Finding life balance with cycling.

[mstone]

@rsewell19 22067 wrote:

However, when I hear someone complain about not having the time to ride I feel insulted

Maybe it’s not about you?

When someone complains about not having time to ride, that’s implicitly within the context of their own priorities, and there’s really no reason for them to get into the gory details.

[eminva]

One thing not mentioned so far — I take it a lot of you are younger than my husband and me — is the “sandwich generation” phenomenon. For the last couple of years, elder care has been like a second job for my husband. For a while the thing that got sacrificed was cycling and physical activity, but he’s deliberately tried to work that back in. As some of you mentioned, it helps so much with how you feel mentally and physically. Unfortunately, it is the first thing to go for a lot of people when they get under a time crunch.

My husband observes that I am more tired when I get home on the days I commute by bike. I do get home slightly later — although that is also a function of lingering at the office a bit longer when I don’t have to worry about catching a bus at the end of a subway ride. He and my son are both very supportive nonetheless.

Glad I’m not the only one sacrificing an immaculate yard and house.

Liz

[Dirt]

I guess my wife and I doing something right in the balance department (because honestly, it takes balance on her side too… she’s not a cyclist but has other things that are important to her). Today is my 20th wedding anniversary. My wife and I have been together as a couple for just short of 24 years. It gets better every year.

Rock on, folks. Y’all are awesome!

Pete

[Dirt]

@eminva 22126 wrote:

Glad I’m not the only one sacrificing an immaculate yard and house.

I have something that helps with that. One neighbor is the self-appointed home-owner’s association. He’ll actually go and measure how tall the grass is in your yard and call the county when it gets above the county mandated maximum height. He’s not the help though. The help is the neighbor 2-doors down who is worse about keeping his lawn good than I am. We’re good buds and he sends me a text message when he gets the county notice to cut his lawn. That gives me a 5-7 day warning that I need to cut my lawn or face the wrath of Fairfax County.

[vvill]

@Dirt 22149 wrote:

I guess my wife and I doing something right in the balance department (because honestly, it takes balance on her side too… she’s not a cyclist but has other things that are important to her). Today is my 20th wedding anniversary. My wife and I have been together as a couple for just short of 24 years. It gets better every year.

Congrats Pete!

[RESTONTODC]

@Dirt 22151 wrote:

I have something that helps with that. One neighbor is the self-appointed home-owner’s association. He’ll actually go and measure how tall the grass is in your yard and call the county when it gets above the county mandated maximum height. He’s not the help though. The help is the neighbor 2-doors down who is worse about keeping his lawn good than I am. We’re good buds and he sends me a text message when he gets the county notice to cut his lawn. That gives me a 5-7 day warning that I need to cut my lawn or face the wrath of Fairfax County.

I’m glad that I gave up this job a long time ago. I was trying keep everyone employed. Another reason, it’s always rain when I’m ready to mow my lawn.

[pfunkallstar]

I live next to an HOA and am currently holding them hostage with my compost pile until they lower the wattage on their security light – it is a waiting game I say!

[rcannon100]

One neighbor is the self-appointed home-owner’s association.

Oh gad, move to Arlington. We keep goats and chickens in our yards. Seriously, the answer to that guy is to replace all your grass with wildflowers or something else and tell him to deal. There are a number of wildflower yards in Arlington – kinda wonderful.

The answer to work / life balance is this:

[ATTACH=CONFIG]1195[/ATTACH]

(well actually is was better in person. Glorious views of a glorious city)

[dasgeh]

One thing I’ve given up: paying $4 to park EVERY TIME I have to go in for a doctor’s appointment. (which, for those of you who haven’t been pregnant, is all the time).

@Dirt 22151 wrote:

One neighbor is the self-appointed home-owner’s association. He’ll actually go and measure how tall the grass is in your yard and call the county when it gets above the county mandated maximum height. He’s not the help though.

