Thread Drift

[ny biker]

Some would say to keep both and buy a third (hybrid). I say, get a bike you'll enjoy riding, let the others go to someone who (hopefully) will enjoy them -- if you think they will just collect dust if you keep them.

[Crankin]

Well, I would agree; buy a nice hybrid, but don't sell your road bike yet. Give it some more time and just enjoy riding whatever bike you want to.
I say this, as despite the fact I have 2 very nice road bikes (one a little more touring oriented), I wish I had not sold my Jamis Coda, which was essentially a hybrid. That bike gave me so much joy as I rode it around town to do errands or go to farm stands. Having choice is a good thing.

[Pax]

Beth - I'm dealing with yet another knee injury, I'm planning to buy an Electra Townie in a couple of weeks, just so I can ride something! I'll keep the 7.4 until I find out if I can ever (want to) ride it again.

[shootingstar]

Buy a hybrid , keep 1 road bike a bit longer.

The point is to encourage yourself to bicycle more frequently.

[NbyNW]

Happy Holidays everyone!

I haven't been around much as life has gotten in the way of cycling. Maybe 2015 will be the year I get back into it.

Peace and joy to all of you---

[ny biker]

Happy Holidays everyone!

I haven't been around much as life has gotten in the way of cycling. Maybe 2015 will be the year I get back into it.

Peace and joy to all of you---

And to you, too.

[Crankin]

Sitting here bored. What is wrong with me??? It's pouring rain out, DH is at a week long meeting, and the rest of the world around me is obsessed with the football play-off. I already exercised, so not much else left to do, except go grocery shopping and maybe drop some cash at the Loft.
I am so used to filling up weekend days with hours of riding or x country skiing, it's really hard for me to not have "plans." I am avoiding doing some work, which is not really at the critical point for having to get done.

[Catrin]

I hear you Crankin, I an much the same way. This probably feeds into my overuse injury rate. As my hands are hurting too much for needlework I am broadening my reading topics for down time.

I was at Trader Joe's today and had a major problem getting the seal off a can of coffee so I could grind it. It was very obvious, and very painful. I noticed someone watching me, I hadn't realized it was so obvious. So very painful afterwards. As aggravating as all this is, it makes me think of those worse off than me. Even with the severe joint space restriction, the radiology report said my thumb/wrist/hand osteoarthritis is moderate. If this is moderate, I really feel for those with severe!

[Crankin]

I know this is a first world problem, but I've been feeling more isolated lately. I am in the process of changing my work schedule, which will not take place until the school year is over. My original intention was to work M, T, Th. But, there was no office space available for me on TH when I started, so the director asked me to go to Hudson HS, where we have a contract to provide services. I said yes, as it's my old district, I know the culture, etc. Not my old school. It took awhile to get my CORI check done for the district, so in the interim, I added a few clients on Friday morning. So, I am working more than I want, even though Thursday and Friday are half days, they often are busier with clients than my long days on M and T. Friday mornings are nice,a s most therapists don't work on Friday, and it is quiet. But I want to work 3 full days... not 4, with 2 half days, and I am resenting having to be at the HS at 7:30 AM! I get up early enough, but I have to rush out of here to get there for my first client. After 30+ years of that schedule, I don't like it, now that I can get up early, go to the gym or ride, and then not have to work until 9 or 10. What does this have to do with being bored? For me, it's a fine line between being too involved with my job and being so bored that i start obsessing on stuff that is not healthy. This is what happened when i stopped teaching. I really don't have any interests except the sports stuff I do, other than reading and theatre. I did my share of volunteering, and I came to feel that it's slave labor. It started to feel like work! So, by working 3 days a week, I won't be so work obsessed, because I worry that the same thing will happen to me when I cut down even more, like in 5 or so years. I feel like I need to make new friends. Except for the couple we do everything with, none of my other friends are as involved in outdoor stuff and are very sedentary. One of them, though, does ride and do Cross Fit, but she has a second home and is gone for most of the summer. She also is busier than I am, despite the fact she hasn't worked in a few years. I ride and hike with her, despite the fact she's slower than me, and a bit opinionated!
I used to be friendly with people I work with, but I don't do that anymore. There is one woman from my old school, that I still see, a couple of times a year. She's busy with work and has a 6th grader at home, so, she's not so available. On and off I have seen a few people from TE, for riding, but that seems to have calmed down. I've also cut all ties with the family I have here (cousins and an aunt), because I couldn't take their constant preaching at me, with their political views, which are radically opposite from mine.
I could increase my volunteering with AMC, which I do like, but most of that I do with DH, but not all.
I am rambling here, but, yes, there are always people worse off. I feel very lucky to live the life I have, but I have always been extremely social and something feels off.

