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I have the new tires on the Hei Hei. I believe the installation is correct, but I should probably have done my test ride closer to home. But I didn't feel like that trail. So I drove 45 minutes away to Bruno's Run. The map states it's a 9 mile loop. It pretty much is a loop with no real cutacrosses. Once you start, you're pretty much committed to the entire loop. (I think you may be able to say screw this and head back to your truck via a paved road or two.) I was fine with that since my regular loops are 8-9 miles. Turns out this loop has been expanded since the map was printed; it's now 12 miles! That's fine since it's nothing very difficult, but it sure explained why the second half of the ride seemed so much longer than the first! I got a little confused at a point about 2 miles from Pete's Lake where I was parked. I felt better about my confusion when another guy showed up on a fatbike and he was confused too. Luckily there was a group of campers nearby who are mountain bikers too. They showed us the proper turn. I think it was really good to ride Skinny on a new-to-me trail. I couldn't rely on how I approach certain sections on a familiar trail with my fattie. I had to think about what I was doing and learn to work things out on a new, totally different bike. It was good for me/us. All in all, it was a really good ride. I can't wait to ride it again. This was a neat, open spot. It's also the point where my belly started growling up a storm! Luckily I had stuffed a bar in my pack before I left home. There were many boardwalk type bridges. They were dry and safe, so I made myself ride them. Still a little gun-shy about wood bridges. Don't tell @Dirtyhip I walked my bike down these steps off the pavement. It didn't seem too bad out there, but apparently I got a bit dirty. Not a tan line, a dirt line. Ha! ( Not sure why my feet look so weird..??!!) Good times.

I love riding gravel roads. 62 miles today, 6600 ft of climbing. Two five mile climbs that were 2000 ft each. It was hot. Four us showed up. Doing a race here in August. I had planned to do the 100 mile but I think the 60 mile will suffice. Stopped by Melvin brewery on the way home. The way up. Were heading up to the mountain on the left. Looking down, we came up that road. Wildflowers

Thank You from the bottom of my heart for all the positive energy, it truly means a lot to me I read through everyone's post's, and went for a walk, mulling over all your kind words. I feel much better now.

Do you expect certain people to like it? Many times I post something that I think is certain to interest or amuse Ralph. When he ignores it, I am crushed. Of course, that still isn't as bad as making a post that you think Cheese will like and he gives you a whatever.

I avoid this problem by not posting anything clever or amusing.

Like a car, top, down.

Now that the deer rarely visit womaxx has the most fun tracking the two fox who come every day. They seem to be either a mated pair or a brother and sister (or both?) Pardon the pic quality, womaxx took them with a phone through a closed window after zooming in on the screen. This is the small lady fox, eating and sitting around quite comfortably in the dusk last night.

Another foster pup has invaded Casa de jsharr

A picnic...with the water fountains!! And maybe ice cream!

No. Not many of you speak Canadian so I am surprised I get any likes at all.

That is one long-ass link!

My grandmother was very set in her ways and didn't like to explore new things. At one point when we were proposing she do something different she responded "that's not what I do". To her, that was a complete and satisfactory explanation. As a kid,, I had a hard time understanding that. There was so much I wanted to explore and do. But as I got older I had a greater appreciation for the fact she'd had a hard life and worked though a lot of difficulties. Later in life was one of the happier times for her and she was truly content. The world is full of different people on different paths. Sometimes just surviving where you are is a win for someone.

22 and change. Felt great as long as i didn't think about how much stamina i have lost. I want to get it back!

Just a tiny bit short of 60 miles at 16.2 mph avg. The wind actually helped for once! A light tail wind the first 30 miles then a cold front moved in causing a tail wind the last 25 miles! Thanks to the tail winds, I set a lot of Strava PRs without even have to pedal all that hard. https://www.strava.com/activities/1627540050

You need to get this resolved so it doesn't interfere with the annual SWF summer party.

I agree. I know I am a jerk about this a lot. I try mostly to keep it to myself. At work I watch people get bigger and bigger each year, I go in the break room and always hear, have a piece of .... I rarely eat junk now, I actually find most of it repulsive. I guess I was able to get past my addiction (for the most part) and falsely believe I am helping other people by offering unsolicited advice. I try really hard not to.

I did once for a back issue. It helped at first but later that day the pain got much worse. I called the acupuncturist and she said "Take two thumbtacks and see me in the morning."

I don't agree at all. Sometimes.....just sometimes I come across one of my old posts and I'm delighted all over again. ?

