Biking About (No.4)

    

    Back in November 2023, I put away my bike and the odometer displayed the number 6009. Although the weather is nice now, I probably will not be riding it again this year. We leave for Vancouver today for two weeks and it is likely I will be shovelling rather than biking when I return. 
   I took this picture yesterday and it looks like I pedalled just over 1400K during our brief summer period. It appears that I did about the same distance last year. I probably could have gone farther if I had one of those fancy Spandex biking outfits. 
   The main purpose of this post is that it provides me with a record of my summer cycling accomplishments and it gives you something to read which doesn't involve the American election.
   For more fascinating details see: "Biking About (No.3) and this one. To see if biking affects your sex life read, "Biking About." It had no affect on mine. 

Biking About (No.3)

 

   On May 1, 2023 in a post labelled, "Biking About" there is a picture of the odometer on my bike and the number displayed is 4575.  In it, i indicated I would provide a tally in the fall and it is pictured above. I stopped riding around Nov.15, so during that six month period I rode about 1435K or around 890 miles. Serious cyclists will make fun of that total, but, as is the case with most things, I am not too serious about cycling. In my defence I will note that I rode mainly on nice, sunny, warm days of which there are not many in southern Ontario. There will be even fewer in the next six months and I will not be joining those riding on fat tires through the falling snow in the darkness. 

The Bonus:
   While looking for my earlier post, I found that I had done another one with the title, "Biking About," which illustrates my lack of creativity. But in it I did offer some observations about how cycling may affect sexual activity. 

Post Script:
   You have learned little from this post, but at least I have provided for myself some record of one of my activities. If I had wanted to impress you I could have offered my drinking statistics, but fortunately I didn't keep track of them. For persevering I will now provide a picture of "Octo Man" who is associated with MM. It is the only known photo of him taken during this century and it was done by accident. In attempting to take a picture of the Thames River along which the cyclist often rode, he didn't realize the phone was pointing in the wrong direction. Here is that first and last 'selfie', which, one hopes, only a few loyal readers of MM will notice. 

Biking About

 

   The screen shot above is from a photo on my iPhone. It is a picture of the odometer on my bike and the startlingly large number represents the number of kilometers I have ridden to date. You are looking at it because I put it in this blog and I did so, so I would know where it is. I never know where my photos are and frequently lose them and will probably soon lose my phone. 
   My plan is to take another shot of the odometer at the end of the summer and put it in this blog so I will know where it is as well. Another purpose will be served, in that, the already impressive number will have increased dramatically, I'm sure, and I will have publicly documented the private promise made to myself on this May 1 to be more active this summer in an attempt to be less fat by winter.
   I know that those statisticians among you are thinking that the number is only "startling' if you know when I started, or got the odometer. If the recording began in, say, 1957, the number would only be startling because it is such a small one. Well, it looks like I got the bike on May 26, 2020 which was almost 3 years ago, or 1070 days. Riding only 4575 kms in 3 years is not that impressive, unless one remembers that in Canada a wimp like myself will only ride on the very few days when it is not freezing or raining (these were also the Plague Years.) Unfortunately I didn't keep track of those days, but I can assure you that there are very few; few enough that the number is again rather startling.
  On the other hand, the Americans among you will say the number is not so impressive because it is in kilometers. I have really only ridden about 2840 miles which is not that startling, but it is still almost a 1000 miles a year and each of those years only had a few rideable days. 
   Finally, there are sure to be a few among you who feel the need to be critical and will have noticed the BATT in the picture and realized that the odometer sits on top of the handlebars of an E-bike and argue that 2840 miles, or even 4575 kms, is not that startling after all. Perhaps I will still startle you, if by summer's end the number has increased significantly, but I may not since it is too cold and rainy today to go riding which is why I am blogging.

The Bonus:
   Is really a question. What is the kilometer/metric word that would be the synonym for the meaning expressed by the word "mileage?"