Ahh, I knew I needed to get some excercise in and I don't mind saving some gas, so since I've been staying at my parents 3 nights a week, I've been planning on riding my electric bike to work and back for a while now. Well, I finally brought it over this weekend after getting some LED lights (from wal-mart no less), and today was the warmest day in the forecast that didn't involve rain or freezing rain, so I decided to try it.
It was a bit cool at about 20 degrees around 6 this morning, but it wasn't bad until I started hitting the downhill portion where I was cruising around 30mph(with the brakes on). Once I got over 20mph my forehead and hands started getting awfully cold. I knew I should have worn a hat, but I have trouble getting my hair into the "almost organized" format it is, let alone looking decent, so I didn't want it completely gone. I had my thin gloves on as I was afraid I wouldn't be able to shift with the thicker ones on, but that would have been smarter. I think next time I'll make sure it's at least to freezing before heading out. (:
Trip went quite well, with the motor I can hold better than 15mph the whole way including the minor uphills. I used the motor the entire way and I hadn't drained the battery by the time i got to work. I did however drop my spare battery that I had on my back rack. I knew it wasn't on that great, but it had stayed before over rough terrain and I figured the pavement should be easy. However, the bridge abutments are NASTY, and over the third, it came off and smashed into the ground. (and then a car just barely drove around it instead of over it)
Cracked the case about in half, but it seems the batteries themselves are ok. So I stopped at Penny Pincher at lunch and got some duct tape to fix the case, and some ratcheting straps to hold the battery to the rack. I put the battery in my backpack for the last few miles of the trip this morning, and as I expected, OW, it's not fun to have another 40lbs in the backpack (especially since I probably already had 10-15lbs in there).
But, it still only took me about half an hour including stopping for a couple minutes at the bottom of the first hill and a time or two after for cold fingers, and a couple minutes for the battery, then a couple more to re-adjust things.
I knew I was WELL out of shape since I get almost no excercise at the moment (need to get some more time with those cousins of mine to get some more excercise!), but with the motor, it wasn't that bad, though I can definitely tell I've done it. I was gonna have Mom give me a ride back up this afternoon, but by lunch I'm feeling a bit more into it. So I'm gonna try it. Not sure how I'll do up our hill, but hopefully! I'm more worried about Seneca St. It's always awful busy this time of day, and I'm afraid there'll be the usual stupid kids who like to make fun of fat guys on bicycles. Oh well. Once I get some more excercise hopefully I won't be so fat and I'll have the energy to keep my speed at about 20mph instead of 15mph.
Ahh well, almost time to head out and have some fun!
Wednesday, March 08, 2006
What's important
You know what's important to me? Well, I'll tell you. I got a letter and a pin the other day from the Red Cross that I had met my "Champion for Life" goal of 6 donations last year. Which I found out is the most you are allowed to do in one year. It's also not that easy, since if you do single donations that only leaves about a day or so between eligible donations. ( i.e. you have to wait 56 days. But if you wait like 60 you probably won't be able to fit 6 in one year). It's a little easier now with the double red donations where you do two at one time, though I didn't get my first one in this year until a week or so ago cause I wasn't feeling very well for quite a while after coming back from Florida.
ANYWAY... They were saying that I was LESS THAN 1% of the DONORS... Last I heard it's only like 6%(or some other ridiculously low number) of the population that gives blood. So I guess I'm REALLY doing good. Ahh well. Anyway. That feels important to me. Like I'm actually doing something worthwhile.
What else is important to me? Family. I can't always tell whether I'm doing a decent job, but I try to be nice to my family and make them feel good. So, if I make you feel bad, it's probably not what I meant to do and I apologize. Let me know AND tell me what I should have done. Hopefully that would make things better.
I suppose that much is true with anything in life. And don't think I won't be hurt by you telling me that (I will, because I care), but I suppose that's what I want (to improve, NOT to be hurt).
If I think about the biggest questions...
