Thursday, December 17, 2009

Weekend plans and being all growed up.

I fail at friendship sometimes. Friends ask to get together, I agree, then sometimes don't make it. Case in point: Peter was in town from Texas. He drove here in 1 day. He probably almost died several times. We did hang out on Saturday and that was fun. He wanted to get together again during the week. I had some fiascoes and then money issues, both tied together, so I didn't make it happen. Probably the worst part is that I didn't let Peter know what was going on. I just flaked out. I don't really have a good excuse other than being all weirded out that the wife and I got a newish car.

Our 16 year old Honda Civic was rusting (not a big deal) had 175k miles on it (not that big of a deal, except...) and had one too many upcoming mechanical issues. It still ran great, got upper 20's mpg, but the tires kept going flat, an eminent $800 repair was coming, and getting around in the snow was ridiculous. So over last weekend we found a decently priced, mid-mileage Honda CR-V. I've heard great things about this small SUV and so far we've been really happy. The fiasco part was that the battery died 2 days after we got it. But Superior Honda, the place we purchased it from, did right by us and took care of it. They also took the old Civic off our hands too. So we're still a 1 car family, but this vehicle should serve us well for quite a while.

So back to being a horrible friend. Being that the buying a car thing is a new experience to me (we sort of inherited the Civic) I'm having a little bit of sticker shock. To most people, a car payment is almost as standard as paying taxes. We had yet to experience that. So with the down payment, and upcoming monthly payments, our budget has to be extra toight now. I had some fantasies about getting back into racing next season, but I'm just fine jumping in with some group rides and generally having fun on the bike. I'll be doing the bike building thing again next season, so I'll be working some 12 hour days a couple/few times a week. It'll suck, but getting out of debt and getting on with life is priority 1 right now.

So that was a long way for me to apologize to Peter for skipping out on him. Sorry good buddy. We'll hang out more when you come back in January(?). If your knee injury doesn't get better, we could just hang out with Jonny and do some Call of Duty nights. Good times.
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Weekend plans. Friday night you should decorate your bike and go here. Scott's got a cool setup that I may mimic if I get my act together tonight. I figure more lights on the commuter bike, the better anyway.

Saturday and/or Sunday: gravel? Road? MTB? Post your plans and we'll try to come to a consensus.

16 comments:

RD said...

i'm up for sunday afternoon gravel go south or north whatever...

Mike Miles said...

I'd probably do gravel both days. Saturday, 2.5 hrs with an hr of tempo sprinkled in, and Sunday just a good ole 3 hr ride. We could ride from out west one day, and then maybe from Midtown the other?

Thoughts?

munsoned said...

One place that's good to start is here. Drink some joe, take a little jog over to Capehart rd and head West for miles. Or we could meet at the Scooters up North by hwy 75 and hop over to Dutch Hall rd and go for miles.

RD said...

if it's sunday I will be down for either one

Mike Miles said...

So here we go, my plans for the weekend.

Tomorrow, Saturday, 12/19/2009... Leave from the Scooters by my house (180th and Q) and ride gravel for 2.5-3 hrs down towards the Platte. 1 PM meet 1:15 roll out

Day after Tomorrow, Sunday, 12/20/2009... Leave from the place that Munson suggested down @ 36th & 370. 1 PM Departure again?

munsoned said...

Ooh, both of those sound awesome. I'm gonna be one sore pup after this weekend.

RF said...

these are tempting. Although I am a fan of route adjustments to contend with wind. I'm likely in for Sunday, as I can more readily ride from home for that one.

Mike Miles said...

you've got a car...

munsoned said...

Ryan, both routes are pretty much East/West, so it'll be a cross wind deal which may be easier to handle than an hour or so straight into a cold North headwind. I'm just sayin. Also, if you want to carpool to Saturday's ride, that'd be awesome. I have a vehicle now that will work to carry a couple bikes. I think. I should probably check that out first before I make any promises...

RD said...

RF,
i'll call you sunday if you want to ride out from tu casa.

Sean said...
This comment has been removed by the author.
munsoned said...

Bail on today. It's too cold.

Tomorrow, let's do the 1pm at Scooters on 36th and 370. Ok? Ok.

RF said...

I rode to Ft Calhoun today by myself. Chilly at the start but doable. Rafal, Larry is coming to my place Sunday morning and we're rolling out at noon to be at Scooters by 1pm. Might decide to leave a bit earlier so as to enjoy a coffee upon arrival. Will txt in the morning.

Shim said...

Kevin, Bartels and possibly a few others will be doing the route leaving from my house around one which is on your way from Scooters. We've recently also found some new routes in the matrix of gravel south of 370. If you want to hook up let me know, or post it here and we can make it happen.

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