…and I was dropped in the first couple miles. It was a cold and windy day and I wasn’t really sure what to expect when I showed up for my first group ride. A couple guys set out on their mountain bikes while I waited for the other group to get set (apparently the “A” group). Once everyone was ready, we were off and at a blistering pace. I held on at 20+ MPH for a little over two miles and finally fell off the back. Luckily I was able to catch up to the mountain bike duo (after missing a turn and turning around) and had a nice 18 mile ride at a decent pace. By the time we got back, my hands were cold and my feet where numb, but it was a lot of fun and I can’t wait for next weeks ride (unless its snowing again!)

The house remodeling project is coming along. The walls are framed and electrical is slowing getting in place. Monday night I ordered the doors and picked up a few dry wall tools. Since I was heading to Home Depot to order the doors, I figured I would order the tools online and they would be ready to be picked up when I got there (or so I thought). The door ordering process took a lot longer than I thought, being a software guy I saw how inefficient the ordering process was and how I would’ve changed it to make it a smoother, faster process. Once the doors were ordered, I headed over to the customer service desk to get my tools. Apparently the e-mail indicating the tools were ready to be picked up was not really true. The lady at the desk called someone over who went to go get what I ordered. I paid for the doors, updated my home address, and waited for the guy to return.

I waited a few minutes and then a few more, I got an e-mail asking to fill out a survey for how the order pick-up process was. Five minutes later I decided to fill it out and give some pretty poor scores. Ten minutes later I got up and started pacing, wondering what was taking so long. I heard the customer service lady call the guy on the phone and she said he should be coming along soon. After another ten minutes I decided to give him a few more minutes and I would be returning my items. Finally, I saw him coming out of an aisle, with a shopping cart with the four items I ordered in it. What is the point of having an in-store pick-up if I could get the items five times faster than the guy who got them?

Susan and I spent this past weekend at a bed and breakfast in Allegan. It was a little tricky getting there as the GPSs didn’t quite get us to the right location, but we eventually found it and had a really good time. It was a little cold, but we made our way over to downtown Holland to have a look around. The breakfast was good, and I wouldn’t mind going back for a nice, relaxing weekend. We even made it back in time so I could put a new garage door opener in…

A couple months back my garage door opener wasn’t working and I determined the drive gear needed replacing. I headed over to an over head garage door place and picked up a kit and had it installed in less than an hour. Everything was working again! Last week, the other opener was doing the same thing. Figuring it was the drive gear, I picked up a new one, installed it, and… the opener decided to shear it in a matter of minutes. That opener wasn’t much to speak of and apparently openers only have a life expectancy of ten years…

I had read it takes on average five hours for a novice to install an opener. I managed to get it installed in less time then that and with out too much trouble. I was hoping to re-use the safety eyes and wall push button of the old one, but eventually ended up replacing them. Unfortunately we didn’t get the extender brackets for the safety eyes, so I used the old ones… It works, but the lights are facing the bracket and it was a bit tricky to see if the beam was making it across. Everything seems to be in good working condition, hopefully I won’t have to replace the mine anytime soon!