I had my very own Schrödinger’s Cat episode yesterday. I took some empty cans to our garage on my way out to work. Apparently, I had left the garage door open. When Fu got home, she called me up saying it was left open, but didn’t have time to see if anything was missing. The garage door, of course, was closed by the time I got home. At that moment, my new bike and pretty much anything else of value in the garage were in the state of being both stolen and not. Thankfully, everything was left intact.

Reader Advisory: If you tend to become uncomfortable listening into a person’s very personal and private matters, you should probably read no further.

When I was a kid, my mother was dating one of the assistant cooks at the restaurant where she worked. He was a good man, if not a little playboy-y. It was the 70s, after all. At one point at around my mid-teens, she told me they wanted to get married and asked me how I thought of it. WIthout much hesitation, I recall objecting to it.

It’s something that comes to mind every now and then. I wonder how things would have turned out differently. I think about how disappointed and hurt my mom may have been. However, I am more than comforted by the idea that she put my own livelihood and happiness before her own. In hindsight, it was not only selfishness on my part, but I’m sorry to say, racism as well. Mr. Gonzales was from El Salvador. He was a hard worker and genuinely cared from my mother. I’m sure she felt the same. At the time, I just couldn’t see him as my step father. It’s not something I can regret at this point either, since if they had gotten married, I’m fairly sure I would’ve been unhappy (for no good reason). At least for a while.

If my mother were alive now, and told me she’d found a nice person that she wanted to marry, I wouldn’t hesitate to approve and encourage it, regardless of who it was. But that’s today. And it took my own suffering and anguish at losing my mother back when I was 23 to completely alter my worldview. That’s one of the problems with someone dying early—while you can’t change the past, there’s nothing you can do to change their future. Because they don’t have one.

My mother’s birthday is tomorrow. She would’ve been a very youthful 66. The only meaningful present I can give her now is to keep trying to live true and straight. And above all, know empathy and compassion to make up for my youth when I didn’t have much of either.

I had the weekend to myself, so I thought I would splurge, calorie-wise, at least one day. And for that, I decided to try out Kyochon Chicken since it’s so close to my house.

While I would agree with reviewers that it’s damn good chicken, I would also agree with most people in saying it’s way overpriced for what it is. $16 only gets you 8 wing pieces (not whole wings either-in that little box pictured) and a large side of fried rice, a small salad and drink. Their kimchi fried rice, in all modesty, is not as good as mine. It’s rather heavy on the kochujan and sesame oil. And they give you a LOT, as pictured. I’d be much happier having more wings and less fried rice. For about $2.50 you can get almost as good wings at Yoshinoya (of all places). Honestly, their wings are good, try them. For about $6.00 you can get equally good wings at Furaibo. So while I won’t argue the taste of Kyochon, there are much better ways to spend your money. And if you want beer with those wings, well, Furaibo it is.

Here’s a quick update about my home troubles I mentioned back in June—almost nothing’s changed. At this point, the contractors who got rid of the mold but left my house a wreck, finally got paid. I still don’t have any funds to repair the damaged areas. Still working on that angle with my public adjuster.

The reason I’m writing this post, is to tell you, dear reader, that if you own or plan to own a condominium or townhouse, you MUST have very good, comprehensive coverage. I will admit in hindsight that I thought the insurance we had was adequate, but it wasn’t. Something like water damage, mold remediation, a tree going through your wall, termites, smoke damage, is not going to be fully covered under a standard policy. It’s also really important to go with an insurer who has a really good reputation as opposed to simply being inexpensive. If they have a poor track record of filling claims, that should be a warning to you.

Condo owners should have at least $50,000 in “alterations and additions” coverage. In our case, the mold remediation alone cost almost $10,000. The repairs will cost $16,000. Our coverage maxes out at $10,000. Not nearly enough. And in terms of damage, it’s minor compared to much worse things that can happen. The fact is that inspectors and contractors can cost a lot of money, regardless of if you think it’s a racket or not. The repairs still need to be done. Do yourself a favor and review your policy and get as much as you can.
I have full coverage on both automobiles, why did I skimp on home owner’s insurance? Ignorance and laziness will kill you every time.

