Archive 19 - 8/5/2019 to 7/31/2020

7/31/2020 - Apples, Oranges and Smilies, New Bike Site Main Photo, The Secret to All Repairs

OK, one more post for July... Now that I have retired, I guess I am slipping in my website quality control testing. One of the many visitors to this website was asking me what the random capital J (happy, which should be 🙂 ) and capital L (sad, which should be 🙁) that were in my last post. Well I looked at the post and it looked fine to me... Then I remembered that I never checked it out on my phone. Sure enough there they were!

Yea, it's the old issue of Apples and PCs (referred to here as the Oranges) not playing nice with each other again and I forgot to check my website changes on different devices! Sheesh! Well, it took me quite a while to figure out the secret to making smilies, emoticons and other character set images display properly on Apples and PCs but I believe that I got it now. I even got the trick to including smilies that display the right way in emails to other PCs or Apple iPhones. Well, I do not have an Android device to test on so if they are not right on Androids I won't know until someone lets me know. (I'll probably check with one of you Android People at some point).

And next, the photo that I have included here is My New Bike Site Main Photo (at the top of the main (index) page). I really loved the look and feel of this photo that I took years ago at the Bike the Drive event in Chicago where they close down Lake Shore Drive (LSD) to motor vehicle traffic for a few hours early on a Saturday and open it up for bike riders. This was a woman and a child (maybe her son?) going downhill on one of the steeper hills on the ride.

This was one of the first photos that I took with my (then) brand new Nikon SLR. Unfortunately the background sucked! It was a concrete barricade mostly. So I spent quite a bit of time improving it in PhotoChop. I stripped out most of the background which was not too hard for most parts... BUT the spokes of the wheels were incredibly difficult. Well, I know some tricks for that and I think that I got it pretty much as good as I could. You can't get the spokes perfect and you can't completely white out the space between the wheel hubs and tires or it looks like the tires are suspended in air! Well since I put a lot of work into this photo I had to post it here too.

OK, speaking of secrets (from above), I used to have an old saying posted at the top of this website that had some universal wisdom. At some point I took it down since it had gotten a little old but recently I was in the process of looking for a pre-existing flowchart for a birthday card and I found this wisdom in a nicely done flowchart image. So here is the New version of The Secret to All Repairs.

On a related note, I was also considering a "Joke Page" on this site for some of the good jokes and humor that I have seen various places (internet, emails, FB, etc.). Of course, I would not want to reduce the intellectual integrity of this page and website and make this website look like a joke 🙂 lol! I got the idea from a quick one liner that I just saw that said: 4 out of 3 people have a problem with math!

7/29/2020 -A Birthday to Mention and my FB Post from today, Fhotochop Fun

Well today is my moms 94th birthday, so of course that is the Birthday that I wanted to Mention. While reminiscing about that I decided to do a quick Facebook post to mention that to the FB world. So, of course, I will post what I put on FB here too for those of you that do not use FB (or are not FB friends with me 🙁)

FB Post with the photo included here):

"I was just reminiscing a little about my mom on her 94th birthday. Happy Birthday mom! How about a photo of when she was younger (from her photo album before she was married)."

The next few things that I wanted to mention here actually has to do with the photo of my mom that I just posted (here and on FB).

First, I wanted to get a younger picture of my mom that I have not already posted on the internet, sent to people, or used in other projects that I have done over the years. Of course, I have a limited selection of photos of my mom and she was fairly young (or at least middle aged) in most of them since she died at a fairly young age (60 - which seems even younger to me now at my age). So I found the photo above that I scanned quite a while ago from one of her photo albums that she had and looks like she might have been in high school at the time.

The photo album is kind of cool itself since it has the really old photos but also has the comments (in white on the black paper background) like the word "me" above this one. This photo also had "Vernice Rowe or Vernice Elwell" written underneath the photo. This was interesting because her official maiden name was Rowe but her blood father left them (and she did not like him) and her step father's last name was Elwell.

Then I wanted to mention that I did a quick Google lookup on fixing old photos with Fhotochop (Photoshop for the more conservative crowd, PS for short so I'll use that) and I was able to touch up that photo just a little.

What I found with my PS lookup was just an easy way to do quick fixes with PS. I am so used to using "Expert" mode, which is great for more advanced stuff, that I forgot that there is a "Quick" mode and a "Guided" mode for much quicker, easier touch-up stuff (duh!). So I used the Guided mode for fixing old photos and got it touched up really quick. What Fun! Right?

It's late now and I forgot to finish this and post it until now so that's it fer tonight.

7/26/2020 -Do You Know Where Your Sun is? Longest Ride in 9 years

I mentioned in my last post that I meditated through (OK slept through) a lot of my classes in school. Well, aside from coming out of school enlightened I thought that I at least had the basics down (like I could read and rite even if I could not spel use gramer or talk real proper and stuff 🙂 ). Well I kinda thought that I knew the basics about the sun but it turns out I am still learning this stuff (at age 67!)

It started on a ride (of course) and while trying to position my redneck toupee to keep the sun out of my eyes. It was late afternoon and I when I was heading north and I thought that the sun would be mostly to my left (west) and a little behind me (south) so I didn't need to have my hat on (it was hot). It turned out it was left but a little in front of me (so in my eyes!).

This was kind of driving me crazy because I knew that the sun rises in the east and sets in the west (see I done learnt the basics!) and I also thought that the sun was mostly in the southern sky (where we live - more advanced stuff). Well that is mostly correct but there is a lot more to it, of course.

So I went to do a simple Google lookup for the sun path across the sky. Holy Schmoly! most of the search results looked like they were rocket science or at least sponsored by NASA or something. It was actually really hard to find what I was looking for but I was a little obsessed and found it! So here is the website and > sun path image (link) that I was looking for.

So it mostly confirmed what I already knew but I thought it was good a showing a lot more than I was totally aware of. It also confirmed that the sun is in the west and a little north in the late afternoons (only) and at this time of year (so now I can position my hat properly 🙂). The other things that I learnt was that the only times of the year that the sun rises totally in the west and sets totally in the west is on the spring and fall equinoxes. Otherwise it's a little north in the summer and a little south in the winter. I also learned how to insert smileys (as in Word and emails) in website page (🙂 instead of the text version :-)) as you can see in this post. What fun!

Oh yea, I am taking a little break today from riding for some R&R even thought it's a decent riding day (which is why I have the time for the Google searches and website post). Which reminds me...

I did my Longest Ride in 9 years last week! Yea, I rode 51 miles last Wednesday. Mostly I wanted to see if I could live through another 50 (or so) mile ride like I did one time last year. Well I lived through it but man it was hard. I knew that last year I rode a fraction over 50 so I had to ride 51 to beat that of course. Then when I checked the last time that I had ridden 51 miles or more I was surprised to find that that was the longest ride that I had done since 2011 when I rode 55 miles. I had done some other 40+ or near 50 milers but not over 51. It was just an interesting thing to shoot for.

7/14/2020 -Bike Rides and Updates, Sleeping in Class or Meditating?

I just updated the Bike Mileage above so, as you can see, I have been doing some riding. I have also been doing quite a few Updates to my Bike website pages. As for my mileage, I am currently at 730 and 750 is actually 1/2 of my season bike riding goal (1,500 miles). So since this is mid-July, I am actually pretty much where I should be to make my goal.

I have also done some bike site updates recently. I wrote 2 Bike Blog Posts (here) about the updates. The updates are about trail conditions, the detour that I took accidentally on my last Fox River Trail ride and the work and revision being done on the old stone railway bridge and tunnel on the trail south of Elgin. The photo that I used for this post is an old photo of that bridge/tunnel. The new version of the tunnel is going to look more like a large sewer pipe :-( There's a photo of the Old and New tunnels at the bottom of this page.

I also did the consolidation, make-over to the Fox River Trail Page on my site (as I wrote about in the latest blog post from today). There are a lot of other pages on my bike site that need make-overs but I just do them when I get a chance.

I also want to do a major make-over on the entire bike site. Originally, the site was designed mostly for affiliate sales and marketing but since I am not doing that anymore, I want to make the site more focused on the blog, the trail pages and photos and just the other fun and interesting bike stuff that I might want to write about. I will still keep the affiliate sales pages (just in case I get back into that at some point) but I have just not had the time for the make-over yet. Soon... if I live long enough!

