1 point 2 tons

That's about how much weight I gained over the past few weeks.  Didn't do much riding over this Christmas/New Year's vacation.  Didn't really want to either, a form of ennui that strikes me every once in a while, when I feel that riding is an indulgence rather than  something that can actually contribute to eliminating such tendencies.  When I'm in this state the inertia is huge--overcoming it becomes a workout in itself.  But I did get out a coupla days, though, and I can feel the routine settling back in.

One of the major (though unintended) activities that I attribute (rationalize) to the lack of road time was the demolition of our downstairs bathroom.  A tiny space, 4' x 7', laid out such that one's knees are about one's ears when sitting on the throne.  When we had 3 amazonian au pairs in 3 years, I often wondered how they fit in that tiny space, but they managed.  

I started busting out the ceramic tile shower surround on New Year's Eve Day.  My hands were sliced and diced by the time I was preparing the New Year's Eve feast.  Note to self:  do not prep food with garlic, lemon, and salt after such activities.  Walls came down the next day, and I was able to get huge hunks of tiled wall out and barely avoided a hernia.  By the time Hank and I loaded, hauled, and dumped this pile of rock wall, plaster lath, plaster, ceramic tile, mudset, and the associated rotten framing members, we weighed in at 1.2 tons.  That's 2400 lbs of debris out of a 180 cubic foot space.   

Now it's opened up, and Hank will re-plumb, reframe, and re-wire the space while I'm at work this weekend, and then I'll hang/finish the drywall, tile, paint, and install the fixtures over the next couple of weeks.  Then we'll be back in business with a 2nd bathroom that actually works and I can actually shower down there after coming in from rides rather than scaring everyone away in my schwadey costume.  Excellent.