Two years flu by in a second.

 That was fast!  My last post was in 2019 and I was doing more bicycle riding than I've done in the last two years.  The first thing that happened starting 2020 was the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic.  I was able to keep riding a little but by the time I get home, I'm more into relaxing by the TV.  Somehow we started thinking of getting a house.  We found a good Real Estate agent that helped a lot and was patient enough to get what Lucia wanted.  It was a good choice in Pittsburg in a gated community.  We moved around July and I was able to move little by little.  Making it easy to accommodate my many things.  Unfortunately, the plan to have space for ALL MY BIKES didn't pan out.  The garage where I have been parking my motorcycles will be transformed into a room for Lucia's son which will leave a room to rent to help us with the mortgage payments.

I didn't ride my bicycles that much last year or this year (last year due to COVID-19 and this year due to the move)  and they are now starting to need more attention as things are getting dry and not working as well as before when I was riding and maintaining them more often.  My newest Road Bike needs to be fine tuned for gear changes.  I thought I still remembered some of my bike maintenance lessons I got a few years back but I didn't.  I made matter worse and now I'll have to pay for the tuning.  

It is almost Xmass and I will gift everybody home to an Alexa sound system and smart speakers. One for each room in the house, even for the garage!  My motorcycle riding is daily but since we moved to the new house I also drive my car every day since Lucia is still managing the other house tenants and will keep the house for a while before giving it up.  Weekend rides were not a thing this year since we had much to do about the house and staying too busy to ride.

My son, started showing signs of his chronic Depression again when his GF broke their relation earlier this year.  Now it is hard to get together as he is always depressed and when we get together I have to listen to a series of negative and angry comments about everything that goes in his life.  He has even talked about just letting go since nobody cares anymore.  I tried to help him but he just got upset and pushed me away.  Only to later complain that I don't know what is going on in his life because I didn't communicated with him for a few weeks (didn't he tell me that he needed his space?!)  So, bad if I do, worse if I don't)  I have no idea how to fix that and I'm afraid we are just going to go our separate ways.  Regardless of what I do he resents any action if it is not what he wants or expects.  I don't know what to do or how to do it.

For many years I tried to end things with Lucia as her jelousy and mental instability gets bad during certain times of the month to the point that she gets suspicious even when I get up at night to go to the bathroom!!  She starts fights out of nowhere.  I'm so fed up that even when she is not starting a fight I'm already in defense mode and get angry at her for her crazy actions and accusations.  Despite all that we moved in together and later she convinced me to get the house.  I told her from the beginning that I couldn't afford owning a house but she, somehow, convinced me that we would be able to do it.  Now, we get into fights over money needed for the "projects" she has and I remind her that the main reason I didn't want to get a house was that I couldn't afford it.  Yet, she still gets me to spend my savings "investing" in the house.  I can't brake it because when she is okay she is nice and we have fun together but when she goes crazy,  I hate her dearly.  Well, this is enough complaining for one afternoon.  I will continue later.  Time to go home.

Cyclist update:  I'm still going strong.  After I got my Fixie a few years back I decided to keep it after all.  My son is a Fixie rider and I love riding with him (although now he leaves me in the dust) My Tandem got stolen 3 years ago when I moved to a small studio from my apartment and didn't have any space inside for the long tandem.  I used to chain it in the beginning but after a few months decided that since it was covered nobody would noticed if it was chained of not, wrong!  a few weeks later, it was gone one morning!  I figured my other four bikes were good enough and kept riding them solidly every week.  Rotating them a week at a time.  On one of my few group rides ever riding my vintage Schwin road bike, I realized the new bike were a lot of fun and decided to finally upgrade it.  I went to my local (and amazing) bike shop (The Pedaler in El Sobrante, California) and got me a brand new Trek entry level road bike.  A beautiful red and black bike.  At the same time, I learned that they had free repair and maintenance classes every other Tuesday and signed in.  I learned many useful things about repairing and even updating my rides.  A couple of week with the new road bike and going from class to home at night time, I decided to see how fast I could ride with my new love.  I think I got it to 30 mph downhill when I hit a rock and flew over the handlebar...  I had my commuter backpack fully packed (around 40 lbs) and that weight didn't help when I landed on my left shoulder but the pack helped me not to hit my head with the inertia.  I had to go to the ER where I was diagnosed with Clavicle detachment at the shoulder level (no broken bones but the head of the clavicle was completely off the joint.  No operation needed as it would heal the same with or without it.  I took me a couple of weeks before I could ride again.  After that, I kept riding to work everyday and doing longer rides on the weekends.  My new girlfriend took some of my weekend time away from my bikes but now that we are living together I'm riding one hour rides 2-3 times a week afterwork.  I leave now too far to ride my bike. So, I changed the bike for a motorcycle (actually two) and commute by motorcycle to return home faster to ride my bicycles.  I finally decided to turn my old Schwin road to a leisure/cargo bike and added tall handlebars, leather seat, rear rack, panniers, and a front bag and it is working great to go shopping and quick errands to the market.  A few years back, I got a one wheel cargo trailer but never installed it (couldn't make my mind up to which bike) now that I have this "cargo" bike I hope to find the hardware and it might help me carry furniture around, LOL.  I'm afraid that with Daylight saving time here, I will not get to ride my bikes after work and will have to limit my rides to weekends.  I also plan to get a folding electric bike for my girlfriend to use while I ride my bike and go on rides with  her.  If we go to events where parking is hard, I will get the ebike and leave the car far away where parking is easy and ride with her on the rear rack.  Yes,  I think that bicycles and motorcycles are my prefer methods of transportation.  I hope to be able to do it safely for many more years.  I'm barely getting to 60.  Although with the two open hear surgeries I've had in the last 20 years (one in 2001, Aortic Valve replacement, and another one this year 2019, Aorta replacement due to remove an aneurysm) I might not have too many more.  If I can ride until the last day, I'll leave a happy camper.

