Discipline

I got an email from my wine club offering me a heck of a deal on a case of Big Ass Wines…





Then my horoscope said this:

Temptations are going to be popping up all over the place -- turn up the discipline.

DANGIT!!!
Alright, Alright…I’ll be good—*sigh*

It’s Not My Time Apparently

Thursday was supposed to be the start of a “Girls Adventure Weekend”. An old friend of mine from high school (I’ll call her MH) and I decided about a month ago to plan a weekend of all girls going to Moab for mountain biking, rock climbing and hiking. Originally we had invited 8 or so girls to join us. For whatever reasons most people either couldn’t come or cancelled the week before. MH an I were going to go regardless, we figured even with the two of us we would have a great adventure. I had just picked up my new mountain bike on Saturday and she had a new road bike she was dying to try out on the open dessert roads of Utah. We also were excited to do a little rock climbing together since we had learned the sport together 20 years ago. In fact we figured out last time we had camped together was 18 years ago and we had to lie to our parents in order to go camping together, well MAYBE there were some boys involved too…(uh, sorry mom and dad if you are reading this…)


(MH and I Thursday morning in Idaho Springs, yes it is snowing and yes this is May 15. Typical Colorado spring day)


Thursday we had an adventure all right, one I don’t care to relive.

We had decided to meet up at the Morrison exit on I-70 since it was the half-way point between the towns we live in. MH’s boyfriend was gracious enough to let us borrow his Toyota Tundra. We packed it full. My new bike was inside the truck, bolted onto the bed, while MH’s mountain bike and road bike were on the tail hitch rack. We had enough camping gear for a small army. We took our scouting lessons well, we were prepared…

The weather was very odd, I had driven through snow to get to Denver and we could tell it was snowing in the mountains. As we headed up I-70 west bound we encountered a freak snow storm and even had a small delay while the state patrol cleaned up an accident near Chief Hosa exit. After we passed through the Eisenhower Tunnel, the sky cleared up and it was the most magnificent blue you could imagine. I told MH the story of the time I came speeding out of the tunnel to find a blizzard and ice and me driving way too fast. I spun out of control and almost wrecked, but didn’t. Ever since then I do not speed in that area. She was driving and I remember looking at the speedometer. We were going 65 mph. Our conversation switched to the scenery again, the Old 97’s were playing on the stereo, and we commented about how beautiful it was to our left. She glanced to the left to look at the sky.

The truck started to veer to the left towards the guardrail.

MH went to correct it…

Last thing I remember was crossing three lanes of traffic and thinking “oh *****, here we go”.

Next thing I felt was my arm covering my face and feeling A LOT of dirt and rocks hitting my arm, face, body. It felt like a roller coaster ride. I think we flipped twice…

What felt like an eternity, but really was probably less than 5 seconds. We had wrecked.

Bad.

When we stopped moving, I remember both of us saying at the same time “are you ok?…Are you okay?” then MH saying “T, Look at me”—I looked at her and was okay. I had some blood on my face, and hands, she had blood on her hands, but surprisingly… We both were REALLY okay.

There are two things I will never forget as long as I live. The feeling of the ground hitting my arm and dirt falling into my lap, and the look on the ladies face that was running up to the car yelling “hello,hello, Can anyone hear me?” as I crawled out of the passenger seat. She had seen the accident and didn’t expect to find anyone conscious, much less getting out of the truck on their own accord.

The truck was beyond totaled. We took out three trees. I would post a picture but my camera is nowhere to be found. It is somewhere on that mountainside. My bike was hanging in a tree 20 feet up the mountain. My copper link bracelet was ripped from my wrist. Later MH found it after the tow truck drivers pulled the truck away. It was under the truck, clasp still attached but a welded link gone.

Today I am nursing some major bruises and some nasty cuts on my hand and wrist and small glass cuts on my face. MH has bruises on her sternum from the steering wheel and a swollen finger. I am sure she has random bruises over her body too.

We are alive.

I took a picture of the truck with my phone that was smashed, but worked a little bit. (I have since gotten a new phone) I showed the picture to E and he is surprised we lived. I showed E my bike and he was as sad as I was to see her die such an early death. I had only two short rides on her. I wouldn’t even say she had a maiden flight yet…

Friday E was in Summit County for work so he went to look at the truck. After seeing it first hand he was even more amazed that we survived. Even the emergency response people were shocked to see us walking, talking, being somewhat cognitive, even though we both were in shock.

I keep reminding myself. I survived a rollover accident on I-70 and I am alive. That was the best day EVER!

MH’s boyfriend however is not too pleased about his truck. Um, sorry ‘bout that…

Have I mentioned we are alive and ok? My career as a hand model is certainly never going to happen and it hurts to type this…but I am here. That makes me the happiest girl in the world!

MH got pictures, when she uploads them I’ll post one or two. In the meantime I am going to go sit in the sun and enjoy the fact it is not yet my time.