One day when I was meditating recently I noticed that it kind of reminded me of Sleeping in Class when I was in school. Normally I could not actually sleep but I would cover my eyes with my hand on my forehead like I was concentrating hard or reading or something (like that really fooled the teacher or anyone else! :-) and rest. Maybe drifted off or daydream a little. You still have to stay awake enough to pay attention to hear if the teacher was walking by or calling your name or something (yea, it's an art).

So anyway, it is not completely like mindful meditation but might have some similarities. No wonder I came out of school so enlightened!!! (OK, maybe not as educated as I done ought to have been but so wise) lol!

7/1/2020 -30 Birthdays and July logo

Just a really quick post. I wanted to mention that it is Casey's 30th Birthday!!! And that I finally created a new July Photo (above). The Photo of Casey on the Jet Ski is from a few years back but it is from July... and this is officially his month. :-) Of course, you can ClickOn/Touch the July photo above for the bigger version of Casey Jet Skiing.

6/27/2020 -To Smile without Smiling, the Wait is Over! Cracked 6 Hundo!

In my last post I had mentioned that you will just have to wait a bit for the New Look Selfie since the original ones that I took did not come out so well. I also said to send your Twits to #MoreRobbieSelfies and that went viral and almost crashed our servers!!! (in my mind anyway:-)))

Well, it's been a little tricky to get a selfie that captures my Happy Stash very well but I got one that is OK for now. Corinne is getting me some goop to put a better curl in the end of my stash but this one should give you a pretty good idea about what I was referring to.

Yea, of course, it's a little goofy (but I live on the fringe of goofy and really don't care anymore at my age and in my position). I think it looks "happy" and it is really easy plus I can switch it back easily if I get into some crazy kind of "serious" situation where I need to act and look like an adult lol!!!

I was going to write more of the back story but I've been posting a lot lately and think I'll skip that one (for now, and spare you all).

I tried to post the image more after the text but then it crowds out the first picture in the next post so I had to "reveal" the surprise a little sooner.

Comments?

And my last little note is that I Cracked 6 Hundred Bike miles for this season today! Yea, good weather and long days are the best for getting in a lot of miles.

6/25/2020 - Longest Ride! With Photos (Sorry #NoSelfies)

Yep, I did my longest bike ride of the season this week! It helps that these have been the longest days of the year too. I rode from Crystal Lake to South Elgin on 4 different bike trails (accidentally) for a total of 42 miles. As they say "42 miles aint what it used to be!" Yea, it's a lot frickin harder now!!! My longest ride last year was 50 miles and I remember being exhausted after that one. Not sure if I will beat that one this year.

So I already wrote all the details about my ride and posted the photos that I took on the bike site so I will just include the links here. I did actually take a little time to take some photos on this ride. They are just phone photos but it is something to document the adventure.

I took a few photos of my New Slightly Different Look too but they did not come out very good so I am not going to post them (you all will just have to wait a bit). I should have been focusing more on the important stuff... Selfies! and not so much on that silly bike ride! :-)

Send your Twits to #MoreRobbieSelfies! Note: # is now pronounced Hash-tag. It is no longer Pound-Sine or Sharp-Sine like it used to be. :-)

OK so here are the links to the other stuff:

The Blog with all the details about the 4 trail, 42 mile ride.

The Batch of Photos that I took, with comments.

The GPS Map of my Ride on the Garmin website.

Later,,,,,,

6/20/2020 - Fox River Trail and Prairie Trail Rides and Story, Facebook Post from Today.

Here's that post that I said that I was going to do! On Thursday I did a ride on the Fox River Trail and Prairie Trail, managed to ride 28 miles and just wrote about the ride(s) on my bike site blog. Well since I already wote about them in the bike blog, no use repeating it all here... Here's a link to The Fox River and Prairie Trail Ride Blog Post on my bike site.

Yea, it was a little rainy today so I also did a Facebook post and I'll just include that here...

"I was just thinking about my dad a few weeks ago when I took this photo so even if this is a bit early for FD (and late for Memorial Day) I wanted to say Happy Fathers Day dad! We are still thinking and talkin about you. Keeping you alive in our memories. :-) "

It's actually cool if you blow up the photo. It looks like he got his tags about a month after the "date which will live in infamy"...

I'm really glad that he made it back from that little dispute in the Pacific. It means the world to me. Literally!!!

6/19/2020 -Cracked 500!

I think I'll be doing another regular post soon, but I just updated the miles above and wanted to mention that I Cracked 500! So, 510 down, 990 to go!

6/16/2020 -Mindful Bananas, Age Happens (and the Monkey)

It's a beautiful day here today but I am not riding! WT#! Well, I have a minor (recurring) leg issue so I am giving that a break and also Dara had an extra long dog rescue today so I am puppy sitting our dog Dexter. The photo that I linked to here is just a quick phone pic that I took while he was eating but it's current and he is in his natural habitat! It's nice to have Dexter (I love his snoring!) but it is also pretty hard here at the hotel (and with him wanting to go out really early!).

Bananas So since I had some time, I decided to do a post here.... As for the Mindful Bananas, recently when I was having a banana with my cereal (as I often do) I was really noticing how real bananas make me a little nostalgic because they remind me of Banana Popsicles (nature imitating popsicles?!?). The feeling was strong last time and I was thinking about how I was being mindful about eating my breakfast (with the bananas). This is the same kind of mindfulness used in mindfulness meditation but this is just the mindful part (which can be applied to anything that you do just by paying close attention). There is a lot more to it when you add the meditation part of it.

As for Age Happening, as I was updating my bike riding spreadsheet (and on my rides) I was noticing how my average speed seemed to be decreasing. I thought that I used to average like around 13MPH most of the time and now it seems like I am lucky if I average 10MPH on my rides. So I looked it up in my spreadsheet records and sure enough I used to average over 13MPH (when I was younger). I actually got passed by a rollerblader yesterday!!! That actually still never happens but this guy must have been a pro and was really flyin (over 9mph on frickin roller blades)!

Anyway, I was curious how my average speed compares to previous years and of course "there is a spreadsheet for that" :-)

So I just briefly looked up my average speed for the last 10 years (plus added this years numbers so far) and it was really enlightening (even if it was a little disappointing). Then I added my age and the total miles for each year too.

Here is the screen shot of my average speed and bike stats spreadsheet that I just did (you can click on it to see a little larger version).

As I mentioned, the numbers here were enlightening and a little disappointing but then in the meditation book that I read, the monk dude emphasizes the impermanence of everything - like how everything is aging and nothing lasts forever, including ourselves.

Yea, we can try to fight it, and that can be a good thing when it comes to staying in shape, but it does still happen and we are all aging a little more everyday.

So although staying in shape is great, it may also be good to keep in mind that Age is Happening to Us All (like it or not) so accepting that is also a good thing too.

Am I getting too heavy here?!? :-)

OK, well I think that the monk dude that I mentioned above has the key to aging... I call it the MonkKey!

6/13/2020 -Facebook Post from Today, Birthday Follow up Stuff

Here's my FB post from today for those of you who don't have FB. It's just a short thing and I think that I'll just leave it at that...

"First, thanks everyone for the nice birthday greetings! I do like the FB birthday greetings feature, it's nice. We had a nice little (safe) outdoor pizza party with the family. The photo is me on my bike ride today wearing one of my BD presents that I got from Casey. (Sorry DHL, Marketing...(I wore my free DHL hat for the last few years on most of my bike rides)) :-)"

OK, I am going to add one thing. The FB post above is a thanks for all the greetings but I wrote that relative to the FB greetings (since that is where I posted it). However, I also want to extend that to all the off-FB greetings that I got because I got a lot of those too (texts, emails, phone calls (and of course the ones in person from my family since I saw them)).

So once again Thanks Everyone!

6/8/2020 - Covid Beret Toupee Portrait, Cracked 400!

On my bike rides I have noticed a lot of people out on the bike trails with face masks. I am glad to see more people getting out but when are they going to lose the face masks when outdoors in the sun. This got me thinking that if they keep using these things all summer we are going to have a lot of weird tan lines! So I took a goofy selfie that I had and modified it a little to see how I would look with a Mask Tan!

OK Originally I was curious how I would look in a Beret so I photo-chopped one on to a selfie that I had (some of you have seen this one but I spared most of you). No one liked the Beret selfie :-(.

