Chop chop

Mileage: 889
Days: 83
Remaining: 7
Average Daily Mileage: 10.7

Still behind, but the goal is easily within reach. I've got seven days left and 111 miles to go. I have the day off work tomorrow and I think it's time to beat my daily maximum, so far set at 23 miles. What is next? I think maybe the 1200 Mile Challenge. It helps pace the months as they go by. Hard to believe it's been three months since the start of this challenge... in some ways seems much longer and in some ways shorter. Anyhow, I'm going to add the Twice a Week Gym Challenge to my next mileage challenge.

We had some weird storms here on the west side of Houston last week. On Thursday one storm whipped up a bunch of scary wind and hail. Sabkha and I dove for the closet as I imagined my plate glass windows imploding. A few minutes later things seemed to calm down. I went to the slider door and saw this:

Uh-oh! My Bradford Pear was on the ground, and it took out my legume tree too. Sad day. A bit of cutting later (with help from Debi and Mary) and we had this:

Not sure what to do with it now. Bit by bit I'll put it out by the trash. In other news, Debi had a garage sale and brought in about $250. It's hot as heck in Houston and we had a mostly inside-weekend, watched a movie and bummed around the houses (east side -- west side). All in all a nice time.

Catching up is hard to do

Mileage: 725
Days: 70
Remaining: 20
Average Daily Mileage: 10.35

It's been hot lately, but it's still pleasant out on the bike with the wind in your face. Who knew? Houston weather has definitely taken a turn toward the hot and humid, but after 7 PM the harsh sunlight softens a bit and the temps begin to tumble. I've been riding regularly from my house to Fry Road in Katy, and back, for a 22.4 mile round trip. 20 more days to do. I'll need to average 14 miles per day from here on to make the 1,000 miles.

In some ways it's not that far. Only 11 miles per day. But in other ways it is: that's nearly from Houston to Tucson! Or from Houston to Michigan!

This weekend was fun. Debi and Mary were out my way, ostensibly to visit me but I think really for the neighborhood pool. On Friday I went to work only to find everyone gathered outside on the lawn. Some type of explosion had occurred near the building. An hour or so later we were all released for the day. D, M and I went car shopping, first to Honda where we looked at and drove a new V6 Accord. Nice, fine, ok interior (EX), ok power but not like the G35. The CR-V seemed more fun. Debi liked the Element, which I think is the car for her (but not enough power). Next we went to the rather stuffy Lexus dealership where I looked at the ES 350 and Debi at the RX. Lovely paint, huge rear seat, nice leather, nice details. But the most basic available package was $39k. We skipped the test drive.

Sunday we parked along Highway 6 in the Bear Creek Park area and followed the paved path through the swamplands to the west. The trail ends in Cullen Park, but we didn't make it that far. It was hot and humid, but not horrible. We saw an armadillo clan and lots of medium-sized banana spiders. Mary got an Astros hat at the game on Friday.

It was a long and satisfying weekend. We capped it off by driving around in Katy and looking at houses. That doesn't sound fun, but it is. Trust me. And remember, this is Houston, people.