My BIG Bike Adventure

Yesterday I went out on a big long bike trip to do a whole bunch of errands. I was out for hours and I had a really great time doing it too.

I had some banking to do which I went to do first. I saw a guy walking his dog and smoking a joint on the street. A bust street with cars and pedestrians on it, but he didn't care.

After dealing with my finances I went to Canadian Tire to finally get a bike lock. I ran in and picked one out really fast and then ran back to lock my bike up. There was an employee waiting for a ride near my bike. He said he kept an eye on it for me and let me use his exacto knife to open my bike lock packaging. I'm pretty happy with the lock I got, it seems pretty tough. After I got the bike secured I went back in and bought mysdelf a helmet. My dad's is probably more than 15 years old, so I imagine it has degraded in strength over that time. My new one is a blue, grey, and white in an aggressive design that can only make me go faster ;)

From there I headed to Walmart and bought some fabric paints and looked at shirts. They had all three of the shirts I wanted but only one in my size. So I bought a brown one to remake my Ben Folds shirt with. I wanted to get an olive drab one for my Stargate shirt and a grey ringer for my Rez shirt, but I was outta luck. I stopped next door at Michaels and bought some orange fabric paint for my Rez shirt. The prices of paint are twice as much as Walmart, but they have the full range of colours :P

I really wanted to get started on this Tomten hoodie I found online. Actually it's a pattern from a book, but it was modified by this guy on his blog. He knits some really nice stuff, very cool. Anyway it looks like this http://brooklyntweed.blogspot.com/2007/07/adult-tomten-jacket.html. I really want to do it in an earthy brown I think. I'm not sure about the accent but I really like that rich autumn he went with. This will require some thought and I'll need to have the yarn in front of me to decide it. I really like the look of the tweed though, I just hope I can afford to make this. It's my first project of this magnitude and I don't want to screw it up.

Chapters didn't have either of the books that the original Elizabeth Zimmerman pattern is found in. I'll have to order the book, I just don't want to have to wait.

I stopped in at the run-down looking Kelowna Zellers. It's a normal (but small) Zellers but the building is really old looking and inside it has terrible lighting so it looks like a cheap discount store. I never knew Zellers was a decent store until I moved to Vancouver. After shopping at this one I always thought it was sort of a dive. Luckily they had an olive drab shirt for me in my size, so I snatched it up. Now I just need to wait until Walmart gets some grey ringers in stock.

I stopped at my local yarn store, but they were closed already. I really want to see what they have and ask if they know of (or sell) one of the knitting books I wanted, before I order it from Chapters.

Then on the way home I went to the grocery store mini-mall near home and I bought some freezer paper for stenciling my shirts with, some Pears soap, a good pair of tweezers, some booze, and a wart freezer kit. I don't have any warts, but I do have some skin tags that have been around for most of my life, and I think in my effort to change into a new person I want to get rid of them. I'm nervous about doing it though, I've had them so long it feels weird to try and freeze them away. I'll work up the courage for that ;)

On the way home I rode on the other side of the street on a guy riding one of those arm peddle bike thingys. We were going about the same speed so we ended up riding side by side for a stretch. He asked me why I was riding on the left hand side (into traffic) when all the painted bike lane arrows say to ride on the right (with traffic). I said I didn't like riding with my back to the traffic and I felt safer being able to move away from cars when I saw them coming. He said he thought it was a bad idea. I think it's a pretty good one. When I ride a bike I don't think of myself as traffic, I think of myself as a pedestrian on a bike. So I follow those rules. I don't use left hand turn lanes and ride on the street mere inches away from passing cars. I ride along the sidewalk, crosswalks, and use the bike lanes when they are present but I always ride into traffic. It seems like the safest thing to do. I'm not a hardcore bike racer after all.

My satchel (the one Syd bought me for Xmas) was so full and heavy when I peddled my ass home. By the time I got home it was past my work bed time already, but I didn't have to work the next day so no biggie. My mum's sisters are staying for the weekend. Margret and Ursula come to visit my mum from the coast and northern BC once a year and they have a sisterly get together. It's nice for them all, and I haven't seen either of them in a long time.

Well it was a fun trip and now I really want to get my own bike. Here's a quick run down of all my stops:

1 RBC (they were closed)
2 The Keg (to pick up my cheque)
3 RBC (I found a different RBC and deposited my cheque and got a direct deposit form for COBS)
4 COBS (I dropped off my form)
5 Canadian Tire (I ran in and quickly bought a bike lock, ran back outside and locked my bike up, then I bought myself a helmet so I don't need to borrow my dad's 15 year old one)
6 Walmart (I bought some white and black fabric paint, brushes, and a brown shirt to paint)
7 Michaels (I bought some orange fabric paint)
8 Pharmacy (couldn't find any Pears soap so I left)
9 Chapters (they didn't have either of the knitting books I was looking for in stock)
10 Zellers (they had an olive drab shirt that Walmart didn't have in my size so I bought it)
11 Kelowna Yarn & Needlecrafts (they were unfortunately closed, so I'll have to try another day)
12 Pharmacy (a better pharmacy were I could get Pears soap)
13 Coopers (I bought some freezer paper for stenciling shirts with)
14 Liqour Store (I bought a small bottle of Kaluha, I think I earned it)
15 Home (back to start)

They can check out my whole adventure route around Kelowna here: http://www.google.ca/maps/ms?ie=UTF8&hl=en&msa=0&ll=49.853701,-119.471512&spn=0.103594,0.2314&z=12&om=1&msid=115086778432601111041.0004353d3fae0292f1374