While I was riding yesterday I was seeing a lot of things that makes me wonder how lazy we have become.

First, I was riding through a neighborhood and saw a woman get into her SUV.  She was putting a pillow into her back and it had an automatic opener.  So, she was standing there as the rear was slowly going up.  She threw the small pillow into the back, pushed the remote and the back started back down.

It got me thinking about how much we pay for luxury, or really, how much we expect to have luxury.  I don’t really understand this automatic everything.

Let’s just look at cars.  It is nearly impossible to buy a new car with manual windows nowadays. I just replaced an automatic window opener in my van.  It wasn’t that expensive, doing it myself, but I would just as well be not replacing it.  Are we so lazy that we can’t turn our arms around in a few circles every one in a while to open and shut our car windows?  Seems like it since automatic windows are the standard now.  Same with door locks.  Or automatic doors, or seat adjusters.  All these things take energy, from gasoline, and they add weight to the car, which takes gasoline to move.  So, it reality, we’re happy paying extra for all these “luxuries”.

Same with lawn mowers.  I hardly see anyone mowing their own lawns in many neighborhoods. And when I do, the majority of the mowers are either self-propelled or riding.  People just walking behind their mowers as the mowers drag themselves across the grass.  Really, it isn’t that hard to push a lawn mower.  Maybe for older people, I can understand.  But, it not like you hardly ever see anyone using a real push mower.  My next door neighbor, who is 87, mows her lawn with an actual push mower, like non gasoline.  It is a pretty big yard and she is pretty incredible.  If she can do it with a manual mower, then the rest of us should be able to push a gas mower around.

And at the grocery stores.  All the stores are adding more and more electric carts so people can drive around the aisles and not walk.  I do understand that there are a few people who actually need these to shop.  But the majority of people I see using them walk into the store, get in the cart, shop and then walk back out of the store.  And most are pretty big, like fat big.   It would probably do them good to walk a little while shopping.

I could go on and on here.  We pay for these conveniences.   People don’t even look at the window sticker of a car and think, man, I could save $3000 if my car didn’t have automatic doors and adjustable seats.   If there was a stack of hundred-dollar bills sitting in the front seat of your car one day, like 30 of them and all of a sudden it was just manual doors and you had to slide back and forth to adjust you seat, would you take the money or leave it the same?  I would probably hate the answer most people would give to that question.

I saw this guy yesterday throw his cigarette on the ground, lit still, right before he went into a Starbucks.  This is pretty common, I guess, by all the cigarette butts lying around everywhere.  I don’t understand why it became okay to do this.  I see it all the time out riding.  People just throwing lit cigarettes out their car windows when they are done.  I remember seeing both the driver and passenger of a car do that at a stop light once, one car in front of a police car. Nothing happened.  Pretty much makes it legal if no body enforces it or says anything.   It is just laziness not wanting to put the cigarette out and put it where it belongs, in the trash.

Anyway, it doesn’t take that much more energy to do things the “non-lazy way”.   When the automation goes bad, which in invariably does, it takes a bunch of time to fix it.  Like my car window.  I had to order the part, disassemble the car door, install the opener and put it all back together.  It cost money and time.  Plus, someone, maybe me to a certain extent, paid for this convenience up front.  And it wasn’t cheap.

Sometimes it is just better using the manual hedge clippers.  There is a certain zen surrounding sculpting a bush with hedge clippers.  And this is just an analogy of lots of things in our lives that are better the more simple they are.  Automation sometimes leads to frustration and extra work.  Not to mention it, many times, reeks of laziness.   That is not a good thing.

Maybe use a pair of these soon. It would probably make you feel good.

of the first new year of breaking my hip.  I did it on May 27th, 2014, and although I raced last weekend and that was the unofficial anniversary, if there are anniversaries of injuries, today is day two of year two.

I can’t say that I had any idea how big of a deal this was going to be.  I looked back at the post I did the night I got hurt, the day of surgery, and I didn’t seem to be too concerned.  But, I have been hurt a lot in life and never really think much about it at the time.  This time it was a little different.  I thought it was going to be a couple months.  I did race Chequamegon at 3 1/2 months.  I’m not sure how I did that looking back.  Stupid determination probably explains it best.

Even last week, I was limping around some.  It just depends on the day and weather.  Honestly, the weather is probably the biggest influence on pain and limping.  I can’t really put any other actions, like long rides, jumping a lot, climbing ladders, etc. to it feeling worse.

Like I’ve said, I’ve been hurt a lot over the years.  Not more than anyone else,  probably just average, but considering how long I’ve been at this, it adds up.  I’ve only hurt my lower body a couple times.  I broke my leg once at the British Milk Race, but that was the fibula, the small bone in the lower leg, and it healed up pretty quickly.  Actually, now that I think about it, I fractured my hip in the Tour de France VTT, MTB version of the Tour back in the 90’s.  They didn’t do anything with that and it really didn’t slow me down much at all.

Leg injuries are a problem for cyclists for obvious reasons.  Breaking a collarbone, shoulder injuries, etc. are a little easier to get back on the bike from.   I have to admit, my right shoulder, the one I had rotator cuff surgery on a couple years ago, has never really worked very well since.  But, it’s not really a huge deal riding bikes.  In life, it’s a real drag, but riding a bike you usually keep your hands lower than your shoulders.  When, or if I get a chance to throw my arms up at the end of a bike race, then the rotator cuff problem might come into play.

Tonight I’m racing a time trial in Kansas City, the start of a 3 day weekend.  The time trial is only 3 miles.  It seems like such a waste of gas and time to do that, but it is part of the omnium and there are even points for the time trial, circuit race and criterium.  I have been riding pretty horrible this week training.  I think, actually, I know it is allergies.  I have all my symptoms of allergies.  Ears all clogged, tired, itchy eyes and fatigue.  I need to get out of here soon.  It is so wet and everything is growing like crazy.

Okay, Brian is bringing some of my race wheels by Topeka soon.  He is doing the Dirty Kanza tomorrow.  I feel bad for him and all those guys racing it tomorrow morning early.  It could turn into a real death, like nearly die, death march.  It is supposed to rain all day and tonight in Emporia.  Some of the roads don’t have any gravel, so they are dirt, ie. mud when you add water.  Plus there are a few low water crossings, which won’t be so low if it rains into the night. 200 miles of doing that is going to be mentally and physically trying, to say the least.

It isn’t supposed to rain tomorrow in Kansas CIty.  That is a good thing because the circuit on Cliff Drive is not a good course wet.  It really only has a couple corners that are bad, but they are bad dry, so wet they would be treacherous.

Okay, I’ve been rambling enough.  Better watch the end of the Giro.

Looking all happy at the hospital a year ago.