So Much Going On

So much fun today, even though I was counting cigarettes every 15 minutes. As of this writing (6:30 p.m.) I have had 13 cigarettes. I think I’ll be able to keep it at 18 or below tonight. Tomorrow I go down to 15 cigarettes. OK, on to the fun. I am planning a Memorial Motorcycle Ride in May for a friend of mine (over 40 years riding together with our club) who passed away last year. I routed it on a map, but needed to ride the route to make sure it would work in the allotted time and that the roads I had chosen weren’t in too bad of shape or created situations where it could get challenging to navigate a group of motorcycles through. So, our plan for today was to go work out after Alice got off work this morning, then drive the route for the ride. Since I’m just 4 weeks out from fracturing my foot, common sense prevailed and I decided to drive instead of ride, even though it was nice enough to ride. I invited Alice along for company (who doesn’t love a captive audience?) and to bring her tablet in case I needed a bigger picture of the map than my phone would offer. But, oh oh. Alice had a splitting headache and wasn’t sure if she wanted to workout right away. Since she is quitting coffee, we both knew why. (See below for lessons learned about weaning off, vs. cold turkey). So I devised a plan to go get our favorite Peach/Mango energy drink to take care of the headache, then she could ride in the truck with me and didn’t have to do much. Then, maybe we’ll workout after we finish the drive.

So not only did we have a blast “chatting” (at some point, Alice had some esplaining to do, when I asked her what a “BOB” (battery operated buddy) was), but we actually spent considerable time working on coming up with things that we need to do in the next 2 years as we market and prepare for our journey together, things that need to be considered for the logistics of the ride, what we want to accomplish in our various stops and what things do we need to have on the ride with us. Alice captured our thoughts and added them to her multiple and ever-growing lists of everything to be done. We finally got back to the gym and accomplished our first workout in 11 days (Alice was sick for over a week and with the boot and crutches, I’m currently not capable of going on my own). Kicked our ass! I think the fun was over by the time we finished our workout. So, now…back home and chilling on my patio.

One more thought…Alice and I spend a lot of time talking about the current state of our bodies, where we’re at, injuries/trauma that contributed to it and what we need to do to get our bodies healthy and physically fit for our Road Trip. Of course, that also includes quitting a few vices we’ve developed over the years and have been deperately hanging onto such as caffeine, nicotine, sugar, fried foods, etc. So, both of us have been in the process of detoxing from the various chemicals we’ve been putting in our bodies for more years than we’re going to say. Bitter experience has once again taught us that “cold turkey” is not always the best route for our bodies. It certainly didn’t work well with drugs and alcohol and even with nicotine and caffiene it’s noticeable to us that not only do we need to wean off so nobody gets hurt, but our bodies need time to adjust to such a massive change of whatever chemical it’s become addicted to (because, of course, neither one of us has ever really understood the word moderation, or why it even exists in the dictionary). So, everyone is different and what works for one, doesn’t always work for another, but right now Alice and I once again seem to be experiencing these things in harmony, even though we’re of different generations and living different personal situations.