D minus 20 - Flying Time

Hard to wrap my mind around the fact that we have less than 20 days now before we change our view again....we have been in RJRP for 9 weeks.  TLE and I were remarking Monday how it seems winter has not arrived in SoCal yet.  The last two days we have had to turn on the A/C it has gotten so warm.....I hesitate to use the phrase "too hot", but it feels that way....at least for this time of year.  I just checked the 10 day forecast and the temperatures will remain in the mid to high 80's for the entire 10 day period.

First thing Monday I finished up a couple of jobs I had started on Sunday.....while we were riding the tandem Friday I thought I heard a spoke pop, and sure enough when I went to check it Sunday there was a broken spoke.  The last time I had to replace a spoke on the tandem was in Twin Falls, ID back in September of 2012.  At the time I had the presence of mind to buy three of them, so now I have used 2 of the three.  On Sunday I removed the rear wheel, removed the drag brake, removed the tire and tube, and put on the new spoke.  Whenever a spoke breaks the rim has to be trued again.  I started that process Sunday, but ran out of time, so I finished that up before finishing the tune up of my friend's (Carmello) mountain bike, then it was time to fix the Honda generator.  My son had borrowed it a week, or so ago, and the rope you pull to start it broke.  Fortunately it broke right near the end so I was able to rewind the spring, and re-attach the pull handle in about 40 minutes.

I headed out to buy some shipping and packing supplies at Staples around 11 am.  I've got about 22 things to mail out in the next few days, and was out of bubble wrap, and those styrofoam pellets I like.  On the way home I picked up my Subway Club. 

I received an interesting call while I was in the checkout line at Staples from a Scott Lingren (sp?) who works for Express Employment Professionals....at first I thought he was calling to see if we were going to come back to the sugar beet harvest next year......he started out the conversation saying he had just spent an hour reading my blog about our experience at the Sugar Beet Harvest.  He complimented me on my account of the "good, bad and ugly" of our experience, and wanted to know if I would give him some feedback on what they could do better......you just never know who is going to end up reading your blog.  Anyway, I spent about 20 minutes on the phone with him talking about our experience on the Factory night shift.  Scott had just returned from Quartzite where he helped set up a booth for Sidney Sugars, so they could recruit fellow RVers to  come work the sugar beet harvest every Fall.   He said the temperature there in North Dakota was -10 degrees......I'll take mid 80's over that any day.

Just after I returned home TLE headed out on some errands of her own, while took a short nap then got dressed for my 12 mile bike ride.  It was probably the hottest, driest day for riding that I can remember since we've been home.  I was having to take a drink of water about every 5 minutes as my throat was drying out so quickly.  I've pretty much got this ride down to about 52-55 minutes.

After taking a shower I headed out to the trailer to begin the packing process, and got about half the items ready for mailing.  I'll get the rest done Tuesday and then ship them out by Wednesday.  I have to ship the frame all the way to Pennsylvania so I'll need a sturdy bike box to be sure it arrives in good condition.

By the time I finished with that it was just about sunset, and time for the second 6 inches of my daily Club.  I'm hoping to be at my intermediate goal of 190 pounds by the end of next week.  Then I will work on finding a way to maintain that weight level while returning to a more normal diet.  Ultimately I want to get down into the mid to low 180's....I think the key for me will be to establish a regular, daily exercise plan.....something I can sustain on the road.  The exercise is really the key for me in keeping the weight off!

We watched a 1957 color movie called "Silk Stockings" with Fred Astaire and Cyd Charisse, which was typical of the Hollywood musical comedies of that era, and we enjoyed it.

That was our Monday.....thank for stopping by!