This weekend was the calm before the storm. J didn’t have the kids this weekend, and it was my last weekend living alone before my mom would move in with me on Tuesday. We made the most of it!
Friday night kicked off with a very belated Cinco de Mayo (Nueve de Octubre?) celebration – I invited my friends Chris and Mark and their kids over on Friday night for dinner on the deck with J and I. We picked up takeout food from Tapatio, where we used to go for dinner and margaritas in the pre-COVID time. We have a longtime joke where we pronounced it “tuh-PAT-ee-oh” (like patio) instead of “TAH-puh-TEE-oh”, so this meant we were having Tapatio on my patio 😉
We had a blast drinking margaritas and relaxing on the deck – it was the perfect night with good friends! We ended up going a lot later than planned, but J and I still got to bed by 10pm, which was great.
The next morning, I started my Saturday with a quick 45 minute bike bootcamp – which I planned to be my last bike class before my new Peloton Bike+ arrives on Tuesday. I have been spinning on a Flywheel Fly Anywhere bike for the last few weeks (which I’ll be selling on Craigslist once my Bike+ gets here. I will be excited for the parade of bikes to be done!
To spell out this whole journey to a Bike+: I first bought the Efitment IC031 on Craiglist for $200, which I used happily until February. Then, Peloton settled a lawsuit with Flywheel by forcing Flywheel to shut down their home bike platform; however, anyone who had a Flywheel bike was able to trade it in for a Peloton. The morning the terms of the lawsuit were announced, I went on eBay and bought a Flywheel bike for $800, which I was then able to swap for a $2400 Peloton. However, with COVID happening right in the middle of all that, Peloton paused the in-home swaps for a while, and then ultimately said they would deliver the new Peloton but I would be responsible for “disposing of” the Flywheel bike. Cha-ching! I got my Peloton bike in June, and sold the Efitment bike right away, but held onto the Flywheel for a little while. With many gyms / stores opening up for the summer, I figured demand would be higher and I’d get more money for the Flywheel if I waited till winter to sell it, when I anticipate we’ll be back to a March-like lockdown. Well, I’m glad I did that – because in September, Peloton announced they were coming out with the new model Bike+, so I sold my original Peloton on Craigslist before prices dropped (for $1800), and then applied that to pay for the new Bike+ ($2600). That means in the end (assuming I sell my Flywheel as I expect), I’ll have paid about $800 in total, and yet ended up with the brand new Bike+ and a solid warranty. Not a bad round of arbitrage!
J and I had planned to go for a hike after my bootcamp, but we ended up lazing around the house for a while (luxurious!) and finally headed out around 1pm for a walk around the neighborhood rather than an actual hike. It was a lovely day by then, and the fall foliage was stunning! Though as I repeatedly worried to J, I thought the leaves might already be peaking and wouldn’t be as pretty by the time my mom arrived on Tuesday, which would be a bummer.
Unfortunately, while I thought our late start was no problem, at 2pm my phone started blowing up with texts from friends. We were planning to meet at Yaya Farms in Longmont to get cider donuts, but I had totally forgotten we changed our meeting time to 2pm from 3pm… so J and I were an hour late! We hurried home, showered / got ready as quickly as possible, and hopped in the car – now planning to skip Yaya Farms, but meet my friends at an outdoor brewery instead.
While I felt horribly guilty and like a bad friend on the way there, I felt better once we actually met up with Heather, Kelly, and Den, who were gracious about my mistake. I am really hard on myself when I’m late for stuff like this; I need to remember to take it easy and that my friends understand (especially since I’m usually very conscientious)! But as soon as I saw my friends, I felt better, and we had a great afternoon sipping brews and catching up in the sunshine on the Rayback patio.
After drinks, J and I stopped by Trader Joe’s on our way home, and probably spent far too long inside. I usually try to get in and out of the grocery store in five minutes or less, to minimize COVID19 exposure, but TJ’s just has too much delicious stuff. J and I are both huge fans, and we had far too much fun pointing out our favorite things and picking out a few new ones as well! But we didn’t cook anything fun when we got home; instead, we opted to watch others cook (on Great British Bakeoff) and then headed to bed.
The next morning, I woke up early and did a 30 minute Britney Spears bootcamp with Rebecca Kennedy on Peloton. Unfortunately, while I normally love Rebecca, this class was a little disappointing; the entire first treadmill section was walking, and the weights seemed a bit slow as well. However, J and I were planning to go hiking a bit later anyway (to make up for not going Saturday), so my workout didn’t need to be that crazy!
