Leave it to the resourceful Brits to find simple and healthy ways to overcome adversity (see article below.) I had to imagine that were an American city plagued with such transportaion crisis, too many folks would either call in sick, work from home (a pretty good idea for office worker types), or complain alot and/or sit in traffic in their idling gas-guzzlers. Way to go, Londoners! 

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Jul 8, 11:27 AM (ET)

LONDON (Reuters) - London's streets creaked and rattled with nervous new cyclists Friday after bicycle sales rocketed in the wake of bomb blasts on three underground trains and a double-decker bus.

Seasoned cyclists told of weary walkers offering them up to 300 pounds ($500) for their bikes as they headed home on Thursday, and of giving impromptu lessons to shaky beginners.

Tim Davies who manages Cycle Surgery near Holborn, said: "the shop is so close to where the bus got hit that we thought we'd be evacuated.

"But by 11 o'clock we were running around like crazy. We'd normally sell five to 10 bikes a day, but we sold at least double that in a few hours.

"We had people who hadn't ridden for over 10 years asking for refresher lessons -- we even had a judge."

Others, who had walked home, dug long-forgotten bikes from sheds and garages for Friday morning's commute. Fernando Gandioli said he noticed "a lot of rusty bikes and squeaky chains" as he cycled in to work at accountancy firm KPMG.

Shop assistant Maja, who works at Evans Cycles near Clerkenwell, said they had sold triple the usual number of bicycles Thursday, mainly folding bikes or cheaper models.

"It was mainly workers and executives," she said. "People who didn't want to waste money on a hotel and said: 'sod it, I'll buy a bike.'"

I call home each day to check on Dad's health status. Yesterday, my mother, seemingly exasperated, muttered, "Oh, this should tell you how he's feeling. Whenever someone comes to visit, hhe has to demonstrate his "parlor trick.""

After a pause, she explained that whether friends or family drop by, Dad corrals them into the bathroom to show them his "trick": he unzips his pants, pulls out the catheter bag and exclaims, "Check out how I pee!" while posing like a greek fountain with the bag streaming neatly into the toilet.

I reassured my mortified mother noting, "Well, he's adding levity to the situation. They do say that people with a sense of humor heal  more quickly."

But what about people with a great LACK of sense of modesty and good manners?!

Now I know where I get it from. Ah dad - what a character he is!

So far so good for my pop. According to my mom, the surgery went well and he's only having some minor post-op issues, one of them being blood sugar issues. He had this before surgery and he controlled it with diet but for some reason they had to give him an insulin shot yesterday (I didn't get the whole scoop on that yet...)

Thanks so much to everyone who offered caring thoughts and prayers - they really DO work!

I had a little scare over the weekend but turns out to be nothing much (according to the gyne) so I am just taking it easy - no exercise, swimming, standing for long periods of time, or *gasp* SEX for a few weeks per Doc's orders, just to be safe. Hahahaha, my hubby is THRILLED about that last proclamation! (NOT!)

May I request that anyone who reads this entry says a prayer/sends a good thought/ shares some good karma for the sake of my dad who is having a very invasive operation on Monday. Thanks.

Nothing much hapening here...just trying to stay out of the sun.

In my first pregnancy I was a lacto-ovo-and sometimes poultry "vegetarian" (i.e. - no mammal meat) UNTIL those hormones hit me and then I could not get my hands on steaks and ribs and chops fast enough! I craved beef all the time.

I just got back from a trip to the community indoor swim center. A nice indoor complex with a "family fun pool" (zero depth to 3 ft. with a flume slide, fountains and kiddie slide for the tots), a typical lap pool (3.5 ft to 5 ft) and a diving well with a drop slide. It appeared overcast today and since there was also a big outdoor event downtown sponsored by the park district, I guessed that the indoor center would likely be un-crowded. I was right! For about an hour we practically had the complex to ourselves.

Needless to say, due to my "situation" I didn't partake of the slides or diving boards (rules prohibit it for women of my condition) but nonetheless I had a wonderful time swimming and marvelling at the incredible swimming skills recently developed by my 5-year old. She managed to swim the full length of the lap pool, even though she can't even touch the bottom. Obviously, I was alongside her the whole way but she wanted to challenge herself and she proved to both of us how good she's getting with her forward crawl. She's also doing great learning to ride a bike. Perhaps I have a mini triathlete in the works?

Which reminds me...this year, as I sort of figured, there will be no triathlons in the works for me (for obvious reasons) but I'm planning to train to participate in a portion of an event next season as a member of a relay team.