Then I went back to Rob's Photo Chop Shop for another quick change and made some modifications to simulate a covid mask tan. So what I ended up with is this mutated photo that I call my Covid Beret Toupee Portrait :-) - OK, yes, I can hear you now and you are probably right. I have too much time on my hands! :-) (I actually did not spend much time on the tan line part (as you can see)).

My other brief story is that I just Cracked 400 Bike Miles for this year! I had to extend my last ride by a few miles to reach 400 but at least I'm in the 400s now so 400 down 1,100 to go! Once again, I am not sure if I can make my goal so it must be a good goal since I have to actually work hard at attaining it.

6/5/2020 -Just a Little More Good News, and now Covid Marketing! The 60s All Over Again!!!

OK, Just a Little Good News today. I had my follow-up CT scan and all is well. That is, nothing has changed so nothing is getting worse in the old lung area. The biggest thing (of course) No Cancer :-). Unfortunately, I still have my cough and the latest is that it is most likely a combination of Post Nasal Drip and mild Interstitial Lung Disease (ILD) which is not getting any worse than it was. I don't think there is an actual cure for the cough but I think I have it under control a little better than before although there are still good days and bad days. It is always worse when I am run-down in any way. OK, enough on the medical stuff, if you really want to know more, just write or call...

So I had my CT scan and doc appointment and had to make a couple more appointments and get a new Rx for another inhaler to try and in the process was put on hold a couple of times... While on hold (and I have noticed this before in many other places) I get the hold music interrupted constantly with Covid Marketing! Well, of course, with an event as big as Corona and Covid companies are using it for the marketing purposes! Things like "What we are doing for you in these difficult times...", "All the wonderful new services that we now provide...","You are #1 with us and to keep you protected we are offering this and that touchless or online process... (kiss, kiss, hug, hug...) we really care so much about YOU". OK, so I am a little cynical, that it just the way I see it... :-) and I am getting tierd of covid spam.

And finally, I was just talking to Corinne and we both agreed that we think that the Covid stuff has contributed to the next big news thing which is, of course, the George Floyd protesting and looting, etc. Corinne told me that she has heard that the George Floyd protests are now bigger (worldwide) than the civil rights protests in the 60s and the MLK assignation!

Well although I think that the hippies have already won the 60s movements since pot is legal and haircuts were banned for a while (that line was not original but I thought that it was funny so I used it anyway), it does seem like the 60s again is some ways to me. In the 60s we had Viet Nam, Civil Rights Protests and Nixon... Now we have Covid, Civil Rights Protests and Trump!!! Anyone else notice the similarities???

In the 60s we had Pink Floyd and now we have George Floyd, In the 60s, my ge-ge-ge-generation was taking drugs... Now my generation is in their 60s and taking drugs so we can say generation without stuttering!!! OK, I am getting carried away now. I better go before I get goofy! LOL!

Note: The 60s psychedelic picture that I used here is also one of my own. It's a photo looking up at the trees with fall colors and turning the camera with a slow shutter speed. I just had to get some more miles out of my photo :-)

6/3/2020 -Sunshine and Good News!

I had to update the photo above for June and my bike miles running total and I decided that I wanted to post some Good News to counteract all of the Bad News that the news media spews out all the time. OK, it's not like this is a big good news story about any of us but just overall good news.

The good news is that the number of new positive cases of covid and the number of new covid deaths are declining quite a bit both at the national level and here in Illinois. I doubt that the news media would see that as a big story to sell and the protests and looting have taken over the news now anyway.

The covid numbers were never really all that bad anyway (compared to the population and other relevant numbers) but I'm sure that all the extreme measures that we took kept these numbers much lower than they would have otherwise been.

Although the news stations like to throw in a feel-good fluff story at the end of all the bad news, their feel-good stories are usually not the kind of news that I just mentioned and are often not related to the news much at all.

Anyway Illinois is opening up for bidness again and is currently in Phase 3 (of the plan that they put in place) which is not that great but getting much better.

I noticed that the Lazy Busse Woods Nazis are still keeping the Busse Woods parking lots closed on the weekends (Fri-Sun, I'm sure that is a lot easier for them) and they still have all the picnic tables stacked and bolted together. I discovered that the parking lots were open today though (being a weekday) and that they were almost back to normal again! Like it was before they shut down the state and pretty much implemented Marshall Law here. The trails were not all that crowded either. Getting closer to normal again YAY!!!!

The other thing that I wanted to mention is that it was a nice sunny day today and I think that it's great to see people getting out in the Sunshine a lot now. I have no real facts or official (CDC or FDA, etc. ) studies to backup my next comment but I have heard that UV Rays kill germs and I think getting people outdoors in the Sunshine is probably one of the best things that we can do now. :-) (take it easy on that sunscreen too! - I am so politically incorrect!)

On a sunny day, back when I was walking more, I told Dara that I took off my hat to get more sun and she was laughing and thought that was really funny. At first I didn't get that then I realized that she was thinking about that large solar panel that I have on the top of my head (referring to my "bald spot"). Then I thought about how funny what I said was and had a big LOL.

Note: I wanted to use one of my own photos for a sunshine picture and had a real hard time finding one. I have quite a few sunset photos but that was not quite what I was looking for. The best one that I could find was the one that I included above which is a little older picture that I took experimenting with back lighting... I'll have to get some good sun photos one of these days (that is not always easy).

5/23/2020 -Long Workend Anniversary! Busse Woods Covid Nazis!

Memorial Day has a new second meaning for me now. It's pretty much my Freedom Anniversary! Yep, it was just after Memorial Day 2017 that I retired from the Rat Race! OK, the holiday was on 5/29 in 2017 and I officially agreed to work until 5/31 so I had 2 more (partial) days after the holiday to work at DHL.

I remember writing a post on this site (it's in the Archives link above) that I was hoping that it would be a "Long Workend". A play on words, of course, but also hoping that I did not die the day after I retired or something (crazy shit like that has happened to people)!

Well, I have made it through 3 years of retirement now so even if I get hit by lightening or something tomorrow, at least I got some ROI on all those years working, slaving and saving! And I am still doing well and still absolutely love retirement! Just like money in general, it does not solve your problems or make you happy by itself but (as Forrest Gump once said (referring to being a gazillionaire)) "...That's Good, one less thing...".

When I first retired I thought that I was going to continue to dabble in the affiliate website bidness (semi-retire) but I was just too lazy and unmotivated to continue with that so I am "more retired" than I thought that I would be at first. I still post stuff to my bike site, of course, cause I love biking and like keeping up on parts of the bike site (like the trails pages and bike blog mostly) but I don't update the affiliate links or anything on the bidness side of the site.

What I Enjoy About Retirement:

Although, I might be considered a boring person, I just love the freedom of not having commitments even if I don't do all that much. I don't need to travel to feel fulfilled (but I will do that on occasion) and I don't need another job or extra hobbies and crap to "not be bored" (it is still absolutely crazy to me that some people say they get bored when not working at a job!).

I am quite happy with Bike Riding, Walking for Exercise (in the winter), some Limited Travel (usually visiting family), Meditating (recently), Playing with Spreadsheets and Looking up a bunch of crap on the internet just for fun and sometimes to learn things (but just for fun), Visiting family and friends (live or, more often, on phone calls or in emails and texts), Photos and Photochop stuff plus some video creations when I get the chance, occasional website updates (like here and my bike site mostly (even surfing Facebook and a post there once in a while)), Watching TV series and Movies and Sleeping really late!

I was also enjoying Playing Music and Creating New Recordings although that has been put on hold for a while until my living situation will allow me to do that once again. I also hope to do more and better photos once I have my DSLR handy on a regular basis. I'm sure I could think of other things that I regularly do to waste the days away but I'll leave it at that for now and I just love wasting away! Bored?!? LOL!

Wow! I didn't mean for that to be so long but, oh well, that is one of the things that I do (and it's supposed to rain today)...

OK, my other story is just about the Busse Woods Covid Nazis. I almost called it Busse Woods Party Poopers but I liked the covid Nazis a little better. I am really getting tired of all this covid crap and I still think that many people are just going way too far overboard with this stuff to the point where the cure seems worse than the problem! BTW: I just did a new spreadsheet with US covid stats related to the US population and flu stats and deaths from all other causes too. I do agree that covid is more contagious than the regular flu and is way more deadly (esp. for compromised old people like me) but you really should see all the numbers to understand what is truly going on.

