Standing at the Trailhead of Winter

An important lesson I've learned about grocery shopping -- I spend nearly five times more money on food when I have a car to carry my groceries home for me. Seriously. Five times! Panniers can only carry so much, so I have to be very careful about what I buy. And since I don't want to have to make more than two or three trips to the store during the week, I plan out my meals and buy just the items to prepare what I've planned. A car makes it possible to buy much more. A ridiculous amount that sets me up for spending way more than I want,. A lot of the food then sits in the fridge or on the counter and spoils. And all my meal planning flies right out the window.  So, while it was nice of Lovely Beautiful Daughter to loan me her car for a few hours, I think I'll stick with using the bike and panniers for grocery shopping. I about fainted when I saw the total for my groceries (and granted $40 of the total went to the new 3 quart pot I had to buy since I bur...

Over the past few years I've been slowly redesigning the way I move through life. The first change I made was to get more exercise. Agreeing to do a sprint tri with a friend springboarded me into action. Since then I have completed several sprint tri's, several century rides, a cross country cycling tour, and lots of shorter mileage rides. I feel more fit now than I ever was in my teens and twenties. The second change I made was to bring home less work. Rethinking how I respond to student papers and implementing a new procedure involving more one-on-one time with each student made less take-home work a reality. As such, my evenings are now spent with my family, doing activities we all enjoy. The third change I made was to drive less and use my bike more for transportation. The first year didn't go so well. As soon as the temps dropped below 45 the bike went up on the hooks in the garage. I kept at it, though, and now I'm completely comfortable using my bike to go wherev...