All Indoors

It is Cyber Monday and it is wet and gloomy outside. All mountain bike trails are closed until the freeze sets in permanent this Winter. It is a day to stay indoors.

And if the trails cover with snow and you got no fat bike training indoors is the only way. I’m not talking strength training or some fancy steppin aerobics. I’m talkin simulators designed to assist your training. Via the wonders of Facebook two more instruments of indoor self torture have come to my attention.

The first is Zwift. It appears to be strictly software, compatible with a variety trainers and computers. It is a social medium for training. You can train together with people from around the world while you are alone at home. That is a feature on most of the trainer software these days.

The Peloton Bike is for those of you who enjoy spinning classes and being encouraged on by a trainer. You can workout from home with a live class or load one up on demand. You can compare your stats with all from around the world who have completed the same class. You can also ride virtual trails and courses. It is unclear if the virtual rides are interactive with others or if the required tablet comes with the bike. I suppose if the tablet is not included you could also use any type of computer set up in front of you.

“Three posts in one day?” I hear your accusations. “You must be behind again in your writing goals.”

Not anymore. It is time to shop.

The $124 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

A Great Convergence

How else can you describe this time of year. The garden is being shut down for the Winter, though I may try growing in a makeshift greenhouse. Winterizing the house and last minute exterior repairs are oh so close to complete. Then there is the Christmas shopping (cyber Monday the mere end of the beginning), Christmas decorations, Christmas Cards, Christmas cookies, searching for Christmas cheer and of course bowling season is now in full swing.

And the dog wants to hunt. Brighter pictures from a brighter time just a few weeks past. But is bowling exercise? A question continually asked on this blog. Whether you believe it is or not, a group class with a first rate instructor is well worth the investment.

Yes, YouTube, the answer to all mysteries and methods, provides plenty of instructional footage from some of the best coaches around. Nothing However beats a hands on lesson. My friend and I signed up for a group class led by one Richard Shockley. It was most excellent. He promised a ten pin rise in one’s average after his class.

The bowling coach, after intense observation, took time with each of the participants. When he got to me he said; “There are so many things going on here I don’t even know where to begin.” I believe I impressed him with my ability to learn. The lane’s pro shop professional gave additional pointers that complimented those of the coach.

I didn’t achieve a ten pin rise in my average yet, but my approach and balance improved significantly. I now suffer far less strain on my back and knee after the lesson. Even though my average initially has dropped I have faith bowling glory is in my future. It will take time to adjust to the new approach and I have little time to practice. My team is shooting to win the second half of our Winter League.

I would recommend such a group bowling lesson to anyone bowling on a regular basis. Yes, you should take advantage of what YouTube has to offer in instruction, but after that nothing compares to a hands on lesson and a group class is the most economical.

Some of my bowling buddies ridicule me for watching Japanese women’s bowling, P-League, on YouTube, but I find it more instructional. The women competitor’s approach is slower and smoother than men bowlers and the format of the show is more appealing. Besides, it is the only purely Japanese programing my wife can enjoy.

There is a great bewilderment among bowlers as to why the sport is no longer on television. It was once America’s most popular sport and many believe it could be again with proper programming. I remember lots of bowling shows on the old television from when I was a kid. With HD television there are numerous old bowling shows one can see on the multiple offshoots each channel can now broadcast over. Even local high school sports are now regularly broadcast over the airways.

But if bowling cannot make it on broadcast they should go Internet. I speak of my Roku from time to time; my internet streaming device. (trying to think of a Christmas gift?) And Winter certainly is a time when we spend more time indoors and often in front of the television. A new additional to the Internet channel lineup (also called apps) is Poker Central. Poker also had its time in the sun on broadcast television. Poker Central provides 24/7 streaming broadcast of poker programing. They have a secondary menu of limited on demand selections. Actually Poker Central streams about eight hours of programming three times a day, repeating some of it in the following weeks or months.