Summer rerun season.

You are welcome to come with us on our next trip to the Catskills. We go up a few times a year to visit my Dad's grave and plant flowers (My grandparents and great grandparents are buried there too). It's a small country cemetery with scenic fields all around. Then we drive a few miles past the lake we used to swim at when we were kids (the public swim area is closed now but it's still pretty). Then we drive through the town where we used to spend summers and see what has changed and visit the creek at the bandstand. Then comes the highlight of the trip - a visit to our favorite restaurant that has been there since we were kids. Sometimes my one sister will order something different, but my Mom and sister always get their favorite meal which they've had there for decades - a hot, open faced turkey sandwich, with fries and a side of cranberry. It also comes with a tasty soup. You could drive with us and spend the day chatting with Mom Kirby about the flowers and the band concerts which are still going strong (although they're on Wednesdays during the summer, so we won't get to actually hear the concert). Mom Kirby will regale you with stories of how the kids would all go swim in the pond when they were young and spend hours and hours with no supervision. I think it would be a good day of laughs and bonding.

You look lovely this morning. A little tarty, but lovely. I will add your current avatar pic for the inevitable day Couch dredges this thread and you happen to be Moses.

...sometimes I wish I were a good person. But then I realize that by being the person I am, I make it easier for everyone else to look like a good person.

...I know this is an old thread. Had I been aware of it when new, I could have told you that test is a crock. Your gay quotient as a cyclist is an increasing function of how much Lycra spandex you wear, how long you wear it, and the material structure of your bike frame. If you spend more than six or eight hours weekly with your ass wrapped in spandex, you're at about 80% gay. But if you do it on a steel frame, that drops it down to about 45%. If you ride in a pack, drafting, you get to 100% gay in about 30 minutes, unless the ass you're following is female.

I'm not a fan of the "UP yours," but it seems many find it amusing. It's all over the place on shirts, hoodies, etc. At least the Yoop is getting recognition.

I really envy this guy. Life lived to the max. Totally careless and carefree and not what I would recommend for boating practice but it worked.

17, & I made a friend

18 miles followed by a burger and a few craft IPAs.

one of cheese's response...this will get a meh reaction I reckon

BuffCarla and I met RG at a country bar in Hell’s Kitchen. Good Times. Pictures were not taken. A good time was had by all.

You are loved brother. Made my day to read your post.

Back when I first got my greyhounds, I sort of joined an unofficial greyhound meetup at our local dog park (this was back in FL before I moved to WA). Two of the people in that group were young women (in their early 20s at the time). I'm still friends with one of them on FB. I remember her telling me a year or two ago that when her and the other girl first met me, they thought I was gay. I asked why? She just said "single guy...with two greyhounds".

I'm eating mine right now. + +

I don't have lovely feminine delicate facial features. My petite body frame probably makes up for it. So I think I can get away with frames that have slight funkiness. Photo taken in sunlit shaft at Johnston Canyon, Banff National Park. Therefore I can't settle for a boring looking set of frames. I will look...even more boring.

You horse thief!

I worked for a forest company at one time. The company held an annual banquet for employees who had hit 25 years of service to the company. They got a $25,000 bonus, a nice gift like a camera or camcorder, a flight to Vancouver for the banquet weekend on the company jet and all expenses paid 5 star hotel accommodations. One year, I picked up a fellow and his wife in northern BC. In chatting with him, he had never been out of the Chetwynd Valley in his life. The whole valley had less than 4000 residents. He was really nervous but very appreciative of the recognition and on the return flight, couldn't stop talking about the great time he had in the big city. He also said he never wanted to go back and was very happy to be going home. Oh, he was also white.

Definitely a 10.

I agree with Smudge

Whoa, slow down, Tiger! You don't need MomKirby getting any of her own ideas here!

If you aren't from Texas, you will never be a Texican..

I've had a good think about this and feel, given that I'm really lazy....if posting amusing and witty things cost me any effort.....then I wouldn't do it. As it is I'll just carry on bringing a little happiness into the other people's lives........I'm a good person.

I removed killer weeds, got my hairs cut and stocked up on essential fluids - beer and oil. Went oot to dinner with the wife and daughter #2. Watched Wilbur's sailing movie. Oh yeah - walked Ruby twice.

bumpy

32 miles, mostly sunny, 84-81 degrees, 5-15 mph winds.

Sakkarin!

Hell, I can't even get a like from him anymore. ?

