So our esteemed leader actually suggested that people inject disinfectant into their bodies or depending on how you take his idiotic statement that the science community look into it. Dumbass! Seriously how the hell is this guy the President of the U.S.A? He tried to backpedal on this comment the next day but come on, we all know he’s just unqualified and loves to hear himself speak. Lysol had to issue a statement telling people not to inject their product. So you tell me…..who actually thought he was being sarcastic as he claims?

Enough of giving that moron any more of my time……..It is now the 6th week of stay at home and social distancing. At my work we officially extended the City’s state of emergency until May 25th. We are trying to get back to some sort of normal operations and are being very generous with what we deem a “work schedule” but starting this Monday people are expected to try to get their full 40 hours a week which may include using accrued leave balances if they don’t have enough work. I’m still busy as anything and have no worries about trying to meet that criteria. Mia is in the same boat at her work. Lots to do, not enough hours in the week to do it all. Plus constantly reacting to crazy demands from the “big wigs”.

Mia informed me about the whipped coffee craze late last week. All we have in the house for instant coffee is espresso powder that we use for baking. If you are not aware…adding espresso powder to chocolate recipes kicks it up a notch by intensifying the chocolate taste.

My opinion: It’s pretty good. A little too sweet as I usually like my coffee black. Using espresso powder makes it a bit intense too. However Mia and I thought that the whipped part would be pretty awesome on ice cream or brownies.

It has been probably close to a decade since I have gotten two weeks in a row of 200+ miles of riding. Back then I was mostly riding road bikes. Now I just completed my third week in a row of getting 200+ miles with plenty of “slower” mountain bike and gravel miles tossed into the mix. The commuting 35 miles round trip from home to work is definitely helping.

The ride from the back side of Hagg Lake through Scoggins Valley to the Wilson River Hwy is basically 8 miles of climbing followed by 8 miles of descending. I like to joke that there is only one hill…..one long ass hill! The first mile from Hagg Lake is probably the worst mentally, it starts off steep and doesn’t let up for a bit. If you can make it to the locked gate you’ve done the steepest stuff but don’t worry you still have 6 miles of steady climbing to go.

I saw absolutely nobody else out there today. Not surprising though, I rode it in the fall once and saw a ton of hunters and then rode it with Bogie once and we were the only two out there.

The only blah part about the ride is the five and half miles you spend riding on Route 6 headed back towards Gales Greek. There is a shoulder the whole way but it’s a 55mph zone and there are a lot of OHRV and recreational trailers. Given the whole COVID thing right now though the traffic wasn’t as bad for a Sunday afternoon as it could have been.

Lastly it was another weekend to use some of our canned pumpkin supply. We had three cans that all expire by October 2020 and right now we’re home a lot so I figured with the pumpkin bars last weekend it was time for something a bit more “old school” this weekend. I have this thing for what Mia calls “Old man desserts”. I love rice pudding, bread pudding and to some extent kind of dig tapioca.

We’ve got a lot of love for King Arthur flour and I found this pumpkin bread pudding recipe that totally fit the bill for my needs. I think it came out pretty good. I used some french bread we bought yesterday and some left over bread from Slow Rise Bakehouse mixed in too.

Thanks for reading,
-Pete