Bud Baker

Good morning, everyone! It was 68 degrees as I rode to work this morning, a lot warmer than it's been, with the return of humidity and the south wind. Forecast high is 84. They're calling for a 25 mph wind this afternoon, so it will be a tough ride home. I detoured off my commute route on the way home yesterday, three miles to the west to pick up a bike part at the Performance Bike store. Then, I pedaled down the block to Half Price Books, to pick up something to read on the trip. Then, I rode some bonus miles south of Crowley to end up with just over 51 miles for the day. Eric, I can't believe you didn't want everyone to see your Frankenstein scar. I never pass a chance to show mine off. MI Judy, why not Ruby and Blue Hummingbird Boulevard? Hang in there, Annette. I know it's a tough week for you. I hope KW Judy is doing better and checks in soon. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 50 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 81. They'll want me to take my sandals off? What would I hide in there, a butcher knife between my toes? I shouldn't have any problem getting everything in one carry on bag. What do I need besides shorts, t-shirts, and sandals? Have a great day, all!

Sorry to hear about the migraines, Dawn, but big congrats on the scans!

Sounds great, De. Good luck with your run. When I got back on the bike after surgery, I just rode at a very easy pace for a while. When I did get around to pushing myself again, I was bugged by shortness of breath when sprinting or climbing. That happened before any feeling of fatigue, burning in my legs, or anything else, not like what I'd always experienced before. But your body seems to adjust, and your new normal will feel like just that, normal that is, soon enough. I'd love to hear updates on how it goes. I did a 200k randonneuring ride yesterday, and always have to smile when I think of how far I've come, fitness-wise, since being knocked so low with surgery and chemo.

Good morning, everyone! It was 50 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 75. I don't remember it ever being this cool for this many days in a row here this late in May. Sorry to hear your mother is in the hospital again, Annette. I hope she's better soon. I had another good fishing day on Saturday. There were plenty of shallow crappie to be caught. On Sunday, I joined six other riders and did a 200k randonneuring ride. We kept it at an easy pace and I felt good the whole way, finishing in a little over 9 1/2 hours. Riding in this morning against the wind though, I was on tired legs. One daughter and grandchild joined us for a fish dinner yesterday evening. The other daughter, with another grandchild, was on her way to join us when her car was rear ended. The car is two weeks old. She turned around and went back home. I flew a lot on my last job, but haven't been on a plane since before 911, so I'll feel like a fish out of water on Friday, too. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 55 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 78. We had a cool front come in this morning, and it's supposed to stay cooler, with lows in the 50's and highs in the 70's, for the next few days. We'll be longing for days like this next month when it's 95 degrees in the shade. I rode to work all five days this week. Tomorrow, I'm going to Lake Aquilla to see if the crappie are still shallow. The spawn is likely to be over any time now, and the fish will be moving deeper. On Sunday, I'm joining a couple of friends for a 200k ride. I've been concentrating on my commuting riding, and haven't ridden a 200k since last fall, so it should be interesting. Eric, enjoy your last day of work tomorrow. I wish it was me. Annette, enjoy your algebra. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! Katie is right. We'd love to hear from more people here. Day to day living is survivorship. We're not picky; you can post whatever you want in this daily Air thread, or start your own thread here. It was 62 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 89. It's cloudy and breezy. With a forecast of storms, yesterday may not have been the best day to ride to work (hey, a 50% chance of rain means there's a 50% chance that it won't rain, right?) But that turned out to just be wishful thinking yesterday. The heavy thunderstorms hit here at 2:00, about an hour and a half before I get off work. At 2:30, Rose sent me this text, "I'm at home. Do u want me to come get ur a$$?" LOL The rain was moving east fast enough that I thought it might be mostly past by 3:30, but it started training more to the northeast, and rained for hours more in Fort Worth. But at least the worst of the lightning seemed to be past, so I decided to give the ride home a go. I made sure not to try and stop too fast anywhere, and made it home fine. As usual, the rain really wasn't that bad until I reached Crowley, then it was a downpour the rest of the way. The bike's fairing keeps the rain off my legs pretty well, and my hooded rain jacket keeps most of it off the rest of me. Still, after riding in this kind of downpour, my clothes were wet enough that I just left them hanging in the garage. The good news is that Rose still rejoices at the sight of a naked man walking into the house. Today's forecast is for just a 30% chance of storms, so maybe I'll make it home without blinding Rose. Have a great day, all!

Welcome, De, glad you found us! I was a long distance cyclist when my cancer was found. I only lost one lobe, and returned to my cycling pretty quickly after surgery. Best wishes for you and I'll look forward to hearing more.

