure enough when we woke up the flakes were falling. I spent about 3 hours removing snow through the course of the day. Then we watched movies and tv shows the rest of the day.

Stop trying to boil the ocean. Trying to take all of life’s problems and worries and solve them in one fatal swoop is a losing game. Instead take it a cup at a time. For example making a cup of coffee in the morning is productive and rewarding without having to involve the UN. (Technically I make 2 cups cause I am married and this post is about easy wins.)

My process for making morning coffee has evolved over the years. Before I met Kate I would buy most of my cups of coffee at a coffee shop. When I met Kate we had a coffee machine but quickly changed to a french press. There were 2 purposes for this:

1. It makes better tasting coffee
2. Its great for camping

We did the french press until I read about the AeroPress™️. It is easier to use than a french press and it makes a much better cup of coffee. We have used one since 2015. We tried a Chemex when we first moved into the house but went back to the AeroPress™️within a few days. It’s fast, has science, and makes a good cup of joe. Oh its also the easiest to clean.

My morning process is to grind 2 scoops of beans and heat the water up to 180℉. I pour water till the 3 serving line on the AeroPress™️ and stir up the grounds. I let that sit for about 30 to 60 seconds and then press for about 30 seconds.

The pressing not only moves the water into the cup it also presses air through the grounds. Similar to how an espresso machine works, but instead of steam it is just warm air. The effect is the same: get the oils from the coffee grounds out and into the coffee cup. Like an espresso shot you are left with a condensed cup of coffee.

At this point you have 2 options:

1. Drink the shot
2. Make an Americano by adding water

For the most part we add water and have large cups of coffee to enjoy while we eat breakfast. If we are in a hurry for some reason we just drink the shots and go. In just a few minutes we have delicious coffee and are ready to start thinking about making a second one. Easy win.

Today marks the shortest day in the northern hemisphere also known as the Winter Solstice. The earth has tilted on its poles with the northern pole as far away as it can get. From this day forward the days get longer until the summer solstice on June 21st.

My life is completely removed from the solstice and its affects on the planet. I buy food at the grocer and live in abundance. I have no concern that today marks the beginning of what are known as the famine months. Whatever food you have in storage is what is going to get you through until the new crops grow and are harvested in May.

This disconnect from the cycle of nature probably isn’t a great thing in the long run, but right now it is very comfortable. What have we lost by living separate from this cycle? Most work revolves around the work-week and work-day. The work-day has a pretty solid connection to the sunrise and sunset. A lot of us adjust our clocks twice a year to adjust for the change in the length of the day. There is no celebration of daylight savings though. We just keep on working.

The work week is a total fabrication of human imagination. The names of the days are related to the Sun, Moon, and some of the Planets. From there the seven days in a week relates very roughly to the yearly calendar. This disconnect from the astronomical year gives us the leap year, where we decide to just add a day to get things back in sync. What a system!

The traditional celebrations of the solstice have morphed into the Christian celebration of Christmas. The church leaders gradually adjusted their story of Jesus’ birthday closer to the solstice as a way of broadening their influence. Eventually we stopped thinking about the solstice and now focus on Christmas and buying things.

A little over a week ago I bought a new bike. It was the first new bike I had bought in over 15 years and I was very excited. As I rode it to test its size I realized it was too small. For the price I paid I need to have a bike that fits.

But I had bought the bike online from a company based in another country! Certainly the return process would be a pain in the butt? Shipping a 30 pound bike back without it getting damaged would be impossible right?

Wrong. I called the company on Monday morning to start the return process. There was zero friction about the return since it was within 30 days. They emailed me a shipping label and I went to my local shipping store. The lady at the store was surprised at the level of shipping label they had given me. I took that as a good sign and left the bike to be sent back.

3 days later the company had my bike and had refunded my purchase. I don’t know how it could have gone any better.

One problem is that they are out of stock of the size bike I need. The good news is that there is currently snow on the ground so I am not missing out too much. I still have my old bike and can go plenty fast on it. Also I don’t really need a full suspension bike. I am thinking of getting a hardtail.

I know that free returns are not great for the environment. For the most part we do not return much of our online purchases. In this case the purchase was quite large and the bike simply did not fit. The process was made very simple by the company.

Calling them was a little bit of an annoyance. Would it have made that much of a difference to let me click on a button on the website? I understand that they are not excited about getting a return. I wonder if they are able to sell that bike as new or if it has to be sold as refurbished?

What was also odd was that I mentioned buying another bike to replace this return but the person on the phone didn’t care about that at all. While they did not have my size for the exact model there is one that is cheaper. If the rep on the phone had mentioned that they could send out the new one right away I may have made the purchase on the spot.

Kate and I did get in a 1 hour ride into town and back on Saturday on the road. I think the high was 34F.

Last night was a friends birthday so we stayed up pretty late. This lead to us sleeping in this morning and deciding to have a lazy Sunday. Besides walking the dogs we accomplished only eating and watching various movies all day.

We started the day off with Get him to the Greek. This is one of the first movies I took Kate to that she really enjoyed. We had not seen it since it first came out and it was as funny as we remember it. This is a raunchy and offensive movie.

After that we watched a forgettable movie with Paul Rudd and Jennifer Aniston. For some reason we watched the entire movie.

After that we went documentary with The Alpinist. This is an adventure documentary about a Canadian free solo climber Marc-André Leclerc. Its a fascinating movie about who Marc-Andre was and the crazy ass climbs that he did. This guy makes Free Solo with Alex Honnold look like kids in the playground.

We got a couple of stand up comedies in but nothing worth sharing.

Overall we did a great job at doing as little as possible. We managed to eat most of the snacks in the house and I think the dogs had a nice time.

Until a few years ago I was not a morning person. I am still not a morning person but I get up before the sunrise pretty much everyday now. I have an alarm set but I generally wake up before it goes off. Once I am awake I have a decision to make: get up or snooze a little bit more. Not gonna lie I do hit the snooze button every so often.

Part of that initial waking up process is checking in with myself. How does my body feel? What is my mood? At first I just observe these things. I may be sore and in a grumpy mood but that is mostly just mental. Once I reset myself I get up and get going.

Morning routine is something I have written about before. Having a routine that you don’t have to think about is critically important in the morning. My mind is still waking up so decisions are going to take longer and doubt is going to creep in. My getting up and brushing my teeth and putting in my contacts I have already accomplished two goals.

Then I head for my workout room and get some type of exercise in. Lately it has been strength training as I prepare for our January rafting trip. I am going to be rowing our own raft down the Usumancinta and I want to be strong and capable all day. Find something to exercise for and setup your workouts to help.

After my workout I will start writing a blog post and making coffee. The workout helps me get doubts out of my head so when I start writing I have more focus. The coffee also helps with focus and I love the routine of making coffee and drinking it. If you aren’t a coffee person maybe tea makes sense. I think having the small process of making something before writing helps get the mind into the writing process. I will also make my breakfast smoothie around this time so that I am getting calories into my body.

This is my current morning routine. Its cold and snowy outside so I am not going for my morning rides. A colleague wrote about his indoor bike trainer recently and I will probably get one soon. I prefer to ride outside but its much safer to ride indoors right now. Being able to ride my bike anytime in nice conditions through the winter will be great.