Rollin’ on the River

I get up at 6:00 am on Sundays to go to workout. (See previous entry for the background of today’s entry.) As I was getting ready, I noticed my female neighbor had parked her car in front of the house. She had her trunk door open. She was walking around the outside of the house talking on her cell phone.

I got busy doing other things and then I got ready to leave. A police squad car was now at the house and then I figured out why. Her “boyfriend” was there. She must have gotten a restraining order on him. The officer stayed with her as she loaded up her car. Then another squad pulled up.

Her boyfriend came out of the house when she was getting ready to leave. He stood by the driver’s side door talking to her until a police officer told him to go back into the house. He did.

Then I left.

This guy doesn’t work. Doesn’t have a car. Probably doesn’t have any money. He did do the yard work, etc. around the house, but, hey, if you’re not working, you better do something besides drink and do drugs.

Anyway, she was his meal ticket, and I’m sure he’s upset about losing his source of income, his home, and his transportation.

Doesn’t he sound like the boyfriend any little girl always dreamed of?

I noticed he picked up all the stuff that was thrown around their yard the other night.

Well, we’ll see how this drama plays itself out in the coming days.

The soup has melted away, and today is beautiful, partly cloudy, nice day with very little humidity. I turned off the air conditioning and threw open the windows. Oh, it’s so great to feel a nice summer breeze throughout the house.

I bought a new bike, a Schwinn 21 speed, a couple of weeks ago. I’ve been itching to ride it, but it’s been too hot or I’ve been too busy. But today was the perfect bike riding day, so off I went.

I took one of my standard routes, and that route runs along the Mississippi River. It winds around towards downtown St Paul.

My previous bike had only six gears, so today was an experiment on how to use the gears on my new bike. At one point, when I shifted gears, the chain came off the wheel thing. Well, instead of crying for Ray, like I used to do whenever something broke, I got off my bike and looked it over.

Sure enough, if I stretched the chain, I could get it back on the wheel thing. And there it was. I got on and continued my ride. And I didn’t have any further problems.

I do carry a bike tool kit with me, like I know what to do with the tools, but if someone else stopped, they could help me. But, this time, I was OK.

I rode along the trail until I came to the Lafayette Bridge, which it isn’t called that anymore, it’s the Highway 52 Bridge now. It’s a busy bridge spanning over the river. This bridge is falling apart, so they’re building a new bridge next to the old one and when that’s finished, they’ll tear the old one down.

I turned around and went back. St Paul has done a great job with its riverfront. There are pretty gardens and fountains, and lots of places to sit and watch the river roll by. There were plenty of boats spending a beautiful Sunday afternoon cruising on the river.

All in all it’s an eight mile round trip. Not too bad.

I had my annual physical exam this past week. Everything was good. And I got a shingles vaccine. The FDA has now approved them for people 50+. It lessens my chance of getting shingles by 50% and if I do get them, the pain will be 75% less than if I didn’t get the vaccine. Those seemed like good odds to me.

My health plan covers the vaccine for people over 60, but if they deny the charge, I’ll try to fight it with the FDA approval for people over 50. The cost of the vaccine is $239. It’s so worth it not to go through the agony Joe did and still does.

I’m having dinner at Asher’s home tonight. That’s a good way to top off a beautiful Sunday.