SD - Day # 18 - Kiosk, NFL, biking, and bumpers

After a brief blip on the weight loss front resulting from a one meal deviation from the diet Saturday night I am back down to 199.6 as of this morning's weigh in....now to stay south of 200 for good!

Our volunteer routine is pretty much set for the next month......we work Saturday mornings from 10 am to 2 pm, Sunday mornings from 6:30 am to 10:30 am, and Tuesday mornings from 6:30 am to 12:30 pm, and on Monday clean any of our two cabins that may have been used.  Sunday was pretty routine for a Sunday after fish have been released into our two fishing lakes.....we had a steady stream of fishermen during our shift, and by 9 am  when Carolyn came on duty we had sold over $300 worth of fishing permits.  The fishing permits we sell here in the park are only good for fishing in this park....they do not take the place of a California Fish & Game license which is also required, so we need to remind everyone as they come in to be sure and have their fishing license with them as Fish & Game does come into the park periodically to check.....the fines can be significant, including a lifetime ban on fishing anywhere in California if one is caught sans license.

I haven't mentioned it, but the weather these past 3 days has been spectacular......high 60's, no wind, and clear......exactly the reason one wants to be in SoCal this time of year.

TLE left the Kiosk shortly after Carolyn came on duty.....no need for 3 of us mid morning....and I stayed on until 10 am when Carolyn told me I could go home early....yay!  Of course, Sunday is NFL day and the first game up for me was the Broncos vs. Texans....Peyton Manning only needed 3 touchdown passes to exceed Tom Brady's single season record of 50......Peyton threw his 51st TD pass late in the  4th quater.  Ironically Tom Brady previously bested Peyton Manning's record of 49 just a few years ago, and now Peyton has reclaimed it.  He has one more regular season game so any more touchdowns he throws next weekend will just extend the the single season record.  The rest of the televised games were not noteworthy for me, so I spent time in the trailer working over the new MTB acquisition....I have a couple of people interested in it, so I won't take it apart for a few more days until I know if they want it.  This bike promises to bring a good return if I part it out....if I can sell it as a whole bike I'll make about a $100 and move on to the next one.

Around 2:30 I put on my cycling clothes and headed off on my ride to the top of Mt. Rubidoux once again.  There was no wind, and I was feeling pretty strong as I climbed steadily up the mountain path.  I was finding my average speed was closer to 9 mph, and sometimes as high as 10 mph so I was thinking I might set a new personal best time on this climb.......and a new personal best it was......23 minutes and 45 seconds for the 4.5 mile climb.....I beat the old time by 90 seconds!  Wow!  There were two more notable accomplishments on this day.....1) I didn't stop at the top to catch my wind....I just continued riding past the summit and back down the hill, and 2) I was able to stand in the pedals all the way down the hill without sitting on the saddle once.  When I was doing this ride back in 2011 I could do both of those things every time, so more evidence my conditioning is returning.

On Saturday one of the members of the Newell Gurus forum posted a link to an eBay auction for Classic Newell bumpers (front and back) for $125 +$125 shipping.  The market for these old bumpers, as you might imagine, is pretty narrow.  Those of you who have been reading my blog for a long time know that back in July of 2012 I damaged the right rear portion of my rear bumper when I jack knifed my trailer backing up.  Newell still stocks these bumpers, but the cost is quite high....about $700 for one bumper....so I had essentially resigned myself to living with the bumper I had, and just having it straightened out.  When we were visiting our friends, the Flickemas, in South Dakota this past June to help them with some work on their 1984 Newell I noticed their front bumper had damage from the previous owners.  Todd happens to live about 60 miles from the gentleman who is selling the bumpers, so I contacted him and asked if he wanted the front bumper, and of course he said yes, and that he would go pick them up if we won the auction.....well....we won the auction!  So we are splitting the $125 down the middle, and Todd will go pick them up in the next 2 weeks.  We will then swing north sometime in April and stop by to visit them once again, and pick up the rear bumper.....how amazing is that?   The bumpers appear to be "new old stock".

Look at that pristine rear bumper.....the front bumper is in three pieces just like ours.

After returning from my record setting bike ride I took a shower and settled in to watch what was left of NFL Sunday while eating my Subway Hot Pastrami sub.....a reward for my great bike ride....a few more calories, but as I reported above I still got back below 200 pounds.

Thanks for stopping by!