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Well, at least I got one good hike in this summer. During my visit to Washington, Wesley and my Mom and I went hiking up Sauk Mt. Such a nice day. The Valley was totally socked in (pun unintended, though appreciated), but the mountain was totally clear, warm, and perfectly still. The swallows were going crazy at the top catching bugs along the rock face. Wesley had a good time and slept on the way down. All in all a perfect morning.

“If we believe absurdities, we shall commit atrocities“ — Voltaire (1694-1778)

Religion absurd? Hmm…

There are lots of reasons to shop at REI. The great product selection, the knowledgeable and friendly staff, their environmentalism, their community activism, their general corporate policies. But here is another. We bought a child carrier for Wesley sometime last summer. Its the kind you can actually do some hiking in and it wasn’t cheap. So I was a little distressed to see it starting to tear in one place. So, here we are in Seattle and we dropped into REI. Without a receipt they looked me up in their system (I’m a member, quite worth the small fee) and gave me a refund of the price I paid. No questions, no problems. I went upstairs to grab a replacement and realized that it was about $80 more than I had paid last year. I admit I had some concerns. Are we about to be out $80? Nope. Without any conjoling or “can I talk to a manager” the guy just says, we’ll just charge you the same price we just refunded so it will all work out. This is a great store. They treat their customers with respect and as importantly give their employees the power to do the right thing without asking for permission. Can you imagine this going at Wal Mart? I might have saved $10 on the initial purchase, but I probably couldn’t have gotten my money back in the first place and if I had I most certainly would have been screwed when I went to buy the new one. So go out their and support good retailers. Shop local, shop friendly, shop responsible places that act the way they should.

I rode my bike to work today. And now for the big news, I rode it back home too. I’ve ridden to before, but Amber has always come and gotten me. It helps assuage her guilt about me riding while she drives places.   Not that she should feel the least bit guilty.  The ride is just over 7.5 miles each way (a little longer on the way home because of the frontage road situation). I’m going to try and ride Monday, Wednesday and Friday. That way Amber has the car when she needs it and I might get in a little better shape. If I can get the ride to less than 30 minutes in each direction I’ll be happy.

The morning ride is a bit different than the afternoon. First, it is darker, generally a bit more downhill, cooler and with less traffic. The drivers also tend to be a bit friendlier. They still cut me off and try to force me out of my lane, but there are fewer of them and they are less stressed not having been at work all day so they don’t actually look like they are going to hit me, they just look like they want me to think they are going to hit me.

In the afternoon it is about 20 degrees hotter and sadly a little longer and more uphill. Plus when I got on the bike my legs pretty well felt like I hadn’t just had a 10 hour rest. It felt like I had two lead weights on the pedals. But my sad, sore, heavy, worthless legs were really only part of the problem. The other part is that my butt apparently took it personally this morning. It is still punishing me now. Hurts like hell. I suppose I’ll build up calluses or something, but boy it hurts now and I’m sitting on the couch. On top of the pain in my butt my underwear also decided to fight back. They were bunching in ways and places that are as far as I can tell not in line with the laws of physics. Maybe a new seat is in order.

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