[Catrin]

I know this is a first world problem, but I've been feeling more isolated lately...I am rambling here, but, yes, there are always people worse off. I feel very lucky to live the life I have, but I have always been extremely social and something feels off.

I am noticing the same myself and I've never been what you would call extremely social - I've been pondering this and from my observations it seems a more common trend. Unsure if it is because our society is so youth-centric or if the assumptions that people above a certain age are placed into rigid "holes" regarding our interests and activities. While I do have new friendly acquaintances my age that may become friends over time, I've noticed they aren't interested in physical/athletic activities at all. Those who do read, another of my interests, read very different things than I and don't seem to be interested in broadening their reading horizons. I find that I am interacting more with younger folk as I can't seem to find friends in my own age group locally who have similar interests. I am also 55 with no partner, children, grandchildren, etc - and this seems to be unusual in my circles. I am not holding my breath for holding for that first one to change (though it would be nice). So I get on with those things that I am interested in and am thankful for all that I DO have.

Perhaps things might change as more and more of the +50 crowd are Boomers, or not. Our rather large generation is now entirely over 50, so it will be interesting to see how things develop.

[Blueberry]

I wonder if this isn't entirely age group specific. I'm in my mid-30's and in a very not-mid-30's life stage, but I too have been feeling a bit isolated lately. Since I'm stating professional school in August, I don't fit in with either my classmates (who are in their low-mid 20's) or my peers (who are having kids, and generally not interested in other things - or don't have time for them). Of my remaining friends, some are willing to bike/walk/hike, but most are much more interested in going to dinner at a fancy restaurant and then an expensive show (nothing wrong with that, but I'm trying to budget - and they sometimes aren't receptive to gently offered alternatives). I have also become a bit more cognizant of which friends are actually friends, and which find me (the lawyer) and DH (the tech guy) handy when something breaks and otherwise can't be bothered to respond. As I've been cleaning the junk out of my life, I have also been working on cleaning out the friendships that aren't really. Sad, but true.

I know that soon I'll be too busy to worry about it, so I'm focusing on getting my house (literal and figurative) in order. It's not bothering me - but it is something I had noticed.

[Helene2013]

I'm sort of in the same boat as some of you. We (hubby and I) work full time, have a big home/yard and all that comes with it to take care of, and 6 pets that need our attention/care. Weekends are going by so fast that I barely have time to breathe. No kids and in our early 50s.

So we have to make choices in order to keep our sanity and one of them, unfortunately was dropping off friends. Not that we did it on purpose, it just happened gradually. We do have dinner once in a while with those we cherished but that is about it. They don't share the same activities or goals as we do and that is ok. Makes more interesting discussions, or not. hihi They could say the same from us right! hihi

We don't really have immediate family left (parents are all dead) and what we have left is no interest to us. Why bother. Complicated story.

So hubby and I do our stuff together and truly have fun doing it (when we are not arguing that is. hahaha). And that is great. We're a great team. I don't need to see someone anyway every weekend, or even during weeknights. We're in bed early as we get up at 4:15am. So no real time for social life.

What we have as friends, none are really into the same things as we are, nor have same budget, not even same schedules. So it is not always easy to align stuff to do together.

Sure I get bored some times. But not often. And if I do, nothing a Visa or Mastercard cannot solve. haha

[Becky]

Glad to hear that it's not just me. DH and I don't have kids, and I just started a very non-traditional job that has me working some unpredictable hours and with certain limitations when I'm on-call. As a result, I'm forced to say no to a lot of the social opportunities that my friends suggest, including riding. I'm not sure how to keep some of these relationships alive, or if I even should.