What do I want?
To feel good.
What makes me feel good?
Knowing that I helped someone, especially if it's at all emotional.
What do I NOT want?
To feel bad.
What makes me feel bad?
Knowing that I hurt or hindered someone.
I would say these are the truest parts of my soul. Nothing feels better than hearing "Thanks Levi, talking to you made me feel better." And nothing feels worse than "you suck, why would you do that to me?" (I didn't mean to! What did I do? What should I have done?)
Dunno, just thought I would write this stuff out as it's easier for me to type than say most times. Hopefully it will help me realize who I really am and what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't necessarily mind working on computers and I seem to be pretty good at it, but I wonder if I should be something like a counselor or something. But then I don't know how good I would be at it, and I don't know if I could handle the negative aspects of it.
Dunno. Still trying to find my best friend. Seems to be so hard to find someone trustworthy and enjoyable to be around. Not sure what happened. I can recall several good friends in my past, but it seems that everything reached it's climax around 2000 and then everything just crashed. Now it seems like I'm left with a few "good" friends that I never talk to and/or are never around, and not much of anything else. and yeah I'm still bothered by the fact that my best friend hated/s me. That's the worst part is that I just don't know what happened at the time, or now... I've mostly moved it to the back of my mind, but it is still in there and it remains the one thing I would use a single wish for if I were given one. It's that "one big regret" I have. Oh well, that seems to be the way humanity works. (:
Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not depressed or really upset at all. Just been thinking about writing some stuff out for a while now and figured I might as well take this second right now to do it!
Hope you are all having a great day!
Levi (:
ANYWAY... They were saying that I was LESS THAN 1% of the DONORS... Last I heard it's only like 6%(or some other ridiculously low number) of the population that gives blood. So I guess I'm REALLY doing good. Ahh well. Anyway. That feels important to me. Like I'm actually doing something worthwhile.
What else is important to me? Family. I can't always tell whether I'm doing a decent job, but I try to be nice to my family and make them feel good. So, if I make you feel bad, it's probably not what I meant to do and I apologize. Let me know AND tell me what I should have done. Hopefully that would make things better.
I suppose that much is true with anything in life. And don't think I won't be hurt by you telling me that (I will, because I care), but I suppose that's what I want (to improve, NOT to be hurt).
If I think about the biggest questions...
What do I want?
To feel good.
What makes me feel good?
Knowing that I helped someone, especially if it's at all emotional.
What do I NOT want?
To feel bad.
What makes me feel bad?
Knowing that I hurt or hindered someone.
I would say these are the truest parts of my soul. Nothing feels better than hearing "Thanks Levi, talking to you made me feel better." And nothing feels worse than "you suck, why would you do that to me?" (I didn't mean to! What did I do? What should I have done?)
Dunno, just thought I would write this stuff out as it's easier for me to type than say most times. Hopefully it will help me realize who I really am and what I'm supposed to be doing. I don't necessarily mind working on computers and I seem to be pretty good at it, but I wonder if I should be something like a counselor or something. But then I don't know how good I would be at it, and I don't know if I could handle the negative aspects of it.
Dunno. Still trying to find my best friend. Seems to be so hard to find someone trustworthy and enjoyable to be around. Not sure what happened. I can recall several good friends in my past, but it seems that everything reached it's climax around 2000 and then everything just crashed. Now it seems like I'm left with a few "good" friends that I never talk to and/or are never around, and not much of anything else. and yeah I'm still bothered by the fact that my best friend hated/s me. That's the worst part is that I just don't know what happened at the time, or now... I've mostly moved it to the back of my mind, but it is still in there and it remains the one thing I would use a single wish for if I were given one. It's that "one big regret" I have. Oh well, that seems to be the way humanity works. (:
Don't take this the wrong way, I'm not depressed or really upset at all. Just been thinking about writing some stuff out for a while now and figured I might as well take this second right now to do it!
Hope you are all having a great day!
Levi (:
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