County mandated lawn height? WTF? I would ask if Arlington had one, but our new house has rocks instead of grass out front. HOORAY! You could replace with xeriscaping (rocks and low maintenance plants), or, better yet, a veggie garden!

[eminva]

@Dirt 22151 wrote:

I have something that helps with that. One neighbor is the self-appointed home-owner’s association. He’ll actually go and measure how tall the grass is in your yard and call the county when it gets above the county mandated maximum height. He’s not the help though. The help is the neighbor 2-doors down who is worse about keeping his lawn good than I am. We’re good buds and he sends me a text message when he gets the county notice to cut his lawn. That gives me a 5-7 day warning that I need to cut my lawn or face the wrath of Fairfax County.

Oh my gosh, we don’t have any neighbors like that (at least not that I am aware of)! We’ve never gotten a warning from the county so I guess not. Like many in Vienna, our front yard is much smaller than our back yard, so sometimes we just mow the front and let the back go for a couple of days. The neighbors on either side are the only ones to see the back yard and they are remarkably forebearing.

Liz

[consularrider]

Life balance and cycling……Hmmm………..

I’ve used a bicycle for transportation since I learned to ride over 50 years ago, sometimes I rode more, sometimes less, and with a couple of long gaps in between.

I’m a little behind Dirt in my monthly average milage, but probably ahead of most other riders. I didn’t start riding distance for pleasure until I was in my early 30s and could no longer play soccer. I found that running, swimming, and cycling (no triatholons around then) were helpful in easing the stress of grad school and with deteriorating knees and lack of pool access since, I’ve concentrated on cycling. These days I try to find ways to extend my commutes to give me at least two hours a day on the bike. Then on weekends I try to get at least one 50+ mile ride in.

On the family front, I was doing this when my wife and I met, so she knew what to expect and is still relatively supportive, and I do have to try to balance parenting duties with my cycling obsession. However, now that my son is more than halfway through high school, he probably prefers less dad time anyway. I’ve been spoiled by having paid help around the house who does most of the cleaning and weekday cooking, while I still have to share routine maintenance and yard work. Yes, I do have a teenage son and one of his few regular chores is supposed to be cutting the grass, but he is a teenage boy….

And work, well, I’ve reached retirement eligibility for my job so somehow I have stopped worrying about advancement….

Or, maybe it’s just that I’m getting more selfish as I age.

[Greenbelt]

Work-life balance has become easier since I started bike commuting. Less stress, and no need to find time in the evenings and weekends to work out or recreate to stay in shape or relieve the day or week’s stress — that’s all built in to the commute now. Only real downside is that after work on weeknights it’s pretty much shower, eat, and lights out. The daily commute is enough that I’m too tired after 10pm for much of anything productive or social. Fortunately at my age expectations are lower for that sort of thing.

[rcannon100]

Balance? I biked 1 mile this weekend, and that was testing my retrofit dog/kid trailer (it failed). Work (or is it life?) won the balance and tilted the seesaw. Cool weather means I’z got doors to paint!! Like many stated above, our house is a feature cover house on Modern Garage Sale Magazine but that has more to do with our other lifestyle choice: rescue dogs.

“If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.” – Red Green

[eminva]

@rcannon100 22545 wrote:

Balance? I biked 1 mile this weekend, and that was testing my retrofit dog/kid trailer (it failed). Work (or is it life?) won the balance and tilted the seesaw. Cool weather means I’z got doors to paint!! Like many stated above, our house is a feature cover house on Modern Garage Sale Magazine but that has more to do with our other lifestyle choice: rescue dogs.

“If the women dont find you handsome, they should at least find you handy.” – Red Green

Yes, today was the first day I didn’t get on the bike since the National Bike Challenge started. It was a busy week at our house and we all needed a rest. Sometimes the need for rest makes itself known.

Liz

[KelOnWheels]

I realized today that unlike running, which I only really like doing with a group, I enjoy cycling ALL BY MYSELF

[Author]

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