The first nice day in FOREVER!, not forgetting FREE

We have had very un-Calgary-like weather ever since we got home from Penticton. Normally Labour Day to almost Christmas is clear sunny days, with temps ranging from summertime warm to crisp. Not a surprise to see frost in the mornings, but it goes away soon. There might be a flurry or too, but that goes away soon too. Normally.

What have we had so far? Rain almost every day. Cloudy. Damp. Foggy even some days. Get this - our lawns are still green, and we still need to cut them. Normally the last cut is near the beginning of August. Then it's brown, because I don't water the lawn. Water costs money you know! And besides, water it, and the grass will grow, and then I have to cut it, and I certainly have things to do that are more fun than cutting grass.

Part of the last little while has been domesticating my iPhone and getting the wireless network working. That was a bit tricky. Now I need to figure out why some people's blogs crash the internet connection to the computer, but not to the iphone. In fact, I had one blog page that crashed on the computer, but loaded fine on the iPhone at almost exactly the same time. I don't know about that. It's probably a Safari plug in thing.

The iPhone apps so far are Evernote, Errands, Sudoku, and Urbanspoon. I'm still going through the list you guys shared with me. Thanks again!

Tuesday was a flurry of job related stuff that would bore all of you to tears. Wednesday was a bit more basement org stuff, and yoga in the evening. Some of the poses just kill me to do. She says, "hold this for a couple more breaths", and I start counting. About 12 or 16 breaths later she talks us out of the pose. No Sun Salutes with their plank and pushups yet, but I'm sure they'll come just as I'm sure the sun will rise tomorrow. Other poses I'm just getting relaxed into it, and she makes us stop.

I've been dying for a bike ride. My legs are still a bit creaky, especially the right quad from the inner top corner of my knee cap and up my leg. That's been bugging me for a while, and I'm beginning to think it's time to get it looked at more seriously. Rest, light activity, stretching, massage, and some icing have made no real change to it. Driving home today I had the revelation that that particular muscle is also used in controlling my foot as it operates the gas pedal.

Today being nice, sunny and about 15 C (59 F), and even though I've got a bit of a cold going, I had to get out. HAD TO! Just to see how my legs would feel after some easy spin. Went down James McKevit, up 22X and back 37 St in about 45 minutes nice and easy, plus stopping for a few minutes to take some photos, see below. 3 years ago I did this as the very first ride on Estela. It took almost exactly the same time, only then I was pushing practically all out. Today was easy; I'd be surprised if my heart rate got higher than mid zone 2.

On the way out I saw one of my biking neighbours coming in. When I got back he was doing some yard work. We've made tentative arrangements to ride on Saturday.

This is what I see as I'm coming back into Calgary on 37th Street, just south of 146 Ave. You get a great view of the city with some of it's vast sprawl. From here it takes maybe 5 to 10 minutes max to get home by bike.

Looking a bit more to the right you see endless subdivisions.

Looking to the left you see cows. This is all within city limits. If you were to walk past the cows to the top of the hill you'd get a stunning view of the mountains. Next nice day I'll take some shots of what I see when I'm riding west.

Don't forget to comment for your chance to win a set of aero bars, at the FREE posting. All you need to do is say why you ought to win them. So far, nobody has expressed an interest. Which means your odds of winning are excellent!