Video Test

 This post is a test. I'm going to attempt to upload a video of a recent bicycle ride thru parts of Sibulan and Dumaguete, Negros Oriental along portions of Diversion Road.

My Return to the Blogosphere.

I spend a good deal of my time reading; the books I read are now exclusively e-books, which , for the most part I read on my phone using an app for just that very thing. I've found,over the years that I much prefer reading the e-books on my phone over the Kindle, although I've taken to using my Kindle as a back up when my phone needs charging.
While charging the phone recently, I re-read James Joyces' Dubliners on the Kindle and yesterday, I began to re-read Hermann Hesse's Steppenwolf which I had re-read in 2024. I remembered writing a review of the 2024 re-read and came to this blog to read my review.
Searching for that earlier post, I began to miss the days when I was blogging on a regular basis. Sadly, I've only written five posts this year. I've chosen to remedy that by jumping back in......or at the very least, putting a toe back in.
As one can see by my meager posts of 2026, my two primary pastimes are riding my bicycle and reading.First, I'll try to bring everyone up to speed - as it were - on my cycling routine.
I purchased this bicycle in March 2021, but wasn't able to keep a reliable record of my mileage until I installed an app onto my phone in August 2023. I have no actual record of my mileage prior to installing the app. As of today, I've managed to ride,since August '23, over 11,500 miles (more than 18,500 kilometers). I try to ride six days a week when it's not raining. Not bad, I'd say, for a man in his early 70's.

I've been keeping track of the books I've read and I've posted lists and reviews of those books to this blog for a good many years. Sadly, I haven't read nearly as many books this year as in years past. There was a time when I'd post a monthly list. That's something I should return to.
I want to get into some of the books I've read this year, but that remains for another day.

One change I've made upon my return. I've removed Google Ad-sense from the blog. I'm not getting money for the ads and they were really clogging up the page.
Oh yeah.......don't ask for an explanation of the photo used for this post.

Replacing the Rear Tire

 

As I wrote earlier this week, I'd ridden my bicycle about 5,000 miles since I last changed my tires. The front tire had been getting frequent flats, so it was replaced on Monday. I had to wait until payday to replace the rear. The cost Monday to replace the tire and tube (including labor) came to ₱ 1,590. Today, for some reason, the cost was ₱ 1,525. Perhaps, the tech who replaced the tire Monday charged a little more for his labor. I had tipped the first tech ₱50. I gave the 2nd tech a ₱ 60 tip. I believe taking off the rear wheel is a bit more work.

Tire Replacement

I've been getting flats on my front bicycle tire regularly over the past two or three weeks. Fortunately, there haven't been any on the rear tire during that time period. I suspected that it was time to replace the tires and I searched the blog to find out how long it's been since the tires were last replaced. A blogpost from July of 2024 gave the answer. As near as I can estimate, I've ridden 5,000 miles on the set I put on at that time. According to the post, 5,000 miles was about the same number that I had put on the earlier set.

It's still a week from payday, but I couldn't wait any longer to replace the front tire (and tube). Since I haven't gotten any flats on the rear, I think I can hold off changing the rear tire for another week.

I'm making a note of the total miles on my bicycle app.. I can reference this post to keep a more accurate count of the mileage between tire replacment.
8,802 miles.
The cost to replace the tire and tube (including labor) came to ₱ 1,590. That doesn't include the ₱50 tip.

 

Bicycle Ride in Sibulan

It's coming up on the anniversary of my downloading an app onto my phone in order to monitor my bicycle rides. There is an option where I can video the ride. I've uploaded those videos from time to time on to Facebook. I don't usually upload the videos to Youtube, but I thought I would do so today. 

When prompted by Youtube to answer questions about the content, I said it was OK for kids. I thought that meant there was no sex or violence or adult specific content. It turns out it isn't kid safe after all because the app I used included an ad in the video.

 I changed the settings and now I'm good to go.

New Bicycle Tires

I've been getting a punctured tube on the rear tire of my bicycle almost every day for about a week. I finally decided to break down and replace both tires - front and rear.

 It really was past time. Checking an old blog post, it seems I last replaced the tires around the last week of March, 2022. That's a bit over 2 years ago. As near as I can calculate, I've ridden over 5,000 miles on those tires.

Yes, I'd say it's time for new tires.

 

Fun At The Vulcanizing Shops

 

In March of 2021, less than a month from my 69th birthday, I purchased a mountain bike. It wasn't my intention to do my biking off road, but knowing the condition of the roads in this area, a mountain bike seemed a safer option than a road bike. Prior to buying this bicycle, it had been 40 years since I last road one. It would take time to build up my endurance, but I would eventually get up to seven days a week, averaging sometimes 15 miles a day. I would often get in 100 miles a week.

