u/Buffalo_Cottage

Newbie reporting in 🫡 feeling like a million bucks this morning!

I'm rebuilding fitness after perimenopause knocked me off my bike late last summer. I went from feeling strong and riding 25-30 miles on weekends last year to feeling sluggish and struggling with just a few miles this year. But now I've got my HRT dialed in, I feel like myself again, and the miles are starting to add up.

I've ridden every day this week and hit 50 miles on the way home this morning! The feeling when the bike computer rolled over to 50 was indescribable. My first-ever week riding 50 miles!!!

Along the way, there's this small hill up and over a railyard. I conquered it last year, but it's been kicking my ass since. NOT TODAY!!!! I rode straight up and over! I wasn't in a high gear or anything, but I felt strong! Annnnnd nobody was there to see me almost crash into the guardrail because I was celebrating lol

ALSO. I did all this AND fought the wind the whole way. It's always kinda windy here along the Lake Erie shore. As far as I can tell, there doesn't seem to be a way to get a tailwind. This morning was especially bad from a front blowing through. Apparently I am not smart enough to check the wind forecast before I leave the house? I got blasted in the face the entire way and ate at least two bugs. Not too long ago, I would have stopped and walked. NOT TODAY!!!! I dug in and kept moving the whole time! My average speed this ride was 12.1mph. That is a HUGE win for me. I felt like a damn superhero.

I cannot tell you how proud I am of myself. Holy crap. It's been so great to get back on the bike and see what my new, menopausal body is capable of. Turns out, she's capable of quite a lot!

I write this Epic Story to you from my backyard, where I am enjoying breakfast and marinating in my relative badassery.

Thank you to everybody here for being so helpful and inspiring, I appreciate all of you!

I've got a Veronica Speedwell x "Purpleicious" that previously has done extremely well. This is its fifth year in that spot. It looks great from the top-down—very green, just starting to bloom, all the bees are interested. It gets full sun from about 9 a.m. until 3:30 p.m. or so and gets a slow, deep drink maybe every 10-14 days or so. I'm careful to avoid getting the foliage wet. None of its neighbors seem to be affected.

Starting maybe two weeks ago, leaves on the lower part of the plant, close to maybe 1/3 to 1/2 the stalk, have become shriveled and brown. It did have a bit of powdery mildew last year. Could this be damage from that or some other disease? Or is it having a temper tantrum because I'm doing something wrong? Help!

Despite having been signed up for DMAChoice for years, I got a random "Welcome to Vogue" issue in the mail the other day. At last count, I have had to contact four (4) different companies asking to be removed from their mailing list. TF is this so hard?!?!

I don't want mail that I didn't ask for. I don't want resources wasted on this crap. Just fund the Post Office so junk mail isn't their financial lifeline. AND WHY DO I EVEN HAVE TO OPT OUT IN THE FIRST PLACE.

Contact info for a few junk mail spammers are below so you also can opt right the hell out.

===

Vogue's subscriber support told me that my subscription (yes, the subscription that I DO NOT HAVE) is managed directly by their "specialized team" and I would have to contact them:

• Email: condenast.direct@cdsfulfillment.com
• Phone (US): 800-405-8085
• Phone (International): 515-243-3273

Okay, fine.

So I email these people and was surprised to get a reasonably quick response. Dwayne informed me that they were very sorry for the inconvenience and they have suspended service on my record. Their records show that my order was initially placed through an independent sales agency and I should contact them:

• NATIONAL PUBLISHERS EXCHANGE
• PO Box 9084, Clearwater, FL 33758
• 888-559-6577
• npemail@npemags.com
• www.npemags.com

Okay, fine.

So I email these people and was again surprised to get a reasonably quick response. Brian was also very sorry for the inconvenience and added me to their no call / no mail database. Brian explained that they're just a clearing house and that a subscription request for my address was made by:

• US Periodicals
• 29455 N Cave Creek Rd., STE 118-143, Cave Creek, AZ 85331
• Phone #: (623) 466-5043
• Email: usperiodicals@yahoo.com (Yahoo? Are you kidding me with this)

Okay, fine.

So I email these people and got an almost immediate response. Vincent was also very sorry for the inconvenience. He said the magazine was sent to business owners for their lobby area. He let me know he would cancel the magazine but provided someone else's name. I had to email him back about canceling the magazine under MY name and address because not only do I not want the magazine, I don't have a lobby at my house. Or anywhere.

Rant over.

Don't get me started on all the glossy, full-color, huge postcard style political mailers we received for the primary this past Tuesday (there were two hotly contested races in my area). I lost count at 40.

