A New Year's Rant and Ride

Welcome to my first rant of the new year. In November we signed up for Qwest DSL. They said there would be a one time charge of $9.99 for something called the Support Squad; they were there to help with the install. I didn't need to talk to them, but ok. Today I was looking at the Visa bill online and there is a second $9.99 charge from the Support Squad. I called, asked them what it was, and they said I should have been told I was signed up to pay them $9.99 per month forever. I was good, I did not yell. Told the guy I didn't want it, and to credit me the money for December. He tried to tell me I was insuring all the electronics in the house (I don't own a house), then he tried to tell me they'd give me PC speedup software worth $79.99. I kept repeating I don't want it. So, he canceled the "membership" and then tried to get off the phone without giving me back the December charge to my account. Since WHEN did it become open season on people's credit cards? This is like the scam ProFlowers used to run. How many people don't notice this charge and how much money is being stolen from the public? Grrrrrrrr.

Later we drove out to the Sarasota trail head into the Tucson Mountain Park. It's next to a 55 plus mobile home community. They like to golf cart down to the trail head with their dogs.

This is an area heavily used by equestrians, bicyclists and hikers. Does it seem like a good idea to throw people with bows and arrows shooting at wildlife in to the mix? I don't think so. I'll be glad when the season ends.

Tucson Mountain Park riding is different than Fantasy Island. It's rockier and there's a lot of up and down. We rode a major up to the intersection of Rock Wren Trail and the Yetman trail. I was very surprised that we were there, since that's one of the trails we didn't think we would ever ride. There was hike-a-bike but we rode the majority of it. Going down was way more fun.

The camera is sitting on a platform whose purpose is unknown - but it's a good place to put it for taking our picture. That's the brown band across the bottom of the photo. If you're looking at Jim's legs and wondering, no those are not thigh high stockings. Those are his knee pads.

I really want to see someone ride through this. It won't be me anytime soon.

It's harder riding out there, but there's skill building to be had. I think we'll add it to the repertoire of rides, with the exception of the trail out to the 36th Street Trail head, we still hate that section.

So - that's what we've been doing.