I will exercise my right to live a different life and opt out of an hour and half YouTube video.

I took a few photos of the MS ride “Escape To The Lake” today. I used to do this ride every year. I got tired of raising funds but I’m thinking about signing up for next year’s ride. I would have a full year to raise the money. This is the tunnel I had to ride through every day on my commute to work. The place I retired from is on the right of these riders just out of the picture. This hill is pretty steep, I talked to one of my friends that did the ride (Scott) and he said these were the hard core riders doing the optional route. I had to ride this hill every payday before they went to direct deposit. They added a rest stop right on courthouse square for the optional riders because they were going to miss the regular rest stop by about ten miles. The regular rest stop for all the other riders is at the school where my son taught school

During market crashes, every stock is prone to crashing to some extent, so my recommendations are based on the ones that won't go bankrupt during a recession, will maintain its dividend during a recession, will probably bounce back faster than than the avg. stock, and have durable competitive advantages that will help them thrive as the economy recovers. Here are five of the 11 stocks and 1 fund I own and have owned for at least several years, the stocks through DRIPs (actually "DSPPs" - DRIPs through which you can buy your first share and where the minimum initial investment is from $250 - $1000 or committing to monthly investments until the min. is reached) whose dividends (which I reinvest) and general company health prospered right through the last three major stock crashes in 1987, 2000-1, and 2008-9 and whose stock prices recovered fairly quickly. I also recommend one Mutual Fund. 1. Abbott Labs (ABT). If I owned ONE "safe" stock it would be ABT which I've owned through its DRIP (currently administered by computershare.com: no investment fees, automatic investments as low as $25/month) since 1993. Even though it's my 2nd largest holding (AbbVie is #1) and 12% of my portfolio, I still make small, automatic purchases of stock each month. Abbott has raised its dividend every year for 42 straight years (even though it's only 1.7% right now) - right through the crashes of 1987, 2000-1, and 2008-9. It has the #1 baby formula in the world by far, Similac - which is #1 even in China. It also sells other top nutritionals like Ensure. It is the world leader in quick medical test equipment. It also does generic drugs and hospital pumps, etc. 2/3 of its sales are outside the USA which gives it a cushion against bad times hitting any part of the world. It split-off AbbVie in 2013 so research on it is often misleading since there are data and articles I've seen that treat ABT like it collapsed in 2013, not realizing the big split. It's a little pricey though just under the current S&P 500 avg. with a P/E or 24.2, but that price is due to the extreme safety of this stock. 2. Welltower (WELL, formerly HCN). It's DRIP is administered by computershare.com and it gives 2% discounts to market price for reinvested dividends and sometimes other purchases (all no-fee purchases, $50 minimum). When the market crashed in 2008, I had just sold my stock in DRE, a REIT (Real Estate Investment Trust), and just missed losing a ton of money and DRE was VERY slow to recover because of the fall in property values. Before I invested in another REIT I looked for ones that didn't crash. The BEST I found was WELL! Here are its median stock prices for 2006-16: $37.91, $41.82, $42.06, $36.30, $45.24, $48.12, $57.60, $66.25, $65.54, $71.54, $62.07. It returned 182.5% in the 10 years thru 2016 including dividends. Notice it didn't collapse during the 2008-9 crash (the 3rd and 4th numbers in the list) even though the crash was heavily property related! This is the largest and most stable healthcare REIT. It owns and rents and maintains the properties of several nursing home chains as well as various medical buildings. Much higher than other healthcare REITs, 90% of the patients covered in its buildings have PRIVATE insurance, which means it's not seriously in danger if Washington changes healthcare policies. It was founded in 1971 and has only reduced its dividend a couple times since then and by only tiny amounts. Almost every other year it has raised the dividend, which is a very fat 6.0% right now. Healthcare REITs stock prices have been mostly falling for the last few years. WELL has been relatively stable and returned to me in 2016-18, 1.56%, 0.17%, and -4.9% including dividends. It's stock price has fallen to $57.99 right now. But I'm automatically buying a small amount each month because it's CHEAP! These are numbers for BAD REIT years. There will be good ones and a 6% dividend helps! Because REIT's must pay out something like 90% of their profits each year in dividends, REIT earnings are best measured by FFO (Funds From Operations) rather than the traditional "Earnings." WELL's Price/FFO is a bargain at 13.97 right now. It's revenues were growing over 10% per year but growth has been slow in 2017-18 for the entire sector. Morningstar's Equity Analyst Report points out its primary competitive advantage: "Welltower’s diverse strategy allows it to consider a range of opportunities across property types and business models as a means for growth. The company estimates that it owns roughly 3% of the current $1 trillion healthcare real estate market." 