Retire on the Recumbent

Fairly productive day yesterday, even though it's winter and there's snow on the ground. I brazed up the clothes line prop, put a new tire and tube on the recumbent, a couple more little things around the shack, and ordered some parts for the slip roll. I found them at a much lower price than TSC so I'll get to work on that one of these days. I also went to the lumber yard to get a 2x8 to make the hammer form for the BSA sidecovers. I need about six feet, so I was going to pick up an eight footer but the counterman said the shortest he had in stock was a ten footer. He double checked with the guy in the yard and then it was up to twelve foot. So no go on that project for a while.

I made the recumbent at least ten years ago. I bought the plans and then put it together at the high school out of scrap materials, an old department store 26" and a 20" BMX style bike, and a chair from the cafeteria. It's not practical for anything but the grandkids fool around with it occasionally when they come down. It was still running the original back tire but it finally gave up the ghost. I bought a cheap tire and tube, but as little as it gets ridden, it'll probably outlast me.

When I went back in the archives here and did a search for that photo, I came across a post from 2010 that mentioned my chest pain. Not the heart attack chest pain but something else. It gradually lessened over the years but never went totally away. I went to three or four doctors, had a chest x-ray and a MRI, went to therapy, acupuncture, but no-one ever figured out what it actually was. If I ran or did something like try and pound in a steel fence post or do push-ups, about two hours after whatever I did, my chest would hurt and then if I drank something hot or cold it would burn on the way down. The chest pain would sometimes last the better part of the day. However, after falling off the motorcycle recently, the chest seems to be cured. I felt a pop when I hit the ground and I had a sore spot on my ribs pretty close to my breastbone. The rib pain went away after a week or so and then I noticed the other chest pain seemed to have gone away also. I've been doing a few sissy push-ups and so far no pain. I haven't tried any running yet but next time the weather's decent, I think I'll give it a try. I'm going to try a few bench press moves, with a light weight of course, and see how that works out. I can't explain it but if I knew that falling off the bike was the cure, I'd of had someone pick me up and drop me about four feet years ago.