Pain, Things, and Such

Word to the wise: if you are experiencing pain (oh, let's say, a pulled muscle or something in your leg that is troublesome) it's perfectly acceptable to ignore news reports of a "Spare the Air Day" and drive to work instead of straining any damaged muscles by riding your bike.

That said, I beat my personal best time into the office this morning. That's some comfort with the excruciating, shooting pain that's going down my leg. I do believe today's ride home will suck hard and I will probably skip martial arts tonight.

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I'm too lazy to go through my archives of untagged posts and see if I've already mentioned this before, so I'm repeating some raving over gear I'm fond of:

The first is the TEC Hat from SCOTTEVEST.

I have a sort of love-hate relationship with SCOTTEVEST. Their customer-service is some of the best I've ever had the pleasure of dealing with and some of their attire (the aformentioned hat and their hoodie) are awesome like tasty bacon.

And some... not so much. I've owned several of their jackets and shirts over the years and found the pockets to be made of flimsy, easily-damaged material and the zippers to get stuck or jammed easily. Still, in the overall scheme of things I am fond of their creations, especially their hats.

The TEC hat (I own three... maybe four of them?) is a nice, unisize baseball-cap style hat. It sits comfortably like any good baseball-style cap. The added bonus is that it's got two (count 'em, TWO!) pockets squirreled away in it. One along the side (barely big enough for ID) and another in the bill. Good way to slip in a key (sans keyring) or a couple of bills for when you're jogging or what-not.

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Then there's the 686 Tool Belt. Designed for snowboarders (which I am not), this belt has a hex-tool as well as a Philips and flat-head screwdriver all built-in. There's even a bottle-opener on there.

And let me tell you, opening a beer with your belt buckle looks just as awkward and inappropriate as you might imagine. But don't dwell on that image.

Seriously, stop dwelling. Move on.

The 686 is pretty cool. The buckle detatches nicely, giving you screwdrivers for when you need them (presumably in some kind of emergency or snowboarding scenario) and I've never had trouble getting it on airplanes and the like, though other folks have had issues.

I even converted mine into a money-belt thanks to the joy of Instructables. My craft skills could use some work, alas. I may need to do repairs soon.

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Had a family member accuse me of being a hoarder over the weekend. I can't really deny it. I totally fit the profile, and that's not just 'cause I'm a terrible housekeeper.

So I'm going through boxes of crap and trying to figure out why in the name of all-knowing sentient pasta I'm keeping some of the ridiculous shite I've got.

Still working on answers. I've got appliances that I just haven't gotten around to disposing of because I don't want to just toss 'em in the trash. I think they need special handling and I haven't found time to get out to licensed disposal centers (or felt a strong desire to pay money to throw away my crap). That's on my to-do list for this month, though.

Hell, I found a hammock in my storage unit. I didn't know I had a hammock!

I have issues.