Tam, the Fiddler

As promised, here's a photo of me (taken by the Tibbits photographer, Mike Goreki) as The Fiddler and the wonderful John Payonk (now in a production at the famous Goodspeed Opera House in Connecticut, where people like Paul Newman and Joanne Woodward have performed in the past) this summer. Had a wonderful time with the show, and am very glad I did it.

This will be the last post for the evening... La'chaim!

Tam

Adventures with Elvis

Elvis wants me to post something about him...so here goes.

We spent many nice weekend mornings and weekday evenings sitting in the backyard. I've given up mowing my yard, and instead have a couple of guys that were recommended to me by another friend of mine mow the yard. It's so worth it. I started putting out two chairs out of habit. And Elvis...ever the clever fellow, sits in one of them.

It's one of his favorite things, actually. The other day, I forgot to set out the extra chair, and he resigned himself to sitting on the ground. Oh, the indignity of it all.

Recently, I boarded him at Dr. Lisa's--his vet--while on a weekend trip with a local photography club. When I picked him up the following Monday after work, I decided to take him to Dairy Queen with me for a treat.

He got a cup of soft serve. And I got a cone. First, he finished up his soft serve.

 Then...he watched me eat my soft serve cone.

And of course, all this cuteness was to try to get me to give him my cone. Well, it didn't work. Until...the head-tilt. I swear they go to school for this--the "if all else fails" move. Elvis is a scholar in the head-tilt department.

And of course, I gave in. Mmmm, he seems to say.

And a toothy smile as he finishes up my cone.

One happy beagle with probable brain-freeze and a wagging tail.

Ah, yes. Back home and sniffing the breeze.

Can we go to Dairy Queen again?

My new toy...and means of exercise and transportation

I have had two bikes in my life--three, if you count the one I bought at an East Lansing Police auction--one that was stolen within a week of my purchase.

The first was a blue Schwinn Bantam. It looked sort of like this one (only blue):

Schwinn Bantam Children's bike

The second was a full-sized bike--a blue Schwinn Collegiate 5-speed. Santa put that under the tree on Christmas, 1967. I spent a lot of time riding it in the basement until the snow melted that spring. They look like this (but blue, again):

Schwinn Women's 5 Speed Collegiate

I've used that bike for many years. It is an excellent bike, and I've received many offers for it over the years. My younger brother had one, too--a little newer; a bright green boy's model. I guess they're still worth some money, so I'll be checking on that one of these days.

I went without a car for about four years, from about 1989 until 1993, so my means of transportation were by bus or bike most of the time. I had always been an avid bicyclist, but in those days, I rode something like 25 miles per day (I didn't have an odometer on the bike, but I'm pretty sure I'm accurate with this.

Years later, and I can report it has been awhile since I have used that bike. It sits--still in good condition--neglected in my garage, along with a few other bikes that either belonged to John or came with the house. Actually, there's about three bikes in the basement I need to haul up and check out one of these days.

About 13 years ago, I had started thinking about saving up for a new bike. The recumbents were starting to become popular, though wildly expensive. And then for awhile, I didn't think about getting one until a few months before John fell ill. I was actually looking at bikes around the time he got sick, and gave it up then, thinking I had to have a car with me so I could get to him at a moment's notice.

Now, here am I, and John's been gone for about seven months, now. And my health isn't that great. I have trouble with osteoarthritis--more than since my first diagnosis of it over 20 years ago. Particularly troublesome are my hands, now--which makes violin-playing very difficult--and for some reason, my left knee. I know a lot of it has to do with my weight.

And part of getting healthier is a scheduled food detox, which I'll begin this coming weekend. This will last for a month and will get me at a much healthier place. It's a doctor-guided one. The last time I did this, in 2011, I was feeling the best, physically, that I'd felt in a long time. I want to get to that place again.

The other part is getting back on a bike. And it'll help my pocketbook, too, as the gas prices are quite high these days.

But there was a new problem since the last time I so diligently went on rides: my propensity to get vertigo from the Meniere's--by the way, the BPPV I spoke of earlier seems to have resolved itself, thank God! However, I can still get vertigo, and riding a bike when an attack happens could be a dangerous thing.

I was online talking to a couple of friends of mine who are avid bicyclists. Both recommended a recumbent (and by now, they've come down in price a bit) and one suggested a trike (three-wheel) instead of the two. All I could picture was a large tricycle and I thought, oh, no...but then I found out about the TerraTrike.

And a few weeks later, I walked into the local dealer in Lansing's Old Town--Spin--and now am a proud owner of a TerraTrike Rambler 8-speed. And in the last two weeks, I've gone nearly 30 miles on it. I notice I feel better (tired, but better) when I ride it, the joints seem to feel better...and people say I have a huge grin on my face when I ride.

So...every day that the weather permits, I've gone on a ride. Today was way too hot, so I chose not to. I have registered with the city of Lansing and have my MSU permit on it, and plan on riding it the two miles to work soon. I was just thinking about how pretty the fall leaves will be on my ride to work via the Rivertrail.

We are blessed to have a wonderful network of trails throughout the city--trails that continue to expand as the walking/running/biking community creates a bigger demand for them. And a good share of the roads have a bike lane, now, too. I can hop on the trail within just a few blocks from my house. And as of last night, I guess there's a good possibility that the trail will expand--I think further west, now.

Here'a  little bit of information on the Lansing (and East Lansing, etc) River Trail:

Lansing River Trail

I've dreamed for years of a special goal to do the Dalmac, a ride around Labor Day (I think a group left today!) from the Lansing area up to the Mackinac Bridge. Do you think this old lady can do it? I hope so. There are other very cool trails through out the state that were created with initiatives like the Rails-to-Trails Conservancy. Years ago, I helped edit (as a freelance editing job) some of the early grant work to put some of these to use here in the state. And I hope to ride on some of them.

I recently went on a photography club trip to the Bay City/Frankenmuth/Midland area and saw evidence of this work there. Hoping to ride the trail from Midland to Clare one of these days. I hear there's a nice one to Lake Michigan (South Haven, I think), too. I won't do these alone, of course; I'll find people to go with. So those of you that worry about me...you can stop now.

More about the photography group in another post one of these days--some fun with a bunch of people who--like me--like photography. They all have fancier cameras than I do, but I think I do fine for now with the one I have.

Well, that's about it for this evening. Hoping to talk more about the rides I take (along with the photography along the way, as my camera is usually in my knapsack, too).

Dad's day

I realized today that it'd been awhile since I'd made a blog entry. So much has happened since my last one, that I think I'll break tonight's entry into several different ones.

Last night, I didn't get a lot of sleep. I'd dose off and then suddenly awaken. Some of it could be attributed to the heat, as we're having a string of very warm and humid days after a fairly cool August. But after I got going this morning, I realized it could also be that in the back of my mind, I knew it was the anniversary of my father's death. Oddly, I nearly forgot. I have so much on my mind these days, so I guess it's understandable.

So many people have gone. Yet, I know they're not really gone...but the selfish part of me wishes I could have them all around me again...Dad...Mom...Curt...John...and so many others.

One thing that is really a part of Dad that remains here is his legacy: his children and grandchildren. I just think about every time I see his grandson play baseball. I see Dad there. And believe me, if there was a way to be there, he would be--for his grandson and his granddaughter, too. He would be so proud of his grandchildren. And his youngest child, who has done a wonderful job, with his wife, raising those two. I hope I can make him proud. Sometimes I think I'm doing it, sometimes I feel like I fall short. But my goal is to try to be like him, as he was the best dad ever.