I've been going to a physical therapist for the past couple of weeks to get my back into shape, and that is working. a forced hour every couple of days is doing some good, and I started wondering, "can I keep that up?" or even expand on it a bit. maybe not an hour, but something more than plopping on the couch at the end of the day.
I've tried this before. a Bowflex, free weights, a treadmill, and other stuff have come and gone in the house, but to no avail. the Bowflex at least had the advantage of being able to hang clothing from it for a time. I've downloaded apps to my phone and tried them, but usually they get ignored after a while.
Over the weekend I did go biking a couple of times. Now when you think biking, you might be thinking those thin guys in the skin tight suits that you see in packs and riding bikes that cost roughly the same as your first car. Well, that wasn't me. For these two treks it was on a trail bike with 26" tires, and the speed was slightly faster than a walking pace. And ice cream was involved.
My daughter is six. I've been threatening to rip the training wheels off of her bike for months, and even did so in November, but put them back again. On Saturday I pulled one of them off, and tower her if we could make it to Culver's, I'd buy ice cream. There was wailing and gnashing of teeth, but we soon set off for the mile and a half trip. I carried three things: my phone/wallet, a two for one coupon, and an adjustable wrench.
If you can remember back to your first trip or two without training wheels, it is a harrowing thing. You tip left and right, and finally land in the grass. It is the same with only one wheel, except you only have to worry about crashing one direction. There was crying involved, but there was still ice cream at the end. So we persevered.
One think I realized is the remaining trading wheel was pushing the bike the other way, which made it hard to balance. I was able to adjust this quickly by pulling the training wheel up and out, meaning that if she wanted to use the training wheel she'd have to lean into it a bit. So she did. But there were periods where the training wheel wasn't in use.
Culver's is a burger and ice cream joint a short distance from us. Their claim to fame is butterburgers, but their frozen custard comes in a close second. For comparison, imagine a bowl of the best from Dairy Queen. Now make it denser, with better flavor, and have, in addition to real vanilla and good chocolate, a flavor of the day. Saturday's flavor was chocolate covered strawberry, which rates up there quite a ways for me. We skipped the burgers and cheese curds this time around, though.
Sunday's trek wasn't as far, just up to the park and back. The cold front was starting to come in, prefaced by the freshening wind, and the rain not much behind it. We made it back before things got nasty, though.
In a couple of weeks I'll remove the other training wheel, or bend it up so far that is isn't useful. If all goes well then she'll be on two wheels after that, and maybe get a larger bike for her birthday.
I'll keep doing the physical exercise each day. I have started this two weeks ago with the physical therapy, and will continue to do that along with more strenuous stuff as I build up to it.
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