Doing the Laundry

I had an appointment with an oncologist at 4:00 yesterday.  My dermatologist thought it would be a good idea to see if I would be a candidate for a CAT scan. This would be to make sure there are no cancer cells lurking somewhere.  After looking at all of my lab work and the results of the surgery the oncologist said there was no need for a scan and that as far as melanoma is concerned I'm cancer-free.

By the time I left his office it was about 5:15.  It was beginning to get dark and it was raining.  It was a nice ride home in the rain after receiving good news.  At one particular stop light I caught a lady in an SUV staring at me.  She might have been wondering why someone would be so foolish to be out in the cold rain.  Or maybe she was noticing how dirty my jacket was.  It's been a while since I've washed it.  In fact, I looked like I rolled under a diesel truck.

This morning I met a couple of friends for breakfast at McDonald's. When I got parked a guy drove up in his pickup and started asking the usual questions about the bike.  Thinking back on it, my jacket looked pretty bad so washing it went on my to-do list.

My technique is to first take out all of the removable armor, soak the jacket in the bathtub, and use Woolite and a brush and scrub hard.  After that I give it a thorough rinsing then spray Shout stain remover on all the dirt stains on the front and scrub hard again.  Then I give it the final rinse.

There... much better.  Now it looks like I rolled under a hybrid.  Whenever I do this I usually ask myself why I don't do it more often.  Maybe it's because in a week it'll be looking dingy again. 

I'd like to know your method for doing the laundry.

God's speed.

Struggling with the Weather and the Whether

The last few mornings the weather has been unstable.  At our house we've had a mix of snow and rain.  Last night we had some snow flurries along with some rain which gave this morning a thin coating of ice and light crunchy snow on most everything.

I had a breakfast scheduled this morning with a couple of friends at 9:00.  Knowing that today's forecast was to be sunny and 45 (F), I did the usual checking the outside temp on the house thermostat and looking at the current conditions online.  Then I looked outside and saw the ice but it didn't look too bad.

Then the little voice from the area around my left shoulder whispered in my ear, "You can ride anyway. Don't worry, it'll be okay.  After all, by the time breakfast is over it'll be sunny and warm and everyone will be riding."  Then the voice from the other shoulder whispered, "No, it's too icy and there's too much risk of going down and scrapping up the bike."  Then the other voice said, "But you can go slowly where you need to.  Go ahead it'll be fun."

Do you ever have this "discussion" in the morning?  Struggling with the whether... that is the whether to ride? 

In the end the voice from the right shoulder won out.  I'm glad I didn't ride because the roads were worse than what I was hearing from my left ear.  Of course hearing voices should be reason enough not to ride. 

I didn't really hear voices but the struggle really happened.

Safety should always rule the day.

God's speed.