Man, moving around is much more of a toil than I had imagined at this time of my hip healing. I don’t think I’m “walking” any better than I was a couple weeks ago. It my muscles not wanting to do what they previously did. And when I try to make them do it, they rebel with anger and I pay for it. That is doing anything but riding. Riding, I can’t produce any power, but my muscles are super sore and unusable afterward.

But today they are. Yesterday, I started a project to put a new roof on Trudi’s mom’s garden shed. Trudi said it needed new shingles and a little plywood, but the whole roof was toast. It had been leaking for a while and it was completely rotten. So, once it started, it got more and more energy intensive, as most repair projects are.

So, I ripped off all the old roof, by hobbling around with a sledge hammer, while Trudi and her sister went to Home Depot and bought materials. It didn’t take too long to get it down to the rafters. I had Trudi get the guys at Home Depot to cut the plywood to correct measurements. There was some other wood that needed to be replaced, but it wasn’t a but deal. But leaning over to cut wood, or trying to climb up a ladder is nearly impossible.

It all went together as good as a garden shed should go together. I only brought a roofing nailer, so there was a lot of hand nailing. We got covered with felt yesterday and Trudi is going to get shingles right now. It shouldn’t take too long. I’m thinking about putting a pattern in the shingles, something a little more decorative. We’ll see.

Trudi’s mom’s 80th birthday party is this afternoon. I’m not going to make it to the triathlon. I texted Pat and am going to try to meet up with him and Gwen tonight later. I hope to watch the triathlon live this afternoon, but haven’t looked for a website yet.

Okay, I better get back to work. Back to painkillers this morning. That is probably a sign I overdid it a little?

Original 40 year old shingles.

Old shingles removed. You can see the mold on the rafters.

New sheathing and some other wood.

Trudi and her brother, Bob, nailing on the felt.

We drank some of this last night. I haven’t had much of a stomach for wine the last month. I didn’t know baseball teams had their own wine lables.

How about this Restoration Hardward catalog? It is like three Topeka phonebooks. I heard that their rational for it being so big is that it is actually less waste to just send out one, huge catalog, than do mutiple ones throughout the year.

Today is the last day in Chicago. We came up here for Trudi’s mom’s 80th birthday celebration. It was a long haul yesterday for me. From 3 to 11. Man, it is amazing how destroyed I am from just doing normal daily life activities.

The party was a huge success. Trudi’s mom invited friends from all facets of her life, her old time German friends, her current work friends, plus family, etc. And everyone seemed to thoroughly enjoy themselves. The food was catered, and great, and it only rained for a few moments, which just added to the evening.

I didn’t have the energy to get to downtown for the triathlon. Gwen Jorgensen won the race, which is awesome. She has won the last 3 races and has now won more ITU events than any other woman in history. She came off the bike 66 seconds down and ran the leaders down with just 2 km to go and solo’d in for a win. She seemed super happy, which she should. All her friends and family were at the race. It was also the US National Championships, so she is US National Champion, and is going to be the venue for next years World Championships, so it is important in a lot of respects. Pat and Gwen were having a party last night, but we were here for Trudi’s mom, so we didn’t make it. That would have been super fun, but you can only be one place at a time.

We finished up roofing Truid’s mom’s shed. It turned out pretty good. More work than I’d hoped, but that is always the case. But, it is done, so I am going to try to go out for a ride today. I haven’t ridden in two days and am pretty sore, in general, from the last two days, so we’ll see how that goes. The flat pedal comments make good sense. I have my pedal tension set so loose that my foot comes out pretty well, but flat pedals would be better. I’m back using crutches today. I’ve been trying to use a walking stick/cane, but it doesn’t take enough pressure off my hip. But the crutches are doing havoc on my right shoulder, which I had put back together last year, so it is a trade-off. Always a trade-off.

We might drive up to Milwaukee and watch the last day of the Tour of America’s Dairyland race tonight. It starts at 7:30. Trudi has to be in Madison tomorrow afternoon to pick up riders from the BMC Development team that are going to be doing the National Time Trial and Road Race. I like Madison, but don’t really like hanging out at a bike race I would like to be riding. Always a trade-off.

Trudi, her mom, and a good friend, Tom Franklin.

The party was at Trudi’s brother’s house.

Gwen coming to the finish yesterday.

The transition area was kind of a cluster.

Gwen won the race, is US National Champion and is leading the World ITU standing. Not a bad day.

Original 40 year old shingles.

Finished. I put a little accent in for fun.