Stupid Sam’s, Gummy, flat
After work on Friday I was on grocery duty. It was a double whammy because I had to get stuff at Sam’s Club and Publix. I grabbed my Sam’s items and picked a line. I got in a line manned by a middle aged man that had an aura of life beating him down. I couldn’t help but picture a little word balloon over his head reading “I am 53 years old and running a cash register at Sam’s. Life sucks”
Anyway the guy checks me out and I then pull my down pants and bend over for the thing I HATE at Sam’s Club more than anything else, the exit search. For those of you lucky enough to never set foot in a Sam’s Club you will not know what I am talking about.
After you pay for your items you are not allowed to simply leave the store. You have to file into line to be checked out a second time. Evidently Sam’s has such little faith in their cashiers that they deemed it necessary to double check their work. The employee at the door counts your items to make sure it adds up to the items in the receipt. It is beyond aggravating and to be honest I have no idea why I continue to subject myself to it.
Well wouldn’t you know it, for the first time ever, my numbers didn’t match. Mr I Hate Life evidently only rung me up for one bag of softener salt instead of two. After making a note on some clipboard I was told I had to go over to the customer service desk to pay for the missing salt.
I went over to the area angry I was not already in my truck and on my way. The customer service counter was divided into two areas, the area to sign up new people and the customer service area. The two women assigned to the area were both helping new sign ups, nobody was available to help existing customers, how appropriate.
My blood continued on a slow boil as I thought to myself just how ridiculous it is that I was rewarded for a Sam’s screw up by waiting again. Sure I didn’t expect them to allow me to just walk out of the store without paying for the item but since their clerk f’d up don’t just point me in a direction and say go over there. Walk over, get a body to check you out right away and apologize. Idiots.
It was then on to Publix where I had a very lengthy list to complete. For some reason I get very unsettled when I am the recipient of a large grocery bill. To me, anything over $100 is nuts for just the two of us.
Saturday morning Ali got up early to go to the group run. I decided to bypass it since I had plans to possibly run as part of a Sunday brick. I didn’t take advantage of the situation by garnering any extra sleep. I was out of bed at 5:45 am.
Ali was gone a good portion of the day so I kept myself busy around the house with various items. Among those items was setting up the 7th raised bed in the garden. I also cleared out some items that were either dead or on their way there, clearing out a bunch of space in the other beds.
Saturday night I suggested to Ali that we go out to dinner and a movie, Xmen 1st Class. Originally I thought about going to Silverspot for the second weekend in a row. However the only showtime they had was 9pm, too late for my tastes so instead we went up to Coconut Point.
On the way there we stopped for a quick dinner at Tijuana Flats, a Mexican chain that we both like. The place was nearly empty. We both enjoyed our meal. When we got up to Estero we still had some time to kill.
We first went into the Trek Bike store to look around. I enjoyed looking at the ridiculous $7000 carbon bikes. These bikes ditch the traditional handle bar and replace it with something that looks like a wing off a plane. We bought a new seat bag for Ali’s bike and some chocolate Goo for me.
After that we still had time to jump into a Coldstone knock off place where Ali got ice cream and I followed with a chocolate shake.
I was a bit worried when we approached the theater, it looked busier than normal. The thing I love about the Coconut Point theater is it is always empty. We never have a problem getting a good seat.
My fears were unfounded when we walked into the theater and saw 4 other bodies. We grabbed a nice seat about half way up and dead center. Unlike Green Lantern, which I sadly heard has many horrible reviews, Xmen 1st class had been given positive acclaim. To pull this off with a cast of mostly lesser known actors (except Kevin Bacon) made the acclaim more impressive to me.
The film didn’t disappoint. I thought it was pretty damn great from beginning to end. Ali felt similar. I’d give it a solid A, go see it. I loved the couple 5 second cameos that were wedged in there.
When I was sitting in the theater I shifted my body position and felt something snag on my jeans. I thought nothing of it, thinking that maybe a rivet or something got hung up on the arm rest. Well when I got out of the car at home and the seat cover on the driver seat followed me out of the vehicle I realized what had happened, I sat in gum.