OK, I'll get off that old soapbox again... As for Busse Woods, I went to ride there yesterday, since it is less hilly than the other places that I go to and saw that the parking lot was blocked and had a sign that said something like "Memorial Day at Home - Parking lot Closed Friday-Monday"! WTF! OK, well that is not a problem for me because I can just go park somewhere else (not in the park) and ride my bike to the trail, which is exactly what I did.

It was actually much nicer for me once I got on the trail because I was worried about the crowds on the trail (since that is the problem with this trail and it was Memorial Day Friday) and there were way less people on the trails! I discovered that ALL the parking lots were closed for the weekend but there were some other die-hards like me that made it to the trail too. Even walkers, runners and roller people.

Ever since early in the "covid crisis" the park people have stacked all of the picnic tables (2 high, one upside down on top of the other) and wrapped them in yellow (Nazi) Do Not Cross Tape apparently to avoid gatherings. Well, I think that worked very well and no one tries to use the tables (even when the parking lots were open). But I usually need a break at some point in my ride to rest my weary bones for a little while and I found 1 remote pavilion that must have had an odd number of tables and 1 table that you could still sit on so I would use that one for a break.

Well, yesterday I found that they got rid of that one and I was going to try to at least slide one of the top tables partially off the bottom one so I could sit there (you can barely sit on them they way they are stacked). I knew the tables are industrial and really heavy but I thought that I could slide one easy enough. Wrong! Each stack of 2 tables are bolted together! Bastards! (I thought)

Yea, they did a great job of keeping people off the tables even if some of us rebels make it into the park on on to the trails. So mostly it is kinda good for me with the reduction in people on the trails but I would have liked to at least have a table to sit on for a break. What's next? Barbed wire rolls on the bike trail to keep the rest of us Covid Outlaws away!

5/19/2020 -Bike Trail Flooding...

I just wrote a blog post with some tips on riding through water in flooded areas. I probably could have added my main tip in 1 sentence but of course, I rambled on a lot! :-) So I'll try to keep this one short. I really just wanted to mention that blog post for any bike riders out there that might be interested. Here is my post Home or High Water – Tips for Riding the Flood Out.

The photo that I have included here is me riding through a flood on the same bike trail that I was writing about but 5 years ago (so it is not recent). Some of you may recognize the blue Digital Equipment Corp. jacket that I have on (from the 80s!). I finally gave up on that jacket since there wasn't much left of it after over 30 years! The other pictures on the post are current from yesterday.

Not much else to mention at the moment. I am still putting on more bike miles and meditating. Not at the same time of course although I do have a different kind of meditation that I often do while riding.

5/4/2020 -Just Some Thoughts...

Enlightened After my meditation today I had some interesting thoughts that I considered jotting down. Not sure if they were worth jotting down so instead I decided to do a quick post here! (since I thought it might be too goofy for the more intellectual content on Facebook) laughing dog In mindful meditation you are not really supposed to "think" thoughts as much as just being aware of them. I get that idea but I am having a little trouble in the execution of that one (it's a little tricky, I think (or I noticed!)).

I think that most people know that you basically tune-out (mentally and physically) and focus on something specific like your breathing when you meditate. So I try to do that, of course, but I was aware that I still hear sounds even if I am mostly ignoring them. I also noticed that I still feel the temperature and my body (like itches and discomfort at times) and am aware of light etc.

This got me thinking about the 5 senses and which ones you can turn off to some degree. Like you can tune-out sight pretty well and pretty easily by just closing your eyes. Hearing is pretty much always "on" when you are conscious (although you can use white noise to cover up the more distracting sounds like I often do but the hearing is still "on"). Touch is pretty much always "on" too except maybe when heavily drugged or anesthetized.

So that's what I was thinking about. The 5 senses. And, of course, whenever you put a number on something it opens it up for debate and changes. I was thinking that there was a sense of time too although I have mostly considered that to be the 4th dimension. And, of course, there is common sense (which some people have and others don't know that they don't have it. I used to think that I had it but I'm not sure anymore).

OK, then I cheated a little and Googled additions to the 5 senses and got a lot of interesting stuff. Like sense of balance and acceleration, sense of pressure and pain, temperature (which I mentioned under the touch category) and some websites also mentioned ESPN (some people don't use the N) but by the definition of the first word it is not really a sense. Then I Googled additional dimensions and got this crazy outer-space crap that was just too much for my little brain so I gave up on that.

OK, like I said, just some thoughts (and maybe not even worth jotting down :-)). I've spent enough of my 4th dimension on that now.

And of course, May the 4th be with you!!!! That one has an expiration date (tomorrow). OK, now it was worth writing this post today!

5/2/2020 -Nice Ride and New Profile Pic

Well I had a pretty nice ride today even though I left a little late to avoid the weekend crowds. Before I rode, and later while on my ride, I decided to do a new profile picture for Facebook since I was wanting to change the "mask photo". I was also really wanting to get a photo with some spring flowers in the background since a lot of stuff is blooming like crazy right now.

So anyway, as you can see with the photo there, I got a new photo with some flowers in the background and even with a new redneck toupee! This time I used this handy knit and stretchable headband that I usually keep with me for my ears when it is cold out.

The headband is handy because you can use it on your head (as in the photo), over your ears for warmth, pull it down and it makes a handy corona mask (definitely not up to CDC standards) or even pull it down further for a scarf. Some photos below of the handy uses for this thing. I gotta get this on Shark Tank!!! Oh yea, I just bought it so it is already invented...

Anyway, I had some technical difficulties with the Facebook Post again! I could not get the cropped circular Facebook profile format the way I wanted (It cropped too much of the photo and made my face bigger than I wanted) then after I got it as good as I could and tried to save it that way it posted it to my profile before I could write anything! So I just did a separate post later...

OK, I've written too much about this, I think. Here are the other photos that I wanted to include and mention. I'm too lazy to do an official photo page so I am just including the smaller versions here with links to bigger ones.

The first photo is the full size version of the FB profile picture before I had to crop out all the good stuff for the FB format. The second photo is how you can wear that headband as a Corona Mask and the third photo is just how you could wear it as a scarf (under a coat in the winter) or as a turtle-neck Dickie!!! lol! Anyone remember those?

Oh yea, for those of you that are not on Facebook (or not my "friend" there :-(), here is the FB post that I did on FB to go with the new profile pic:

"Shoot! This time when I tried to new a new profile pic it uploaded the photo before I was able to say anything! Anyway, it's Springtime! and I wanted a photo with some flowers and I wanted to change my Maskie profile pic. I still wear my mask in stores and stuff and even if I didn't choose to it is the law now in Illinois and I don't want to get busted by the Corona Cops! Also, I wanted to mention that my new redneck toupee in this photo is also what I use as a mask sometimes. More on that and other goofy stuff (as usual) on www.robanddara.com, of course.
Oh yea, I also meant to mention that I wanted the new photo since I have a full beard again (although it is hard to see since it is so light now)."

4/27/2020 - Shocking News Stories!

The News Media is in business to sell their products. Often, shocking news stories sell very well. I just saw some shocking news stories (like so many these days) and just had to mention a few.

First, just tonight on the ABC national network news I saw a news story that said (not verbatim) "Many states around the country are allowing restaurants to be open to seated customers (with lots of additional precautions). Some of the people in the restaurants were seen without face masks!" I was just wondering were some of these people without face masks possibly eating their meals??? Humm, interesting...

In Illinois they are making big stories that there are a record number of corona cases and the number of positive cases are still going up! They are also reporting (not usually with the same emphasis) that we are doing a record number of new testing now. Well it turns out, the percentage of positive corona cases based on the number of corona tests being done has been going down. Humm, interesting...

And one of my favorites is that the largest number or covid-19 deaths are nursing home residents! Well, let's see, when you finally make it into a nursing home it is usually because your health is severely compromised. Also, there are many nursing home patients that die on a regular basis. I would expect the deaths for this group to be much higher. Humm, interesting... Don't get me wrong, I understand that if it is your relative or someone you care about then that is all that matters in that case but that group is more compromised and likely to die from something especially a terrible virus like corona. I also believe that we should put more resources into safer conditions for nursing homes rather than some of the other goofy new laws and rules that do not make sense.

Maybe we need to look a little deeper into what we are being told instead of blindly accepting all the media sound bites as being absolutely and unquestionably true.

