Hummingbirds have Ushered in My Favorite Time of Year!

It's been nearly one month since I last updated my blog. With a myriad of distractions for me outdoors, I find it especially hard this time of year to sit at my laptop for very long. A lack of updates to my blog is part of the cost.

I was on a ride last Friday when I got a text from Tammy telling me that she "just saw a hummingbird". That makes it official—spring, my favorite time of year, has begun! We spent the better part of the last few days shopping for flowers and getting them planted in our gardens. It's always nice to have that work done. My mother liked to wait until after Memorial Day to plant her flowers out of concern for frost but the long-range forecast shows no hint of anything close to freezing.

To date, Pit has been arguably the most fun game we've played with our Saturday night crew–if we use loudness as a measure. The game has been around since 1904 and is based on commodities trading. It's very fast-paced and fun as well as being simple to play. In the game, we're trying to corner the market on one of 8 different commodities, trading our cards until we have all of one commodity. There's one spoiler card (the 'bear' card) in the deck and you don't want to get stuck with it. Trade it away as fast as possible and try to keep track of who passes it off to whom. That's almost a game in and of itself. Here's a short video I made of one of our sessions.

Katie and Patrick's tree across the street was a victim of Dutch Elm Disease and had to be cut down. I know the disease was an issue 30 years ago but I didn't realize that it was still infecting trees. 

Tammy and I (mostly Tammy) have been talking for years about taking dance lessons. Rachel finally got us out on the dance floor last Saturday night in Rochester where she leads a USA Dance chapter. We learned the basics of the Walz from Gary Dahl of Dahl Dance. Gary and Rachel have known each other for several years. It was much more fun and challenging than either Tammy or I imagined. The next morning both of my hips were sore which surprised me. We would like to take another lesson next month either in Rochester or at a studio closer to home. We think it would be fun to get a group of friends to do it with us. 

Rabbits did some major damage to several of our shrubs over the winter as they chewed and fed on the bark of our euonymus shrubs. I was going to cut them down to the base and remove them but after reading this article, I think I may try and save them by severely pruning them back and hoping that new shoots will form and rise up. We have no lack of rabbits around our neighborhood. 

A few weeks ago Tammy alerted me to a volunteering opportunity at the care facility where her mother spent her final years. They were in search of someone to pilot their trishaw bike and take their residents on rides through the neighborhood. I jumped at the chance because it's the exact kind of volunteering position I've been hoping for. Tammy is also going to be a part of this with me and will sit with memory care residents so they too can experience the fun. She's so good with the senior population and loves chatting with them. Tammy had the idea, and I love it, for giving each rider a sucker to enjoy during the ride. The rides are a great way for getting the residents outside and giving them a break from their normal routine. We're hoping to make it a fun and memorable experience for them. I have a 20-minute loop that I take them on which includes a bike path for much of the way that winds its way through a park-like setting. It's been so rewarding to see the smiles on their faces and seeing the joy they get from the ride. 

Most of my riding this spring has been on my gravel bike which has been a nice change of pace from the road biking I was primarily doing last year. My new road bike will get plenty of use soon enough but for now, I've been content to enjoy the solitude of the gravel roads and the beautiful scenery that surrounds them. 

My knees have been much more sore than normal. I'm hoping it's because I ramped up my mileage on my bikes a little too much a couple of weeks ago and they're simply still recovering. My worry is that it's partly due to the statin (joint pain can be an issue with statins) I'm now taking and that I'm just going to have to deal with it. Time will tell. 

I don't generally appear in my cycling videos but I kind of do in the 2nd video below. (That's merely a tease to get you to watch it.) Enjoy!

Bonus reading.

That's all I've got.