WL FL

Got a nice ride in, almost 2 hours pedal time.  Headed East where there isn't a lot of traffic and there are some great canopy roads.  There was a nice tail wind on the way out, which of course meant a head wind on the way back.

About 4 years ago I was out this way every week for the Saturday Chaires group ride.  The scenery is the same, some of the roads have been resurfaced and are niiiice and smooth (I have long since forgotten where all the pot holes would have been!).  One weird observation; I saw at least 6 people mowing their lawn/field, yes, on Wednesday afternoon.  Guess I'm not the only one who isn't at work!

Legs felt good. It's been a long time since I've been on a bike this much and I feel like I'm right back in the swing of things. I can clear my head completely and not think about a thing if I choose.  I hope this break helps me get a ride schedule back.  If I can lose some baggage I know I would be right back where I left off.

I'd like to start posting some ride stats from my Polar HRM.  Offhand, I know my max speed today was just over 38mph, it was on a downhill of course and felt AWESOME.

This morning's outdoor activites were rained out.  So I stayed in and did some chores!  I organized our cleaning supplies (wow, mess).  Got the upstairs all taken care of; 2 bedrooms and a bathroom.  Robert has been moving a lot in his sleep, so I lowered the crib mattress a notch.  We really need to do a better job of periodic cleaning so it's more manageable.

Our Otterboxes were delivered!  Got my phone loaded up!  It is bigger, but feels a lot more secure ... if I'm toting around an uninsured, extremely expensive thing, I think keeping it safe is important.  Now I won't hesitate to take it out of a plastic bag for pics while on a ride.  Every port is covered, the ear piece has a mesh over it, and the only completely open area is the speakerphone/mic at the bottom.  I did get some watermarking and just used the baby powder trick for now.

I have to pick up Robert before 5pm.  It's 1:30pm now, so I'm going to hop on the road bike for a couple hours, then clean up and pick him up!

Cruised up through FSU campus! So much has changed ... so much hasn't. One observation: it's 10am and everyone is dragging ass. I just heard someone say "I woke up at 8:50 OK!" ... heh, I've been up since ~4:45am.

I spotted a bench and sat to eat a cliff bar, the grainy texture of the bar ---- haha, no, none of that garbage on this blog!  Click here for a map of where I was sitting.  I was sitting facing South, there used to be a pool there, now it's a HUGE building.  Behind that there were tennis courts that had been converted for parking, now it's a multi-level parking garage.

Sorry for the blurry pic, I put my phone in a plastic sandwich bag.  Maybe after my Otterbox gets here this week I'll be willing to take the phone out of the bag when I stop for a picture. 

Anyways, got in a great ride, stopped on campus, stopped at Higher Ground Bike shop to say hello on my way back, rode a good bit of trail, it's a little muddy out there so when I got home I gave the bike a wash down.

(How long do you think I can keep up posting links inline with the story?  That always amazes/slightly irritates me about most blogs)

(Realizing that after I post from the phone, I need to come online at some point and clean up the formatting)

Wow. Never had a break from work this long since ... uh ... EVER!  Instead of spamming FB, I figure I can just blog. I think most blogs are silly, especially pointless ones. So my mission statement until 9/17:

Post about what I'm doing over the next 16 days. I will not look back on this time and say "I dunno what the heak I did". An opportunity like this doesn't come along often, so i'm going to make the most of it.

After that, who knows ... anyways, this first post is from my iPhone, posting via email.

My name is Billy.  I'm happily married with 1 kiddo; Robert.  I'm a software consultant and live and work in Tallahassee, FL.

I am starting a new position later this month, and have some time off to do ... whatever I want!  Since I've pretty much worked non-stop since I turned 16, I'm totally out of my element ...