Chill Day Or Not

Not a whole heck of a lot went on today. I think part of it is that I am on vacation for a couple more days and just trying to enjoy it the most that I can. Not to mention having Zoey and Cicely at home makes it really tough to leave the house.

Sure that probably sounds like I'm being a jerk or a bad dad and that's not the case at all. It's exactly the opposite as a matter of fact. When they are awake or home that is where I want to be as well. Even if I am on the computer or related, it's still awesome being there in the house with them, better than anywhere else to be frank.

So I mostly kicked back all day, tried to get caught up on some of the online things that I'm always falling behind on as well as get an order together for the parts I am going to buy tomorrow.

Cycling & Shops

If curious, I'm buying everything that I need online once again because they answer my questions in less than an hour more times than not. Never fail to get back to me or ship my order complete and just as ordered.

Trust me when I say that I gave my local shop plenty of time and chances to get back to me. I sent them the exact same detailed email that I sent to the guys online and waited well over a week to hear back. I heard nothing, not a peep out of them.

Sure you could say that it's the email that I sent. Maybe I t was too long or too confusing. Hm, maybe so, I doubt it. It's 2015 and a business with an online presence or email address for that matter needs to be able to get back to customers in a timely manner or get rid of the public email address.

Sure, just as Cicely mentioned I could have called them and asked if they'd received my email or not. Maybe they did and forgot about it. I don't know and it's not my job to know. They are by no means the only shop in town and with the shops all over the United States and the globe for that matter I have near limitless possibilities to find what I need and at a reasonable price. Oh and yes, even if there is shipping charges.

When the time comes to get another bike I will shop around at a few of the other places in town and go from there with my decision. There is one nice shop, well nice as-in what they carry, but they are the worse at getting back to people so that puts a bad taste in my mouth for them. Then there is one other that has a lot on hand but usually only the one brand as far as I remember.

Not that it's a bad brand because it's not. It's more of a mainstream brand and honestly that is both a pro and a con for me and the brand. On the flip-side, you can get anything and everything related to it at a single shop which is nice because they are not only an authorized distributor, that is all they are from the front to the back of the store.

Last and by no means least, there is another shop that is close to work and I know of a lot of cyclist that go to them for everything and always have. They are well established and well known as well and have a very knowledgeable staff.

From mechanics to sales I've never felt like I was being 'sold' anything other than what I was there for - hopefully that makes sense what I am beating around the bush trying to say.

Anyway, not much else to rabble about as mentioned so I went off on a tangent about the local bike shops. I did only touch upon the bigger shops, there are tons more in and around town. For now my business and my tech advice as well as my money will continue to go just over the hill to San Luis Obispo, CA.

Then the next time I am ready to spend my hard earned money, whether it's $15k or more like recently or only several hundred bucks on parts like today, I will continue to look elsewhere.

For now I'm going to chill out and watch the last few episodes of Orange is the new Black with Cicely and listen to the rain come down outside, thankful that I'm not out in the mess.

** Update; because of course the way that the universe works is that now that I've typed this I am supposed to get a reply from one or more of the shops. If nothing more, to make me more convinced that once something it out there you never know what may come next.

Photo: Shot of the fireworks that I pulled from one of the videos I shot that night. Great fireworks display for sure!