We headed to Eldorado Canyon, where I was planning to take J up either Goshawk Ridge or Rattlesnake Gulch (I hadn’t decided which one yet). But when we turned off the main road to get to the trailhead… it was already packed. I knew 5280 Magazine had featured this trail earlier in the summer (and ughhhh I was so mad they outed my favorite spot!), but I had never in my life seen it this packed. Blame some combo of the pandemic, the magazine article, and the fact that we didn’t start until 9am… yuck!
But as we were turning around to go park on the main road and hoof it up, we saw a car I recognized – my friends Chris and Mark and their kids! They had told us they were going to hike this trail on Saturday morning (which was part of what made me think of doing it), but it turns out that they weren’t feeling up to it Saturday so they swapped for Sunday. We joined forced and hiked all the way to the meadow together, before J and I split off to get home a little bit faster.
Why did we hustle out before our friends? Because at 11am, we had football plans! J is a Chiefs fan, and I knew that my friends Amanda and David were huge Chiefs fans as well, so I invited them over for bacon turkey tequila chili (recipe here; you’re welcome) and the game. J and I were running five minutes late, but I texted Amanda on the way home, and it was no problem since they only live a block away. It was a nice, relaxing way to spend the afternoon.
We ended the weekend with some more relaxation – with pan con lechon sandwiches from Cuba Cuba, cheap-but-delicious red wine (maybe it is wrong to love Apothic Red but if so, I don’t want to be right), and cuddling up on the couch watching A Star is Born, which I had never seen before. And… I still didn’t totally see, as I started falling asleep halfway through. To be continued at some point later in the week? I hope so, as I was really enjoying it before I got tired!
So all in all, a pretty quiet and low-key weekend… which was probably just what I needed with life about to change in a big way. I don’t think I’ve blogged much about this yet, but my mom was diagnosed with breast cancer this summer. (She already survived breast cancer fourteen years ago, but this is a new kind in the other breast.) It took a while to get the full diagnosis and treatment plan, but then things quickly kicked into gear – she had surgery a few weeks ago to remove the new tumor, but since it’s a fairly aggressive cancer, she will also be undergoing chemotherapy to prevent future recurrences. We decided it made more sense for her to come live with me in Colorado rather than go through chemo by herself in New York, so she is flying out on Tuesday to live with me for at least the next few months (or maybe longer). It’s been a long time since I’ve had roommates of any kind, so it’s going to be a big adjustment to have someone living with me – and especially my mom! I love her to pieces, but living with parents is never easy 🙂 Meanwhile, I know that being a caregiver isn’t easy either, but I’m hopeful that with the help of my friends in Colorado, I’ll be able to do a good job taking care of my mom as she undergoes the treatment and recovery.
We’ll see how things go…
Thinking of you and your mom. I’m sure it’ll be a huge support for her to be with you during these months. I hope her treatment goes as smoothly as is possible!
Thinking of you and your mom. My mom also had breast cancer at two different times in each breast. She turned out to have a genetic mutation that I inherited from her. Thankfully she’s cancer free now and I have checkups every 6 months now. It’s great you can help your mom out during this time. I can’t imagine navigating cancer during Covid 19.
I’m sorry to hear about your mother’s cancer. It sounds like you have a good plan, and I am sure she will appreciate your support and company. You are an amazing daughter!
I have enjoyed reading about your experience with various spin bikes including Peloton. I would love to get a Peloton bike, but cost is obviously a deterrent. What’s the best way to keep up with what’s going on with Peloton? You had such a great strategy for getting one. I’d love to be strategic too!
Thanks! =)
Thank you so much for the kind words! As far as Peloton goes, I am really active in the Peloton Reddit community (or at least I was until the last week or so). They do an awesome job posting all the latest news, which is where I found out about the lawsuit settlement. I don’t know that there will be another option quite like this one, but you never know!
Thanks for the reply! That’s helpful info. I have another spin bike so I will use the app for now, but I will keep my eyes open for any news.
Best of luck getting your mom settled! I am sure the fresh air and beautiful mountain views of Colorado will serve her mind and body well!
One other thing I would add, that may be an opportunity for you. Peloton recently came out with their Bike+ for $2500 (the one I just bought), and they are dropping their regular bike price to $1850. Right now, people are trying to sell their old regular bikes for full price, but my guess is that used bike prices are going to drop significantly once the new pricing is more widely known. Also, Peloton is “buying back” old bikes for $700 – which makes me think they’re going to introduce broader sales of refurbished bikes. Right now, Peloton only sells refurbished bikes to employees and a few select partner companies (e.g., my company has a program where we can buy refurbished bikes from Peloton for $1500), but I would guess they are going to expand that with the influx of returned bikes.
Hope your mom’s treatments go well! I feel like you normally travel for work a lot, so it’s nice that you can be home and help her out!
You’re right! I used to fly pretty much every week (often to multiple places a week) for the last ten years. Now, I haven’t set foot on a plane in six months! It’s such a big change but I love it.