Fall is here

Don't know what to think. This summer seemed too short. Starting with rain and rain throughout really took a chunk of it. This morning as I got Faith dressed for school I noticed a fair amount of leaves on the lawn. It is a welcome change of season, but a bit of a bummer to realize that summer is also fading away.

We had a jam packed weekend at the Brummett house. Saturday was lost to lounging around the house and then we spent the afternoon at Jim's lake house. It was a beautiful afternoon other than about an hour long storm in the middle of our swim time. We caught a few fish, but nothing noteworthy. Austin and Faith both got rides on the wave runner. They really enjoyed it. Ended up getting home after 9pm. I sat down to relax, but got reminded that I needed to finish laptop duty. I had started trying to purchase a new Dell laptop for Erin and Austin to use earlier in the day, but was bothered by some price/promotion descrepancies on the Dell site. Well, three sales reps later I did end up purchasing a Dell laptop. I picked it up on ebay. I was able to take advantage of a 8% ebay coupon, 10% Bing cashback, and free shipping to get an even better computer for over $200 less. Dell.com needs to get their act together. I had wanted to purchase direct, but I do not have disposable income to pay 20-30% more for the exact same item with the same warranty.

Ended up with a Dell Vostro decked out and "downgraded" to XP for $633 out the door and $70 cashback coming in a couple of months. On dell.com it clocked out at about $900 + $100 tax, shipping, and fees. Score 1 for Doug the super internet shopper.

Sunday I woke up a bit late to make the 7am ride. I had to put a few final adjustments onto the Heckler. I had just got it back together Friday night. So I opted for about an 8:30-11am ride by myself. Stopped by The Evil Empire and grabbed a cup of coffee and a sandwich to consume pre-ride. I showed up at the kiosk on Monte Sano empty handed. Normally I have cash in the ash tray for park fees. Another norm is that there is never anyone working the kiosk. Well, this morning there was a nice lady running it. She ushered me in and told me not to worry about the missing dues, "it's really not a big deal" she said. Very nice exchange. I was thankful again to be living amonst such nice and friendly people in Huntsville.

I arrived at the biker's lot to see a fairly full house. The usual suspects were obviously out on the trails somewhere. I checked the tires and air pressure in the suspension. Then I headed out. This was a Doug ride, so I did one of my favorite fast downhills into the heart of the trail system, turned around and rode back up it. I did an out and back on Family trail to get some mileage. Then I hit the downhill again. I didn't find the need to stop on the ride, I took a nice pace and enjoyed the gravity. I finished up by riding out Sinks to Bankhead and up the road to the biker's lot again. Total of about 11-12mi. I ran into everyone else on the trail and again up in the lot. It was nice to talk shop for a bit after the ride.

I got home and relaxed into a beer and some reading on the patio when Erin railed me for not being ready to go. Dang, I thought we wer going to John and Mary's later in the afternoon. Oh well, scramble over and spent the afternoon. It was nice to see them and meet some new friends. In typical form the rest of the day faded away and I find myself at work again today. So it goes.

I saw this today over on Bike Rumor. I enjoyed it and think it worth sharing...