Welding a Saturday

After running errands with the wife ... I spent a good part of the day in the shop ... watching a little TV, cutting out parts, and welding on the Long-Tom cargo bike.

No steering or brakes

closer look at the cargo bay

looking the other way.

After I got tired of welding, I went back to the house 

and watched movies with my wife.  :)

Sore Muscles

So, yesterday I rode about 15 miles on another recumbent bicycle.

Today I rode Ol' Red about 25 miles.

That about 40 miles in 2 days.  My legs tell me that it was 40 miles more than I've done in a long time.  Those thigh muscles and knees are really talking now ...

And Ol' Red is slower than the other bike ... I think it has something to do with the airless tires having more drag ... but they will never puncture with goat-head thorns or glass ... and never go flat.  But I was really dragging ... 

particularly when going uphill.

(And the rear tire slid around on the painted white lines on the side of the road like it was sliding on ice. -- SCARY!  

particularly when a bigrig truck is going past ...)

I came home today, drank lemon water, and parked in my rocker in the "cave" room ... and I pretty much haven't moved since.

2 Trammadol, 1 Ibuprofin (800 mg), 3 Replenex, and a couple cayenne capsules ... and maybe I'll feel better in the morning.

Oh, .... I wore long pants today to cover up and stop the sunburn 

on my legs from multiplying.  

Oh yeah, that roasted lobster thing.

Eester Peeper

This year I didn't go all out and put the Peeps into the microwave for a minute ... they explode and leave a caramelized sugar mess that that crackles as it cools.

I put this little fellow on a paper towel and set the microwave for 30 seconds.  It puffed up like a ball ... but deflated when I took it out of the microwave.

Mid-way up on the left, you can still see the eyes and beak.

Fun with Eester Peeps!

Smoker/Cooker

The Assembly of God church just around the corner has a large smoker/cooker that they use for doing ribs, boston butts, and chicken ... on a very large scale.

That circular end is 4 feet across and the barrel is just over 9 feet long.

The main trailer portion is 78" between the insides of the wheels.

Look at the huge counter weights for the doors.

The additional platform on this side is 4 feet wide and folds down to an adjustable height of about 20".

On last Thursday, they cooked over 200 lbs of boneless chicken breasts.

The most they have ever cooked is 100 boston butts simultaneously.

They put the grilled/smoked chicken breasts in this machine ...

which shreds them up.  

Then they add the BBQ sauce to the shredded chicken to make 285 plates ... a really great meal for their congregation.  They let me sample it ... Wonderful!

Things I saw today

 

Chicken Skewers ... YUM! 

 

Crows made from wire and tire scraps found along the road. 

 

More Crows 

 

Wire clouds sprayed with foam and painted white ...

The uper part of the mobile from which the crows hang. 

 

Bronze statue of an older couple 

 

Start of a bicycle race. 

 

One of several live trees that were blown over in the last storm. 

Did you want some kind of dialog to go along with this ... ?

I feel anxious, uncertain, uneasy, panicked almost,

because my job is going down the tubes.

And I need to find new employment ... 

even if I am not yet ready to move.

We panic and worry about the economy and what might possibly happen to our country and the world ... and whether we will be located where we need to be at that time.

 and NO, I don't really want to go back to SoCal. 

Also panicked that if we are going to move and don't do it soon, we won't have the money to do so.  FYI, Phoenix is not on the list of desired locations.

Is that enough information about my anxieties for the moment?

I figure I've only got one sister who reads this ...

everyone else has migrated to Facebook, 

so, what does it matter.