A few months ago, I decided to cut back to five days a week. This would mean - weather permitting - Monday thru Friday. If, for whatever reason, I lost a weekday, I'd make it up on Saturday or Sunday. This past Saturday I was not scheduled to ride, but as I was up early (as usual) I wanted to do an inspection of my bicycle. There it was - a flat front tire. Depending on what causes the flat, sometimes a tire will flatten while I'm on the road and that requires an immediate detour to a vulcanizing shop, of which there are, thankfully, many. Sometimes, the object that causes the flat will be so minor as to be unnoticeable until the next day when I go outside to go on my ride. That was the case this past Saturday.

I was planning to meet a few fellow Americans that morning, so I removed the front wheel, put it in the back of the car to be taken to a vulcanizing shop after breakfast.

As it turned out, the man at the shop said the tube was damaged due to the spokes rubbing the tube. There is a lining, of sorts, around the rim which is supposed to prevent that. Obviously, this one needed to be replaced. This lining wouldn't be something a vulcanizing shop would have, so I decided to wait until a bicycle shop in Dumaguete opened up Monday where I could buy a new tube and liner for the rim.

The bicycle shop doesn't open until 9:00 AM, so I wouldn't be able to get a ride in on Monday. Today, I went outside at 6:00 o'clock to go for my Tuesday ride and all looked OK. Unfortunately, I hadn't gone more than a mile when I got another flat. I was able to flag down a pedicab to take me and my bicycle home. At home, I removed the front wheel - I'm getting good at that. There was a rather nasty looking pointy thing sticking in the tire. I took the tire to yet another vulcanizing shop for repair. Hopefully, I'll be good to go Wednesday morning.

A word of note - the photos of the pedicab and the offending object are from today's adventure. The other two are from earlier flats.

 

When Cycling in Philippines........

......it's good to know where the vulcanizing shops are located.

 

The Return of VW#77

 

While out on my morning bicycle ride, I spotted this Volkswagen Beetle as I passed Asian College on Locsin Street. This particular VW is actually the last Beetle I photographed on Palm Sunday of this year..

 

The New App

After posting about yesterday's flat tire adventure I realized that it had been far too long since I last posted anything about my bicycle rides through Dumaguete and Sibulan and I haven't made any comments on the new bicycle app I installed on to my phone.

As I mentioned in a post from March of this year, I purchased a traditional odometer for my bicycle sometime around April, 2022. This odometer has a part connected to a spoke on the front wheel which sends a signal to another part attached to the bicycle frame whenever the wheel makes a revolution. The computer in the odometer uses π (pi) and tire size to calculate the distance traveled with each revolution. This worked well until around July of this year when the bike computer began to malfunction. Although the clock on the device works fine, the odometer was way off in it's measurement of speed and distance. It might show me traveling 80 or 90 kph when it was obvious that that number was impossible.

My first thought was that the battery needed replacing. Replacing the battery did not fix the problem.

In August of this year I installed a phone app which would provide the data I want using GPS. I began using the app on August 3. I've found this app to be so helpful that it has pushed me to ride farther every morning.

As seen in these screen shots, my distance for August was slightly more than 400 miles. My distance for September was just over 404 miles.

This app not only measures distance traveled, but the duration of the ride, the average and maximum speeds, calories expended, the elevation gain (and loss) and the average pace. It even records a video of the ride using Google Maps.

 

Today's Flat Tire Adventure

 

After my bicycle ride yesterday morning, I determined that I only needed about 36 miles, spread over the three remaining days, to achieve 100 miles for the week. My average daily ride for the first half of the week was just over 15 miles. I wasn't certain that I wanted to do 45 miles in the last 3 days, but 12 miles a day shouldn't be a problem.

This morning, about 8 miles into my ride I got a flat rear tire. I think it's been six or eight months since I last got a rear flat. I turned off the bike app I was using and started pushing the bike in search of a vulcanizing shop. Fortunately, I only had to walk 1/4 mile.

As it turned out, there were 2 pin-prick punctures. Two patches. The cost for the repair was ₱60 ($1.06 USD). I felt it was worth a ₱40 tip (0.71 USD).

With my tire repaired, I turned on the bike app and continued my ride, getting a total of 13.7 miles for today.

2,500 Miles

I mentioned in my blog post from Sunday, that during that morning bicycle ride, the odometer on my bicycle passed the 4,000 kilometer point. I also noted that when my odometer reached 4024 km that number would translate to 2,500 miles.

So, to commemorate that....um.....milestone, I'm posting a photo of the odometer at 4024 km and a photo of where I was when I reached that number. Metro Dumaguete College on E.J. Blanco Dr.

 

4,000 Kilometers

While out on my morning bicycle ride today, my odometer went past the 4,000 kilometer mark. This is not the distance I've ridden the bicycle since I bought it two years ago, but the distance ridden since I purchased the odometer. I don't have an exact date on when I bought the odometer, but as near as I can calculate, that would have been at the time I replaced my tires. That would put the date at around the last week of March or first week of April, 2022.

