My Girls: Aubie, Chia, and Nancy

Aubie is my most beautiful bike, Chia is my car, and Nancy is my brain tumor. I've done something with each of them this past week, so I thought I would share. We'll start least to most interesting, well, in my terms, so we shall start with Chia.

Chia finally received some new tires! Hip hip hooray, I say, I say!! She has been in dire need of some for like what, uh, two years? I finally had my dad convinced they were no good (because they were totally bald and the tires were almost as smooth as my road bike's! (was that an over-exaggeration?)) so he was kind enough to take it in and get some new ones. It's a totally blessing. Now she drives like a dream. Here is what she sounded like while driving between 55-79 miles an hour (I had to hit 80-81 to make it stop.)

Nancy next. If you didn't already know, I have a tumor on my pituitary gland and I've named it Nancy. This past week I've been to my doctor who I oh so love, had blood work done, had a MRI, and am waiting to hear back from a surgeon my doc recommended. I may or may not be getting Nancy nipped out of my brain this summer, so the MRI films and surgeon will determine that. And guess what? Lucky me has a copy of the MRI films. Here is Nancy:




And now we have Aubie. I LOVE my bike. On the few days it hasn't been raining/snowing/wind blowing profusely hard, I've ridden my bike to work and on a few rides. But yesterday, Saturday, I had all the time in the day for a ride. I pumped up my tires, adorned myself in my new pretty Castelli Lycra, got some gels, and headed out the door. It was an amazing ride. If you would like, click THIS link to hear the song I had stuck in my head all day. It is the beautiful voice of Mr. Josh Kelley singing 20 Miles to Georgia. Anyway, I went 60 miles in a little under 4 hours. I decided to go to every city in the surrounding area, so I went to 9 different cities within that time: Cedar Hills, Pleasant Grove, American Fork, Highland, Alpine, Lehi, Lindon, Orem, and Provo.

(The mileage on the map is a little off. I did in fact go 60 miles.)

I learned much during my ride. I'm getting more comfortable with my riding; my hill work is MUCH better (check out of elevation, there are some pretty good hills,) my hovering has improved vastly, and my balance is coming along. Contrary to some thought, "what goes down must come up" is true for me --> hill work. I also learned that while on a bike, I go places I never would in a car. I ventured into some neighborhoods where there were some beautiful homes and others where I said, "This is the weirdest neighborhood I have ever been to!!" (I can explain this to you personally if you'd wish.) And I also recognized something from Josh Kelley's song. At the end he sings: "Checkin' on the left, passin' on the right..." and that was exactly what I was doing most of the day. haha (As in I was on the far right side of the road...I know you're supposed to pass on the left. Just wanted to clarify.)

There was much more to this glorious ride, but I won't bore you with it. But I'll have you know, I have a sweet tan started and I can't wait to magnify it. Sock tan. Watch tan. Lycra shorts tan. And Nylon shirt tan (aka farmer's tan.) Soon to be added: Glasses tan. I'm gunna be pretty this summer. I can't wait.

Life is grand.
:)