May 10, 2003

For the Health Of It

I’ve been busy the past couple of weeks training on my bike. No, not with training wheels. No, no. I’m training for “The Ride For Missing Children”, which is taking place on Friday, May 16. It’s a 110 mile ride through Central New York and the Mohawk Valley – raising money for the awareness and funds to support the missing children’s poster distribution program. It’s a wonderful cause, and I’m honored to be taking part in it.

I’m also cycling because I need to get a little more healthy. Last year I lost about 30 pounds, but I think I’ve gained five or so pounds back this year. What’s weird is that while I’m feeling better and stronger, I don’t seem to be losing any weight. Earl says that I’m turning the flab to fab (translated to muscle) but we’ll have to see.

So today I participated in a 40 mile training ride for The Ride. I felt really strong during the entire ride, though I have this thing going on with my left knee. I think I need to adjust my shoes.

Last night Earl and I drove down to the Palisades Center in Nyack. We wanted to enjoy a little drive and maybe see a movie – we settled on “The Ghost of the Abyss” in the IMAX theatre. It was our first time in an IMAX theatre and it was wicked cool. Afterwards, we went to this Brazilian buffet place where you have a little salt shaker type thing – you flip it over (with green on top) when you want the staff to stop by and drop some meat on your plate, flip it back to red when you’ve had your fill. Unfortunately, it got very busy and the waiters rarely stopped by. Customers around us were getting antsy (and hungry!). And the staff became a little frazzled and rude. It was not the best of experiences, and to add insult, they plopped a 15% tip on the check without asking. When they asked how everything was, Earl responded with “Terrible”, they smiled and said “Thank you.” Oh well.

The drive home was three and a half hours… getting us home at 1:30. I had to get up at 6:30 for the training ride, so that proved to be an interesting challenge. I snuck in a nap after lunch and now I’m golden. We’re going to go out for supper tonight. It should be fun.