So, the 4,000 kilometers were put on in about one year's time.

The first photo is, of course, the odometer reaching the 4,000 kilometer mark. The other photos are of my location when I hit the mark. I'm making an effort now to keep track of the date.

In a couple of days, I'll be reaching another milestone, if you will. I'll soon be passing the 4024 km mark which will translate to 2,500 miles. I'll blog on that as well.

 

Two Volkswagens in One Day - Part Two

As I mentioned in my previous blog post, I hadn't come upon a "new" VW in the area since November 2022 when I came upon an orange VW on E J.Blanco Dr. As luck would have it, I came upon two this morning while out on my bicycle ride thru Camanjac.

I felt that each VW deserved it's own blog post.

After photographing the blue VW, I headed back to the Diversion Rd. to continue my ride. I was nearing the intersection with the Dumaguete-Palinpinon Rd where I intended to turn around, when I spotted a white VW on the opposite side of the road. I travel this area several times a week and this was the first time I'd seen this particular car, so unlike the blue one I discovered moments before, this one did not appear to be derelict.

I crossed the road and proceeded to photograph my discovery.

When I had finished my photo-shoot, the owner of the VW appeared from out of nowhere. As can be seen from my photos, the owner isn't seen. He appeared to be disturbed that I was photographing his car. His English was only slightly better than my Bisaya so I had a difficult time explaining my hobby to him. I even showed to him the photos of the blue VW I had just taken, but he seemed to think from what I said that I lived in Katrina Homes 2 Subdivision. We talked for a few minutes. I don't know how much of our conversation he finally understood, other than my name and that I lived near the Magatas Barangay Hall.

At any rate, here are the photos of VW Beetle #76.

 

Two Volkswagens in one Day - Part One

Just when I thought that I'd managed to take a photo of every Volkswagen located in the Dumaguete area I happened upon two this morning while out on my bicycle ride.

I spotted the first - the blue one #75 - by traveling down a road which I had never traveled before. I had taken a detour off the Diversion road in the Camanjac area. I was near the Katrina Homes 1 Subdivision (I'd been that way before) but I had never ridden out toward the Katrina Homes 2 Subdivision. It's not currently shown on Google Maps. As I was passing what I believe to be the Fatima Chapel, I came upon the blue VW shown in these photos.

This was the first "new" spotting since November 2022 when I came upon an orange VW on E J.Blanco Dr

As I returned to the Diversion Rd - in an area where I frequently ride - I came upon my 2nd VW of the day. That will be the subject of my next blog post.

 

Adiós 2022

January 1st has arrived and with it begins the year 2023 in the Gregorian calendar. It is traditionally the time when, like the month's namesake Janus, we take a look both backward at the old year and forward into the future. Who am I to go against long standing traditions?

It's been part of my philosophy to view person-hood has having three aspects; much like the Christian Trinity-Father, Son and Holy Spirit and the Hindu Trinity of Brahma, Vishnu and Shiva. Of course, we have the three gunas of yoga - tamas,rajas and sattva as well. In my philosophy, the three aspects would be body, mind and spirit. 

It is those three aspects which I try to improve upon regularly.

How well have I done over the past twelve months?
 

 Readers of my blogs know I've been keeping books lists for several years. In 2022 I managed to read 102 e books; two short of a 2 book a week average. The majority of these books have been fiction with a few covering religion, politics, science or history. An English teacher once told me that he believed reading any book helps to improve the mind. In any case, I'd say the overwhelming majority of the books I read last year were worth reading.

I'm providing links to the monthly reading lists of 2022 for anyone interested in reviewing what I've read.
January
February
March
April
May
June
July
August
September
October
November
December

As for the physical - I have to say that I've tried to take care of my body fairly well over the past 30 years. In 2022, my primary physical exercise came from bicycle riding. Looking at blog posts from January of last year, I see that, at that time, I considered my daily bicycle ride of 8 to 10 kilometers as a pretty good accomplishment for an old man. Now, my minimum daily ride is 10 miles (16 kilometers) with the occasional 11 to 13 mile ride.

In all honesty, I don't know that my progress spiritually has matched my progress in the other two areas. Perhaps, working on that could be a proper New Year's resolution.

VW Beetle # 74

With my now established habit of daily bicycle riding, I am getting out and about more often and the increase in my endurance over the past 20 or so months has allowed me to cover more territory each day. In spite of this enlarged area, I'm coming upon fewer random VW Beetles. As a matter of fact, the Beetle I came upon today is only the fourth one I've seen this entire year.

Looking to gain a few more miles on today's ride, I turned to the right on E.J. Blanco Drive where I would have normally turned left. This little detour brought me to an orange VW parked at a carwashing station.

This VW is #74 in my collection of VW photos (not including the photos of the VWs of Davao sent to me by my friend Dom.)