Oh no.

Venerable (if not slightly predictable) Oldies station 104.3 WJMK-Fm, an Infinity (Viacom) station, has adopted the moronic JACK "we play what we want"/ "its like your IPOD on shuffle" format.

I am so saddened by this abrupt and seemingly needless change. Oldies 104.3 was one of the few stations I could comfortably listen to with my daughter - what is more family-friendly than Herman's Hermits, The Monkees, Motown hits, 50's classics and the occasional 70's pop tune????

I'll be honest - I loved singing along to many of the karaoke-destined hits found on Oldies 104.3. And like oldies stations around the country, it had its own unique take, playing songs that were hits in CHICAGO at the time of their initial release. For example, when I visit home, WOGL 98.1 FM (Philadelphia) plays much more 50's doo-wop, and east-coast hitmakers than you'd hear on WJMK. Here you'd have likely heard plenty of hits by 60's era midwest garage-pop bands like Shadows of Knight, The Buckinghams, and New Colony Six.

As of August 18th I will have a kindergardener in my home! Thursday was my daughter's last day of preschool but there was no hoopla as its a mixed-age class so some kids return in the fall (or summer, I should say - AUGUST?!?) while others (like my kid who is 5 1/2) go on to kindergarden.

Last week I attended a kindergarden orientation for parents of incoming students and it didn't tell me much. Perhaps the problem was that I kept reminiscing on my kindergarden days - especially my fascination with the the Letter People: inflatible characters for each letter of the alphabet. My favorite (or maybe I was scared of it...I forget WHY I was obsessed with it) was "Mr. M, with a munching mouth..." With the aid of a portable phonograph, Inflatable Mr M, who looked like a gangster out of "Guys and Dolls" sang about the various foods he enjoyed, like meatballs, macaroni, milkshakes...you get the idea.

Our class was lead by a truly groovy young male teacher, Mr. Varoski. I'm not sure how old he was, but I'm guessing he was in his early 20's or so. It was 1974 and my "cool" and exuberant teacher wore colorful psychedelic "blouses" (as my mother referred to them) and silver bangle bracelets. He drove a lime green VW bug. He had frosted blonde hair. In fact, I freaked out the first time I saw HGTV's ReDesign because Mr. V could have been the 70's version of none other than Kenneth Brown. Oh, wait a minute, Kenneth Brown IS the 70's version of Kenneth Brown!

(You gotta love that designer wisdom)

 

The Architect is coming over tonight to go over our revised addition plans which have changed since we are now chukking the septic and well. Oy vey, that water/swewr upgrade alone is gonna run just under 20g's. *Gulp!*

Plus the design and  construction drawings will be another $1800.

The bad news: we will have alot less moolah left in our budget to do much of the addition! There will be MUCH of the project left unfinished by the end of the year, I'm sure. But as long as it gets framed, sided, roofed and drywalled (oh yeah, and heating and water, electricity, etc.) that's enough to tide us over. Hubby can paint, do crown moulding, install interior doors and closets. He can also install bathroom fixtures but it would make more sense to have the tub brought in, 'cause Lord knows I ain't gonna help with that! Technically we won't HAVE to have the bathroom stuff done at first, either, if we run our of money. Just those functional bedrooms will be the bare minimum until, say, we get our 2005 tax refund! I do dream about the EVENTUAL completion of all this stuff but considering what's in the bank, I'm getting more pragmatic about it.

The good news: getting rid of the well allows us to do my "ideal" plan which will be a 2-car side-load garage, 2-story with 2 bedrooms and bath above. This allows some savings in that we can do a slab-on-grade foundation instead of trying to match up to the exisiting house with a more expenisve trenched foundation and crawlspace. It also means we can attach it to the area at the back door which is a rather unnattractive entryway, currently. It also will allow us to put in (finally!) a "real" foyer, coat closet and possibly a powder room, too.

But first things first...

I am still waiting on a second bid for the well/septic conversion. Once that is done THEN I have to wait some more for permits from the Village. THEN I have to coordinate the water hookup with the well sealing. And once the construction designs are completed then I have to face the daunting task of finding a budget-friendly-but-non-crapulent General Contractor. It was bad enough trying to even get plumbers to BID on my current job - some people totally blew off their appointments to give me an estimate! I guess they don't need or want the work. Must be nice.

I just got in after making a few copies of our plat of survey at Kinkos. So technically I spent my first $ on this project: $5.21 for 2 oversize map copies.

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Post-script: oh fartypants, the Architect called; he had to reschedule for Monday.