Is It Belize???

 

My sister always says that she expected me to spend my retirement years on the beach. She has felt that way since the time she visited me in Southern California when I was living across the street from the Pacific Ocean back in 1977. Yes, you could see the ocean through the living room window in that small beach town. I always thought so too but like all of us know, things change in life and sometimes you just have to go with the flow. Yet when I saw that article recently of a single lady that had moved to Belize and was building her new home ... it got me thinking.

I posted this photo on my iMac desktop and swore I could hear palm trees blowing leisurely in the ocean breeze. I doubt there are many bloodhounds, or basset hounds in Belize. With breathing problems for English bulldogs I doubt there is even one of them down there ... so it was kinda hard imagining me enjoying those ocean breezes and warm salt water with my three housemates. Still, my brain cells lingered there for a few days enjoying my vacation.

There have been a lot of changes going on around here, lots of activities and not a lot of time to take photos for a blog or even put a blog post together. You can tell by the photos in this post just how hard it has been. With the current weather, I am still mowing the grass in back inside the fence every couple of days. The rest of the yard is about once per week. Today my Apple Workout tells me I walked 3.68 miles mowing the yard. I did it a couple minutes less than an hour with a self propelled mower. With my average heart beat at 113bpm, it was just like a workout on my bike.

(View from the top) I am not the only one busy around here. This is what happens sometimes in May when I leave the house but leave the patio door open for the hounds and dog to go in and out as they please. 

Nest Building !!!

I thought their work inside a mini football helmet on top of my bookcase was a work of art. Birds are determined creatures I will say that.

I doubt that either hound/dog moved while the birds were busy. From other evidence I believe that the two hounds and the dog don't do much more than what these photos show when I am gone. My next door neighbors say they rarely see them outside when I am gone. 

I think I mentioned in my last post I wanted to start riding my bikes again like I did when living in Arizona. I had taken a ride the day before that post that was pretty hard with two long climbs each way. Well since that time things have progressed to riding around 85 miles per week and plans to build on that. Basically that is riding my bike 4-5 days per week and those rides are around 1:30 most of the time. All of my rides are added to my Arizona activity on an app called Strava.

Last post it was mentioned in the comment section that someone thought they had seen a Mini Cooper in my garage. They were right and I found out again after trying the exact same thing before ... some plans look good on paper but are terrible decisions real life. So was this one.

Here you will notice that even with the passenger seat moved up as much as possible there was about 1" to spare whether the front tire was on or off the bike. Plus I had a huge, senior moment that made this setup even harder to work. A "Countryman" model is 10" longer than a 4-door Sedan model. Guess which one I bought? A mistake?

Well I tried and tried to make it work. I tried to convince myself it was working. I mean "just enough room" is all I really needed to take the bike to the starting point of each of my rides. Sure I could have spent $500 on rooftop crossbars and a bike rack but for various reasons I never wanted those.

While I was driving around town and also riding my bikes, enjoying my changes to where I wanted to ride and my Mini days ... I still had an eye on the sales ad for the silver FJ I had traded in. Over the course of 26 days the price dropped on the FJ .... Long time readers know just how much I LOVE FJ's.

You can see in this photo there is more than enough room for the bike, hiking poles when I want to hike and more room to haul stuff safely from Lowe's or Home Depot. Yes ... you are thinking right ... I traded the Mini Cooper 4-Door back in for my old FJ Cruiser 26 days later. NO, that is not a record for the least number of days I have owned a vehicle. LOL

I practically had to strangle the salesman to do the deal. He was giving me all kinds of excuses over the course of two days but when he said "it is still for sale and I don't know how we would do a deal like that" ... I decided I had to be proactive and called a manger to get the job done. I arrived at their dealership at 1:14pm yesterday and was home by 3:35pm when I took this photo just to prove to a couple of friends that "yes I am insane but you already knew that years ago".

Henry wasn't that impressed though. All he wanted was for me to turn on the AC for the first time in 2023. Once that happened I had two happy hounds and a bulldog that could stop panting and breathe easier.

It took my about two weeks to get back into some kind of riding form. It is not so much my legs getting in shape but my triceps and between my shoulders/neck from leaning forward so much. I can handle the hot muggy weather when riding because there is just enough breeze to keep things a little cooler. 

So the changed daily routine is now ... wake up, dogs out and fed while I drink coffee, two hound walks, I change into cycling clothing and drive to where I want to ride, lunch when I get back and a nap for recuperation. I am drinking more water than ever, eating better and seeing some lbs falling off the more I ride just like before.

I find that riding a bike on a regular basis, fairly fast pace, keeps me mentally and physically healthy. I am hard to live with sometimes when I don't do what I planned to do when I moved here. So for those reasons it is a good thing I have started riding my bikes again. What about winter? There are many days where the roads are dry and the temps are not much different than an early winter morning in Sierra Vista AZ ... so I will be still be riding outside then. Bad weather ... I'll ride indoors on the trainer that attaches to the back axle of my bike.

The hounds and dog have moved into their mid summer routine which includes a lot of sleeping, keep cool inside and letting me know when they need to be fed. In the meantime, after mowing the yard this morning, I need a short nap before I go riding later today after it cools down a little.

Great weather her in "the tropics" of Southern Indiana.