A new Year

Last year I rode my bike 6,278 miles or a little over 17 miles a day. I rode more miles than I drove my WRX. I think I can say I did my part to help Global Warming. At the beginning of each year I drive WB crazy by doing the annual budget. We are fairly cheap as anyone would tell you but WB hates thinking that we should budget things. So this year I decided I would budget some things I had been wanting. My bike had something like 15,000 miles on it since it's last really good tune up. So I went all out. When I went to pay my annual Gym bill I asked if I could save some money by coming at off peak hours. I pay once a year and you get 12 months for the price of 11 months. She said sure you can only come between 11:00am and 4:00pm. for a savings of $200.00 per year. Everything else stayed the same even the free coffee. I get a cup each time I go. At Starbucks that would be $1.35 I think. When I checked on how my bike was going the mechanic showed me the completely worn out bearing races on the old front wheel. He thought maybe he could still find those parts but not sure. Having just saved $200.00 I said how about a whole new wheel. $154.00. But it is soooo nice. I had been riding on the REI special $13.00 tires not bad but they are sized small and when installed they are not quite round so it made for a bumpy ride all the time. But I got over 4,000 miles on them. Still having some extra cash I opted for new tires the most expensive I have ever bought $39.95 each. It is so nice to have wheels that are now round and trued perfectly. Last but not least I wanted a new stem and bars. All the new bikes have black bars. I went to the Ritchey web site and picked out a ergonomically designed bar and new stem. Now that everything is installed and paid for today was my first ride with all the new parts, tune up including a new chain and brake pads. Rode like a brand new bike. The bars are great they are angled back to match the angle of your wrist when you ride with your hands on top, and the drops have an extra curve to match your palm to help relieve pressure. Oh so sweet.

I also budgeted for a new I-Mac. Mrs H received one from Santa and my two good friends that I still see got I-Mac's for Christmas. Now I need to decide which one. I know it will be the 20" screen but not sure if I want the $1,100 or the $1,400 one. Any suggestions? The main difference seems to be in the clock speed of the chip that runs the thing and some extra memory that I think runs the screen. Lastly I am going to get a good Digital SLR, I have finally decided on the Sony Alpha 700 body and have just started researching which lens to buy with it. And knowing me it will take a while. Given the melt down of the stock market mainly my good old employer MDT things could change.

Visiting Yosemite every month of the year was also on the list. So far that one is not being meet.

Enough for now off to fix dinner for WB.