In the wee hours of Friday morning, I found myself in need of a stamp. Sadly, the Post Office half a mile from my house mysteriously removed their stamp machines some time ago, so I’ll have to turn elsewhere.
No problem, I think, the US Bank (an account I’ve kept open for no reason other than occasional fee-free ATM usage) is just as close and the ATM sells stamps. And so, off I go. After I go through the dozen or so steps necessary to purchase stamps the ATM informs me that my card has expired and asks if I want another transaction. Another transaction? WTF? No, thank you, just give me back my useless card.
So, I return home to search for the ATM card which I assume came, unnoticed, in the mail. No luck. If the card came, it apparently made its way, unnoticed, into the trash. OK, plan B. I can use the debit card for my primary account, pay a fee to everyone involved, and get my stamps. I return to the ATM, only to discover that neither of the possible PIN’s which come to mind will work so I’m thwarted once more.
Dejected, I turn for home and when I’m almost there I realize Fulmer’s (the very conveniently-located grocery store which I hate and never shop at) is open 24 hours and sells stamps. I turn around, zip over to Fulmer’s (which looks suspiciously dark) and head for the door. As I approach the doors a man inside meets me and indicates that they’re closed, they don’t open until 6. Huh, apparently they are no longer open 24 hours.
So after all of this, I head to the Kroger across town where I normally do my grocery shopping, which I know for certain was still open 24 hours as recently as last week. It is open. Victory is mine! Naturally the only cashier working is taking her break, and naturally, the guy filling in for her is unfamiliar with the stamp selling protocol, but after a few false-starts I finally have my stamps.
I place a stamp on my envelope, drive back across town to the Post Office right by my house (you know, the one where they took out the fucking stamp machines) and drop it in the mail. A mere 2 hours after I started this little adventure, I was safely back at home.
And that, friends, is how hard it is to buy stamps.
Does the Spring Fever make one shop compulsively? If so, then that’s probably what I’ve got. In just the last two weeks I’ve bought:
5 new cycling caps (what the Hell, they’re cheap, right?)
1 “new” CPU (another 3.0G/512K/800Mhz Pentium 4)
&
Yet another video card (for a thus-far unsuccessful attempt to run CUDA on Kubuntu).
At least they’re all fairly small (<$50) purchases, so I guess it's not so bad. It’s not like I’m buying new bikes or fancy new wheelsets (yet).
I’ve got a laptop that I’ve had for, I don’t know, maybe 7 years. Anyway, lately I’ve been thinking it’s probably time to upgrade the operating system from Windows 98 (I know! crazy, huh?). A while back I set it up to dual-boot with Kubuntu 8.04, and that really served to highlight just how dated Win98 is.
So, I’ve been seriously debating ditching 98 altogether and just running Linux, or possibly installing XP. Last week I was perusing eBay and came across a pretty sweet little IBM NetVista box for sale; 2Ghz P4, 512M of Ram, a $71 ‘Buy it now’ price (+$20 shipping) and best of all, it came with XP Pro installed. This set the wheels to turning;
I’ve got an XP Pro CD, I could use this computer’s activation key, install XP on the laptop, install Linux on the new ‘puter and add a new member to my computer minions, all for less than I would have paid to buy XP for the laptop (and with no “piracy” issues)!
Done, done, and done!
I just finished installing XP Pro on the laptop, activating it with Micro$oft, and updating it to SP3. The “new” NetVista is contentedly crunching numbers for BOINC, and I feel like a frugal demented genius… or something.
Man, I really like Woot. If you aren’t familiar with Woot, it’s a website that sells one item every day, usually at tremendous savings. A while back I snagged 3 2G SD memory cards for $26, shipped. Today’s Woot is a Reebok Precision Trainer XT Heart Rate Monitor for $25 once you add shipping.
Just what a compulsive list maker and spread-sheet user like me needs, more data to track!
If you want to get in on the heart rate monitoring fun, hurry. This deal is only good today (Friday).
The other day I got an ad from Pier 1 in the mail (I’m on their mailing list and don’t mind, I’ve always liked Pier 1). The first thing that struck me about the ad was that it said “spring-a-ding-ding” on the cover yet I had to shake the snow off of it after removing it from the mailbox. The next thing that grabbed my attention was page 19, the Damask Armchair.
I’m not the type to get all worked up about chairs, but when I saw that chair I said, “I love that chair! Later in the week, when I’m feeling better, I’m going to Pier 1. If it’s at all comfortable, I’m buying that chair.”
Today I went to Pier 1. It is, I did. The cat is napping in it even as I type.
I really like my new chair!
As some of you (my imaginary fan-club) may recall, I’ve been going on and on for some time now about buying a new fixed-gear bike, and was crestfallen recently when I discovered that I wasn’t going to be able to order my Bianchi Pista Concept frameset from I-pro.
Well, happy days are here again. Earlier I was perusing eBay and I found a Felt TK2 frameset, my size, with a very reasonable “Buy It Now” price, so that’s exactly what I did. The Felt was one of the bikes I was seriously considering before setting my heart on the Pista Concept. One factor in that decision was the Felt’s MSRP being about $200 more than the Bianchi’s. That reasonable “Buy it Now” price I mentioned earlier? Over a hundred dollars less than a Pista Concept!
More to follow.
So, today was the day. I gleefully gathered my various components and headed to the bike shop to have Roger order and build up my long-awaited Bianchi Pista Concept frameset. I’ve been eagerly anticipating this day for nearly a year; “Ordering a New Bike Day” is second only to “New Bike Day“. My warm happy glow was quickly quenched, though. For what ever reason, Bianchi has decided to unceremoniously drop I-Pro as a dealer.
I looked through some brochures for his other track-offerings, but my heart wasn’t in it. I really wanted that Pista Concept.
I’m really conflicted; I suppose I could buy the frameset elsewhere and have Roger assemble it, at least that way he’d get paid for the labor, and I’d know it was done right, but damnit; I really wanted to buy my new bike at the shop where I’m greeted by name when I walk in the door, not at some anonymous place 30 miles away.
Oh well, I suppose there’s always the next bike.
So, the last time I was at the bike shop I asked Roger about the 2007 Pista Concept, specifically, how soon can I get one. He rings them up and they say that they should be shipping framesets in late January, early February. This sounds good; just in time for my income tax refund.
Then we had our annual ‘employee appreciation’ brunch for work and I got my bonus, which will actually cover the cost of the frame! Time to hit eBay and look for some components!
I already have the brake, brake levers, wheels, seatpost, saddle, and another Madonna del Ghisallo medallion (this has become like a rabbit’s foot to me, both of my other bikes have one). So, I go cruising eBay for a crankset and pedals. Without even breaking a sweat, I score myself reasonably good deals on a Miche crankset and bottom bracket (see pics here and here) and a set of Speedplay X-2 pedals (see pic here).
Now all I need is a stem and some handlebars. Oh… and the frame, of course.
I can hardly wait for new bike day!
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