I’m surprised how much poker programming there has been, but it could never compare to all the old bowling programming that is available. It is one thing to sit down and say, “I want to search for a bowling show” and set to work. It is something completely different to be able just to turn on the television, change the channel and poof, there it is, bowling. (or mountain biking, or fishing, billiards, sheep’s head…)

I believe Internet channels are the future for all second tier profession sports, especially those with a large base of amateur competitors. If you can provide 24/7 streaming, on demand options a plus, people with any interest in whatever particular sport it may be will add that channel to their device.

You still have the advertising with Poker Central. It is an income stream that can make all such similar programing possible. Most bowling shows were edited to include advertisements already. The next great breakthrough for Internet television, particular the streaming channels, will be the ability to provide local advertising, to provide advertising by city or region rather than nationwide. I believe that will be the biggest catalyst to seeing the formation of channels dedicated to second tier sports with a large base of amateurs.

Though mountain biking competitions are hard to cover as a televised event, technology, namely drones, can resolve all coverage issues if you have enough skilled and knowledgeable individuals covering the most interesting parts of a course.

Mountain bikers are known for volunteering. In such light even the most insignificant of race series could muster a crew to create coverage of a race. WORS is far from insignificant. It is the greatest Race Series in the country. Even though participation is down for racing, trail use has never been higher. There is a large interest in the sport and in the interaction with the environment it facilitates. There is also plenty of potential side content such as; trail building, travel and resort mountain bike experiences and bicycle maintenance to name a few.

Another task converging at this special time of year like a fifteen pound ball bowling into the pocket is that of making resolutions for the coming New Year. I actually got a few volunteer hours in with Metro Mountain Bikers in 2015, and got out fishing twice. My training resolutions have no time to wait. I should be setting them already. Exercise can relieve the stress of the season.

But the question remains unanswered; Is bowling exercise? Ike our dog says. “Taking me for a walk is exercise!”

The $123 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

The Busiest Weekend of the Year

Dining out. A Thanksgiving tradition for some though for our family it was only the second time. My father footed the bill. I guess he and we all had a lot to be thankful for. The Golden Mast is truly extravagant and a lovely drive, even in the pouring rain.

Of course most important is that now I can listen to Christmas music with a clear conscious. A beautiful time of year, with good clean wholesome music on the radio to fill one with visions of God and family. Have you heard Taylor Swift’s version of “Santa Baby”?

I have uncovered the secret of Black Friday. I understand now why, or rather how it invaded Thanksgiving and why its invasion will be beat back. Yes, we are a more materialistic society today than in the past. We have more material. Still Thanksgiving will be held sacred once more.

It is not the sagging economy that is keeping shoppers at bay this most active of shopping weekends. And I am not saying it is not still the busiest shopping day of the year. The incentive to storm the towers of commerce has just diminished significantly.

I believe the biggest incentive over the last decade for Black Friday madness has been technology, namely the flat panel TV (and perhaps tickle me Elmo). Now, most everyone has a flat panel television.

The flat panel television has been revolutionary. Size matters while at the same time it doesn’t. You no longer needed a giant room to have a giant screen. The TV no longer dominates the room, taking up significant real estate and controlling the layout and traffic patterns of your living space. The flat panel can go almost anywhere and takes up no more space then a picture hanging on the wall. A computer station can now cohabitate on a small desk, rather than demanding a desk of its own.

The flat panel was expensive at first. Shoppers rushed to the sales. Then, when the prices came down, larger and larger flat panels hit the market in large numbers, with large price tags, and shoppers rushed for those on discount. New technologies continue to enhance the flat panel televisions but these technologies exceed the expectations of the viewer.

So now most everyone has a flat panel and the Black Friday stampedes have been corralled. That’s just how I see it.

Retailors, please stop opening on Thanksgiving.

