April 25, 2026
Dearest Reader,
I hope you are having a reflective Earth weekend. We all love the Earth. From it’s hard, iron-nickel inner core through its gooey, molten upper mantle we lovingly refer to as our asthenosphere, all the way to its warm, salty, temperature-moderating oceans and terra firma where most of my bicycling activities take place, it's all essential. So let’s enjoy it and contribute a little something to her health.
One thing that I was happy to see is that Heartland Bike Share is offering a free pass to ride their bikes (rides up to an hour) as often as you want as long as you live in Omaha and sign up for the pass. Wow! That's pretty nice! I think the bike share folks were at the Earth Day celebration at Elmwood Park today. I didn't make it this year, but I'm assuming there were many types of tables, booths, activities (including tree climbing, which I'm sure would be a hoot), and a DJ.
I recently signed up for a couple things:
- Gym membership
- Loess Hills Enduro bicycle event
The gym membership has been pretty good so far. I’m not typically much of a gymmy, but the kids were inexplicably interested and I figured it might be a good way to prep for some alpine backpacking I am planning to experience in August.
The Loess Hills Enduro is a gravel ride that features a 100-km and a 50-km course. I haven’t been training for a longer ride yet this season, but I still have one week to ramp up my mileage a bit. Now that I’ve been biking to the bus stop I haven’t been getting as many miles per ride as usual. It’s only 2 miles to the bus stop and I used to ride 5 miles to the office. So my plan is to ride my bike home from work instead of taking the bus a couple times this week to get a few extra miles and hills in. Soon I will be a hill-climbing animal. Here are some animals on hills I’ve seen recently during my foreshortened commute:
In addition to these 2 training plans, I have also been doing some weeding o’ ye olde dandelions and some planting o’ the greens. So I should be raring to go next weekend. Before I get out there, however, I’ve still got a few things to do:
- Switch wheels and/or tyres from my full-suspension mountainous bicycle to Shifty, which is a bit swifter.
- Adjust brakes, as needed.
So I guess that’s not too bad, right? Just need to follow through on a few things and it’s bound to be an enjoyable experience. I seem to vaguely recall participating in similar events in the past. I can’t currently remember the details, but I do remember being very hot. Luckily, I’ve got all the details recorded in my online diary, here and here so I can relive the joy / review for planning purposes.
Haha! Oh man! Fundo memories! This time I’m opting for the shorter event, so things should be fine. One difference, for all those past events I was sporting some classic Hutchinson Python tyres, whereas now I’ve switched over to the Vittoria Mescals. They seem comparable, so we’ll see how they handle the course.
Hopefully they will handle the course as well as Grampa's weeder from Ace Hardware allegedly handles weeds. I have also read that corn gluten meal (CGM) is a good way to stop dandelion infestations (although it might also hamper the growth of the wild strawberries that form the bulk of vegetation on my lawn). I don't mind some dandelions, but I don't really want them taking over the yard. So my moderately ambitious training plan should prevent excessive pain the way CGM allegedly reduces dandelions and other weeds in my lawn. As you can see, I am reaching for metaphors the way the dandelion seed reaches for the spring breeze to fulfill its destiny, which, if resulting in new life, will later be pulled by Grampa’s puller to complete the cycle.
So I hope your enjoying a beneficial cycle of some type or at least avoiding those vicious ones. Many blessings to you and to all life and minerals that comprise the Earth. We love you!
BSO
