The weekly note is late due to a hasty trip to Florida for Mother’s Day. Many of the Trilanders group were doing the Old Kent (excuse me, Fifth Third) Riverbank Run on Saturday and I wasn’t so I thought it would be an excellent time to visit Mom in Florida for Mother’s Day. Mom had the treat of driving 45 miles to pick me up at the airport and drive me all around the Hudson area changing driver’s license address, voter’s registration address, auto registration address and getting a license plate for my Michigan boat, then driving me 45 miles back to the airport. What better Mother’s Day present could I give?
Brother Bob let me use his “comfort” bike to do my Saturday ride. His model has the JDBBS (John Deere Big Butt Seat) and was comfortable riding but wasn’t exactly like my Trek so some chafing did occur. He told me he rode it often, but the tires had around 30 pounds of air in them (45-60 max) and he had no helmet even though he is quite familiar with my bike dive.
I went to K-Mart and bought him a helmet that I would wear on my ride and he would use on all his rides (maybe). I had a difficult time finding an adult helmet in the bike department at K-Mart which is probably one reason Florida had such a problem counting votes in the last Presidential election. Looking at the kids helmets with pink polka dots or green butterflies reminded me of a friend I met in the Air Force in the Big War. He was a 1st Lieutenant in charge of the cost accounting office I was in. He had a degree in Mid-Eastern History (probably valuable in the current war/re-election bid).
His name was Pete Halvonic and he was 6′ 8″ tall. He was our OIC (Officer In Charge) because he played basketball for the Military Airlift Command team (graduate of the Air Force Academy) and we were a MAC base. When Pete came to California he rode a Honda 90 motorcycle. For those of you old enough to remember, he looked like Arte Johnson on the Laugh-In tricycle because he was so big and the motorcycle was so small.
In California you weren’t required to wear a helmet while riding a motorcycle but on the Air Force base you were. Pete was a little miffed about that and, since he had a straight arrow side and a devilish side (wonder why we were friends), he went to the base exchange and bought a Johnnie Space plastic helmet in the toy department which he put on each time he entered the base.
I thought of the same practical joke to play on Bob, but Mom was with me and wouldn’t let me; the little kid’s helmet wasn’t safe for an adult you know. No matter how old you get, you’re still a kid to someone.
The training continues. I swam last evening instead of this morning since today was a travel day. After I make up for the weight lifting tomorrow I missed Sunday, I’ll be back on schedule. Nothing skipped but things weren’t done on the days they were scheduled and, of course, you can’t do them out of sequence and get the full benefit can you? It’s workout chaos and it just isn’t right.
Ta Ta as always,
Just (Trying to be “Son of the Year”) Jack