So in my pursuit of bettering my speaking skills I came across the club called toastmaster. There is a local toastmaster meeting two blocks away on the first and third Monday of each month. As I am generally free these days I decided to try my hand at it. My expectations of this meeting were blown out of the water.

Luckily we went on a day when some of the Midland folks were there visiting and they ran an effective meeting full of speeches, most being impromptu that even I participated in giving. There was laughter, thought-provoking questions, and stories that made you say “huh”. Overall it was a great experience.

I will be going back, but I would like to invite others to join me. The Mt. Pleasant group seems to be lacking in attendance, and I think some fresh blood would liven up the meetings and make them even better; as well as provide everyone with a more productive learning environment. Can I get you to join me in a trip to Toastmasters next month?!?

It first discusses the top three tick-borne diseases you will encounter in the U.S. Starting with Lyme Disease, which could cause neurological diseases; and then discussing Ehrlichiosis, which gives your flu-like symptoms, but has a 3% fatality rate even with proper treatment; and then Rocky Mountain Spotted Fever which starts with a rash and has many other flu-like symptoms. The moral of this section is that Ticks Suck, and you should avoid having one bite you.

Then, more importantly it talks about What to do if you have a tick on  you. The ONLY thing you should do is take a pair of fine-tipped tweezers and firmly, though gently, grasp the tick as close as you can get the skin. Gently and steadily, retract the tick straight out, in the direction it is attached. It will almost always withdraw, making a clean exit. Clean the area with an alcohol wipe, and place antibiotic ointment on it. Watch for infection, a rash, or other signs of infection for a few days.

What you should NOT do: Light a Match and touch the tick; use your bare fingers; cover the tick with fingernail polish, petroleum jelly or any other lube. doing these will highly increase the chance of disease transmission.

• 1 cup Pitted Dates – grind in food processor, then add
• 1 1/2 cups unsalted raw Nuts (Almonds, pecans, walnuts, macadamia, cashews all work well, or a combination of all of them). Grind these in the food processor. Then add
• 1 cup dried fruit (Raisins, Dried Cranberries, unsweetened coconut, Dried Blueberries, Dried Cherries, Papaya, peaches, bananas all work well, again use your favorite one, or a combination of them all). Also add,

• 7 Tablespoons of goodness (Oat Bran, ground flaxseed, wheat germ, chia seeds all work, use a combination of these) Then pulse in the food processor till well combined. Finish with,

• 1 1/2 cups Oats
•  1/2 teaspoon cinnamon
• 3 tablespoons honey. Pulse till well combined again.

The only down side to this dish is you have to plan ahead and soak the beans the night before. I usually mix Black Beans, Yellow Beans, and Pinto Beans for a total of 2 cups beans.

I soak the beans overnight in water (I usually just leave them on the counter, but you could put them in the fridge if you wanted). Rinse and add to a 3 quart pan with 3 cups of water.

I then add 4 large cloves of garlic and 1/3 cup of  jalapeno (I used some that have been preserved from last summer) and simmer on low for a few hours with the lid on. Don’t forget to stir them occasionally so they don’t stick to the bottom of the pan.

About half-way through cooking I add 1 1/2 Tablespoons of Cumin (this adds a nice smoky flavor) and just shy of 1 Tablespoon of Cayenne pepper (more if you like it really spicy) and let these simmer into the beans.

I take this time to clean the kitchen, prep veggies for the week, take care of laundry, and vacuum the house.

I also use my rice cooker to make 2 cups of rice (dry measurement, which makes 4 cups cooked rice). You can use brown rice, white rice, short grain, long grain, wild or any combination thereof.

When the beans and rice are done (beans are to be soft and mushy and should have a little bit of extra water on them) I cut up a large red onion into strips and sauté it in a frying pan with a little olive oil. They should be brown, translucent, and soft.

I then take my potato masher and mash-up the bean, garlic, and jalapeno mixture. You could skip this step, but it helps diffuse the seasonings throughout the dish if it’s mashed.

I add the onions to the cooked rice (in a big dish that you will store it in for the week).  I then take a bag of frozen corn and sauté it in the pan I used for the onions. This not only warms them up, but if you let them get a little browned it adds nice color and flavor to the dish.

I also add a can of diced tomatoes to the rice and onions while the corn is cooking. Then add the bean mixture and the corn and mix well.

You are left with a large pan of rice and beans that can be warmed up quickly for a protein rich, nutritious lunch or dinner. 

As most businesses are small independent shops some shop keepers are not able to make it in to open when the roads are bad, such as Heather from Om Bodies. But the magical thing is that although she is not able to get here, her front sidewalk is shoveled. As are all storefronts downtown.

How do they get shoveled? Does the Downtown pay someone to come and shovel? No, most shop keepers do their own shoveling, but we are all good neighbors. Take last night, for example. I walked Dolly around 11:30pm and saw we had at least three inches of snow already.