OK, I'm just sayin...

4/17/2020 -Pileups Soapbox Again, Meditation, My Bike Ride Dress, Corona Correction

It happened again on Wednesday (4/15) this time on the Kennedy Expressway. A 60 vehicle crash with a lot of injuries. This has become all too common and it just really bothers me that people do not slow down appropriately on expressways when there is very low visibility. OK, this is kind of a Soapbox Subject for me that I have written about before. My original article on this was on 12/11/2016 (in text archive 16) if anyone is actually interested. I just wish more people would slow down appropriately when they can't see!

OK, I kept my soapbox speech pretty short, right? Next I just wanted to mention that I am still doing my Mindful Meditation or actually more like doing it again since I took a little break for a while. I started keeping track of how many times I've meditated but my count may not be completely accurate. So far I believe that I have meditated about 15 times. Usually around 20 minutes each. Let's see, if I did the math right that is about 5 hours worth! (nah, I don't have it in a spreadsheet (yet)) :-)

Yea, as I mentioned below, I was pretty much fully enlightened after the first 5 times so now I am pretty much on my way to nirvana! :-) (no not a Nirvana concert! (I don't think they exist anymore anyway)). How enlightened am I going to get!!! Wow! Well, it's a nice thing for our anti-social behavior these days anyway.

OK, maybe I am exaggerating a little or joking around but I actually do believe that I am seeing some benefits to this practice (or experiment). I have read my book completely and reviewed many sections a few times. BTW: here's a link to the book: Mindfulness In Plain English - OK, that is a link to the Amazon page but it does not have links for a commission. I am not into that anymore really and I am not trying to sell this I am just trying to "enlighten" everyone here. :-)

There are a billion websites on Mindful Meditation and about that many trying to sell their product on the subject too. I like the book that I mentioned because it is by an old Buddhist Monk with lots of street creds and it gets right to the subject in a hands on just do it kind of way. I don't really like that it doesn't have pictures or formatting (like bolding, bullet points, etc.) but still a good book.

OK, enough about that. I also wanted to mention briefly and that I just posted on my Facebook Bike page is that I just did a blog post on my bike site with some hints on dressing for bike rides in cold weather for anyone interested in that. I know the subject above should say "My Bike Ride Dress Post" but I shortened it for space and to make it sound more interesting. :-)

Finally, on a technical or editorial note I edited the Corona Costume post below a little because after I wrote it, I realized that I went a little too far when I wrote "I wore my costume even though I think this stuff is hyped up too much and is probably a hoax,...". I wanted to change that shortly after writing it because I realized that it went too far and could have been offensive to some people but I soon discovered that you can not edit a profile picture comment on Facebook once it has been posted! Another thing to add to my list of stuff that I do not like about Facebook.

So I just left the post and hoped that people would not have an issue with it. I did get one comment from a friend of mine from the Digital (DEC) days and she had an issue with it. I tried to apologize for taking it that far and hoped that she would accept my apology and misguided goofiness. So I guess I am not that enlightened and compassionate just yet. I better work on my meditation some more...

I did think that the media hypes it up a little too much and focuses way too much on the negative stuff and really scares the shit out of people but I truly do not believe it to be a hoax. I have issues with the media and politicians on the subject but I really did not want to get into anything that deep at all on Facebook.

Part of what I was thinking had to do with comparing the regular seasonal flu to corona and it does seem a little extreme doing what we are doing here. So far (as of 4/17) there are about 33,000 people in the US have died from covid-19 (according to the CDC) and (also according to the CDC) there are typically 12,000 to 61,000 people who die from the flu in the US each year. Of course, statistics can be skewed and you can slant them and lie with statistics but still I find that interesting.

It is also terrifying to many people to hear that 33,000 people in the US have died from covid-19 (and whatever the projections are on that day too) when it is not kept in perspective with the fact that there are about 328 million people in the US. Yea, even 1 person dying from this is a huge number especially if it is someone that you know or are close to but the devastation that our reactions to this event are causing are a huge problem for many people too.

I do truly believe that corona is much more contagious and deadlier that the seasonal flu so it makes sense to do what is necessary to keep us all safe. This is why I did say at the end of my post "I am playing the game mostly 'just in case'.." and part of the reason why I posted my mask photo to begin with.

Wow! I guess this topic became more of a soapbox speech that the car crash post!

Stay safe out there everyone!

4/5/2020 -Corona Costume, Bike Blog about what to wear on those early season bike rides.

I wore my corona costume for the first time tonight when I went to get a pizza and I couldn't resist taking a selfie and posited it as my new profile picture on Facebook.

Here's the FB profile picture and what I wrote: corona costume

"Since I grew my beard back (the whole thing) I decided that I should update my profile picture. OOPPPS! I forgot, I had my corona costume on!!! You can't see my beard. Oh well... Actually the white at the bottom of my mask is not a santa costume underneath, that is my beard. The first time that I wore my costume was today when I got a pizza and I wore my costume ...I am playing the game "just in case"... "

Note: I edited the above a little even though I was unable to edit it on Facebook. I think that keeping it light was fine but I took it too far.

Yea, it is absolutely crazy out there and I try to keep things in perspective so I make goofy statements about this stuff for fun. I do believe that the media and politicians are hyping this up too much and freaking everyone out but since I am old and have a respiratory issue (my cough and stuff), I thought it might be a good idea to stay safe "just in case".

I put on my redneck toupee (cap) to cover my head and then the mask covered most of my face so I figured that this would make a perfect profile picture! :-) I actually got this selfie in 1 take too with no photochopping!!! I usually have to take a batch of selfies to get one 1/2 way decent one and then photochop it too to try to look decent lol!

As I mentioned below (and as you can see by my 67 bike miles above), I have made it out for my first bike rides of the year. I often find it hard to decide what to wear and I have a new process for that that I just wrote about in a blog post on my bike site. So here's a link to the blog post for anyone interested...

3/26/2020 - First Ride! I Found all the People...

Yep it's that time of year and I am able to post that I did my First Bicycle Ride of the Season! OK, I can't actually say that this was the first ride of the year since I did that ride on that odd warm day in January but this is really more like the first ride of the bike riding season. It was great to get out and ride again.

Ahhh ♪ Look at all the Lovely People♪ (doo dee ♪ do dee ♪ do dee do dee ♪ do dee).... Yea with all the latest Corona hype and the apocalypse coming (it appears) it's been nice that traffic has been great and very few people are in the stores and stuff (although I do not go very often myself either) and I was wondering what people are doing. Well, I found em! They are ALL out on my bike trail!!! I have never seen the bike trail this crowded. These worker bees need to get back to their jobs! :-)

Well now that I got 20 bike miles already for this year, I only need 1,480 more to make my goal!

3/4/2020 -New DNA Updates, Germany Trip, Misc updates

Well I have been doing a little additional work on the DNA pages that I have posted on our site and - This just in!!! Andi has just received her 23andme DNA results! So now there are 6 of us (Me, Dara, Casey, Corinne, Patty and Andi) that have DNA results on 23andme and that I have posted here. I have reformatted that data in some cases, have screen shots of others from the 23andme site but overall have just made it a lot easier to see quickly and easily on this site (I think anyway) than being forced to login to 23andme and browse their cumbersome site for the stuff that you really want.

The 23andme site has been 100% accurate on matching relatives that are on the site (and have shared data) based on the people that I know have submitted tests. Unfortunately, we have not found any long lost close relatives or unknown or illegitimate relatives! :-) So all the people in my immediate family (with 23andme) are legitimate! No mailman or milkman kids or anything! :-):-) It even found some more distant but fairly close relatives like my 1st cousin Brian Wilkining who is out there but I did not even know submitted a test. I have also contacted one of my 2nd cousins Dale Chapman (that I was aware of),

As for the ancestry (heritage) part of the tests, I believe that 23andme is very accurate but they do tweak the results as more data becomes available (since this would be based on their control groups for comparison in addition to our individual DNA). Also, they are a little general or vague on some of the results. I can see how this could get complicated since part of the results depend on what timeline you are referring to and since counties come and go and change boundaries over time too.

OK, I've said enough. Here is where you can find the latest DNA updates (now with Patty and Andi!). You can get to this anytime with the link (button) at the top of most pages on this site but here's a link to get you there quickly since you are so interested now after reading what I just wrote. Right?!? - See the DNATree page - I called it DNATree because it has DNA results and Family Tree information.

