July 20/21 Weekend Roundup

Wow it's Sunday night already, closing out a weekend that has flown by.  I wanted to take sometime tonight to share what I have been up to this weekend and to remind myself and let you know that we are all on this amazing adventure called life and we are the architects of our adventures.  It is often so easy to get caught up in everything and forget to just simply have fun.  I know I forget and writing these words helps me remember to be grateful for the wonders in my life, that includes you.

It has been a bits a pieces weekend and I'm sure you can identify with that.  Saturday we took the dogs for a walk in Kirkland on what started as an overcast morning.  We arrived to find an event taking place which offered up a nice diversion from our normal walking pattern.  I stopped off at a local bike shop to ask some questions regarding purchasing a new road bike.  As I might have mentioned earlier I am super excited to be getting my new bike in October but I wanted to do a little comparison.  Anyway I want to rant a little because I just cannot believe shop owners who seem to throw away customers because that cannot be bothered with a little customer service.  This happened to me twice this weekend "idiots".  The shop that has my business won it through get service.

We meet up with a good friend at Lake Washington Physical Therapy, if you ever need a PT, I cannot recommend them high enough.  Ask for Ben and mention me, he has put me together more times than I care to remember and Ben if you are reading this Thank You.

Despite my back reminding me that I needed to pay attention to it, the weather cleared up and it was such a nice day that I felt compelled to get the road bike out.  I texted a friend and we hit the road around 3:30pm.  BTW if you are in the Seattle eastside area and want to Road Ride, Mountain Bike or Paddle let me know in the comments as it is always great getting out with new people especially when they become friends.  The ride was magical, the weather was perfect, we did a 24 mile circuit that took in winding roads, fast descents, fast flats and good climbs.  When I go home I did some yoga stretching, iced the knees and settled in to watch one of the best stages of this years Tour De France, a hard fought mountain top finish that made me want to get the bike out again, but the body reminded me that was probably a bad idea :)

Sunday, was late out of bed, yes I paid a little for the ride on Saturday and my back and knees had something to say about it, but that is what learning about our body's is all about.  I took the queue's and avoided doing anything to aggravate injuries further and by the evening as I write this I am happy with the recovery.  If like me you are suffering from an injury, I know what it is like and how depressing it can be to not be active or as active as the mind wants to be.  I encourage you to look at what you can do and every day build health and strength through eating right and strengthening your body.  Do this and you will get stronger.  I am still scared every time I do activities but it is my adventure and I will enjoy it.

I went into another local bike shop today and had are really pleasant experience.  They have a club I am thinking of joining.  I secretly harbor thoughts of getting strong enough to race as a senior next year and it quite honestly scares the crap out of me joining a club, it is a personal fear as it triggers the competitive streak in me as well as the "What if I'm not good enough and they judge me" thoughts, I know it is a limiting belief so in the next few weeks I plan on taking the plunge - stay tuned. 

On the technology side, I spent a good amount of time this weekend messing around with a poor internet connection and setting up my smugmug photography account.  I enjoyed the event photography so much that I plan on doing more later in the year.  I had an enquiry to buy pictures and decided to take the plunge and buy a professional account.  It took forever to setup and get pricing in, now I just need customers :).  Ah yes the customers have to know who I am and how to get to the pictures so the last thing tonight was to create a personal card I could hand out.  Here is the picture I used, hope you like it.

Thinking of you and wishing you health, happiness and the power to do the things you love to do.