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Barbara loves being a grandmother, and regularly laments the fact that she doesn't have that opportunity often enough. |
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Grandmothers are easy to please, at least for awhile. Grandfathers, on the other hand... are a little more difficult! |
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Recently, several of the women in the ward threw a birthday party for Julia Pierson's 87th birthday. Barbara participated and enjoyed herself imensley! Julia is now in an assisted living facility in Tucson. It's a nice small place, with seven other ladies. The owner's are nice people, but the more I look at lifes' endgame options, the more I think I would prefer to die on a bicycle under a run-away logging truck.
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And, speaking of bicycles... I transported the Bike E recumbent I recently acquired to my brother Mark with the idea being that he would have a chance to become accustomed to it prior to our Alpine to Clifton ride taking place the first weekend in June. This photo orientation gives a better indication of what the Bike E actually looks like.
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| I stopped by Nathen's and Terre's house in Taylor twice the day they were moving. The second time, no one was there, but the front door was unlocked, so I took a photo. Doesn't this vacant front room look sad? |
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My training for the upcoming ride is not going as well as I would like. Twice, I have ridden the mountain bike from San Manuel to Oracle. Once, via the pipeline road, and once, via a trail used by 4-wheeler's that came out opposite the Triangle Y Camp. Both of those rides were really enjoyable. So, thinking I was approaching my 18-year-old self, I tried a longer route.
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| This last Saturday, I took the linear recumbent from Oracle to Mammoth, crossed the San Pedro on Highway 77, then turned right onto what Google Maps calls River Road. This route parallels the San Pedro River and lies on the river's eastern side. There was running water where it crossed the river just prior to intersecting Reddington Road, but I managed to peddle (as opposed ot paddle) through it without mishap. I then took Reddington Road and headed north towards San Manuel. The steep grade near the junction of the two roads, combined with the sandy washboard surface, made it challenging, and by the time I arrived, I was totally used up. I covered 35 miles (approximately 10 of which were dirt road) and that was all I had. Without seeking my input, Barbara sent Dave Ellis to rescue me. I would have liked to have been upset that she didn't think I could finish the route, but in fact was She was correct. Bummer! (*Note: The wind had picked up from when Alan had first started, so when David Ellis came by to talk to Alan about his up comming bicycle trip, I was concerned enough that it would be blowing too hard to ride against. David was also concerned and he had offered to "rescue him." B.) |
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I acquired a pair of bicycle gloves (padded palm, fingers missing, and a larger than normal mesh back). I gave them up, (in favor of some I have yet to find) because they created a suntan pattern that made people ask questions. (They look alot like so called "age spots". He's now using leather gloves that were made out of donated Elk hides that were made into gloves and then were donated to the VA by the Elks Club B.)
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At Barbara's insistence, I recently paid a visit to a dermatologist. The spot on my arm that was causing Barbara concern, he dismissed (after using a Freon stream to create a gaping wound) out of hand. A small spot on my toe he decided warranted a biopsy that came back from the pathologist diagnosed as a benign mole. Other than those two, he gave me a clean bill of health (only the good die young).
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