Miscellaneous Missives

#30 Checking In Map My Ride and caring physician  I love the Map My Ride app.  It gives me my route, distance in miles, miles per hour (even breaks down MPH for each mile).  When I bet a previous time (or even ride within one of my top ten times) for a segment of a route, I get and email with this information.  Today I woke up to an email congratulating me on my 150th workout since I started using the app (April 2014).  Celebrating small milestones is a good way to wake up in the morning. Also, this morning I received a call from my doctor's nurse.  She wanted to know how I was doing with the new asthma meds.  Since my insurance deductible starts again tomorrow, she wanted to get me in if I needed to be seen.  I told her that I didn't need to be seen, but I wasn't quite sure and wanted to experiment today on my ride.  "What if I don't take my one inhaler before the ride to see if the steroid inhaler I have to take twice a day is helpin...

#29 Foliage (natural plantings according to signs) along the bike trail and beautiful summer days! Today's gratitude comes from the foliage along the bike trail.  I kept passing purple, orange, and white flowers as I rode.  I wanted a picture, but I was didn't want to stop.  Finally, at an intersection, I stopped to take a picture.  It's another beautiful day along the bike trail. Every summer is beautiful, but I feel the days this summer have been especially wonderful.  My bike ride today was fabulous, and now I will spend the remainder of the afternoon outside reading.  When people ask me if I have any big plans for the summer, the answer is really no.  I'm biking and reading and enjoying.   As I was typing this post, I received an email from a friend who is going to ride into Cedar Falls with me on RAGBRAI.  We'll certainly be able to get caught up as we ride!  Once again, life is good. 

#28 fellow cyclist and great friend KK and coming home fellow blogers Sometime this spring, I invited friends on Facebook to join my for the Fulton Gran Fondo.  My friend J said she would join me.  Four weeks before the ride, we started training.  When the ride was finished, I continued riding for RAGBRAI following the training schedule, and J joined me for the long rids (50, 60, 65) each week.  She always refers to herself as the "support staff", but the reality is she's the stronger cyclist.  This last weekend we cycled the University of Okoboji Campus Ride.  It was a wonderful weekend.  Next weekend we are riding the metric century (61.5 miles) Tour D'Amico.   I've really enjoyed this rides and am thankful to have someone with me to keep me going. Today I came home to KK who was a bit crabby at first.  As I continued to unpack and get laundry started, he conked out on the bed.  It's good to go away, but it's also good to come ...

#27 Dan Price An Amazing Story Dan Price, founder and CEO of Gravity Payments , if you haven't heard of him go find the Google machine.  While watching the news (NBC Nightly News) tonight, I learned about this man.  Basically, he took a pay cut, so he could raise the minimum wage for his employes to $70,000 a year.  A classroom wrote him letters, and he visited their class.  He told them if they kept writing him a letter a year, he would give them $1000 scholarship when they graduated.  This guy is amazing.  Wow!  What would the world be like with more people like Dan Price? Also today was the perfect day for the University of Okoboji Campus Ride!

#26 I'm thankful for Sugar Babies and God's Country. J and I are in God's Country sitting on the deck geeking on the internet, eating Sugar Babies, and looking through booklet for the 31st Annual University of Okoboji Campus Ride.  It's a lazy evening as we prepare for tomorrow's ride.

The Daily Show Get More: Daily Show Full Episodes , The Daily Show on Facebook , Daily Show Video Archive Al Franken and Jon Stewart-- What's not to like?  What's not a gratitude if it's not these two men?  Of course, I don't have an actual picture, but I think this video should count.  #25 I give thanks for Al Franken and Jon Stewart.  Heck, I'm also going to throw in the Supreme Court (nice job with today's ruling folks!).

#24 Thanks to all those who make my life easier! Today has been a day of accomplishing nothing and everything.  I've basically done errands, Midwest Mountaineering (stuff sack for borrowed tent... love this place), Apple Store (new battery turned into new phone), physical therapy (golfer's elbow is certainly improving), Steeple People (finally dropped of bag of stuff at the consignment store)...  Since I received a new phone instead of a new battery, I needed to update the phone.  As I was getting frustrated about the slowness of the update, I realized there was no update because I had no internet.  To alleviate my frustration, I went out for one more errand and found these guys working.  Thanks to all the "workers" I came in contact with today and those I merely noticed. PS Thanks to my phone as a personal hotspot, I was still able to post before my round of golf.