End Of An Era

My Aunt Elaine passed away today in Fargo, ND. She was a nice person and a good friend to me. I will always remember that her voice was uncannily like my mother's. I saw her several times in the past year, the last being on March 6, 2009. I was hoping to dance with her at her and Don's 60th anniversary party in May. She did good things during her time on earth ... it was great having her here and I will miss her.

Nice Weather Again

Good riding day today as I now have about 65 miles in on the year. And my butt is starting to not notice the bicycle seat anymore. It was never too bad but I certainly have been able to feel it. By the middle of this upcoming week it will be just a distant memory. Yesterday, my right leg was sore and I think it was because I was generally riding in too high a gear. Today I got back to paying attention to the cadence meter and kept it around 80 rpm. Along with a little stretching before the ride, the leg feels good again. Who knows, maybe I'm getting old(er) ... ?!

As I now clearly recall (after eating quite a bit of it), I really do like pumpkin bread. Maybe that will be the "treat of the year" for 2009 (well, along with my favorite ice cream). Especially because it's so easy to make.

Spring Is Sprung

There's probably nothing to write about today that overshadows the fact that it's the Vernal Equinox, which marks the first day of spring in the northern hemisphere. Very nice weather, too. I had an opportunity to test out a Garmin Nuvi 760 GPS navigator today and it's a pretty good unit. Only time will tell if it holds up well.

Today I stopped in and had lunch with my boys' grandma, Betty. Then we played a few games of cribbage. It was a nice time. Oh, and I also made her some pumpkin bread ... after all, I ate her pumpkin bread for many, many years. Hope she likes it.

And then I had a nice bicycle ride, not to mention a great sandwich at Milio's on 1st Avenue.

The Ides of Biking ...

Feels so good to ride the bicycle again. Went out and spent 3 hours replacing the wheel bearings and chain today and didn't really plan to ride as it was then quite late in the day. But seeing as how it was 58 degrees out I simply couldn't resist. And so it begins ... again. Seems as though spring is really here this time. The forecast is all the way up to 70 degrees for my parade on Tuesday .

In the past few weeks, I also ordered an arrow saw and materials for making arrows and then learned to make them myself. The first 6 that I made were pretty much a failure as the fletchings all fell off after only a few shots. Back at the drawing board I realized that I had to clean the arrow shafts much better (using hot water and Comet cleanser) and then ensure that I didn't touch (contaminate) them before gluing on the fletches. Success was finally achieved as I've now shot them dozens of times losing nary a fletch! But a few of the inserts (for the arrowheads) ended up pulling out of the shafts and were left in the targets. So the same attention obviously needed to be paid to those and I also switched to a gel "Super glue" (fast drying and very strong) for the inserts. So far so good, but not a lot of experience with them using the indoor range targets (where they originally pulled out). Eventually, the sure answer will arrive, but I'm feeling pretty good about them right now. It's a great experience to make and then shoot your own arrows.

And, good news, NDSU is playing in the NCAA tournament (first game, Friday the 20th in Minneapolis). Besides all that, the best news is that I'm going to see my Aunt Elaine and Uncle Don again at their 60th anniversary party on the 22nd of May.