Bicycle Riding Journaling

Well,  after many years of not doing it, I'm back in the saddle again.  The Bike saddle, that is.  My fascination with pedaling started at a young age.  10 or 11.  I got my first little real bicycle on a Xmass eve.  I rode it inside my house a few times with my training wheels.  A few weeks later my dad got me a play date and during this play time I learned how to ride.  I was having all the fun in the world until I crash and almost broke my clavicle.  That was it.  I developed a fear and never rode again.
Many years later, my brother rented a bicycle in Antigua Guatemala and for some reason let me ride it for a moment:  I was hooked again.  I rode it most of the 2 hours rental time.  After that I started telling everybody that I met that I wanted one.  My Grandmother felt sorry and gave me one.  Oh the joy!  I picked it up and started riding it to school, the movies, the park, everywhere!  Later I saw some of the new developed Mountain bikes and thought gears would be great.  Got a set of 5 speed for the rear wheel and started riding even more.  After graduation from school, I still rode but having my own car took most of my time.  When I was doing my Professional Supervised training in a rural area of Guatemala.  I took my beautiful and faithful bike to serve me as my main form of transportation in the dirt roads of Santa Maria de Jesus.  At the end of it,  I knew I would not have a place to keep it in my newly wed home.  So, I parted from it and sold it to a local of the town.  He was thrilled to have such a beautiful bike.
For years I struggle getting a few cheap ones but never had the chance to ride it constantly.  Commuting from the East Bay to San Francisco when bicycles were frowned upon was not easy and I got a couple of them stolen.  I desisted on the idea.  Well, my then wife also complained that I just wanted to ride instead of spending time with her (I wonder why she is my exwife now?)  A few years back a brother from Church organized a bike ride an offer to have bicycles available for those that didn't have.  I got a Road Bike (which I didn't care for in the beginning but at the end of the ride...)  Then out of the blue he told me if I liked it, I could keep it.  My first road bike was home.  A vintage Schwin World 10 speed.  Rode it to a few things but didn't want to over do it and get nagged about it.  In order to get my ex to ride with me, I got a Mongoose Mountain tandem and was able to push her to ride all together 25 miles in different days.  As soon as I divorced I got my two bikes in shape and started getting myself in shape.  Yes, I rode my tandem all by myself quite a few times.  I decided to get a hybrid.  Found a Giant Farrago in Ebay for less thant $150 and got it.  Now, I was getting some more fun.  After the divorce was final, I had to move to a small apartments and my beloved rides had to be outside.  My hybrid got hurt in the second ride because I didn't tighten the pedals when I put it togheter.  A couple of years went on and my bikes were wasting away.  I decided to invest some money and get them fixed and serviced.  My love for riding started all over again.  Now with the freedom to do it whenever.  A friend was going to throw away and old bike he got in the trash but didn't want to fix.  I saw it: A QT hard tail mountain bike.  Asked him if I could get it and he told me to take it because it was useless.  I started by oiling it and in less than three days it was going on its first ride in years. 4 Bikes for all kinds of fun. I have been riding them to work everyday and love the change of feeling with each.  I got curious about fixies a few months back and finally got my fixie this week.  Brand new!!  I have to confess.  I'm not getting it.  I have done a couple of short trial rides but it doesn't feel natural.  The bike itself its a beauty.  I don't know yet.   I'll try to go on a longer and farther ride later this week and see if I keep it fixie or turn the hub around to single speed.  I'll keep you posted.  5 bikes now.  No more.  Next time I'll have to replace one of the current ones with some better and newer models if I can.  If I prove to be serious about riding and start doing more than just commute.  We'll see.

Testing, Testing! There so many ways of keeping diaries and other stuff that I don't know where I'm going to keep this.???