Exercise? Me? Yep.
I have never been an exerciser of any sort, and the only sport I regularly play is golf. But I think I have stumbled upon an exercise regimen that, if it lasts from now until fall, might become a life-long habit.
I've started to bike to work - everyday. And it hasn't killed me yet.
A couple of key events have aligned in order for me to make the switch from car to bike. The first key event was that I realized how crazy it is for me to drive to work in my situation. Three weeks ago, I started working 5 minutes away from home by car. It's extremely close by car, but not close enough to walk. And, after a year of getting free parking at my last job, I now have to pay for it every day (only $6 per day, but still...) Plus gas prices have nearly doubled, so I probably spend $5 a day on gas in my SUV. All that got me thinking... I wish there was another way to get to work besides driving.
Walking would take me an hour, so that is impractical. Public transit would take at least 45 minutes, since I have to walk a little bit, and then take two streetcars - there is no direct route.
The second key event was a poster that appeared in the elevator of my condo last week: "We're building a new indoor bike locker for residents. Opens next week."
Well, after spending a couple of weeks feeling guilty about driving, the poster sealed the deal. I needed to buy a bike. I did, and now I have biked to work twice this week. (The only two days I didn't was when it was raining on Tuesday, and when I had a dentist appointment on Thursday. And I might start to bike in the rain, since that's what real cyclists do!) It takes me only 15 minutes to bike to work each way - and on beautiful days like today, I really enjoy the journey.
Plus if you think about it in terms of money, which I don't, but if you do... the bike will pay for itself in three weeks. 15 days of no driving will pay for the $150 I paid for the bike.
Blue Jays
My wife and I saw the Toronto Blue Jays defeat the Texas Rangers tonight. Every year we try and go a couple of times to the Skydome to see them play. Lately, we always go to Club Windows restaurant, which overlooks the field at Skydome. I highly recommend the experience. All-you-can-eat buffet dinner and a live ball game for $49 Canadian. Top stadium seats at the Skydome are $37 to $54. So basically, for the same price you would pay to sit in the far corner of the stadium plus have a beer and a hot dog, you get to watch the game from the open-air restaurant the same distance away, with much better food, service and comfort.
I probably shouldn't be recommending this to people, lest Windows start to get too busy for us to go.
My New Job
I don't want to jinx it, but things are going great at my new job. I really am getting into a groove - the time just flies by. I blink, and it's lunch time. Blink again, and it's 4pm. Where has the time gone?
You know when you are in the coding phase of a project, and you get into a "write a little code, execute it, fix the bugs, execute it again, it works, write some more code, execute it.... " cycle? You're just chugging away, and by the end of the day you realize you got so much of the core work done? Nothing beats the satisfaction of spending a day writing a lot of kick-ass code, everything is working and the code itself is a beauty to behold... I love those days. I wish every day was like that. I kind of wish I could work tomorrow (Saturday) just to keep the groove going. Kind of, but I'll take the day off anyway. ;)