All posts by Greg

Cycling

[ Bogus September 30, 2020 ]

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With the calendar winding down to fall and its’ colder days, a week till we venture to Collin’s for a visit and forecasts again calling for smoky skies my options for a ride to Bogus were dwindling. That made today my best last opportunity.

Departure time was driven by smoky air forecast after 12P, how cool it was up at Bogus and an estimated 4 hour ride. 1030A was set and the temperature told me winter tights and a long sleeve base layer thermal tee under a jersey would be prudent. Got dressed, stuffed pockets with fig newtons and headed down the road at 1015A. Final assessment – I over dressed.

Over dressed or not I made it to the top. Here are the numbers:

  • 2:21 bottom to top time for the 16 miles and 3648 feet of climbing.
  • 3:58 round trip time for the total 42.3 miles and 4233 feet of climbing.
  • Max speed 38.1
  • Average speed 10.6MPH

Numbers reflect being off the bike for weeks over the last 2 months due to poor air quality and 6 week bout with bronchitis. Unable to log significant climbs or long rides to prep for Bogus. My longest ride had been 29.7 miles over a basically level route.

[See route details]

Firsts for this ride included stopping, to switch bottles around, during the brutal mile before the last mile of the climb. Within a few seconds realized stopping not a good thing. First number two was thighs cramping. Have to believe this was influenced by over dressing. Taking my normal 2-3 swallows of Gatorade every 15 minutes wasn’t adequate hydration. A third first was developing a craving for an ice cold Coke mid way up the mountain. Adhering to a belief that long climbs are as much mental as physical this helped keep my mind from telling me to point the bike downhill and call it a day.

Already looking forward to next years date with the mountain.

BTW the photo shows my new favorite gadget and a selfie at the top as I sat for a moment munching a Cliff Bar. Can’t recall if the expression was a celebratory yell or a muscle cramp. The roller aided in stopping the cramps experienced post ride. Received it for Christmas 20+ years ago from Paula.

Diversions, Soapbox

2020 Elections

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With all the turmoil going on in our country the November elections are going to be extremely critical for our future. Again, we are given less than stellar choices on the ballot for president. On top of that there are numerous Marxist Socialist Liberal Progressives on ballots across the country.

Those of us with thinning hair and widening waists understand the consequences if these wahoos get elected . Others can’t see through the smoke and mirrors and meaningless tripe spewing from the mouths of false utopian ideologue MSLP’s.

The choice though is quite simple – you are either for socialism or you aren’t.

Diversions

Glad You’re Here 2019!!

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Yee haw, l am so ready for the New Year to roll in.  Paula and I had a challenging 2018.  For me it was recovering from a hip replacement, a blocked intestine related to the hip surgery and a form of PTSD related to the blocked intestine ER experience.  Yea, it hasn’t been fun.  For Paula it has been putting up with me during these last few months.  Double not fun.

Highlights of our 2018.

We celebrated Paula’s 60th birthday by going to Honolulu.  Cheryl thought Honolulu sounded pleasant so she came along with us. Joining us there were Collin, Molly and Emily.  Paula’s cousins Bruce, and Dalene along with their mom Franny joined in on the festivities.  Plus Bruce’s wife Karyn and daughter Katie with daughter Emory were there.  Dalene’s daughter Breannan and her son Grayson completed the entourage.  An unexpected surprise were cousins Beth, Mary, Therese, Nan and Irene ( the Babcock sisters)  dropping by. 

Paula has begun her transition to retirement at CM. In June she reduced her week to Monday, Tuesday and Wednesday.  Four day weekends are becoming  quite enjoyable.  This will go on until April 2020 when she retires for real.

While on the subject of family gatherings in lieu of the annual Neu Labor  Day camping get together Paula and I along with Collin, Molly and Emily drove to American Falls to par take in Dad’s 90th birthday party.  Wow!  The Energizer Bunny has nothing on him.  Keeps on going and going and going.  He may end up making the Power County Press headlines.  Not necessarily as the oldest American Falls resident but as the oldest person to be arrested.  For details you will have to talk to him.  Has to do with a shady contractor doing a public works project abutting his shop property.

2018 marked Collin and Molly’s 10 year wedding anniversary.  Whoa!  Like where did those years go?  Shreveport is still called home for them.  Emily is turning into quite the charming southern belle.  Collin was promoted to the rank of Major while Molly separated from the Air Force.  She gained a position on the executive staff of a major local hospital.  Paula, myself and Leroy made the trip to Shreveport for Collin’s promotion ceremony.

Me?  I am still working on replacing our trusty ’97 Subaru.  You may recall this endeavor began over a year ago when Molly, never the procrastinator,  took the initiative and set me up with a local Honda dealer.  Who’d of thought there still wouldn’t be a new car parked in the garage by January 2019.  Seems the local dealers are unable to get a car meeting my specs.  Three simple requirements:

  • manual transmission
  • non – black interior
  • something other than white or silver exterior

Weird as it may seem it appears to be a near impossibility to get the  Mazda 3, Hyundai Elantra GT or Subaru Impreza hatchback models meeting those.  Hoping something rolls off the truck at a dealer by spring.

Wishing everyone a blessed and healthy Happy New Year.

Pithy Ponderings, Soapbox

It’s All In The Details

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Care to guess what government program affecting every citizen is comprised of:

• 2728 “core” rules
• Thousands upon thousands upon thousands of codicils explaining the “core” rules.
• Formulas like this or even more complex*:
B(a) = PIA(a) (I-e(n)) (I+d(n)) Z(a) + max((.5 PIA*(a) – PIA(a) (I+d(n))) E(a), 0) (1-u(a,q,n,m)) D(a)

Social Security!

Finding myself with considerable downtime and being the age where I could file a claim I thought it was time to educate myself on the labyrinth of Social Security.  Checked out Get What’s Yours from the library.  130  pages into the book and already have had some preconceptions about Social Security blown out of the water.  For example: those estimated benefit amounts they provide in the hardcopy statement you receive in the mail or via the online tool are very likely to be incorrect.  Worse yet is that the amount can be significant.

The book points out numerous examples of how the arcane rules of Social Security lead people to make very costly errors when filing their claims, how incorrect interpretations and advice by Social Security personnel negatively impact the amount people receive  and so forth.  All typical of any government bureaucracy.  Those who advocate the government taking over healthcare insurance  should peruse this book and ask themselves why they think a healthcare bureaucracy would be any different.

* This equation gives the benefit B, in dollars I presume, for a person of age a.

Soapbox

Major Increase to Vehicle Reg Fees Coming Unless . . . .

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Are you ready to begin paying an additional $42-70 per year to register your vehicle in Ada County while all those large pickups, delivery vans (think UPS, FedEx, etc.), school buses and  semi’s you see during your driving in the county will be subject to zero increase in fees? I stress this increase will be on top of the fee you are currently paying and only applicable to Ada county residents.  ACHD is proposing this fee increase and it will be showing up on this November’s ballot.

I am all for paying my fair share to maintain local roads.  I do get upset when the many heavy vehicles that cause far more wear and tear to the roads then my passenger vehicle will not be paying their fair share.

Read the proposal. The ballot language does a decent job of trying to pull the wool over the eyes of the uninformed reader. If you disagree as I do spread the news and then vote in November.

A bright side to this is that the common practice of Boise residents  registering their vehicles in low cost counties where they may have a cabin/vacation home is being scrutinized.  Many of these people have not been indicating that Boise, i.e. Ada county is their primary residence and thus keeping the Boise/Ada property tax exemption.  These folks may be tagged and subject to losing the property tax exemption. We can only hope.