Some f’ing asshole thought it would be cute to dispose of their gum on the theater seat. I evidently neglected to do a full scan of the seating surface before I sat down. This was not a little bit of gum. I had a good half dollar sized glob of the shit smashed into the left rear pocket area. I was PISSED. Before I went to bed I quickly looked up gum removal tips on the internet but I was too tired to attempt any removal that night.
The next day I decided to use the Goo Gone suggestion for removal since we had some. The other suggestions like freezing the item or using an iron seemed like too much of a pain in the ass. I angrily futzed with the pants using a rag, a butter knife and the Goo Gone, trying to remove all of the remnants of gum. Despite my swearing filled efforts, there was still a bunch of sticky residue even after using a half bottle of the junk.
I had enough and decided to just throw the jeans in the wash and see how they come out. Before I did I soaked the spot with more Goo Gone and Shout. I also filled the detergent cup in the washer with pure Shout. I was amazed they came out of the washer totally clean, gum gone. I got lucky.
Originally I had plans to do a ride/run (maybe swim) brick using the water park as the hub. When Ali woke up she said she felt ill. I decided to scuttle the water park aspect of the training. I also decided to not run. Since the Rumble is this upcoming weekend I decided I should try to coast into it without major knee impact activities like running.
I opted to do the 20 mile Dunkin Donuts ride. I left the house much later than Randall and I did the weekend prior, not hitting the road until after 9am. I paid for the tardiness with additional heat. By the time I reached DD at the 10 mile mark I was a sweaty mess.
Overall the ride went well, I averaged the exact same overall pace as the ride with Randall, without the benefit of being able to draft him for 10 miles. I spent almost the entire ride back on the aero bars.
When I returned I jumped in the pool to both cool off and do some tethered swimming. The last time I used the tether I was amazed how much more difficult it felt than swimming conventional laps in a pool. The total lack of forward momentum and no wall grabs and push offs every 25 meters made short work of my endurance. I don’t think I could even do 5 minutes straight before I stopped.
Well this time I did much better with it. I discarded my normal side stroke kick and instead just did conventional kicking. After a short adjustment period I found a stroke and breathing pace that worked for me. I swam in place for 12+minutes and I could have gone longer, I was just curious what time I was at. I think the next time I tether swim I will do it with the kitchen timer, setting it to count down and sound the alarm. I’d love to eventually be able to go non-stop for a half hour.
Yesterday was Father’s Day. Ali got me a nice present from the dogs and Tuki, a cool Phillies shirt. I also called my dad and wished him a good day. He just got back from a week long motorcycle trip. It sounds like the home renovations are finally winding down for him. It’s a good thing, he was burning through money like crazy with costs exceeding estimates by leaps and bounds.
I made a run out to Home Depot to grab a couple things for the garden to plant and a battery for my Firestorm drill. I need two cordless drills operational for an upcoming rusty pool cage screw replacement project. I grabbed a couple pepper plants and some more lettuce. I planted those in some of the open space in the existing raised beds.
I filled the new raised bed exclusively with seeds, including corn, beans, carrots and beets. I am hoping they germinate successfully. We have to remember to thin out the seedlings as recommended. Sometimes we skip that part and I am sure it hurts our overall yield.
Ali was feeling better late in the day so she asked about going out on her bike. Even though I had ridden earlier I was fine riding around our streets with her.
Ali didn’t take out her tri bike, instead we took out her trusty Dawes road bike that we just got back from Christy. Ali hadn’t ridden it in months.
We went up and down a side street and then up our main street which is about 2 miles in length. Shortly after we made the turn around I started to feel a thumping sensation under me. I looked down and saw my rear tire was flat, F me.
I called ahead to Ali and told her to stop. I examined the tire and quickly found some metallic object wedged in it. It was more of a gash than a puncture. I told Ali to ride ahead and grab the truck. I told her I would just walk the bike until she got there.
Walking on the road in my bike shoes is not much fun, the soles of them are hard plastic with a hard metal cleat in the front. I sounded like a bad tap dancer as I trudged along.
When we got back home I wasted no time hopping on Ebay and buying another set of tires, puncture resistant ones at that. They also have a cool red stripe around them that will accent the red frame of my Dawes. The tires that were on the bike were the original, low quality, no namers, that came with it.
If you haven’t been checking out the “year ago” entries you should. This time last year we were in the middle of our epic trip. Some good stuff is to be found there.