Where should I start! It has been stupidly, ridiculously, unbearably hot and humid here in the last week or more. I love the sunshine and I am NOT complaining….but it’s getting a bit wearing, honestly. Need a teensy little break from living in an armpit!
In the last week or so and definitely this weekend I’d noticed that something wasn’t right in my nutrition. Basically I’ve been having waves of feeling really nauseated and weak and like passing out might be imminent….you know that horrible weak, barfy, deep internal yucky feeling? It’s been far too hot to be eating too much in one sitting so I’ve been “snacking” more than eating my normal three meals/day. The snacks are decent food; 2 hard boiled eggs and an apple with almond butter or a hamburger patty w/ homemade mayo and a nectarine as examples. Decent nutritious food and once I’ve eaten it I feel better nearly immediately. But I still am not feeling quite right. Ray thought that maybe I’m dehydrated from the excessive heat and after having reviewed the signs, I think he could be right. So today I’ll be hydrating like crazy because I feel downright crappy. Which seems rather unfortunate since I’ve been working really hard at self-care and overall feeling pretty solid about it.
Saturday morning I headed out to my motorcycle training for 9am…in order to beat the heat. I was there not 20 minutes and my bike basically bit the dust again. This time I caught the problem before it got too far and I was able to ride it home instead of having to get Ray to come out with the flat-deck. Once I got home, disappointed and pissed off and irritated and bummed out, I sat on my bench and sipped some kombucha and tried to figure out what I was going to do. We didn’t know for sure what the problem was, we have jobs that do not afford us flexibility in time off or alternate hours to deal with things that pop up and to be quite honest, I really didn’t want to put money towards that bike. I felt like maybe it was a sign that our time together was up.
She’s a Harley Davidson, 2006 Electra Glide Standard. She comes with a detachable trunk and a feisty attitude! I love her!
Enter, Jezebel. I traded in my Yamaha and Jezebel is parked outside my office right now! She’s a bit rough around the edges, the idiot who owned her previously sprayed some sort of corrosive cleaner on her shiny bits and basically the motor looks like crap. But….Ray worked on her all day yesterday and she’s ¾ of the way back to where she should be. Fortunately for us, that corrosive, dull, rough looking motor was enough to get us a wicked deal on her. A little (or a lot) of elbow grease and $40 in metal polish and engine brightener and she’ll be good as new!
The weight and handling difference between old bike and Jezebel is considerable. Old bike weighed 593# and Jezebel is nearly 200# heavier at 789#. It’ll take some getting used to in slow speeds but she cruises like a…..well…..like a cruiser. Ray tells me that she’s “been hot-rodded”, “is a finely tuned machine” and that she “goes like snot”. So…that’s good! Cosmetic surgery aside, she was an amazing deal!
Update, I guess I’m going to have to change the bike in my header, LOL!
So…that was basically our whole weekend….we were at the dealership for 5 hours on Saturday and then came home and stripped stuff off of the old bike for 2 hours so that we could turn it in. Saturday night we chilled on the back deck for hours, well into the deep darkness of a hot summer night. Sunday morning we were up early, I did some cooking for this week ahead and then we went back to the dealership to bring Jezebel home. Unfortunately I didn’t get her inaugural ride because I refused to go to Andrea’s baby shower with helmet hair and in jeans (see picture above, all dressed up, no riding for me!).
The baby shower was great, Andrea got completely spoiled with baby gear and clothes and the weather was….well……stupidly hot. It was 36.5 (98F) in Judy’s backyard and we were all chasing the shade around. Once the baby shower was over I raced home, showered again, changed into an even lighter dress and we went to a gala fundraiser for Kyle’s hatchery. Happily, hat was held near the water so it was a bit cooler. The food there was awesome…and the guy serving the bbq salmon was “paleo friendly”. He took notice & commented on the couple of us who did not have pasta salad, noodle salad, rice or a bun and gave a double serving of the salmon to go with our green salad. I was VERY impressed. Plus he was a firefighter and super cute! 😉
Sunday night after the gala we headed home, farted around with the new bike in the driveway for awhile, had a coffee with our neighbors (our H-D mechanic, actually) and then it was bedtime.
This morning Gracie and I were up at 5am and took our walk. We did the shorter route and we just walked it instead of jogging because it was super warm out even that early and poor Gracie was suffering halfway in! It’s supposed to cool off somewhat as the week goes by so hopefully we get some relief (and some better exercise). And….sadly…..compared to this time last week, it’s not quite as bright out in the morning…..the shorter days are starting already.
Happy Monday out there in the interwebs!
Fitty vs Fatty 
My husband is down there fighting with ouy Yamaha Royal Star & he is close to selling it. Trading in for a Harley also this time. Hard to find people to work on our bike. Figure time foe something dependable- for trips. Congrats to you!!
PS – Update: He ended up buying a 2011 Harley-Davidson FLHTK Electra Glide Ultra. Just got Tired of breaking down.