I am in shock that Thanksgiving is over and I have yet to prepare to get all the Christmas cards out. I saw a man buying two-hundred Christmas stamps at the post office the other day. Then there is the shopping and the Christmas parties… And the Christmas decorations; our neighbors put theirs up this weekend. We are going to have to bake some cookies at some point and Christmas is less than four weeks away!

I know what you are saying. “What about your diet Phillip? We are all truly concerned for your health and wellbeing.”

It is not a good time of year for weight loss. But Thanksgiving has been more forgiving than Halloween.

The Bulletproof Diet was initially successful for me. I dropped thirty pounds. I gained over ten pounds back. What did I do wrong?

First the weight loss stalled and then I became complacent.

• I ran out of the supplements and stopped taking them. Most important are Magnesium and vitamin D.
• We started eating deserts, again. Homemade bread and even cake did not do much to increase my weight or slow my weight loss. The effects were negligible. Not even store bought donuts made a big impact (thank God) but store bought, processed and packaged, cakes and cookies were really bad. Also the Halloween candy. I blame the children for not trick or treating. I would also note that I do not do the grocery shopping.
• My wife began preparing a lot of rice and potato casseroles. We decreased the amount of fresh vegetables and meat. My wife turned cheap in other words. Particularly we stopped buying the grass fed animal meats. I believe this has had the biggest impact. There is a Doctor Axe on YouTube and he recommends that if you are going to spend extra money with a diet it is best spent on first making sure you are eating the grass fed animal products. It really is that important. Much of the meat on the shelves today is packed with estrogen.
• We have the Bulletproof style coffee almost every morning but sometimes we go without. My wife has it far less than myself. It is hard to find a good price on the Kerry Gold (grass fed cow) butter. Meijer has the best price but I have discovered, over Thanksgiving dinner, that one of my younger brothers buys everything on the shelf when he finds it available. Yes, the Milwaukee area is suffering a shortage of grass fed unsalted butter. Trader Joes has the next best price outside of sales.
• Kim Chi, one of many highly beneficial fermented foods had also been missing from our diet when I suffered my greatest weight gain. We are back into making our own. Kim Chi is recommended for weight loss by many. All traditional fermented food products are recommended for their health benefits. There was nothing fermented on our Thanksgiving table. Check out Cultured Food Life.
• Exercise? My weight loss and gain had nothing to do with how much I was or was not exercising.

I have to make a correction, just one for now, on the Fair Life milk; a product I wrote about previously (higher protein less sugars). You actually don’t get a full half gallon as the proximate size of the container may suggest. It actually is more expensive than organic milk. It is like dog food, price wise. A few years ago we could buy forty, or even forty-four pounds, for about forty dollars. The bag has shrunk considerably year by year. Now the large bag of dog food is only thirty pounds and it is almost impossible to find for less than forty dollars. It is inflation without the inflation via deflation.

Wow! I should get a Nobel Prize in economics for that last line.

And speaking of flat panel televisions and YouTube, my wife and I were watching YouTube on our flat panel the other day. No, not Dr. Axe though we watch many of his videos, We were watching woodworking videos. We were watching a young lady supposedly building a backboard for a bed she had built.

My wife said; “Is this real. Woman can’t build stuff like that.”

I answered with the most obvious response in the most obvious of manner and obvious of tones, “She’s not building it. There is a man off camera really doing all the work.”

“Yeah, must be.” she answered.

It was so obvious, and yes …that conversation did happen. I may be guilty of embellishment and conjecture to the point of foolishness at times in my attempts to entertain, but there are no fictions in my posts.

YouTube is amazing and all that much more enjoyable on the big screen. Many YouTube producers are sponsored. For example, looking at several videos on how to build a bed they will mention their sponsors, in this case mattress retailers. Casper, also recommended by The Great One Mark Levin, was one sponsor along with Leesa Mattress. The commercials before the videos are also amazing productions, providing a storyline and motivation for a product or company. Sometimes we watch them all the way through, even as long as five minutes. Though sitting in front of the television is probably not recommended for weight loss.

