Fiber Fool

I’m still alive and kicking. Still digging myself out from a work overload, but seeing the light at the end of the tunnel and easing back into the final stuff for Nourishing Knits. I have been making a concerted effort to get off my butt and move more and thus am unplugged a lot more than in the recent past and really enjoying that.

While I was in MN I developed a yoga habit, which I’ve mentioned before. Now I attend class usually 3 days a week and do some home practice as well (and really looking forward to the addition of a yoga bolster to my props). One of my tasks in the background today is sorting through our music for yoga appropriate stuff and build a playlist for my home practice. I’m also open to suggestions if any of you have favorite artists or albums for practicing. As I get back into blog reading I’d also be interested in some yoga blogs to read.

The other big development in recent weeks is my return to the bicycle. I have a bike that I really dislike. It is quite probably not a good fit in several ways and we have some really bad mojo together. Despite this I’ve been logging some decent miles on it. Not a ton the last two weeks due to weather, but I have now completed a 10 mile ride which I would have never imagined doing on that particular bike. I did pay the price a bit with some rather, ummm, how do I put it? Odd aftereffects?

What is amusing to me is that I always used our location in town as an excuse not to ride. Pretty much wherever we go it is an uphill ride home (usually climbing 150-250 feet in elevation from most destinations) and not infrequently also against wind. Those same reasons I’m now finding as a positive. I’m expending most of my energy to get home, which means I’m sweaty and disgusting where my shower is and often not more than “dewy” when I arrive at my destinations! That is a definite advantage to living uphill of everything.

Given the bad mojo and likely bad fit of my current bike I have slowly begun the process of choosing a new bike. It’s been hard for me to decide to shop around as I kind of just figured myself to no longer be a bike rider and I hated to spend yet more money on another bike that would sit unused in the garage. But if I can get out and ride a bike I dislike regularly and miss it when the weather doesn’t cooperate I think I’m hooked. I’ve poked around at a few stores and test rode a couple models now, one of which I really like right now. But, I learned my lessons with the current bike. Just because it feels great on a couple trips around the parking lot does not mean it is the best bike for me in my price range! Even if there are several traits that are huge improvements over my current bike!

Like the yoga, if you have bike blogs to share with me I’m definitely open to suggestions! Also, good web sites for quality bike reviews would be great too! The only one I’m aware of right now is Bikes For the Rest of Us which Deb passed along to me a couple weeks ago.

I know it is horribly hot and humid over much of the country this week and activity, especially outside, is not high on many lists for this week. But, what have you been doing to be active this summer? What’s your favorite tip for keeping active in high heat and humidity?

Hopefully I’ll be around a little more regular as I find the new balance of my schedule and I’ll be visiting those of you with blogs too!