Got Any Dub?

Tammy got a text message the other day from an unknown number.

U: "hey whats up its jerrid you got a dub?"
T: "no dub here"

...and again the next day...

U: "hey its me again wondering if you had a dub or no"
T: "i only have a few shihtzus"
U: "who is this?"
T: "and an ant farm...but they're not for sale"
U: "again who is this i think i got the wrong number"
T: "i think so bro"

It turns out that "dub" is slang for narcotics. And now you know.

Our weather has been bitterly cold this week but not so much that it stopped us from getting together with Mom and taking her out to Red Lobster a few nights ago. She was so pretty. I sometimes don't think that most of us realize how much discomfort from arthritis and other pains she endures much of the time—seldom complaining. She just goes about her day, taking in stride whatever obstacles present themselves. I will do well to remember her example when and if I ever reach her age of 84 years.

Since purchasing my CompuTrainer one year ago, I've been enjoying training with watts rather than my typical focus on mostly average speed and heart-rate stats—the way I've done it for more than twenty years. Training with watts is I think a more accurate way to judge one's effort especially out on the road in the face of a strong wind where average speeds plummet. The amount of wattage you're producing isn't affected by wind and gives a clearer indication of effort.

I've been eyeing power meters from a distance for a few years, somewhat hesitant to jump into that pool of technology, not sure it was worth it and somewhat waiting for it to become less involved to incorporate one into one of my bikes. I first noticed Quarq power meters a couple years ago but wasn't sure then that they were ready for prime-time.

Well, they were ready then and are even more so now.

I made the move this last week and pulled the trigger on a Quarq ELSA 10R crank-based power meter. I'll go into it in more detail in a future blog entry. I ordered it through Flanders Bros in Minneapolis and had Adrian do the install for me. It will pair nicely with my Garmin Edge 705 cyclo-computer although I'm not sure my 705 will have all of the functionality that the Garmin 800 offers with respect to power data. An upgrade there can wait.

I'm excited to get it out on the road and begin working with it and to see what sort of results it yields. I haven't been pushing myself hard enough out on the road the last several years and I think this training tool coupled with my CompuTrainer will work to stop my slide into further mediocrity on the bike. I'm excited.

We've been considering replacing windows in our home because of some condensation problems on them that we've been having. My assumption was that our windows are bottom of the line, builder's grade and that they have poorer than normal insulation properties. I was wrong. Joe, our contractor who will soon be adding a 3-season porch and deck on the back of our home came by yesterday and he said that our problems aren't with our windows at all but rather with the humidity level in our house. We've got the humidity set at 35% but he said that's too high. It should be down around 19%. That seemed too uncomfortably low to us both but we tried it last night with the outside temp dropping to near 0º f and sure enough, no moisture to speak of on our windows this morning plus it wasn't at all uncomfortable. He said our windows are actually of very good quality and should easily outlive us. That was really nice to hear.

We had intended to put the addition off until next year but we're going to move forward with it now and get one last piece of the puzzle to fall into place before retirement.

Did you hear that? Listen closely...can you hear it?

It's the call of the Mukluk!


Comments

Marielle said…
Beautiful mom, fun blog and superb video! Great job Kev! Keep it up old man :)

/justjustright
Kevin Gilmore said…
Haha...thanks! You'll know I'm old when I start doing reviews on canes and walkers ;-)
Unknown said…
Kevin, your Mom is beautiful!! We go through the same thing with our windows. We like to keep the humidity a little higher because of the cats and 'shocking'. But have turned it down to avoid major condensation on the windows. It's always been kind of a rule of thumb, 'the colder outside, turn your humidifier down.' I get by pretty good with about 25% humidity.
Kevin Gilmore said…
Thanks, Mona!

25% seems to be working really well for us and at this point we're still shock-less so that's nice. It got down to 0º the other night and we had no moisture on the windows to speak of. I think the reason we had it set higher was that we were both getting pounding headaches when it would get too dry so we kept it higher than we should have. It helped our headaches but gave us other problems. So far, no headaches with the new setting. :-)

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