Good morning, everyone! It was 71 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 83. We had a round of storms yesterday evening, and we're supposed to have more storms today. I'm hoping they wait until I get home from work. Annette, I have to skip the reality show talk. I don't watch any of them. A few movies and cable series is about all the tv I watch, although if the Mavericks make it to the championship series, I may have to watch a bit of that. LOL @ the 3 alarm dinner, Becky. Rose has set off our smoke detectors several times. Stephanie, if I ever knew what job you had, I'm not remembering. Are you an architect? How was your mentor training, MI Judy? Is it raining there? We're still behind on our rain, so I won't complain about a rainy day here today, although I'd sure like to see it wait until after I've pedaled my way home. I hope you're doing well today, KW Judy. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 71 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 83. It's cloudy and windy. Rose did her first home care work yesterday afternoon. It was at the home of a man we already knew, her sister's ex-landlord. Knee surgeries gone bad have taken his mobility. I was reading about one of the Alabama tornadoes this morning. It was an F-5 that was on the ground for almost 90 miles. It reminded me of the 1999 F-5 tornado in Oklahoma that passed near my sister. That one destroyed over 300 houses, and was the strongest tornado ever recorded. I visited my sister a couple of months after the storm and watched a video of it. It was incredible, some of the things it did. It picked up railroad cars and carried them a half mile. It's hard to imagine a storm with that much power. The weatherman was actually telling people to flee, that they could not ride this one out in their homes. Annette, it doesn't sound very promising for your nephew. Some people seem to have to learn too many lessons the hard way. I hope KW Judy is feeling well today, and enjoying her visiting. Have a great day, all!

Congrats, Alisa!

Good morning, everyone! It was 73 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 94. What a change from last week when it was low 40's in the morning and I rode to work wearing most of my winter clothes. This morning it was shorts and sleevless jersey. I hope everyone had a good Mother's Day weekend. I went fishing on Saturday. I was surprised at how many crappie were still shallow and spawning at Aquilla. I had a blast. Besides a mess of crappie, I caught a 5 lb largemouth bass and a 4 lb channel catfish on the light weight crappie rod and reel I was using. It took forever to land both of those. On Sunday, Rose and I joined our daughters and one grandchild at a restaurant for dinner, then zombied out in front of the tv for the evening. It was a sports bar type of restaurant, and all the tv's there were showing the Mavericks finishing up their sweep of the Lakers. There were lots of excited fans there. The door switch on the dishwasher seems to be acting up. I guess that's this evening's project. Late Happy Birthday, Eric! Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 51 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 86. MI Judy, did you have any luck training your dog to get through the dog door yet? I installed one right after we moved here. Petey had never used one before, and like his owner, is old and a bit senile, so I had my doubts about how well he would learn to use it. But he learned it quickly. Being blind, he has to nose around a bit to find it if he's not following Pixie, but he always gets through it. It was funny watching him try to get through it yesterday with that lampshade around his neck, though. LOL @ Annette's cat taking after Keith. Annette, when one of our dogs does something really dumb, either Rose or I will look and the other and say, "he gets that from YOUR side of the family." Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 51 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 80. It's clear skies today. Eric, I rode 46 1/2 miles overall Tuesday. 12 of those miles were getting me to work, so I rode 34 miles after work. Rose made a trip yesterday that she was really dreading. She took Petey, our 15 1/2 year old blind Chihuahua, to the vet. He had a rectal protrusion and bleeding. It was hard to be optimistic about the outcome for a dog that old with those symptoms. Petey hadn't been to the vet since we moved to Crowley a year and a half ago, so this was his first visit with this vet. The vet later confided that he was dreading the appointment too, after hearing Petey's circumstances, certain that it would be bad news for us. But Petey surprised everyone. It turned out to be just an infection, not serious. The vet said Petey's heart sounded perfect, with no hint of the murmur a vet would expect from a dog that age. He said Petey's teeth were perfect, and that he seemed to be in excellent health overall. He said he thought Petey would likely be with us a while yet. I told Rose to tell the vet that Petey's heart may have checked out fine, but that I had a heart attack when I saw his bill. Have a great day, all!

According to Dave Letterman, bin Laden's last words were, "I need a house full of Navy SEALs like I need a hole in the head."