Not the pica as a unit of measure used in graphic design and printing. No this is when people or animals eat non-food items. In this case, it’s Mochi. He’s recently take to eating all manner of textile goods. Fu and I have lost all manner of socks, shirts, and the like to his voracious nibbling.

The latest victim was my favorite Pat the Bunny doll. Apparently boredom and a lack of dietary fiber are possible culprits. Perhaps he should join me at the breakfast table for some Fiber One.

He does like cat grass but we haven’t put it out lately because Kitty’s stomach is so weak she throws it up as soon as she eats it. If it’s not one thing it’s another. Well, the cat grass is back in and Kitty will just have to deal. Hopefully she’ll learn some cause and effect. Eat grass = be ill.

That is to say, no biking so far this week. My crankset on the bike broke down on the ride home on Friday. Also, the air quality is far from good because of all the fires. This is maybe a much needed break after achieving quite the biking trifecta last week. That’s where I not only hit 4K miles, but also earned my 13th gift card for commuting and also rode all 5 days of the week. Taking my bike in today. We’ll see what the repair bill’s gonna be like. Sigh.

I’ve finally reached the next milestone of bicycle riding. Now onto the big 5K!

Playing around with Google Maps, I’ve found that 4,000 miles away means just about Greenland, the eastern side of Russia, and the northern end of Brazil and Chile. That’s a lot of frakking biking. Also, iPhone camera–Really? You decided to focus on the ground?

Oh, and the ride itself? Went pretty well and looked like this. A lot of hill climbing, but also a lot of very fast descents, which I always have fun with.

I went out for a rather routine but long overdue hill climb along Palos Verdes this morning. Even in the initial stages of my ride I noticed that my wedding ring was pretty loose on my finger. I tucked it deeper up my glove.

Things were going well and I was making the long climb up the switchbacks of PV Drive East. One set of riders that passsed me asked about my iPhone mount even. As usual for my distance rides, my hands started getting numb. So I started shaking them. Then I heard a “ping.” To my horror, my ring had flown off. I parked my bike and started looking. First going down the road along this steep hill. Then along the brushes and guardrail. No luck. About an hour into my search, Asian twins that were jogging down offered some help. Later a police officer taking a break at the top of the hill also helped look. Truly the kindness of strangers. Alas, the search was fruitless.

I went through all sorts of scenarios. I even shook rocks and bottlecaps to see how far they’d go and behave. I walked up and down that section of the switchback more times than I can recall. I kept seeing the same screws and other small shiny debris repeatedly as if mocking me.

In the end, I sent a defeated text to my wife and friends that after two hours, I was giving up the search. As I pulled the bike away from the guardrail, I found my ring just sitting there, on the pavement, glinting in the sun. Now mind you, I parked my bike at least 10 feet from where I heard the drop. Or had I backtracked the bike? Had it actually wedged somewhere on the bike and just then dropped off? I’m simply glad I was able to find my Precious and am grateful for the assistance I received as well as all the cyclists that passed by asking if I were all right. I had resigned that I would have to buy a new ring. Now that I won’t have to, I go to the jeweler instead to get my ring resized.

Six weeks ago, I started the 100 Pushups program. The stated goal is to be able to do 100 consecutive pushups. While I’ve become somewhat fit from cycling, I haven’t really done anything for core or upper body. I didn’t want to end up with T-Rex Syndrome. In fact, it’s from that site that I got the inspiration to do the 100 Pushup program.

I didn’t quite make it to 100 straight. In fact, even non-consecutive, I only made it past 100 once. Having said that, I’m quite pleased that I actually stuck with it for all 6 weeks. Also, I certainly can do a whole lot more pushups than when I embarked on this. The chart is from an iPhone app that made this process a lot easier. And as you can see, while fairly inconsistent, I was steadily making progress, on average.

In a few days I’ll do the final test of how many straight I can actually do. And in a week’s time, I’ll start the whole process again, this time using my pushup bar. It’ll be more difficult, but I think I can also get a more effective and consistent pushup out of it. All in all, happy with the result. And I’ll keep trying until I do get to 100.