The new results for Andi are down the page after our immediate family (and Patty). Also, right under Andis results is a link for All Family DNA Results as of 2020. This is an updated summary of our ancestry results for the 6 of us on one page.

In other news, Corinne and Will just got back from Germany! I got some updates on my phone and some photos texted to me but I am going to wait to post anything until later. I have already written a lot here for this post and I want to see if Corinne posts photos on her FB page first (before I steal her thunder). She is home safe and sound though (which is always the most important part for me).

As for the Misc updates, I really just wanted to mention that I am still Mailking (Mall walking) quite a bit but I have even walked outside recently with the nicer weather that we have had. Here's a little hint though that I discovered while walking at the mall: With all of the CoronaVirus hype lately, I have found a great way to get people out of my way while mallking. Just cough a lot! I do this pretty much anyway because of my chronic cough but if there are a lot of people in my way I just emphasis it a lot more and it's amazing how well that works! :-) :-)

2/7/2020 -Now for the Mind... OM... OM...

OK well it's not really just for the mind but that is how I "sold it" below in my last post. Yes, I have been making my first attempt at meditation and it's really not just for the mind but also for the body, the spirit, attitude, harmony and overall enlightenment (and probably some more stuff too). Actually I am hoping it will improve my humor too! :-)

It started when I was watching a PBS show on the mind. One of the episodes was on meditation and it was showing all the positive scientific stuff that meditaters had and it was pretty convincing. The specific type of meditation that the show featured was Mindfulness Meditation so I decided to look into it. Well, Dara just happened to have a book on it (of course) and she even knew where it was and got it to me.

I started reading the book (I am a little over 1/2 way through now) and I have attempted meditating about 5 times now. Yes, I am now fully enlightened! Any questions? OK, I'm mostly kidding, I am not completely enlightened (yet). :-)

OK, in my version of meditation (mindfulness) I don't actually chant OM or anything else, ring chimes, burn incense or have to sit cross legged (I can sit in a chair). I just used that stuff to attempt to make this post more interesting. I try a lot of stuff to make my boring stuff sound interesting. :-)

Actually, I'm not really sure if meditation is going to work out for me for the long term or for my lifetime but I haven't given up yet. I know that you are not supposed to expect instant gratification (which I kinda like) and it can take a long time for the most substantial results. I'm just not sure that I can sit still and clear my mind and focus on my breath and let myself go for 20 minutes everyday (the amount of time I am attempting to do so far).

Aside from that I am still mallking (mall walking as described below) and I do enjoy that much more than walking outside.

1/25/2020 - Mall Walker! Next for the Mind

OK well I guess it's official now. I am now a Mall Walker! Yea, I have been bummed out that I have not been exercising enough lately and the weather has sucked for outdoor walking. In the past I have been pretty rugged and have been able to handle walking outdoors even in terrible weather. Well, I am older now and have turned into quite a pussy I guess and I just can't handle the cold, ice and snow like I used to.

I even tried Hotel Walking (like walking the floors in my hotel) but that was kind of weird, boring and hard to cover much distance (although it is convenient). So now that I am closer to Woodfield Mall I decided to give it another try. I've tried it before and didn't really like it because I walked faster than most of the shoppers that were in my way, there were too many people and it was hard to cover a decent amount of miles.

Well, now I walk slower (so I do not have to pass the casual mall shoppers all the time), I can go at off hours since I am retired, and I can cover 2 or 3 miles easily in Woodfield. Plus there are plenty of places to take a quick sitting break (which I need to do every 1/2 mile or so for my back) and it is interesting seeing all the store displays, billboards and people! And of course... No more below zero temps and numbing wind chills to walk in and ice to fall on!

OK, I don't really look totally like the typical mall walker with their matching sweat suit or business casual cloths with headphones and stuff. I still kind of look like a typical bum off the street with walking/running shoes on. :-) And, of course, I do not go to the mall early in the morning before the stores even open to walk and socialize with the other old people. Are you kidding?!? Me get up early to exercise!!! No way! I can't handle that. I just go when it is convenient for me.

So that is what I am doing these days to keep the old body in shape. My Next Project is for the Mind. Yes now that my 12 week NAMI class is over I found another project kind of for the mind. Unfortunately, I am not going to get into that yet here because that would be too much info for one post. I'm going to save that for a later post so this is really just a teaser to get you interested in coming back to see what it is... :-) Don't you hate that! Sorry.

Actually my teasers aren't working all that well anyway. Usually when I ax people if they have seen my latest story on this site they usually say stuff like, "oh I haven't checked in a month or so" or "I didn't see a Facebook link so I haven't checked it out". I guess this site is not going to go viral anytime soon :-(. Ahhh, I remember when there was no Facebook and people were so bored online that they actually came here regularly. Am I going to have to lookup how to post a link to make this website your homepage?!?! :-)

Later...

1/2/2020 - January 48

As I mentioned below, I made 1,600 for my final 2019 bike mileage since we had that 62 degree day at the end of December. If you notice the bike mileage above (5) that is for 2020 already! Yep, we had another pretty warm day and I decided to do one more winter bike ride.

Well, it wasn't 62 degrees like that day in late December but only a high of 48 degrees (with a 12mph) wind). I have ridden in 48 degree temperature before, even as recently as last fall and even though that is pushing my lower temperature limit it is usually not too bad. Well, I guess that a January 48 degree day is colder than a fall 48 degree day because it was pretty uncomfortable. On top of that there we some patches of snow and ice that were risky on my thin wheel bike. I walked over one of them (I break a lot easier at my age). So I only did 5 miles total. I think I may really be done riding for the winter now! :-)

1/1/2020 - Happy New Year/Decade, 2020 Vision!

Well it's a New Year and a New Decade. OK, there is some debate about decades starting with the year 1 and ending with 0 or starting with 0 and ending with 9. For my purposes I am calling the decade based on the 10s digit (0-9) so this is officially the 20s and the 2010s decade is over.

OK, my main reason for posting this is because I have one day alone that I can use this line that I just thought of this morning and that it today. So here goes:

Yes, I did think of this one with my own brain cell so it is not just re-posted. :-)

12/29/2019 -New DNA Results

Yes, it's true! I have some New DNA Results to report (for those of you interested in this stuff (like me)). I did not buy new test kits for our immediate family but I did get one for Patty and she has the results back from it already. I have rambled a little below but there are links at the end of this post.

As for my immediate family (Me, Dara, Casey and Corinne) we all have new Ancestry results because I just discovered that 23andMe update and improve their results occasionally. Ancestry.com has done this too (our original tests) but I am even more convinced now that the results from Ancestry.com are not reliable. Maybe they will get it right at some point.

Back to 23andMe, they are constantly updating information when new information comes in. Like if new people take the tests and are related to me they show up in my family member section. They also update their health results by adding new health related results as they are available. Like I just saw a new DNA test for Diabetes and my chances of getting that (just based on DNA) are 12% which I thought was interesting.

As for the Ancestry part of the DNA tests, I think that 23andMe has made some improvements. In some cases there were no changes others had minor changes and a few had some bigger changes but nothing that was WAY OFF to make me think the original results were flawed (the results from Ancestry.com however were drastic and led me to believe that they are just not reliable (yet)).

OK, enough of the yik-yak-yappin! Here is where you can find the new updates. All the updated DNA files are on the DNATree page (link here and at the top of most pages). I called it DNATree because it has DNA results and Family Tree information.

In addition to having all the updated information there I am also including some links to the New Information and New Pages that I did with this update here.

Here is Patty's DNA Ancestry results and Timeline from 23andme

Here is comparisons of our familys results - Comparisons of Our Old and New 23andMe Results

And here is where I moved the Old DNA Results (from 23andMe) and the Ancestry.com Results

12/13/2019 -62 Degrees in December! WT?! .

Let's hear it for Global Warming!!!! OK, just kidding about that, I do know that global warming is about a lot more than warmer temperatures and is a really bad thing. But today, yes December 26th in Chicagoland, we had temperatures in the lower 60s!

Of course, I just HAD TO do a bike ride! I have been really sick for a few weeks now and am just now starting to get a little better. But what self-respecting bike rider could pass up riding when it is 62 degrees in December?!? Not me! I had planned on a short easy ride but I was 13 miles away from a nice 1,600 miles so I had to push myself to do 13 miles. I took it slow and easy and took quite a few breaks but I did push myself a little and have been coughing quite a bit since my ride. BUT... I made 1,600 mile for this year which I really did not think I would do at the end of the regular season.

