Babies are here, and cable television is going. I made the call to cut it, and it should get the axe by mid-February. Andree has always had a knack for "watching" what she has already seen five times over, and cable loves people that do such things (I swear I've seen some episodes of a certain cooking show more than three times in the past week or two). It's really more of a white noise for her than for me (I feel like a hypnotist is in the room when the TV is on..."eyes on the spiral, Brad, eyes on the spiral.") Music has always been my choice of background. More importantly, though, we just don't watch as much with the girls, here, and the price has gotten ridiculous relative to the amount of worthwhile content (we only consistently watched 5-6 channels out of what must be 50-60, at our peak level of viewing). The guy on the phone offered to cut the bill by $20 each month, but then, predictably, told me that, "No, that is not permanent. It would be for six months." So, if you're ever looking to shave your bill for a short time, so you can pay for something else, just tell them you want to cancel and see if they make you the offer. I'm pretty sure they know that $40 a month is way too much to ask for the garbage that is standard cable television.
Which leads me to an idea I had for a radio show or other media feature. We should all record our service call conversations; from the water bill conversation to the health insurance call to the call to order the pizza. We could tell the person on the other end that we are recording them for the purpose of accuracy. I suspect that we would all get better results from our calls were we to do this, and I'm sure some humor would pop up from time to time. If nothing else, though, we could all learn from each others' experiences and have documented precendents to truss some of the many bridges we must cross with all the companies that make so much money by providing the least possible assistance to the least number of people. I'll look into what would make this recording easy and cheap. If you've got ideas, let me know. I'd like to find something for clear, computer-friendly recordings, so that I could get them on this blog.
I finally got back on the MTB, yesterday, and got to ride the new stuff at Marrington Plantation. We got in nearly 20 miles, I think, but not before I tried to start some shit with a couple massive trees in a pretty fast, rolling section. My haunch took the majority of the impact, so, all is well. That place gets better every time I visit. I cannot wait to get back out there on a regular basis, but I also still have some hope that we'll get something going in the immediate area, so we don't have to drive to ride (it sounds stupid just to say it, let alone do it). So, the peculiar thing is that I had a dream the night before the ride about a wound infested with minute, yellow scorpions. The wound was on my right hip. The spot I nailed in the crash was in exactly the same spot, just on the opposite leg. Analyze as you will, but I'm pretty sure I and many others of you out there have mild clairvoyance. This is not the most accurate example of how my dreams have connected with something yet to happen, only the most recent.
I have an animation sequence put together (the brake lever butterfly, above), but iMovie isn't the easiest way to get the photographs into a short film. If you've got suggestions, please let me know. It's something I made for the shop website, which, I must say, looks soooo much better than before, but still needs some simplifying. Trust your wheels, baby, trust your wheels. It'll turn out o.k. in the end.
