I’ve really been enjoying the commute to/from work on my bike. I feel energized all morning when I bike to work, and the ride home is great for unwinding. I actually look forward to the ride now, rather than think of reasons I should drive instead. I’ve got my time down to between 20-25 minutes at around 15mph total which is pretty good on a mountain bike… I’ve created a new page to keep track of my times. Last week I had to replace a broken pedal on my bike, fortunately it broke slowly and i was able to make it home okay. I also picked up a handlebar end mirror to help me stay track of traffic around me better. Glancing back over my shoulder didn’t work too well since I’d be looking around my glasses which means the cars were blurry blobs… More rides to come. Stay tuned!
Ice Ice Baby
One of my goals while I am off of work this summer is to paint all or most of our house. We painted our living room this spring, but had yet to paint anything else until last week.
Dana stayed with Tony and I for a few days and the two of us decided to paint one of the guest bedrooms that I have had a “vision” for for quite some time. The room isn’t put together yet, but here is what we have so far: (I don’t have any specific before pictures, but here is a picture of the other bedroom that looked exactly like the bedroom we painted)
Problem Solver
Due to the wicked storms and 16 hour power outage last Wednesday, Tony and I (who am I kidding…mostly Tony) had to keep an eye on the sump pump to make sure it didn’t overflow into our basement. Tony, an amazingly creative problem solver :) , came up with a way to quickly siphon the sump pump using a hose leading from the sump pump outside to the almost end of our yard. It worked like a charm!
Before we got ready for bed, I asked Tony if he was going to set the alarm to check the sump pump in the middle of the night. He casually replied that he’ll just make an alarm that will go off when the water reaches the danger zone. After spending a short 15 minutes, or maybe even less, he came up with a system in which a piece of wood with a light ball attached to the end would raise up with the water level in the sump pump and loudly ring a bell when the water reached a certain point. Here’s a clip of how it ended up looking and working. It’s dark, but fun to watch just the same!
Sure enough at one in the morning Tony woke me up saying, “Alison! The alarm is going off!” He went downstairs, used his hose system to siphon the water out of the sump pump, and came back to bed knowing that he didn’t need to worry about it overflowing. His newly created alarm system would let him know if he was needed in the basement again!
Biking to Work.
On Monday I finally put aside all the excuses and biked the commute to and from work. It was a great feeling of accomplishment just to make it there and home again. Special thanks to Dan’s post inspiring me to just do it.
I biked to work for the 2nd time yesterday (Wednesday). The ride was great, even a few minutes faster than the first time on Monday. I have a lot of gradual hills in my commute, but i think the biggest challenge is the stop lights. Cruising down a long hill just to stop for a red light at the bottom is a bummer! I also learned the hard way that I should use more than just my bedroom window to check the weather in the morning… Fortunately, Alison was able to come pick me up after work and rescue me from the torrential rainstorms! I’m working on figuring out a good way to track all the stats coming from my GPS- i’m a geek like that…
Good Music
One thing that Tony and I love to do is listen to live music, and we have had the privilege of enjoy a lot of it this summer!
In addition to spending some time at the Grand Rapids Arts Festival a couple weekends ago and we had the opportunity to listen to the band Righteous play at our friends Jeff and Jess’s wedding reception. Tony and I know the lead singer David from church, and David called Tony to the dance floor to play the cowbell for a song. Tony, of course, totally rocked it. He never ceases to amaze me with all of his hidden talents :)
Last weekend we went to a festival called Cutlerville Days where we saw the band AG Silver perform. Tony’s brother-in-law Phil played bass with them at a festival last summer and Tony and Phil know the guys in the band, so it’s fun to watch them play.
Sunday afternoon we attended a small group leader’s celebration that our church puts on for all the small group leaders every summer. The afternoon was planned to a 50’s theme and the organizers went all out! Tony played a 50’s set, mostly Elvis and Johnny Cash, with three other musicians. It was a blast!
Last night we drove to Ann Arbor to see Grahm, Tony’s friend from high school, play with Matthew Santos. They put on an awesome show and were followed by an Australian band called The Waifs. We didn’t know what to expect, but we were really impressed!