Like always, I gain nothing from any individual or organization I may write about here, accept for a few pennies a year I earn and have yet to collect from the advertisements you see on my blogs. I share experiences and thoughts with an effort to entertain and inform. I do not necessarily recommend anything.

The $122 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Is it Tuesday Already?

I thought it was Thursday.

I committed a grave offense just the other day.

“No, not you Phillip!” I hear you scream.

I have only myself to blame and perhaps the freshly fallen snow.

“It must have been the snow, only the snow.” Your pleas console my ears.

But alas I have fallen short. …I listened to Christmas music before Thanksgiving.

The sin of Christmas shopping on Thanksgiving is one sin I will certainly never be guilty of. But if you want to be a real hell raiser you can always join others of similar ilk at the annual Turkey Hurl. Yes, that mountain bikers tradition of going for a gut busting ride, after stuffing oneself with turkey and all the fixins, will take place during the Packers game. …The horror. It makes one doubt all that is good in the world.

Small Business Saturday and Cyber Monday will hopefully disperse the hysteria over shopping on Thanksgiving. Emery’s is having a Post Over Eating Sales Event. The e-mail said, “Buy one bike get one bike free.”

The trails are wet with the snow melt. Riding them would be highly detrimental at this time. But things may freeze soon, and even if we get more snow, try a fat bike. I’m still looking to get some more riding in this year.

I actually made it to Metro Mountain Bikers’ last Monthly meeting. The warning has been sent out; The Off Road Motor Biking Group is after the same type of lands as we the worthy, we the mountain bikers. Will the horrors never cease?

No. The Santa Cycle Rampage is coming December 5th. That’s a Saturday and for the sake of all that’s good and pure keep your children locked indoors lest their dreams of Santa Claus be ripped away by the image of a torrid of unscrupulous imposters.

I have been busy in my workshop. I will be making a jig to assist in a certain ongoing endeavor. I made this beam for my sawhorse with some straight MDF board. (Always wear a ventilator when cutting MDF) It is in perfect level with the top of my workbench.

The Wisconsin Bike Summit has come and gone. One theory is the attendance was up because there was no advocacy day. In the past the summit has always been in Madison and they have had a day when the attendees go into the capital to lobby their representatives. Mountain Bikers were honored at the Summit as independent and willing to work. Many, I could say most, mountain bike trails were built by volunteers.

Work days are all but finished for the season. Minooka has traditionally had its workdays Sunday mornings which just doesn’t work for me. I have to give God his due.

They also demoed a very realistic bicycle simulator at the Summit referred to as Shifting Gears. There are plenty of ride simulators on the market. You can also contact your local bike shop, at least the larger ones, and sign up for group workouts using simulators. Winter is here, not the Christmas time of Winter but the perfect first snow just before Thanksgiving Winter.

I heard tell of a war in Baja. The unofficial stunt course with its berms and jumps at Hoyt Park is being removed by the County. The word is that new constructions go up nearly as fast as they are taken down. Derision has been disposed upon responsible path users by those trending towards anarchy. It has been said people come from as far away as Pewaukee to ride the bootleg trails. The suspense builds.

The $121 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.

Topics of Debate

I have not been invited to tomorrows Presidential Debate here in Milwaukee, even though I offer highly accurate analysis per the common man. You would think someone would offer me six figures, if not to head their campaign than to write for their rag. Of course, what is good for the people, the truth and common sense are not in demand among the political types. One thing is not up for debate; my own sense of self-worth. Now if only my finances would reflect that.

No tomorrow’s debate is not at The Domes. The Winter Farmer’s Market opened Saturday and we just had to go. Munster is a highly underrated cheese. We bought some  Pepper Munster from one of our favorite dairies at the market. Munster is a great cheese for sandwiches though some may argue for Swiss or even American.