We.walked.away.from.this

UPDATE: Pics are in and as you can see they are now posted...Also, it is suspected that I have a small fracture in my right hand, off to UrgentCare I go...

Iron Girl

Today I ran in my first Iron Girl event. Not only did I do well, I set my own PR.
29:33 for a 5k. Which breaks down to 9.165 minute miles. Hell yes!!!

I was stoked…

I almost barfed…I didn't.

Next goal is to break the 9 minute mile mark

CHROME--Customer Service Rave

For my previous rant on customer service I find it only fare to give credit where credit is due. My newest favorite company, Chrome based out of San Francisco. They make some of the coolest messenger bags, ever!!!

So let’s start with a small story. Most people know that follow my blog or know me personally know I have recently (in the past 6 months) been adopted by a Bernese Mtn Dog/ Australian Sheppard mix doggy. If you know anything about herding dogs, they need to be mentally and physically challenged all.the.time. She needs constant exercise and constant games and puzzles to keep her mind busy. If she does not get this she becomes naughty. Well one day she took her naughtiness out on my new Chrome messenger bag I got as a gift for Christmas. She decided to chew a strap and the stabilizer clip…Not to mention I had only used the bag less than half a dozen times. I was crushed. I decided to call Chrome and see if they would by chance send me a new strap and I could use my sewing skills to repair my bag. Not only did I get to talk to a customer service representative, I am pretty sure the man I spoke to is the owner or president of the company. Not only did he say they had extra straps and clips, but if I mailed the bag back to them, they would repair it. No cost to me.

I asked “Are you serious?—Free? I don’t have to pay for return shipping or anything?”

Chrome Guy (CG) replied: “nope, we’ll take care of you, it may take 10 business days but we’ll fix it”

I replied “Wow! That is awesome!!!”

I did have to wait about 14 business days to get my bag back, but it looks good as new and had some stickers in the box also. (Also, rumor has it the folks at Chrome LOVE dark chocolate, if you send them a note with a dark chocolate candy bar, they will thank you!)

If your ever in the market for a VERY cool messenger bag and want ot shop form a VERY cool company. I highly recommend Chrome

And just because I love it, I gotta show off my ultra-bright, awesome-tastic bag!!!

Customer Service Rant + a small revenge

Whatever happened to customer service? Especially in the banking industry. It used to be you could go to your bank and talk to a banker easily about anything, savings, checking, business accounts, investments…anything with money.

I remember I opened my first business checking account when I was 16 years old, or was I 17? Regardless, I had a business account before a personal checking account if that tells you what kind of teenager I was. Well when I wasn’t skipping school and doing things you can only get away with when your 16-17 years old.

I had a situation a couple of weeks ago when I asked a question to the teller and she replied "I don't know, you'll have to talk to a banker"--I just looked at her and said "aren't I?---I'm in a bank, your handling my money, I hope you’re a banker". I got a blank stare back. I guess my comment was a little above her comprehension. Boy, let me tell you how confident that made me feel. Note to self. Start moving money from this bank to my credit union.

My frustration with my bank has been building over the past few years. Finally yesterday I got my small revenge.

I have been saving change for approximately the past 10 years. Why? Who knows, I have always been a change hoarder. Recently I decided I would use my change collection to offset the cost of my new mountain bike. I have been rolling the change and stashing it in closets and shoeboxes around my house, as I waiting for the cable guy to come to my house yesterday I unrolled all the change and dumped it in a beach bag. I remember the last time I took change into a bank they advised me to unroll it all first so they could put it through their change machine. Well I guess this was the wrong thing to do.

First, I took the change to my small local branch. I felt bad as the teller I walked up to appeared to be new. I wanted a seasoned teller that had previously irritated me. This teller was very nice and said I should have left it rolled because they didn’t have a change machine and I should go to the main branch office on south 8th street. Since it was at the main branch I had one of my most frustrating experiences a couple of years ago. They lost a deposit and it took nearly 2 months for us to clear that fiasco up. I was glad to go there and have them cash out my change.

I walked into the lobby and noticed three tellers, one I recognized from my other branch and two I did not. I went to the lady I recognized and said “before anything I need to apologize, I need to cash in some change” at this time I have set down my 50 pound beach bag at my feet. She said “ I don’t’ know if we can cash in change at this time” then hollered over to a much younger, snottier acting lady and said “can we cash in coin?” . The young snotty acting girl said “yes we can, why?”. This is where I piped in and heaved my beach bag onto the counter as I said “because I have lots to cash in...should be $500 or so”. Both ladies just stopped and looked at the bag, then looked at me. The original teller said “this may take us a while”. “Take your time” I responded. For the next 10 minutes I waited as I heard the change being eaten by some machine in the back room. While I was waiting there was an argument in the maid lobby with the bank manager and an obviously upset customer. The customer was telling the bank manager he lied to him and he was not happy. This convinced me more I am not the only person that is frustrated with key bank lately. Highlight note to self, actively start moving my business to my credit union.

In case you were wondering, THIS is what $509.78 looks like in change.