Focus Interruptus

The weather has turned for the worse if you're a cyclist -- unrelenting rain, heavy at times, with an urban flood advisory tonight & tomorrow as well as a wind advisory.  So long, pear tree blossoms -- the ground under you will look like snow by Monday.

My goal today was to clean the plantation shutters downstairs, hit the gym, find frames and order glasses and prescription sunglasses, work on my taxes.

Yesterday's mail featured a letter from HealthNet informing me that my information was on one of those stolen hard drives (in January. January!).  They offered my 2 years of free Debix -- never heard of it until I read this letter -- and what a glorious PITA that was to register online. They not only want typed info, they want voice recognition info as well. My challenge will be to remember my password and code if/when they call.

Had I voluntarily signed up for this service I suppose I'd be impressed with the levels of security.  However, since this is being foisted upon me I'm assuming my usual resistant stance and not embracing the technology at all.  How dare the prompt interrupt my breakfast with directions to voice-record!  Da noive!

After that I had to check my credit report.  Experian, Trans-Union & Exifax have their own unique verifications that I yam who I yam, taking more precious time that was to be spent doing my taxes. Grrrr.

Nothing unusual anywhere among them, so fine.  On to the next task.  Which apparently was cleaning. So I cleaned 2 of 5 plantation shutters that desperately need to be cleaned.

After grabbing a bite to eat we headed to the gym for a heavy weight work out.  Reminded me of the old days (15+ yrs. ago) when I was a personal trainer training for an amateur body building contest.  We'd lift weights until we were numb, pound down some protein drink, hobble about the house and wear clothes that didn't aggravate sore muscles...ah, the good old days. *roll eyes*

After a quick clothing change we headed to Costco to check out glasses. I ended up purchasing 2 pairs for $5 more than LensCrafters wanted for the sunglasses alone. Shock!  So my HealthNet optical "discount plan" officially sucks. That $419 at LensCrafters was *my* cost.  For one pair of glasses.  From Costco I'm getting sunglasses and glasses with multifocal +Transitions+anti-glare coating+indexing (the anti-Coke bottle effect) for the cost of one pair from LC. Buh-bye LC!  Oh, and surprise!  Costco charged no tax.  Yessss! *fist-pump*

We then headed to a motorcycle shop. Chris is convinced that he needs a motorcycle helmet, as opposed to a hang-gliding specific helmet, and has done some research. The nearby shop came up on his Internet searches for having a huge variety of helmets.

And indeed they did. He spent a lot of time in the motocross helmet area, as they provide greater peripheral vision. But oy!  The graphics on those helmets are fugly!

Once he enlisted the aid of the shop owner, Sean, he focused his attention toward road/race helmets, and eventually narrowed down his search to something very eye-catching -- and it matches one of his gliders, too. So the OCP factor is acknowledged and met.  Because it's last year's model it's $200 off list price.  And the shop owner, Sean, rides a bicycle, an Orbea (same make as mine) and knows some of the people with whom we ride.

It is indeed a small world.  I'll get my glasses, Chris gets his helmet, we make a new connection, and we wait out the rain for the sunny days to come.