The lack of debate over the officiating of the Packers Panthers game testify to the obvious fix the officials were running. So obvious that the NFL does not want anyone talking about the game officiating or showing the replays. And this mornings local Packer analysis on the radio will not even mention the mountain of penalties? Shame, shame. “The only thing evil needs to triumph is for good men to say nothing.” Some one said that.

No, that is not the line for the free cookie recipe book from We Energies. That is the line for pictures with the reindeer.

This is the line for the free cookie recipe book. This is Milwaukee, …and they did say free. The man behind us asked for seven.

We debated giving out candy this year for Halloween. We rushed out at the last minute and bought a bunch. Too few creatures of yet to be established height came to our door, which left me with a daunting dilemma.

My wife confiscated the unclaimed goods and I am now under ration.

I discover this treasure waiting for me most mornings. One of each.

Some people debate whether it is proper for women, girls, to dress up in an otherwise inappropriate fashion on Halloween. I recommend modesty. Ignore the alluring words of temptation offered by a certain female talk show host. I saw a wonderful very respectable costume while we were out working on Halloween. Two young ladies had dressed up in common jeans and hoodies as twins. It was a really convincing costume. I think they were sisters.

Halloween sales testified to the reality of our economy (the issue of our upcoming political debate; the economy …not reality). Sales were worse than years past. And with Halloween on a Saturday this year I expected at least a 10% jump in sales rather than a 10% drop. Hey, gloomy weather doesn’t deter people from going out on Halloween. People used to parade in elaborated costumes from bar to bar. That was so many years past the images fade from my memory.

WORS, the most successful mountain bike race series in this country, has dropped from twelve to ten races for next season. Great efforts are put into holding these events and great efforts are put into participating in them; travel lodging, time, keeping one’s bike is racing form. Interest is not dropping, resources to participate are. If you’d like to debate my analysis there is a comment section.

Emery’s is having a fitness equipment sale. Sales, it’s all we have left. The Container Store opened at Mayfair Mall. They have a selection of bicycle hangers among their inventory.

IMBA is running a contest to win a free mountain bike trip for two to Italy in their membership campaign. We couldn’t even afford the free trip; the missed sales.

And speaking of Halloween, again, are not flashing lights designed to disorient people as they travel through the haunted houses? So why would one think putting flashing lights on your bicycle would make you safer? Why do so many police cars get struck by other vehicles when they are making road side stops? Flashing lights? There are to many gimmicks in the field of bicycle safety for night riding.

Here is an issue for debate: Was it easier to lose weight in the eighties and why? Needless to say my diet has been suffering a reversal. I suspect environmental causes behind my weight gain. With all my home repairs I must be stirring up some toxic catalyst to fat storage. I have not slept much more than five hours a night for the longest while now, which also is bad for a diet.

Getting back on the supplements recommended in the bulletproof diet has stabilized my weight. Now Bulletproof recommends a new supplement and claim their form of the supplement is the best. Glutathione is a super antioxidant important in cleansing your body of toxins that the body may try to neutralize by storing in fat.

The final debate: Do I attend the Metro Mountain Biker’s monthly meeting Tuesday or listen to the Presidential Debate live on the radio? I’ve missed two meetings, and I can most likely find the debate on YouTube the next day if not that night. Besides, the candidates will be on stage, they wont be free to seek me out for my invaluable advice. Until then I will be right here at home if anyone is looking to come visit.

To those of you closer to me or my family thank you for your prayer and support for my mother over her surgery and recovery. She is now safe at home after almost eight weeks in the hospital.

I made this step for her as my parents bed is too high off the floor according to the social worker. That 2x4 across the top edge fits snugly under the bed frame so the step will not move. When using a router the key is to take a little bit off at a time; making several passes. You’ll get a more controlled result and wont burn out your router motor.

The $120 question: What were my three most favorite WORS races? Keeping the same question. Check out the Charity Jackpot Page link in the sidebar to possibly triple the amount.