[Crankin]

Well, I guess I must have a very high need to be social. I was the popular girl in middle and high school, even when I had to move in gr. 10, I found friends in my new home, although I was not in the same kind of social group. It sounds silly for a 60 something to be talking about this, but "having plans" is part of my life. We are so lucky we found our "cycling" couple friends when we did. They have no children and ours were already out of the home when we met them, 10 years ago. But, the thing is, we socialized heavily even when our kids were little. We had a babysitter almost every Saturday night. My mother was right... your spouse is there after the kids leave, so develop hobbies together. She told me this right before she died, about 5 years before we started riding together. I cannot imagine a life without friends. I think what is bringing this home, is that out of my 3 other friends we socialize with, 2 of the couples are experiencing issues related with aging that I kind of have no tolerance for. One has nothing to do with her own health (this is the friend that I've been gradually pulling away from for years, I've talked about her before), but rather a situation with her parents who are in Florida. She has already been down there for 2 weeks last month and now is gone for a month. It's a situation where she and her siblings have let their parents bully them and don't listen, and now they are incapacitated. And, my friend is doing the lion share of the care taking, because, frankly, her siblings have more of a "life," and she won't stand up to them, to make it fair. My friend's husband is gone for business 4 days a week, always has been, so I guess she doesn't care. The other couple, whom we are more compatible with in terms of some stuff, are both extremely overweight. He's huge, had a stent put in years ago and did not follow any other medical advice. Now he has prostate cancer and when he had exploratory surgery, they could barely get him out of the anesthesia. So, he had a sleep study and he has sleep apnea, which is not good for upcoming prostate surgery. She constantly complains to me about her weight, but she hates moving and sweating, and has some really unusual ideas about food. Three weeks ago, she tripped and fell down the stairs, separating her shoulder. I listen and can tolerate it better than the other one, but it's making it feel like there is not much for us to base our friendship on. Like you, Catrin, I feel younger than most people my age. Some, I think is from years of being around teens, and the rest is attitude and lifestyle. Sure, I have my "things," but I don't dwell on them or constantly talk about them.
And like Blueberry, I don't think this is age group specific. It happens when you are different than the majority.
I guess I'll be hanging out more with my bike group associates, but after 10 years, no real friendships have developed there. They are friendly, but it seems like some of them have been friends for 20-30 years. And, it seems like the men are friendlier than the women. Well, I guess this can be a goal of mine this year.

[shootingstar]

My goal continues to be to improve after my head injury/concussion (concussion=head injury). This injury has made me realize:
*How lucky I am to have at least 1 close friend locally who understand my cycling interest, but who I've known well enough for past few years in our friendship that we have other common interests. I am extremely lucky to have this local friend plus my partner who have each experienced a concussion and understand what I am going through for recovery.

*How "hidden" a head injury can be as a temporary disability. I don't look visibly disabled nor elderly/fragile that I don't look as if I need someone else's help beside me. But I do occasionally. I also had to insist on wheelchair assistance when I got off the airplane gangplank almost 2 wks. ago, to get to the baggage claim which was a long walk I didn't want to navigate with lots of people milling around.

*How isolating a "hidden" temporary disability can be for someone who "looks" fit, doesn't look old (even if 55) and healthy otherwise. And how easily misunderstood such a disability can be.

*How glad I am to have other long term passions outside of a physical activity/cycling. But still how reliant I am on being "fit" to read on computer screen ....which I can't spend much time right now. So even these non-sport passions, if taken away from me completely/forever, how confined I would feel.

*How much work our brain engages every day in order for us to function. We rely on our brain to move all our limbs, turn our head, understand everything that we see, our brain processes a lot of information in a coordinated way during our waking moments when we move around or even just to sit up. That's why yesterday, I got suddenly tired after seeing a friend (someone for the lst time within in the last 3 wks. outside of my partner, doctor) after she had dinner in our home for a few hrs. I was tired and we only had dinner and pleasant conversation!! This is someone who I wanted to see, not avoid.

*How important it is to be healthy and reasonably fit for life....because when something traumatic happens, like an injury..you can help yourself abit more easily in recovery. Your recovery will be a bit easier on yourself. ie. I just go for a short walk outdoors everyday with dearie, so my brain gets used to seeing different stuff and re-establish my balance. It's more about building brain stamina/recovery, not because I lack physical fitness to walk. Imagine if prior to the accident, I already had other medical problems with walking or other pre-existing medical condition that affected my mobility/balance.

*I wish I had more close friends locally. But there's nothing right now I can do about it except rest to get better. All my closest friends and other family members are in a different province. But at least I am comforted by the knowledge that family members contact me to check on my progress and receive real medical advice from my sister-doctor which I can cross-check (mentally) with my attending local doctor.