SCOOBY'S SNACKS: Diggin' Deeper

The University got a heck of a deal out of me this past week at minimum wage. I was asked to assist the boss by going down to the free clinic that the school hosts and replacing re-imaged hard drives in all their computers and upgrade a few others. While I was there I witnessed many people that have it bad. It humbled me and gave me a reminder, we all need these from time to time, of how good I really have it. I'm back in school full-time, not making alot of money and struggling but it's a humbling reminder that there are other people that are worse off. I needed that!

I've been a tad sad because of moto-van being at the car doctor. The fuel pump died on moto-van and soon as I get this replaced the rear end in my Son's explorer goes out. Mercy! More repair bills. I'm addicted to bike parts so the day at the clinic was a humble reminder of what's really important.

650b - It's all but a memory now. The carbon 650b experiment has come to an end. My opinions are that I like the bike, it rides like a 26 smaller bike with bigger wheels and feels like you're riding on the bigger 29 wheels in a smaller platform (does that make any sense?). Why did I sell it? It was just an inexpensive experiment before I move onto my next project of a disc CX bike. I can honestly say I've owned one when peeps at the shop come in and ask about them and I have some first hand knowledge about 650b mountain bikes although I'm not an expert.

Next on the agenda..........kill any groundhog you see! Seriously, kill them all !!! Die groundhogs, die.

But in all fairness I give the groundhog the final say......

Friday at the shop we delivered the first of a few large bike purchases. It was mayhem getting these ready. Anyone that has assembled bikes before know how the packing material builds up quickly when you are assembling. Multiply that by 20 at one sitting! Well, we have to do it 2 more times, possibly a third. That's a pretty good start to March's sales!

It's funny where my mind wanders as I help load all of these. I think where will this bike go? What will it see as if it's a living thing? Crazy? Maybe but what if a bike could talk? It would be nice to listen to one that's been around awhile and hear the stories of it's travels, huh?

This brings me to social media. What people think.... Why is it that the majority of the world cares about what everyone else is doing? Or even better yet thinks that everyone wants or needs to know what you are doing? First we had the phone where folks could talk and "hear" another persons voice and understand emphasis along with comments so that people didn't take things the wrong way. Next came texting and people stopped calling and now typing conversations. Before I go any farther I'm guilty of all this and the upcoming too. Now people take things the wrong way or out of context and get upset. Then people start getting mad but instead of asking the person what they meant thy just assume it's the way they took it and stay pissed. If we were grown adults we would confront (such a harsh word) the other person and straighten things out. Most people will back down when you confront them if you're civil about it though. One thing I've learned is that most people aren't honest with themselves. It's hidden under the disguise of not wanting to hurt some one's feelings though. If more people were honest with one another the world would be a heck of alot better place but that's just my .02 cents. Not everyone gets along, it's ok! You shouldn't be mean about it but you do not have to like every person in this world. God teaches us to love one another, it's hard! As long as you respect and get respect everyone can move along about their merry ways.

Anywho, this brings me to what I've been doing. Giving up things that are useless in my life. First I gave up soda. I thought this would be a hard thing to do but it's actually been very easy. I'm on my second month of no sodas and it's going well. Next? I just gave up cable TV. It's been a week and this is harder because I've always used TV as background noise in my house. I think it stems from when I was little, the TV was onall the time. My cable bill was outrageous so I cut the cord. I was prompted to do this when my 3 month old TV bit the dust ad my extended warranty I purchased covered it under a full refund! I still have an old 27" in the shop but it has no antenna and I have a 24" at my computer work station but I don't use it for nothing but a movie or two. I've decided that my next "cut" will be social media. No one needs, or cares for that matter, what I'm doing. I'm not an important person by no means... I'm just me. I'll post my farewell post so that I don't offend anyone by, for heaven's sake, letting folk think I de-friended them. Real friends are around you, you interact with them daily, they still call you, they're there for you when you need them, they already knew you were on a trip or vacation. The only thing I think will be hard is that I use social media to advertise rides and such amongst the cycling community. I guess its back to emails huh? Facebook is like the government collecting all kinds of data about you justso ya know.....

So good-bye Facebook and Twitter I wish I could say it's been fun..... but I can't. You are the biggest social disease this world has ever known. STD (social transmitted disease)