Riding My Bike

I rode my bike to work on Friday. I have been saying that I was going to do it, and I finally did it. I have to say, it was not the easiest thing I have ever done - but it wasn't as hard as I thought it was going to be, either.

I left the house at 7:20 AM and arrived at work at 8:15 AM. I had intended to leave the house earlier, but there was a host of things that I didn't plan for when I was ready to leave. For instance, I forgot to find my bike helmet in advance - I spent 10 minutes looking for it. I realized that I was going to have to take clothes and hygiene products and had to find some place to stash them for the ride... things like that slowed me down considerably.

I consider all these things excellent lessons for tomorrow. I bought a bike rack to stow some gear and I left a few hygiene articles at work. I will be taking some clothes to work today (Sunday - this will post on Monday) so that I have less to carry. Another thing that I will be doing in the future is leaving some of the heavier computer articles at work, like my power supply; I'm going to purchase a second PS to leave at home. Those things are heavier than you realize, until you have to lug them on your back.

I am so incredibly excited. I am giving ZERO of my hard-earned dollars to the money-grubbing oil people and I am eating up ZERO natural resources and I am becoming more fit in the process!

ROCK ON

CS OUT

Biggest Loser Update

Check it out.

I am down to 210.8 lbs from 231.5.

WOO HOO!!!

That is a loss of 20.7 lbs, or 9.41 kilos (for my Aussie friends)!

Oh yeah.... I'm doin' it...

That's 8.94% weight loss so far. Unfortunately, I am not in the lead for our contest... but am still wonderfully excited about my progreess!

CS OUT

Ignorant people...

... I have no use for them.

Specifically, I have no use for people who have no regard for other people's time and trouble. Also, rude people. They make the list.

I say this because yesterday I dealt with a man who embodied all these traits. DW found a Nintendo DS Lite on Craig's list that was a very good deal. We have been wanting one for a while (I would like to say it was for the kids, but actually I had my eye on it) and have been watching for a good deal on a new or used one. So we e-mailed this man and expressed our interest. I later called him and we arranged a time and place to meet. The meeting place was about an hours' drive from our home.

The time came to drive and make the transaction and we headed out. We were about half-way to our destination when I realized I had a text message on my phone. It was said DS person. Here is his message: "Sold DS. Sorry." Needless to say, I was dumbstruck. Here I was, 45 minutes into our drive to meet the man, and now there was no point. As it turns out, he had sent the message an hour earlier and I had not noticed it. That's not the point, though, is it? We had a deal.

So I call Mr. Butthole and he says, "My friend saw it on Craig's List and new it was mine, so he said he wanted to buy it. So I sold it to him instead. Sorry." Now, I understand that a person can do whatever they want with their stuff, but that is just downright wrong. After I explained to him how I saw that as totally wrong and not fair, he continued, "I did what I did, and I'm not sorry." Then he hung up on me.

What a crappy feeling... that somebody would completely not have any sense of reason. He didn't even have the courtesy (or the nards) to call me. Instead, he texted me. If for no other reason, he should have called just to make sure I got the message... so I didn't drive over an hour for nothing!

Nice. Ignorant people. Got no use for them.

CS OUT

Labor-saving devices

You wanna know another thing that bugs me? It's how sometimes those things in life that are supposed to save you time and effort... and then they don't. Or, even worse, they cause more work!

The object of this rant happens to be a pull-behind rotary spreader for my tractor. I bought it a long time ago, thinking I would have a great need for it. Well, I tried to use it yesterday; I wanted to spread some ant killer because they are taking over our yard. The very first thing it did was dump the poison all out in one large pile right where it sat. The gate that is used to meter the stuff out was rusted in the full open position. Nice.

So I get out the WD-40 and get to work loosening it up. I get it working, and scoop the stuff up off the ground and put it back in the spreader. I'm ready to go. Once I get rolling, I look back and see that the ant killer has all drained back out of the spreader. The door opened all the way up again, because the mechanism to hold it in place was house in plastic and cracked in half. Nice.

So I went REALLY fast and spread the rest of the ant killer and said, "fooey."

Call me crazy, but I think that labor-saving devices should not cause MORE work!

CS OUT

West Edmonton Mall, Part II

I went back to the mall, so I thought I would post more WEM pics.

This is the indoor roller coaster I mentioned in anearlier post. I rode it, by the way. I am an avid coaster-rider, and this one is definitely a good one. I was actually surprised at how entertaining the coaster proved to be.

Okay, I saw this whale in the mall and had to take a picture for my kids. Just call me Jonah. <"Jonah was a prophet, ooh - ooh...">

I previously posted a picture of this demonstration area; here are a few pics of it in use!

I know I posted pictures of this ship previously, but I was enchanted by its coolness. Here is a same-level pic:

Here again is the dragon of which I posted pictures of previously:

Check this out! How would you like to be in line to buy your movie ticket and have this guy show up in a bad mood?

And finally, it's yours truly trying out a Segway. These things are totally cool. I had a blast for the ten-minute test-drive I took. If I had a spare $5500, I might have bought one!

CS OUT

Am I Stupid?

... I never used to think so. I am seriously questioning that line of reasoning, however. It is 4:30AM and I am sitting at Salt Lake City Airport, waiting to board a 6:00AM flight. I did not sleep a wink last night, because I was afraid I would sleep through my alarm and miss my flight.

UGH.

I had to stay over in Salt Lake last night because my only other choice for making it home quickly was to catch the "red eye," which would have me catching a 3:00AM flight. In retrospect, I probably should have taken that flight; either way I would sleep like crap, but I'd be home sooner.

Oh well; at least I'm coming home.

CS OUT

Where I do not want to live...

... is Edmonton, Alberta, Canada. Why? Take a look at the pictures below. What you see there are electrical outlets for people - normal, everyday people - to plug their cars in. No, I don't mean that everyone here is environmentally responsible and is making use of electric cars. These outlets are placed in the parking lots of hotels so that customers' car engines don't freeze overnight. I kid you not; it gets so cold here in the winter that every car here has a block heater installed to keep them from freezing and cracking when they are not in use.




This is a pretty place, but, um... no. Not gonna live here. Ever.

CS OUT