Doing our Bit for the Economy

While taking 1-2 hour long walks everyday since March 22 has been enjoyable and we have talked about everything under the sun, it wasn't really contributing to our overall aerobic fitness.  Although our gym has recently reopened, albeit with limited attendance and enhanced cleaning (the new buzzword for businesses), we decided given the risks being inside with people sweating and breathing hard that we just aren't ready yet to head to the gym.  So we took the plunge and purchased a spin bike to get some exercise that actually requires us to breath hard.  Of course, our interior decorating plans didn't really count on having an exercise space so we spent a bit of time reorganizing and managed to squeeze it in to a corner (fortunately spin bikes don't require a large footprint).  Fun side note, our plan was to not have any exercise equipment at home so we would be forced to go out and see people every day - even if it was just the gym.  Great plan for normal times, not a great plan during a pandemic. 

We also purchased a bike rack for our car so that we begin to take some bike trips without having to use the crowded downtown bike trails.  This also required bike trail passes and a new front wheel for Jo's bike since she had continued her 2019 trend of getting a flat front tire after every ride.  So you can see we are doing our best to pump funds into the pandemically crippled economy (copyright alert - pandemically is mine).  The addition of the bike rides (inside and out) have started to help us feel like we are getting back into some sort of shape and might have a chance of surviving the carbohydrate enhanced diet we are on due to Jo's sour dough adventures.

Speaking of sour dough, Jo's starter continues to bubble and plug away in the back of the fridge while Jo plots and searches the internet for new things to she can make out of sour dough.  Recently, Jo tackled another round of English muffins, which continue to be excellent and tasty, and added also added a new item to her repertoire with bagels.  While not as perfectly shaped as the ones from a store they came out nicely dense and the sour dough provides an interesting flavor.  So another hit for her baking skills and another hit to my waistline.  We realized we have plowed through over twenty pounds of flour since the start of our quarantine.  I really need to biking more...

The other nice change for us is that our patio furniture finally arrived.  We had ordered it back in early March but the manufacturer had been shut down for a month or so due to the Covid closures.  We can now enjoy our outdoor space a bit more and have already taken advantage of it for some lovely dinners looking at the lake and Capital.