Geek on Two Wheels

Instead of taking up the offer to go to a free indoor climbing session in Richmond and then head up to Cypress for day of skiing, I took advantage of the good weather by heading out to the two mountain bike parks that are reasonably accessible: Pipeline Bike Park and the skills park near Edmonds station.

I skipped out on the rock climbing because getting there requires that I take the same route I do to work every weekday. As good as the actual workplace is, I do not need my Saturday to remind me of the absolutely boring and dreadful commute I endure five days a week. As for the skiing, as much as I would have loved for more snow time, it was going to be a bit of a hit in the wallet, especially since I’ve not fully recovered from the spending from last semester.

Then, I realized something: a big reason why I bike is that once you pay for the gear, it’s essentially free.

The occasional trips to Whistler and other bike parks aside, there are no passes to pay for and no extra transportation costs beyond what I’m already required to maintain for my day-to-day activities. Sure, parts are pretty pricey, but with some care, repairs and replacements are few and far in between.

It’s not that I haven’t realized this before. It’s that no longer having any savings left plus a load more expenses has made the advantage clearer than ever.

I love biking.

Children of Men—go watch it.

Now.

Adventure time!

It was TGIF at work on Friday, where we were fed snacks, brews, and also cake. After that, I headed over to The Hangout for some rock climbing with a few SFU Outdoors Club folks.

Work is now officially awesome.

(The commute, however, still sucks.)

After some struggling with Translink’s Trip Planner, it has been determined that my commute to work is going to take roughly an hour and a half, when appropriate buffers for transfers are factored in. This means that my nine-to-five day is more like seven-to-six. Which is okay, really, except for the lack of anything really interesting to visit, like, say, civilization, once I clock out, without some non-trivial time spent on a public transportation vehicle or two.
Hopefully, the work is going to turn out as interesting as I am expecting it to be.

Tomorrow, I must awake at quarter-after-six in the ante meridiem in order to arrive at my place of employment in a timely manner for the work day to begin.