Washed for Mickey & MINI

Posted on by Ian C.

This weekends Mickey & MINI demands that Black Knight gets washed. With sciatica making it nearly impossible to crouch down and lean forward (which it turns out is very necessary for washing a car), and with the strong summer sun and regular late afternoon rains, I’ve not washed the car since mid June! Of course the garage, and the fact that I couldn’t drive for a long while, means it was only very dirty, not horrifying!
But happily now I’m much more able to drive, and wash Black Knight, and she looks much better for it!

SONY DSC
SONY DSC
SONY DSC
SONY DSC

I’m really very happy with using Dr Beasley’s Matte Car Care Products, the shampoo is easy to use and provides a good wash and finish, and the final finish spray gives a little extra smoothness to the matte paint … I could argue that washing Black Knight with these products is easier than a regular finish, since you don’t need (in fact must not) polish it!

Walking faster

Posted on by Ian C.

Another noticeable change as my “sciatica” eases, is an increase in walking speed. I’ve sometimes used the App MotionX GPS to record my morning (or other) walks – it uses the iPhone GPS to track position over time, and computes distance and speed.

Back in late July when I began going for a morning walk, it recorded 2.45 miles in 53 minutes, so averaging 2.8mph:

That basic loop is still the walk I most frequently do today, but to keep to my 45-50 minute goal time, I now have to walk a loop as far as the arrow.

For comparison, from August 21st is a record of my walk back from the HOA fitness club – it’s too far to walk each way and do fitness, but it nicely shows my improved walking speed covering a similar 2.4 miles in less than 37 minutes, averaging 3.9mph!

I’ve not really increased speed any more since then, but today was my final Physical Therapy visit as it looks like I’ve gained and learned all I can. I have a set of “homework” exercise that I will need to do regularly “forever”, so that the pain of July / August never returns. And I’d like to keep up my daily walk, because aside from the health benefits, it’s quite interesting to watch the sunrise – we will see what happens when Florida “winter” comes …