Taking Saturday off

Today my mom reminded me that I had made a promise to myself to try to take Saturdays off. I mentioned to her that I was going to work some today - how quickly I had forgotten the promise! I have managed not to work today - so thanks, mom, you were able to save me :) Tomorrow is going to be a long day though! I hope to fit in another hike but that will probably be it.

Today I rode my bike (here's a pic of it in front of my house) for the first real trip in my new town - I rode it downtown (about 3 miles one way) to a fall arts and music festival. It was delightful! I thought I'd be too tired to ride it back home and may take the city bus if needed, but it was great. I had to walk the last two blocks since my neighborhood is on a hill (I stopped to take this pic on the way home - the hill in the background is the one I've been hiking up, my neighborhood being at the base), but the ride was fairly easy. It took just over 30 minutes though - I am slow. I need to get a basket for the bike, and a thing to hold a water bottle. This town is great for biking - there are dedicated bike lanes on nearly every street. I felt safe the whole time, despite not doing in-town biking for a very long time.

Later in the day (after spending some more time enjoying my hammock and porch!) I decided to drive 15 miles to Costco to activate my gift membership and look around (I'd love a fire pit for the porch) - it's in the next town. I got there 10 minutes after they had closed, however, so I had to turn around and drive back home. It was such a beautiful day, though, and the valley is lovely - the length of the trip was only the time it took to listen to 5 great songs on my stereo while looking at beautiful scenery. Whenever I count driving distance by the number of songs I get to listen to, I always think of "The Point" - the time it takes to get to the pointed forest is exactly the time it takes to sing a song...

Points to you if you remember which song it is :)