What's next? 70s in January?!? :-)

12/13/2019 -Certified! Feel Good Moment.
OK, everyone, I am now officially Certified so now I can Fix all of you Crazies out there!!!Unfortunately, I have a really busy schedule though so you will have to take a number. :-)
Yep, I just completed my 12 week NAMI Family-to-Family class. OK, the certificate just says NAMI so for those of you who do not know about this organization the name stands for National Alliance on Mental Illness and it is a huge national organization that provides information and great services for those of us who need them.

This class is really informative and has been a big help to me already. The teachers and people in the class would probably be appalled that I said I could "Fix all of you Crazies" above since they really try hard specifically NOT to stigmatize mental illness as I just did there. Well, OK, everyone gets it (I hope) I am just being goofy and getting peoples attention. Maybe even keep it light enough to get some people interested in a heavy subject.

The class was actually FREE (sort of) and I am totally on board with the NAMI organization and will be signing up as a member soon (probably lifetime member). This is why I say that it is "sort of" free. The class really was totally free and what I am doing is completely voluntary but for those of us who really need the types of things that NAMI provides, it's a pretty likely thing that most, if not all, of us taking the class will become members.
My only regret with NAMI and this class is that I wished that I had taken this and learned what I know now a couple of decades ago. They don't teach a lot of this stuff in school and I think that those of us with real life experience with mental illness (on the job training) know more than probably most of the so called "therapists" out there (what does it take to become a therapist anyway?). We may even compete with a lot of the less enlightened psychiatrists and psychologists out there too (OK, well they do know more about some things).

OK, I have rambled on enough about that for now I think but I have to bring up one more related story. A few weeks ago I was having a test done (PFT) for a doctor appointment and was talking with the medical technician throughout the test.
The guy was really friendly and we talked about our families and stuff and at one point he opened up a little about his son, who I think just finished or dropped out of college and was having some problems. He casually mentioned that his son was bipolar and, of course, I mentioned right away that I knew a little about that. I also mentioned the 12 week NAMI class that I was taking and he was really interested and writing down the stuff that I was telling him (like about NAMI and what it stood for and the book "I'm Not Sick, I Don't Need Help". that I read and mentioned. BTW: That's a great book and very enlightening about anosognosia (my new word, you may need to look that up (unless you are certified like me. LOL!)).

The technician seemed very new to the whole mental illness thing (and it sounded like he might have also gotten some not-so-good advise recently) and, in the end, he thanked me many times for the information that I had given to him. This all just happened by chance but I really had a Feel Good Moment about the possibility of being able to significantly help someone with most likely one of the most difficult things in his life.

OK, I see it is getting crowded in my office now... Please settle down everyone! Please take a number and form a line... Yes, the line is out the door now but I will see as many of you crazies as I can today. :-)

12/2/2019 -Thanksgiving Photos, The Family Forest

Casey, Corinne and I drove up to Cashton, Wisconsin for our family Thanksgiving get together and dinner at Andi and Brads house. We had a great traditional Thanksgiving dinner, of course, but for me the best part is getting together with the extended family so I give thanks for the whole thing. For us, it is a long day and a lot of driving though since we drive there and back in the same day.

OK, I did take some photos to post here but I must admit that my photos are not all inclusive like I did not get photos of everyone that was there so I apologize for that (maybe next year I will get everyone again). In the past, I tried hard to get everyone but sometimes I felt like a paparazzi stalker. So the last few years I just took random shots as I saw a photo op and if I was able to get the photo. I did try hard to get the kids though but they were just so fast that I didn't even get a lot of those! :-) OK, so here are the photos that I took:

My Thanksgiving 2019 Photos from Cashton, Wisconsin!

I was thinking about the "Four Generations" photo that I included in the photo collection and although it had 3 Oiums and 1 Chapman every 4 generation photo really include 6 sererate families and 4 totally separate Family Trees in the very large Family Forest! Often these photos will be titled something like: Four Generations of "your-family surname-here" but that just means that each person in the photo has the same surname even though there are still 4 totally separate family trees behind the humans in the photo :-) OK, just an odd observation I guess...

11/26/2019 - Robbie Lee Rides Again!

We just had a couple of pretty nice days for the end of November. It got into the lower 50s without much wind so I actually got 2 more rides in this year. :-) Up until those warm days I thought that riding season was over for 2019. I don't see any warm days like that in the extended forecast now so maybe that's it now.

Other than that I've switched over to my exercise walking routine now to try to stay healthy (and for some cabin fever relief). I like my fairly long exercise walks but these days my back has been buggin me a lot more again and a lot of time the walking hurts and I need to sit to rest it about every 1/2 mile. That really sucks. I guess I'll see the Chiro again but that does not always work or last long. My previous chiro was better than the guy I see now but she moved away and semi-retired. Damn retirees!

10/20/2019 - Made my Bike Miles Goal!

We had beautiful fall weather the last few days and I did 2 nice bike rides and just made my Bike Miles Goal for this year (1,500 miles)! Here's a resting selfie that I took after I made my goal :-) OK, I'll admit it. The selfie might have been staged but it seemed to fit the moment.

I actually did a pretty long ride on the Fox River Trail yesterday (28 miles) and it was really nice out. It was 67 and sunny when I started my ride and 62 when I finished and I made it to 1,493 miles.

I knew I would make my goal today so I went out to the Des Plaines River Trail at a place that I know has nice color this time of year for my short ride and premeditated selfies.

So I found a place on the trail where there was some nice color and had this crazy idea in mind to look like I passed out after my ride. It wasn't that easy but kind of fun anyway. First I tried looking like I was asleep on a big log but those photos didn't come out that great then I just went for laying on the ground next to my bike (as you see).

The only problem (which was still a fun problem) is that since it was such a beautiful day, a Sunday and a nice place for fall color, there was a ton of people on the trail. It thinned out a little when I setup the photos but still probably about 4 groups of people walking by that saw me laying on the ground with my bike and as they passed by I would just say "It's OK, I am just taking a goofy photo". Well they mostly just smiled and kept walking... :-) Maybe some walked a little faster! :-) :-)

OK, time to FaceBOOK IT now.

10/9/2019 - New FB Profile picture - Selfie

I took a couple of selfies out on my bike ride today since it was a nice day and I found a place that I liked for selfies where I could include my ugly mug, a lake and some trees and even my bike in the background and I have been wanting to do an New FB Profile picture since the one that I was using until today was from 2013.

Here is the text that I just posted on Facebook today (for those of you who do not use FB):

"OK, it's been about 6 years since I did a profile picture update here and I guess I look different so I figured I should do one. No goatee anymore (and I'm older, of course). I might try this again in a few weeks if there is more color in the trees in the background (and to center it better!) This is as current as it gets (today 10/9/2019)".

So I did take a bunch of selfies but it is really hard to get a decent one of myself. Of course, I have on one of my redneck toupees (caps) as usual (to reduce glare :-)) but then some pictures were shadowy or a were at bad angle or my hair (singular) was all wind blown or wrong. Anyway, I picked this one although it is not great for Facebook because they do a circular crop of the photo and I was not centered so it was not cropped as well as I would have liked. Here's how the Facebook cropped profile picture looks.

I wanted to get a new updated pic out there and this one will do fer now but I was thinking that this scene might look a little batter with colorful fall trees in the background so I may try again in a few weeks for that but then I never know when we will have good weather day AND I have a good hair day. :-)

And finally, I am closing in on my Bike Mileage goal for the year (1,500 miles). I am now at 1,387 so I only need 113 more miles! I think I just might make it this year after all (unless my bike breaks down or I get really sick or we get buried in snow in mid-october or something...)

9/28/2019 - Born Again Hippie!, Hippie Bike Rider

I have been wanting to mention this feeling that I have had for a while now and in one of my phone conversations I just randomly threw out that I felt like a Born Again Hippie these days. And it is a fairly accurate description of how I feel a lot. This has to do with the elephant post below and the fact that I have been living in an Extended Stay hotel for the last 7 months. Since I have been living here I have intentionally kept my personal belongings here to a bare minimum and I really love this light, streamlined feeling that I get from that. Oh yea, plus I've grown my hair out all year (well what I hair I have left anyway) so I can make a better pony tail.