3. Emerson Electric (EMR). This stock has raised its dividend 60 years in a row! It now yields 2.7%. It's another stock administered by computershare.com where I make small purchases automatically each month with no fees ($25 min. allowed). It makes electronic control systems for everything from elevators to entire oil rigs. It does things in which no other companies specialize and that gives it an edge. It suffered a little when the oil industry suffered, the stock returning to me (including dividends) -3.4% in 2014 and -17.5% in 2015. But since then it's been back to normal returning 20.8% in 2016, 28.0% in 2017, and 6.1% so far in 2018. It's a little pricey with a P/E of 25.7 but that's partly due to its long-term record as a safe stock. 4. General Mills (GIS). The DRIP for this stock is administered by shareowneronline.com. Optional purchases are a min. $50 with no fees I know, it's down 20+% in 2018 after returning just 1% in 2017 and double-digit returns the years previous. But it's a very likely a short-term drop due to Americans buying fewer processed cereals (but only 1% less of GIS's) and other changes in buying habits. But large, strong GIS has been adapting (it now owns Annie's organic soups, and other similar "green" stuff) and just bought Blue Buffalo pet food to diversify. Its earnings are still growing, its P/E is only 11 and it's fat dividend, currently 4.6%, has not been lowered since the 1800's! That's right: EIGHTEEN hundreds! When the S&P 500 crashed by 45% between Sep. '08 and Mar. '09, GIS crashed, too, by 33%. But, just 9 month later, on Dec. 21, 2009, GIS stock hit a new all-time high! Even in recessions people keep buying Cheerios, Betty Crocker, Bisquick, Pillsbury, Gold Medal Flour, Lucky Charms, Yoplait, Progresso, etc. GIS has a durable competitive advantage based on size and brand names. I've been doing small, automatic purchases for a couple years that I'll end after Aug. 2018 and rotate to another stock I own. The avg. annual eps growth the last 5 years was 4.1% and is projected to be 6.2% the next five years. Add to that the fat 4.6% dividend and that's a cheap stock at a low P/E. It's expected to be announced during 6/27's quarterly report that it will raise its dividend for the 14th straight year and, again, it has not lowered its dividend since the 1800's. 5. T. Rowe Price Communications and Technology Fund (PRMTX, no-load, 0.78% total annual fees, formerly "Media and Telecommunications Fund"). I've owned this both in a regular account and a Roth IRA since the 1990's. It requires a min. $2500 for a regular account and the minimum added investment is $100. You can set up automatic investments and tell them which months to do. For example, I add $100 each of the even numbered months. Even though I'm a multi-degreed scientist and computer programmer and understand technology well, I do NOT own any high-tech stocks because fortunes can change overnight and the average reporter doesn't have a clue what he's reporting about in tech. Apple has just told its suppliers it will make 20% fewer iPhones this year. In the past Microsoft, RCA, Motorola, etc. have been great stocks that "will never be surpassed." If I was younger, I might put some of my money in individual, high-tech related stocks like Facebook, Alphabet (Google), Apple, Alibaba, etc. but I want more safety now at age 67. So instead, it's much safer for me to invest in this mutual fund that has beaten the S&P 500 for 1, 3, 5, and 10 year periods and has done over 50% better than the S&P 500 (15% to less than 10% annual return) since inception in 1993. That way I get a relatively safe way to invest in risky tech stocks. Here's the fund's performance since inception. You can see that it lost about 40% of it's value during the 2008 crash. But it had recovered by 2010 and has outperformed the competition since then: Additionally, look how it consistent crushes the S&P 500 and the Lipper index for its sector: Here are it's 10 biggest holdings and the percentages of the Communications and Technology Fund they represent, allowing me a relatively safe way to invest in the glamour hi-tech stocks: Another possible recommendation: T. Rowe Price Health Sciences Fund (PRHSX, no-load, 0.77% total annual fees). I also own this in my Roth IRA. But since my regular account stocks are heavy with healthcare industry stocks (Abbvie, Abbott Labs, CVS,and Welltower) I don't own it in a regular account. But it's a great fund and has performed similarly to PRMTX:

Have you learned to take a mental health day, Further? I know your wife's health conditions present significant challenges and caretakers need to learn to look after themselves first.