biking – Thoughts From The Passenger Seat

thoughts, 2026

A New Year

Posted on April 23, 2026 by nancyb422

My birthday was yesterday and with that always comes my thoughts for my “new year”. It’s a nice little reset four months into the actual new year.

A couple of things I’ve noticed. I spend too much time reading other people’s blogs instead of writing on my own TWO blogs. This one and my family one.

I spend too much time, again reading, trying to “figure myself out” through astrology. It has given me an understanding of myself but I want to make sure I don’t lean too hard into it. What happens when I finally figure it out? Like the dog who catches the car. Will I be any happier? Not likely, so maybe I’ll try to keep some of that mystery alive.

I continue to work out every day but it’s only been since last week that I am coming to grips with my diet. What’s the old saying? It’s 10% exercise, 90% diet. I reinstalled the My Fitness Pal app and have been tracking my food. Keeping it realistic to lose a 1/2 pound a week and that appears to put me at the healthy part of my diet overall. Of course, with my first weekly weigh in, I gained 2/10th of a pound but I’m blaming it on the soy sauce with the sushi for my birthday dinner. I just have to stay realistic. Overall though, I feel great!

We haven’t started any biking yet this year and I’m looking forward to riding on my Specialized that I bought last September. I managed to sell my first bike, the Salsa, last week and I’m glad that someone starting out will get to enjoy it. With that said, I’m going to take each opportunity that comes up to ride without thinking about what’s on my desk or that “I need to be there”, when it’s likely I don’t really need to be there.

Overall, I’m pretty pleased with the first four months but I always appreciate that birthday reset!

2025, biking

My New Ride

Posted on September 27, 2025 by nancyb422

I have to go back to my last bike ride to explain my “new ride”.

We headed out on with friends for a ride on a beautiful Friday morning, September 12th. We met at the covered bridge in Colchester and headed out for a ride I’ve done before. It’s a good ride and I enjoy it the most out of the 3 different routes I’ve done.

It has packed dirt, country roads, paths through woods, and ferocious up and down hill, rocky forest roads.

There was a section the first time I rode that had huge puddles and I had to make a sharp turn between two trees that I didn’t make and fell into a tree! I didn’t get hurt just very muddy! Coming out of that section there is a steep, rocky (very rocky!) hill that I walked my bike up.

It was still muddy with huge puddles but I was able to ride up the hill! It wasn’t until I got to the top that I realized it was THAT hill. I did a little happy dance when I got off the bike. This is my favorite ride of all I’ve done and one along the shoreline is another favorite.

My bike, a Salsa Confluence, is a good bike but it’s designed more for roads and bike paths. There are no shocks in the handlebars and unfortunately the death grip I have on them along with bumping along over the rocks is wrecking my hands!

So….we decided to upgrade me to a Specialized bike because it comes in my size and it has shocks in the handlebar stem which will make it less painful going downhill over rocks. I hope!

Now I just need to sell my Salsa!

2025, life

As Summer Comes To An End…

Posted on September 10, 2025 by nancyb422

I walk out my back door almost every morning at about 6:15 to work out. I have taken so many pictures of these mornings. Why? I don’t know! I feel like I have to capture what I see to make it real. To remind me of what I’ve seen.

As I stood and looked around this morning, I wondered “did I enjoy this summer? Did I dig in? Or did I just go through the motions?”

I felt very confident that yes, I did embrace this summer. It was hotter than Heck, but I sat outside under the cover you see in the picture or on the covered side porch where there is always a nice breeze.

I would head out there after dinner and my husband would soon follow. We’d sit outside there for 2 hours, me reading and him watching you-tube videos.

I rode my bike a few times, less than I hoped, with my husband and friends but that is something there is still time for before the winter sets in.

We didn’t spend much time on our boat and that will be a conversation during the winter. Give it one more year? Give it up? The few times I was on it, I enjoyed it! Sometimes it’s the getting there…

And of course, there was our cruise to Alaska! That took up 10 days of the summer. The travel to and from felt like it took 10 days itself, but it was worth it.

For me, it’s not about being busy, or going to a lot of events. In the summer, it’s about being outside!

I’d been feeling down for the last couple of weeks, but the other day something shifted (full moon?), and now I just feel GRATEFUL and THANKFUL.