Pete Clark,
Our minds work along the same lines. However, I am going to have to give you some lessons. For instance, find a bike store that is on your way home. That way you can stop off and get stuff. My resident LBS is on the way home and only a couple of miles from the office. I can stop off, have something installed, and the bike looks the same to the untrained Rainma'am eye. If they need more time for something more involved, I can ride there at lunch time in my street clothes, drop it off, and take a bus back to work then either take the bus or get a ride to the LBS to pick up the bike and continue the ride home.
I have already planted the seed for a new bike. It will be my reward for losing weight and keeping fit. Now here is the trick with that. I show my wife pictures of bikes costing $3500-5000, saying "Wow, look at this beauty!" I always get the old "eyes-rolling-back-in-the-sockets" reaction you and I have discussed elsewhere. However, the subliminal message are there. I also occasionally mention all the money I have "saved" by not driving, as well as the cost of the fitness center which would be an alternative to the exercise I am getting, etc., etc.. (This works OK, but when SHE talks about the money I have "saved", like when she saw the new shoes, you can actually HEAR the quotation marks so I have to play that particular card kind of lightly) So when I have laid the foundation and the time is right, a $1500 bike will look like a bargain to her.
You are young yet, Grasshopper, and will learn these things in time.
Your friend,
Rainman
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If it ain't broke, mess with it anyway!