so three months ago when i started doing this, the health club had this honking great container of baby powder in the zone where the hairdryers go. i used to pour it liberally into my shoes, then shake them out once i was done showering. being both unwilling to carry two pairs of shoes every day and all self-conscious and twitchy and that about going to work with stinky feet.

well, so i used up their baby powder and waited expectantly for the baby-powder fairy to bring replacements. after a couple of days nothing had happened, so i took it upon myself to tell someone at the front desk. they thanked me somewhat bemusedly but didn't do a thing about it, except eventually remove the empty bottle. i said nothing more about it, being as how i didn't really want them discovering how it all got gone so fast in case it constitutes some kind of Massive Breach Of The Terms Of Service to put the baby powder they provide out the sweetness of their corporate hearts and in the clear light of good faith into your shoes. and after a while it occurred to me anyway that maybe it wasn't theirs after all, but belonged to one of their rich tennis players who thinks the place is their home.

so anyway. this week, only three months after starting this thing, it dawned on me that not all the little spritzy bottles lined up alongside where the bp once was (which are most certainly health-club possessions) are full of hairspray, which was why i'd been ignoring them. one of them was actually a fancy-pants holistic health-foody form of deodorant. not that i'm about to be starting to spritz a mixture of witch hazel and bergamot into my shoes, and not that i'm still using the shoes that started it all anyway, but sigh. too much of my life seems to work out like that.

still a tough ride both ways. i know why too, and there's probably nothing to do but wait it out. could rest but i don't want to; i'm sick of resting. this will be a four-day riding week anyway since i'll be downtown on thursday, so i really don't want to miss any of them. sometimes it occurs to me that it's always been a fight against something to make room to do this commute semi-regularly. right now i'm not feeling like i'll miss it when this job is done. i'll just be mad that it was so full of setbacks and impediments.

cool and grey all week so far, but not actively raining, i deliberately underdressed thinking that it might help keep the pain threshold down. it did, but i dunno if that was just because my legs both went numb. felt good even if that's all it was. i could get hooked on that.

songs: apple cider reconstitution, al stewart; let the sunshine in, from hair; and if venice is sinking, spirit of the west.