Hi everyone! I'm in Zone 6B, Buffalo Niagara. We inherited this dogwood tree when we bought our house. I'm reasonably sure it's a Cornus florida, based on the flowers looking like this.

This tree has struggled. In the first few years we owned the house, we trimmed off lots of dead branches from lower on the tree and up in the crown. It flowers and fruits, but the flowers don't seem to last long. Some of the leaves seem crumpled and shriveled, not like other dogwoods we see in the neighborhood. Between our houses, it gets some morning sun, then gets full sun starting around noon and lasting through sunset.

Late last summer, we started work on a native garden between houses and realized that the homeowners in the blue house had added a TON of landscape fabric at some point. With their permission, we ripped it all out. The landscape fabric was over the entire garden. The dirt beneath was grey and dusty with literally not a single worm or bug—I don't think you could call it soil. We amended it as best we could with quite a bit of compost.

All of the plants I've added so far are flourishing. But how's the dogwood doing? Is there anything we can or should do to help it? Pics attached were taken last week. Any advice is most appreciated!

I've got two spots in my backyard garden that need to be filled and I'm having trouble deciding what to get.

The first pic gets maybe 1-3 hours of sun each day (a bit more in early spring), usually surrounding the noon hour. Plants here are fairly new except the phlox. The distance between the spotted bee balm and the phlox is probably 2 or 2.5 feet.

The second pic gets 4-5 hours of afternoon sun starting around 1:30pm or so. The coreopsis is new. The distance here is maybe 2.5 to 3 feet, and maybe 12-14" deep between stone and fence.

Both spots are in a postage stamp urban backyard garden, so I feel like I need to avoid anyone who's overly aggressive.

These plants are going to join a long list of others. Just in the backyard, I have two sweetspires, some red columbine, sweet woodruff, 3 Turtleheads, 1 Actaea, two amsonias, two mountain mints (one muticum, one tenuifolium), Spotted Bee Balm and a didyma, Hairy Beardtongue, a couple of phloxes, two echinacea, two New England asters, a showy aster, New York Ironweed, a gateway Joe Pye, Meadow Blazing Star, two agastache, a baptisia, a Ginger Wine ninebark, a speedwell, Rudbeckia fulgida, and a coreopsis grandiflora.

I've got lots of other stuff in the side yard and front yard, including a whorled milkweed and butterfly weed patch, a huge planter full of common milkweed, two yarrows, more New England asters, 3-4 goldenrods, blazing star, more joe pye weed, heliopsis, cutleaf coneflower, tons of coneflowers, a fistulosa and two didyma bee balms, daisies, black eyed susans, salvia, speedwell, nodding onion, cardinal flower, great blue lobelia, a common ninebark, and a Canadian serviceberry.

What should I add? Or add more of? Help!

Back with another newb question! I've got a Liv Avail AR3 with stock tires. I'm belatedly switching tires from my trainer tire and needed to get things pumped back up.

The tire sidewall says the pressure range is 50-85 PSI. I dug around this and r/Cycling and discovered the Silca tire pressure calculator.

I popped in my info:

• 155lbs total system weight
• Worn pavement/cracks (which is maybe a little too diplomatic, I ride in Buffalo NY and our potholes have potholes)
• Tires are 700x32c
• Randomly picked "midrange casing butyl tube" (??)
• Recreational average speed (lol this is also diplomatic, I'm at like 12mph)
• 48/52 weight distribution for road bikes

It spit out 59 PSI for the rear and 57.5 for the front.

That seemed really low to me. I had my bike at the shop early last year, and the guy said their policy is to inflate to 80 PSI. I've ridden on that for a year, but it seems awfully close to the max PSI. That can't be good, can it?

I figured I'd hit a middle ground and did 70 PSI. Even that seems low; I can see a slight bulge in the back tire when I sit on it. I read a couple of threads here where people were talking about getting pinch flats from riding on crappy city streets with low pressure. I'm nervous that 70 is too low.

Is 70 ok? Should I go back to 80? Is there some rule of thumb for figuring this out?

I've got a Liv Avail AR3. When I bought it a couple years ago, the LBS put on some flat metal pedals with incredibly pointy, sharp teeth. I'm a total newb and didn't think anything of it at the time. But a couple hundred miles later, I'm ready for something that won't peel the skin off my shin when I accidentally smack myself with them. Seriously, I might as well be pedaling on shark teeth. They can make my leg look like a frikkin' crime scene. I have shed actual blood.

I'd love to switch to a flat pedal with pegs, and have my eye on these from OneUp. But I have no earthly idea how to tell if they'll work with my bike. And if they will work, I also have no earthly idea how to actually put them on the bike. Help!