I haven't had regular internet access for the last few days so please excuse the lack of posts. I did manage to steal 5 minutes on a friend's computer yesterday and sign up for the Endurosnob Epic. Should be fun. I don't know if my friend Eric signed up or not. I'll try and make sure that he does.

No progress on the Dirty Kanza bike to report. I wanted to have it done by today so I could go for a ride, but events conspired against me. I didn't really feel like riding today anyway. I've been working a lot lately. Six days this week and I stayed late several of those nights. Plus, I had plans every night except Thursday. I'm going to take today off and just sit around, drink tea and enjoy myself.

Speaking of sitting around leads me to the "lifestyle choices" essay I talked about Thursday. As some of you know I don't have a car, don't have a credit card, no loans, etc. I do all these things not out of some protest against "the Man" or environmental statement or something like that, but rather out of a desire for simplicity. Without a car I don't have to make car payments, worry about gas, parking, etc. Lots of people worry about these things too much in my opinion. It is simply easier for me to bike everywhere, or get a ride, or take the bus than it is for me to own a car. It helps that I like riding a bike, no doubt about it, but some days I don't feel like it. Some days I'd be tempted to use a car if I had one, but if I started to do this I think I might start to drive even on days when I didn't have to. This brings me to another point: addiction. I don't think it is too much of a stretch to call the way we behave towards cars as addictive behavior. People really do think that they need a car to get by. Perhaps in a sense they do. To live in the way people are accustomed to people need to drive. We are in a hurry to do everything. Driving allows us to pack our schedules full and do several things every night. I, by contrast can only do one or at the outside two things per night. I really like to keep it at one. If I don't have at least four hours free for each activity (even reading or hanging out) I start to feel rushed and try to cut something out. This keeps my schedule as well as my mind relatively uncluttered. As far as credit cards and loans go I feel much better staying within my financial limits. I may decide to buy a house some day and for that I guess I'll need to get a loan, but I can't see many other reasons for doing so. I don't really think it makes sense to buy many things that you can't pay for all at once. Especially cars. I'm sure it helps that I'm single and don't have kids. I know that some of these opinions have more to do with my personal preferences (biking) and ethics (loans), but simplicity is probably the biggest factor. This essay has been more of a rant than anything else, but I guess I'm in a bit of a hurry, I'm off to do some heavy duty relaxing at the coffee shop.