I am... well, heavier than I should be, and because of problematic knees, I don't exercise as much as I should. Running is painful, and treadmills just bring the pain inside. On a trial gym membership, I discovered that the elliptical trainer was perfect, though - no impact to bring pain to the knees; unfortunately, my budget doesn't allow me to ( Read more... )

My right arm was really bothering me and making writing hard, so I finally went to see my doctor about my "repetitive stress injury" (RSI). Well... it turns out that what I have is medial epicondylitis better known as "golfer's elbow." My doctor said he'd never actually been able to feel somebody's ulnar nerve before, so it's pretty inflamed ( Read more... )

I haven't vented here a while, so I guess I'm due. Non-geeks may prefer to skip the next three paragraphs ( Read more... )

Yes, that's right. They're back. Girl Scout cookies ( Read more... )

 ... at least I had friends to help me up.

The cycling group communicates via text message, apparently, and I am now on the list. I received a text last night telling me that we would probably be going out this morning at 6 am and another this morning confirming that. We took pretty much the same weekday route that had so intimidated me the last ( Read more... )

 I took my bike back to the bike shop to see about getting the gears working. The guy there said there was nothing wrong, but that you simply can't count on using "cross-over" gears, especially in a bike as old as mine. That is, I had been trying to use the large (outer) gear on the pedal crank with the largest (innermost) gear on the rear wheel ( Read more... )

 I finally managed to go out with the cycling group on a Sunday ride. I met the leader at 6:45 morning services, and when he informed me that the agenda for the day was hill training, I almost backed out. But I didn't.

On my last ride, my derailleur kept slipping, so I took the bike to the bike shop and they made some adjustments. Well, whatever ( Read more... )

... I went riding this morning because I missed the group. I think that they were supposed to leave from one particular guy's house at 8:15 or 8:30 or something, but I am not on whatever list the guys use to communicate. My right knee seems to be inflamed, so I took some ibuprofen before heading out this morning. I was running late and got to what ( Read more... )

... and we probably climbed up all of them.

I finally had a chance to go out with the cycling group I mentioned. Four of us started at 6:15 AM today and rode for about an hour and a quarter, then stopped for iced coffee before heading home and preparing for work.

Boy, am I not in shape for this. The others have been doing this for three years and ( Read more... )

I have never been great at "small talk" - the ability to just start a conversation with somebody without a particular topic in mind. As a result, I usually need some kind of a hook if I want to chat; an observation I can make about a subject that interests them or a humorous comment on something they've said. Some people seem to be able to just ( Read more... )