Thursday, October 15, 2009

Cold Wet & Rainy.

I get asked many times, 'what do you do when it rains'? The answer is, I get wet. I don't mind getting a little wet & muddy. It's not the worst thing in the world. The problem with riding in the rain isn't getting wet, it's the unpredictability of car drivers. For some reason, bad weather brings out the bad driving.

I didn't get to do any work-related riding today, so instead I watched the drivers on the road. It's amazing how unwilling people are to just Slow Down, even a little bit. So many people have zero patience. I watched one driver lay on his horn for 15 seconds continuously because he was annoyed at having to spend that 15 seconds waiting for a taxi-cab discharge his passenger. (By the way, what is it with car drivers and their horns? Do they not understand that honking will not magically clear up traffic jams, and it only serves to further grate on the nerves of those that are probably already annoyed by the jam?) A whole 15 seconds. Mind you, he then had to wait for a full two minutes at the end of the road anyway to clear the intersection at a stop sign. Was it worth it? I'm sure those 15 seconds it took to rush to the stop sign were very important.

Why is everyone in such a rush?

In yesterday's post I mentioned a quick list of expenses. Today, I'd like to explore ways of cutting back on costs (and consumption).

The first to go are cigarettes. I don't even like smoking, but I'm an addict. I really do want to quit, and not just for the cost. Today I bought a pack of cigarettes. They cost $7.49. That's $52.43 a week (assuming I buy just one pack a day, which is not always the case.). $224.70 a month. $2,733.85 a year. Yikes. So no more cigarette buying from now on.

The second area I need to look at is dining out. This includes snacks & meals at work, beer at the bar, and pizza delivery at home. I want to limit my dining out options to no more that $40 a week. I think that's do-able.

This starts tomorrow.

The rest of the stuff I'll work on later.

Today's costs:
$7.49 pack of cigarettes (goodbye!)
$23.35 pizza delivery (plus tip)

Total: $30.84

Bike Miles:
2.71


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