Biggie 2021

The Flickr album of all the days.

Worth it

It took me exactly 25 minutes to get from my living room to the front desk of the gym. I think I can go another way and maybe shave off 5 mins. But, it's really not an unpleasant drive and a lot less stressful than the one to Ballard.

And then there's the pay off. I swam in this pool at this gym every single morning for more than 4(5?) years. It is familiar to me. Everything about it. Familiar and friendly. I had not even gotten to the pool before I ran into a buddy from the old days. We had a nice chat. I actually went into the pool room 15 minutes early and was greeted by a couple who said "if you want to get started, you can finish out time in lane 3". So I had an hour and 15 minutes of leisurely swim time. It was heaven. The water was clear and the temperature was perfect.

Oh and bonus! Last night I remembered that mid morning swims were kind of a PIA because there are big windows where the sun blasts through and blinds you every time you open your eyes. I got out my polaroid goggles and put them in the bag. They don't work great but they are better than being blinded totally.

Except! in the 14 months since I was last there, those spindly little city tires they planted outside the windows have now grown into proper shade trees!!! Lots of light with no direct sun. Excellent!

My banana suit worked perfectly comfortable and fruity. Just a very excellent swim.

When I got out, I had planned to go get a pizza at Papa Murphy's but they didn't open til 11 and it was 10. Popeye's opened at 10:30 so Popeye's it was. I got there at 10:20 and they opened at 10:35 and then said that there would be a 20 wait for chicken "cause we just opened!" WTF??? But, there was a shady spot to wait so I just fired up some games on my phone and settled in. The wait was 35 minutes - I cudda had my pizza and been halfway home but whatever. I do love their chicken.

The bottom line is that this pool is back in regular rotation - not every day - but I think I can get there a couple of times a week. I might call and see if I can get a time on Monday morning. But I will absolutely call first thing Tuesday for Wednesday.

I got home and there was a wellness debit card in the mail that needed activating. I am all the time filling out surveys and stuff that involve cash rewards but I long ago quit tracking them and this one looked kind of suspicious anyway. I activated it but then could find no way to find out how much was on the card. I finally found a number with a giant telephone tree where I had to practically donate DNA to get to the next limb, more than once. When I got to a person it was a horrible connection but I finally figured out she wanted a repeat of the information I had just given multiple times. Finally I was able to find out that the card had $50 on it "good where ever they take Mastercard".

So I went to Amazon and set it up as payment and bought a Google Play card. (For a variety of reasons, I have a healthy Amazon gift card balance right now so I don't need it there, but I have a monthly bill of $11 from Google for YouTube so I figured I'd put the $50 in there and ride free for a few months. Mission accomplished and card cut up and in the trash.

Then I had chicken for lunch and now we are all caught up. I need to go hang my suit in the shower and then I think I'll take the rest of the day off.