i love mail!

I think I started blogging about 2.5 to 3 years ago. The first few posts were actually back logged, cause I stupidly thought some things were very important to document.

Up until last December, I had no email linked to my blog, so people had no way of contacting me…except through the comments! (which I love- so thanks for commenting, it really makes it all worthwhile) The lack of email was intentional-- I was afraid of internet crazies, being new to blogging and online personas.

However, sometime last year, I figured I better get the bethbikes@gmail.com so someone else didn’t co-opt my really creative internet persona. Some physical therapist in upstate new york had already taken the URL www.bethbikes.com. Whatever-- I wasn’t going to pay for a hosting address anyway, as, in my humble opinion, the quality of blog writing typically goes down when someone moves from blogspot to wordpress. (even though the pictures are usually a lot prettier, if that is your thing.) Anyway, point is, in December I intelligently secured the email address and would occasionally get an email. Like the one from Lionel, the French body builder included with an awesome picture.

But, let’s be honest. I only check the email address about once every month. And 99% of the emails are about increasing my penis size or doing electronic money transfers to Uganda.

Actually, in 6 months, I’ve only gotten 26 emails. And 7 of those were from people I actually knew, who must not have had my real email address.

The other day I checked my beth bikes email and thought I’d share a few.

First is from Simon, a new East Bay blogger. Welcome to blogging! Some say bike blogging is dead, but goonies never say die. I am re-invigorated on blogging after a summer-off hiatus. It is exponentially more fun than facebook, I promise!

Hey there, Beth Bikes
I've been working on a little bike blog out here in the East Bay, and after many sad reports saying I have zero viewers. (trunc.)

He just wants some readers, so please check him out. He seems like a nice guy because of his very polite and friendly email. Mostly though, I’d like you to check out his saddle sore post. It RULES and is quite helpful! Everyone knows I love this topic and have written some great posts on this. Here is an old favorite.

Simon sent this email on October 19^th. It was quite serendipitous timing had I checked my email regularly. So about on Tuesday October 20^th, my saddle sore had reached a point of extraordinary discomfort. I would give details about where it was, but let me just say I think I would have been a great picture display for a health class photo. Definitely the worst one I have ever had. I had my pap appointment on Wednesday and figured the gyn would get her panties all tied in a knot by the sore. But, I don’t even think she saw it. How that is possible, I don't know, cause it was *right there*. I guess sometimes they just stick you in those stirrups and look inside, making sure my uterus isn't titled or something, without noticing the elephant in the room. I wasn’t going to point it out to her, that's for sure. Anyway, Wednesday was a very uncomfortable day for me. It wasn’t so much hurting when I moved, but pretty much a mild pain all the time. Holy Jesus. But something great happened at work on Thursday and I think the bloody thing just popped, and now it is a pretty manageable saddle sore. Anyway, had I read Simon's extraordinarily useful post about lancing (see link above!), I most definitely would have taken some matters into my own hands. So this baby is getting bookmarked.Word.

Other mail? Well, like I said, I don't get much. There are the random quad emails. Mostly, probably, from people who google images ‘biggest quads.’

• “I like your quads” – this is all that was said. Thank you for the compliment.
• Or the one from Richard that said: “Huge fan! Are you still training your quads? Can I have a more recent pic showing them off?” – uhhh, yes I am still training them, no you can't have a picture.
  
• Or all (sic: two) the nice people that linked me that BBC scientific article demonstrating that people with big quads over 60cm in girth are less likely to have diabetes!
  http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/health/8236384.stm yay for big quads!

Lastly, there was the very heartfelt email from a woman who got bad road rash on her face and found my blog and wanted a recent picture of me to see my scars. I have kinda an ugly face sometimes, but I don’t think I have any scars, minus a droopy right lip, but I think that is mostly because a stitch was left inside because the guy who took them out was kind of senile. But we had a nice email exchange, nevertheless, about wound care, face scaring, and a general life peptalk. The internet is weird, huh?

I also occasionally get other subliminal messages… like refrigerator magnets that spell out “beth bikes sucks” when i took my blogging vacation…

some people can never be pleased. i started blogging again and what do i hear: your blog post was pretty long, you cant go into hiding for ever and then just give us readers the monster serving and expect us to take it.......our tolerance is down! whatever stern. you better drive me to the track tomorrow.