So I started shoveling, to make life easier for myself in the morning.

And it felt great 20 minutes later when the storefront was clear of snow.

But what about the New Yorker Children’s Shop? Their shop keeper is aging and not as able to shovel his sidewalks on his own, so I spent an extra 15 minutes and cleared off his sidewalk as well, in my effort to be a good neighbor.

Now I’m not the only one out there being a good neighbor, and being a good neighbor doesn’t consist only of shoveling sidewalks. The local Rollie Denison Leadership Institute Class of 2010/2011 recently did their part in being a good neighbor and collected food and other goodies for a family in need through the United Way’s Adopt a Family Program this winter.

Being a good neighbor is not only nice, but it leaves you with a good feeling inside. And as such I must end with this clip, Enjoy.

Over the decades that waist grew. By the mid 80‘s I needed size 34 pants. By the 90’s I was a solid 36 waist, and worried, because there were times that the 36 pant felt a little tight.I remember my wife once “made a mistake” bought a pair of size 38 shorts for me on sidewalk sales. I refused to wear them for the longest time, then one day, there wasn’t anything clean, so I put them on; and they felt great. That first pair of size 38 shorts was followed by one or two others, but I was determined that by the end of the summer I would be back to a solid size 36.

But then things changed. After 31 years of running Motorless Motion, I started going on vacations. Now my idea and your idea of a vacation may not be the same. You may think a great vacation involves lots of eating and drinking and taking it easy. My idea of a vacation is to hop in my canoe and stay away as long as I can.

It started with a 6-week trip in 2007 on the Mississippi River, paddling from near Bemidji, MN and ending in Caruthersville MO. A trip of 1300 miles. The best part was loosing nearly 15 pounds, and dropping my total cholesterol from 200 to 155, with equally great improvements in everything else that was measured by the local university.

Since then it’s been at least one canoe trip a year, lasting at least 2 weeks at a time. A favorite vacation is going to Florida for as much of January as I can and paddle the Everglades. This year it was almost 4 weeks, with lots of paddling and lots of spartan eating. I lost another 8 pounds.

Now what does this all have to do with the last hole on the belt. Well, after growing and flirting with a size 38 waist, and the LAST hole on the belt, I’ve reversed that trend and now have reached the FIRST hole on the belt. Another year, and another couple canoe trips I many need to buy a smaller belt – and a bunch a smaller pants and shorts.

Some items are an easy decision, such as bikes. Bicycle Companies such as Jamis, GT and Schwinn, change their products on a yearly basis, or at least the colors of the models. These bikes get fancy red sale tags.

What about the old brand of gloves, or cycling shoes that are still a current item, but I no longer have a full size run or selection of?

These are also likely candidates for the Clearance baskets.

Then there are the jerseys and other cycling apparel that one must put on sale, mostly to make room for the new styles that are coming in. But do I put these on sale, prior to getting in the new stuff and have an empty spot on my wall, or wait till the new items come in and then have an over-flow of items in my clearance basket? This usually requires a balancing act between these two choices.

Sales items can be a great thing, or they can be a disaster as they tend to get shoved to the back of the rack or basement only to see the light of day three years later. Such as the case with this bike that now needs a new home.

First we take your fork…

Take off the lowers. Check out the dirt left behind.

Taking off the lowers drains the old fork oil. When this oil is new and fresh it is red, when it’s old it is this awful brown color.

Then the old seals are taken apart, you can see the amount of dirt this seal received from only one year of use.

Then the pistons are cleaned and the seals are replaced.

Then you end up with a fork that feels new again, and will last much longer than if you hadn’t had it re-built. The best part is that this repair, although complicated, only takes a few hours so you can be off riding on it again soon.

I have saved many items in my past, such as this chair.

With a little Tender-Loving-Care and elbow grease I was able to mend and paint the frame, and reupholsterer this chair, for a total cost of $25. I think it looks pretty good now, and it is very comfortable.

But sometimes there are items in the dumpster that should stay there. Take this computer for example.

You wouldn’t take this computer into the local computer repair shop to have it fixed up would you? It’s obvious that nobody would, as it’s been sitting on the sidewalk for over a week. So why would you pick this up to bring into the local bicycle shop?

Sometimes things you find while dumpster diving are great treasures that deserve a second chance, but sometimes they are where they belong. WikiHow has a great article on why and how to dumpster dive. My general rule of thumb is: If I can fix it up myself for $25 or under I’ll take it with me, if someone else has to fix it for me, or it’s going to be costly to fix I will leave it be.

But, as all the guys at the shop love to Mountain Bike, I got myself a new 29″ mountain bike to ride this year.

But with every new bike I needed to size it. So today Mike pulled out his favorite sizing tools to help me.

And with the fancy new stem sizer we were able to determine exactly what size stem will help my bike fit me!

So I spent time riding this fancy stem sizer.

And now I have a bike that fit’s me perfectly!!! Now for those 60 degree temps!!