Felt Curbside

Through a few logical maneuvers, I managed to convince myself how necessary a new bike was. So I picked up last year's model of a Felt Curbside - a single speed (or fixed gear, depending on how you mount the rear wheel) that is fast and designed as a messenger bike. My old cruiser bumbles along at a comfortable pace, but this new bike really flies. For example, getting to my moonlighting gig normally takes twenty-five minutes on my old bike versus fifteen minutes on my new bike. And did I mention it's fast?

But in with the new, out with the old. That means one of my bikes needs to go, and it looks like it will be the old 1973 Schwinn Suburban. It's in the garage and I haven't had time to replace the derailleur on it, so it will be given to a friend who can hopefully give it the attention it needs.

But now it's back to relearning Powerpoint, which I've been using since 1996 But the new version is an entirely new product, so it's back to square one - sort of like reliving a bad part of my life when I was introduced to Microsoft the first time around having this sensation that it would cause me immeasurable grief in life. I sometimes wonder if never having computers would have really made my life that disadvantageous. I wasn't that dissatisfied with Microsoft Multiplan that I began using in 1984 and the impovements never really offset the frustrations that accompanied subsequent releases through the decades. I wonder how much the new Office actually impedes productivity in our economy. Maybe Bill Gates is responsible for this recession?

But after the pains and rigors of using Microsoft during the day, it's aways good to be able to use the Linux Dell. What other company can deliver years and years or increasingly bad products and still retain such a huge market share?

Oh well, back to thinking about my bike.