Good morning, everyone! It was 41 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 77. I took the long way home yesterday afternoon (humming that old Supertramp song). So, rather than my usual commuting round trip distance of 24 1/2 miles, I ended up with 46 1/2 miles on the bike. It was 69 degrees with light winds, a beautiful afternoon for riding. We won't have many more afternoons here that cool for a while. I'm thinking I need to get my miles wherever I can this month, since I already know I'll be getting 0 miles on one long weekend. MI Judy, I'm surprised we haven't had a problem with ants in the house. It always seems to be worse during periods of drought, like we've been having. Of course, a bigger problem here is fire ants in the yard. Eric, glad you weren't hurt in the crash. We get way too many of those here. The roads are filled with bad drivers driving way too many miles. They all call their crashes accidents, but mosts cyclists call them crashes, and point out that horrible drivers having horrific crashes are not accidents. There's my bit to stir the pot today........LOL. Have a great day, all!

Good morning, everyone! It was 41 degrees as I rode to work this morning. That's the coldest temperature I ever remember seeing in May here. Forecast high is 71. Yesterday's high was 53 degrees, a record coolest high temperature for that date by 4 degrees. Forecast high for next Monday is 95 degrees......LOL. Sorry you're having insurance issues, KW Judy. I hope you get it worked out soon. I hate playing phone tag with insurance people. I have not been able to get the GRACE website to work for a couple of days now. Anyone else having trouble? Have a great day, all!

MI Judy, we've all learned that the body can't replace lung tissue that's lost, but yes, aerobic exercise can definitely make the healthy lung tissue that's left work better. I think being proactive in trying to improve lung function is a good idea. On another site, a woman who's lung surgery was still quite a few weeks away said her surgeon told her to train like she was training for a marathon from then until the day before surgery. I think that's the best advice a surgeon could give. There are also breathing techniques that claim to be able to let you make better use of your lungs. And if you're someone who thinks supplements might help, here's one to google: beet root. This week's scoreboard: Obama - 1 Osama - 0

Good morning, everyone! It was 44 degrees when I got up this morning. That ties the lowest temperature ever recorded here on this date. Forecast high is 53. It stormed all night and is pouring rain still, so I left my bike in the garage and drove to work. MI Judy, I add weight every winter and spend every spring taking it back off. I'm not within a pound of my optimum weight, or even my target weight, I'm within a pound of where I was on this same date last year. Annette, you are right. I did get in better mileage early this year than early last year, so in spite of having such a low mileage month in April, I'm only 30 miles behind last year, overall. Yesterday was no help. I spent the entire day being a zombie in front of the television. Maybe I can get in a ride after work today. Have a great day, all!

I'm very sorry to read this. Condolences to her family and friends.

Good morning, everyone! It's 59 degrees outside with light rain and a howling northwest wind. Forecast high is 69. A storm just passed through, and it looks like another one coming. I was hoping to get in a ride today, but it looks like storms all day. I rode less than 500 miles in April. Looking at last year's log, that's over 200 miles less than I rode in April last year. I'm probably lucky that I'm only one pound further away from my summer weight than I was at this time last year. I need to bear down and get more miles this month. Rose passed the last part of the state test yesterday, so is now a CNA. I'm excited to see how she likes the work. I spent yesterday on Lake Whitney. I guess I'll call it an exploratory trip since I did more exploring than catching......LOL. Have a great day, all!

Welcome, bumbinokid, but sorry you need to be here. You'll find lots of stories here of people who've also gone through the very scary place that this diagnosis is. For many, reading the stories of others who have and are facing this, does help. Don't hesitate to post questions, rants, or whatever else is on your mind.

Welcome, Alan. So glad you're doing well! And there's never a need to apologize for babbling on here. That's what this place is for. You'll always find people here who get it, and there's always other readers who will want to read every detail you post.

Thanks for sharing, Christy, and congrats on 7+ years!

Good morning, everyone! It was 55 degrees as I rode to work this morning. Forecast high is 86. I rode to work all five days this week, in spite of having to dodge some storms. MI Judy, I know what you mean about shrinking in height. I was about 5' 11" for many years. With my spine now shaped like a mountain road, I'm closer to 5' 9" these days. Eric, here's what happened with the Spartacus series. Just before they were scheduled to start shooting the second season, the star, Andy Whitfield, was diagnosed with non-Hodgkin lymphoma. So, while he was getting chemo treatments, they delayed the regular season 2, and made the six episode prequel, Spartacus: Gods of the Arena, which was set 5 years before season 1. Just after they started work on season 2 again, Whitfield's cancer recurred. So, they delayed again, and they're going to replace him this time. It seems unbelievable that someone in the kind of shape he is could be diagnosed with cancer, then recurrent cancer, but as we here all know too well, it happens. Let us know the good news about your scan as soon as you get it, MI Judy. Have a great day, all!