Saving money on shoes

As rowing is my New Favourite Thing, there have been New Insights such as the following:

- how early I have to go to bed to get up at 0530.

- taking a shell out of a boathouse when 3 of 4 rowers are well over 5 feet tall and one (guess who) is a titch under provides interesting optics. Think: 3/4 crew has the boat on their shoulders and one has her hands up in the air.

- how beautiful it is on the water at 0630.

- how, apparently after a certain age, rowing and hangover don't mix. Don't ask. The LCB is going broke.

- holding onto both oars at the same time with the same amount of grip is important. Not doing so leads to new and broadening experiences namely How to Deal With a Rolled Over Double When One's Partner is Panicking. Good news? The lake is not as cold as it was when I started this adventure.

- how easy it is to get a couple of new sets of shoes.

It's about the shoes, today, and it goes like this: I am not at my tiptop best first thing in the morning and bright lights are to be avoided. Yesterday, at 0600h, I grabbed my sneakers from the shoe pile, tied them on and headed out. At the boathouse, I took them off, put on my water shoes (my feet are too small to stay in the stretchers without a bit of bulk and besides I'm a wuss about rocks and a dropped shell would cost me waaaaayyy more than my bottle return money), put my runners in a locker and proceeded to row. Finished rowing, got shoes out of locker, put them on, went for lunch with The Jr Boy. Decided to change clothes as lunch was birfday and a bit of dressing for the occasion was required. Took off runners, leaving them in the car, put on sandals, had lunch. Left sneakers in the car overnight in case of a walk-attack occuring sometime today and it did - right out the dock at camp for a lovely sit with some strawberry shortcake and some alone time. Enough alone time that I got around to looking at my feet. Which were wearing sneakers: nice white Saucony sneakers.

Too bad they weren't from the same pair.

How many times did I put 'em on and take 'em off?? Yeah, go back and count and then tell me you take a look at your perfectly fitting sneakers everytime you put yours on to make sure you haven't kind of tried a cross-pollination experiment.

So here's what I figure: it took me a day and a half to notice. Nobody else did or else they were either (a) too polite to comment or (b) simply thought what they already thought about me - Nutbar. The shoes fit just fine and I'd probably have gone another few days what with leaving them in the car and swapping them with my sandals/church shoes/flip-flops before I clued in. Seems as if I've now got 4 sets of shoes: two pairs of matched up Sauconys and two not-pairs but-they-fit-just-fine Sauconys. As long as I don't mix and match (or maybe it won't matter - may have to try it...) when running, I have two extra sets of sneakers. GOLDEN!!

Still breathing....

Meanwhile, back at the ranch,

Two things:

1. Rowing (as in sculling) is my new drug of choice

2. The Garden Refuse Guys are messing with me again. To wit: Today is Rowing Day (see above) which means I am out of here by 0545h (yes, I am surprised to be up at that hour not to mention clothed and more or less in my right mind). Habit requires that the garbage goes out on Mondays and that the Garden Refuse goes out on alternate Mondays. Today was an alternate. Have I mentioned that I live on an interface (and, yes, I watched that picture happen 6 years ago) and am surrounded by pine and fir trees which, unlike deciduous trees, shed their #%$*ing needles year round building up a lovely, combustible mat on the ground which must be removed either by raking or by horror. I prefer raking and spend time every other week doing it because the eejits who run the Garden Refuse Program don't understand that a bunch of pine and fir trees can drop a schwack-load of needles in a season.
So: I put the full GR and the 1/4 full garbage cans out at the end of the driveway before leaving this morning.
They never get here before noon but it was one less thing to think about and besides I was going for coffee after rowing.
I get home before noon. The neighbourhood is full of GR and garbage cans and I think: Oh Goody! Next Door and Across-the-Street haven't used their GR cans (got rid of most of their pine trees, smartie pantses). I call and leave message at the one and have a conversation at the other leaving me up two more GR cans. Hot Diggity!! I load 'em both up and wheel them to their respective driveway ends (the new system doesn't allow for more borrowing neighbour's cans and putting at the end on one's own driveway so the pine needles get a little travelling time before the GR Guys arrive. I hope they enjoy the change of location. Dodgasted pine needles. And cones. And knapweed. Ahemmmmm)
Feeling full of righteousness and fresh air, I mosey back into the driveway and notice a dandelion ready to go to seed. It is but the twitch of my mighty rowing muscles to wrench it from the ground. I mosey back to my GR can to pop it in on top of the stuff I collected earlier this week. I open the lid.

It is for moments such as this that the word Sh**********t!!!!!!!!!! was invented.

The GR F*ckers have already picked up the Garden Refuse.

Understand: MY GR can is empty, my neighbours' GR cans are now full because I was making the Assumption ( I know, I know, assume makes an Ass out of U and Me) that the GR pickup time had not changed and, because other people's GR cans were still out there, the GR was TOO!!!

Arrrrrrrrrrrrggggggggggggggggggghhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

So, now I have: one empty GR can (mine) and one full GR can (Next-Door Neighbour's) in my driveway waiting for next pick-up in two weeks time. After coming inside for a little rest and perhaps some restorative, I went out to collect Across-the-Street-Neighbour's too, but it had disappeared.

The GR Guys came back this afternoon and made the pass on the other side of the street.




Still breathing.....