I have a handful of shirts and t-shirts, a couple pairs of jeans, a couple of pairs of shorts, plenty of socks and underwear to make it to my next laundry day, some very limited kitchen items and some groceries. OK, of course I have my bike (which I store in my van and have to move to my room if I need my van for something else) and my most valuable items (not really included in the hippies handbook) which are my cell phone, my wallet and my laptop. OK, so technically I am a 21st Century Hippie I guess.

Anyway, I could easily fit all that I have now in my van and just go somewhere else when ever I choose. I am actually tied to this area for now (like for the early winter :-() for various reasons and I got a much cheaper rate at the hotel to sign up for a month in advance so I am not quite as mobile as I might like but I still have very few possessions (at least with me) and it is really cool not to have to deal with all of the other stuff that we accumulate in our lives.

Unfortunately, I may end up having to move back to my house in the future and deal with all the stuff again (and even a lot of Daras stuff again). So my hippie time might be limited but at least I can enjoy the feeling for the moment. :-). OK, I do also miss some of my other possessions (so I am still "the establishment" I guess, man) like my musical instruments and recording equipment, my DSLR camera, my backyard and some of the other little creature comfort and luxuries that I have been used to.

OK, so I guess for now I am like an establishment hippie with a bike (not sure if that one is in the hippie handbook either) and as you see by the bike miles listed above, I am still a little over 200 miles from my season bike miles goal (1,500 miles). It's not that hard to do a couple hundred miles in the fall but it is not a wrap yet on making my bike miles goal for this year. Well I got a lot of miles in even if I don't make it but I am still hoping that I will...

9/19/2019 - The Elephant in the Room

I want to get back to my usual, goofy posts here, but I believe that I really should address The Elephant in the Room first. Some of you already know this, others may have heard rumors or parts of the story. It is true that I have Filed for Divorce this week.

This was not an easy decision but I do believe a necessary one at this point. There have been a number of things leading up to this recently and for quite a few years. Even though I know this is the right thing to do it is not easy. I am not going to get into the things that led to this decision but those of you who know me and (/or) Dara might already know what is behind it.

For those of you that may not know me as well, I am not going through a late life crisis and looking for a trophy wife or a hot young girlfriend younger than my daughter :-) (see told you that I wanted to get back to the goofy stuff).

There will be some definite changes in our lifestyles but Dara has been my wife (and good friend) for 30 years and is, of course, the mother of our 2 wonderful children so we will still have a relationship after the divorce. We just do not know exactly what that will be like at this time.

OK, I believe that I have addressed the Elephant now and I do not plan to turn this into the RobandDara Courtroom Dramas or Legal Advice Website or anything so I will not be posting regular updates on this here. Of course, feel free to reach out to me in whatever format you prefer if you have questions, comments or would like to talk about this (or anything else, really).

9/3/2019 - Desert Daughter, The Secret Passage, and The Rainbow Bridge

My crazy daughter and her roommate Lexus decided that they needed to go to Dubai! Yea, the one in the desert near Saudi Arabia. OK, well it's a big oil country and I believe the richest country in the world. If you Goggle Dubai you will see that they have about the biggest everything! Even a snow ski area in the desert! I haven't heard all the stories yet but I heard that Dune Bashing was pretty scary. Well my Desert Daughter and her partner in crime are saying Bye-Bye to Dubai tonight.

I might post this desert daughter photo to Facebook tomorrow (after they leave). Yea, I am a little paranoid and don't like to advertise our families trips on social media (while they are still there) for all the terrorists and stalkers. I don't think I get any of them here on this site. Are any of you guys out there terrorists or stalkers??? If so please let me know at the email address above. :-)

My next story, about The Secret Passage, is probably only of interest to bike trail riders and even more specifically riders that are looking for the connection described in my blog post between the 2 trails mentioned. I just call it the Secret Passage to grab peoples attention, of course. Anyway, if you have any interest in this see My Bike Blog Post Here. I have already posted a link to this from my Facebook Bikepage so some of you might have seen that...

I don't usually like posting sad or bad news out here, so I must look at the good side of this next story. Our dog Shadow has been a happy part of our lives and has brought our family much joy for almost 14 years.

She has gone to wait for us at the Rainbow Bridge now. Yes, I am trying to use nice words to say that our beloved dog Shadow has passed away. Although she has been a wonderful dog and we are grateful for the time that she was with us, it is sad to see her go. We miss her.

Here's an old song that I wrote, that I think is appropriate for this situation. I wrote this song after my first dog, Yuppie, died shortly after my father died and a while after my mother died. All of these memories were pretty fresh in my mind at the time and even though I have dedicated this song to my parents, I think that it applies very well to the loss of anyone that you have loved (human or otherwise).

This song is on my music page (robchapmanmusic.com) and although the recording is pretty poor quality, this one is near the top of my list to re-record now that I am able to do much better recordings, but I am just not able to do that right now.

8/28/2019 - Street Fest and Mr. Blotto

I went to Palatine's Street Fest this weekend and saw an excellent band. On Saturday I went to the Street Fest in the afternoon with Dara for dinner. The food is a total rip off but it was a fun thing to do anyway. Then on Sunday I went to see the band Mr. Blotto! I had heard about this band before I saw them from a couple of different people then I saw that they were playing at Street Fest (just a few miles away), for free and at 4:00 in the afternoon which is perfect for me!

Mr. Blotto did what they called their Woodstock Set which was great for us old hippies and there wee plenty of us at the concert too. Not only was the band really good but the crowd was really colorful and interesting and really into the band making it a really fun scene. It kind of felt like little bit a Dead concert but a little tamed down since we were in the burbs with young families and kids around too.

I took a small batch of photos and quite a few videos on my phone. The photos were not great but just pretty much showed what it was like there. I was going to do a little best-of-video clip but decided that, although the videos that I took give a good feel for the scene, they were not that great and since it is a lot of work for the video project I passed on that and just included the one photo here.

Sorry, from a distance the photo here looks like an ad for BMO or Bud Light. :-( Well, I guess since the concert was "free" to attend, you have to pay in some way.

Anyway, it was a lot of fun and I would recommend seeing Mr. Blotto if you get a chance.

8/24/2019 - Another Milestone for the Books

I almost forgot to post this but I hit 1,000 miles for this year on Thursday. Yay! Of course, this is not my retirement "goal" but it is always good to at least get into 4 digits even if I do not make my final goal.

My actual goal is 1,500 miles which will still require some work to make to it's a good goal that should keep me from slackin off and getting too lazy :-)

8/5/2019 - Wisconsin and Lake Ripley Family Reunion - with Photos (including me in a Speedo!)

I have been planning to visit my family, including my aunt and cousins and their families at the Lake Ripley family get together (reunion) for quite a while now and finally made it! I had a great trip and the boating and lake activities were a lot of fun.

I went to Lake Ripley with my niece, Andi so I actually drove to her house in Cashton, Wisconsin first on Friday. I had a nice visit there then we headed off for Lake Ripley in Cambridge, Wisconsin (east of Madison) on Saturday. We spent the day there, went boating and jumped in the lake, got rained out a little later in the day then had a nice family dinner after our water adventures. We drove back to Andi's place Saturday night then I visited with my brother and had a little birthday get together for Patty's birthday on Sunday!

Well, I am trying to keep this short but I am usually not so good at that. My little story above is just the Reader's Digest version of the story but I'll try to keep it to that mostly. OK, I gotta mention the Elephant in the Closet here I guess. If the part about me in a Speedo got your attention, it's true! I had to borrow a swim suit so I got one from Andi and Brad but it was a Speedo (I felt like Gay Focker in Meet the Parents!). My niece got a couple of photos of that and (unfortunately for those of you who check out the photos) she allowed me to post them here :-).

I usually give my brother, Larry, credit for having the least shame of all of us, but I must admit that I am pretty shameless to post the Speedo pics here. :-) OK, it's all just for fun and I'm just using the Speedo photo to get your attention enough to check out the photos :-) So enough of all of that. Here are the photos!

Wisconsin Trip Photos with Lake Ripley Family Get Together!

Note: The photos above are a composite of Andi's photos (most, but not all, posted on Facebook already), my photos which have not been posted anywhere else (yet) and the group pic that Cindy posted. I put who the photos were from in the captions if they were not my own.