In Other News

Am I the only book nerd? I love a good non fiction adventure, anything from Everest climbs to ultra running kinda stuff. Fiction is ok too tho
Can we start a thread Mr Mikie, please ...pretty please can we?!

 

I can't believe I'm going to publicly admit this, but I met my wife on Fitness Singles. I had no interest in online dating (this was just over 12 years ago, and I thought there was a bit of a stigma to it), but at 32 I found myself newly (and unexpectedly) single and sober, and the dating scene was daunting. I also got a banner add for it on my hotmail homepage, and something compelled me to actually click on it. We connected on there a few weeks after I got that add link, and the rest is history.

 

https://www.imtbtrails.com/forum/search/7591437/?q=What+I'm+reading&o=date&c[title_only]=1

 

Power to you for cutting to the chase, Matt – and congrats for success. Stigma...not really much different than going to a gym or a bar, except your chances of success are better. I met the weazl in a climbing gym, same same for the most part.

 

Aha, thanks!

 

Good deal Bug!

This online dating works if you approach it right. I met my wife on match.com and both my sister's met the husband's on it also. It's a lot of work, but in the end it's worth it. kind of a fun if interesting experience.

 

I need to introduce you to one of my clients. She is an older German lady who trekked all over the planet in her younger days. She's got pics from her journeys by the thousands and she's a great story teller. Fun to sit with and listen to and a very good writer as well. She shares copies of her short stories with me often. We enjoy her aquarium together and all things nature. I share my pics and stories with her too, and she loves to see and hear what I have to say. She and her husband were the originators of Sport Chalet, if anyone here has ever heard of that place.

 

That's great! One of my long time good friends met his gal on a dating site. She was a bit overbearing early on but they grew well together and they are excellent parents. It's fun watching them interact with their kids. Books could written by their standards.

 

This is awesome! I was recently divorced and Jennifer had just ended a relationship with her boyfriend. We were both on Match.com for a short time before we gave up. New Year's Eve 2011 we both went out and got trashed for whatever reason. On New Year's Day our friends talked us into a road ride on Monday (we both had Monday off due to the holiday falling on a Sunday). Mind you we hadn't met at this point. We both reluctantly showed up for the ride. I noticed her immediately when we gathered for the start of the ride. Well our paths crossed on every climb. "On your left" every time she blew past me. No worries. I'll catch her on the DH. Not so much. She had skills there too. At the first rest stop I heard her bitching something about this being a social ride and not a hammerfest and she didn't bring any nutrition. Here's my chance! I offered up an extra Gu and she willingly excepted. Our paths would cross a few more times once the ride resumed but then she disappeared. Oh well. With about 10 miles to go I noticed a girl coming out of a side street. It was Jennifer! She told me she got lost and asked if I knew the way back. I said of course. We rode the rest of the way back chatting to one another and I had mentioned I'm going to have to buy a road bike if I wanted to see her again. I told her I was a mountain biker and I had borrowed my friend's road bike for this ride. She says me too! My first thought was yeah right. A Wal-Mart or Huffy cruiser is not a mountain bike. Turns out she was a real mountain biker! After the ride I got the courage to ask her to lunch and she accepted. We really hit it off. We talked on the phone a few times during the week and went on a real date that Friday night. We have literally been together every day since. Bikes rule!

 

I met my wife in an unusual way.
She was my tuk-tuk driver to BKK. She picked me up as I dashed out of a soapy bath brothel in Pat Pong. I breathlessly explained to her that I just robbed the whorehouse owner for ripping me off in a game of mah johng. If I didn't make it to the airport in 15 minutes I would probably die.
It was love at first sight!

 

Our best friends in Oregon met online on some site, but due to their both putting down rock climbing as their interest.
So far so good, and we get to crash at their place in Bend, so hope they stay together!

 

So awesome!! Having access to someone with those kinds of experiences is truly a gift!
That’s why I love to read true adventure stories...it’s a nice vicarious escape from the daily grind, but mostly there’s so much knowledge being passed down(esp if the writer is really good)!
Do I know Sport Chalet??!! I was always shopping there, and I miss it like crazy! SC and Billy’s were the only good outfitters around Dicks Sporting Goods is lame!

 

That’s a unique story for sure

 

Yes, the loss of SC was a huge blow to specialized sporting goods access. I miss it, too.

Its a small world after all.

 

No shame amigo!my sister and her Mr met online and they’re going strong at 15yrs!
I think you need to start a new thread, this topic is taking off

 

It is a small world
REI and online will have to do. I absolutely hate shopping malls

 

I worked at SC and that was the most mismanaged store I have even seen.

 

I’ve heard that before. We’re you in the bike dept?

 

Which years? The originators sold it a while before it failed and from that point on, it was a mess.

 

Yes, I worked mainly in the bikes, but anywhere they needed me.

 

I worked 2013-15, but they were in a bad way before I came along. If I recall they hadn’t made a profit since 2006-7, and they sold in 2014.

 

On on the trail, some guy on a bike says something to me about "perks of an ebike, right?" I guess he thought the stuff on my bike was a motor and all. Of course I was offended and popped back, F no, and so on. I realized he was on a ebike, and he started to state the usual "reasons" why he had to ride it versus a real bicycle. I shot down his rationale as laziness and implored him to get some real therapy on a real bike. He got somewhat offended and offered a quick "have a nice day" before uttering "there's a lot of us coming." Then off he rode back down from where he came.

At our next break up the trail, that guy showed up on his bike. This was just after my better half was reviewing the social tact of my interchange with the dood earlier. He stopped his bike and and apologized for telling me that there was a lot of them coming, and of course it gave me an opportunity to save some face, which I took.

Before he rode off, we shook hands. Looking in his face I was overcome with the realization that this was our friend Joel with whom we stayed in Truckee on a snow safari in 2002; he and his wife are OC ex-pat friends or ours, ski fanatics and fine people. I gave him a big hug and said to pass that to his wife. And I sure as hell will think and act with a little more dignity next time I encounter a trail user, nay, any person, anywhere. Schooled, humbled, never too old to learn.

 

Oof, thanks for sharing that Mike.
I for one will take heed and be slower to judge the ebike’rs.

 

Good on ya for discretion! Take it from me...being a righteous ass is usually not the best way forward.

So the story continues... We just got back from their house, they invited us over for her b-day gathering.

 

We have just switched back to U-verse TV from Direct TV. Didn't care for satellite TV. Technician said it was installed incorrectly while he was installing U-verse TV equipment. No wonder.

Regardless, the delay in channel change time with Satellite TV (and Cable TV) always drove me nuts. U-verse changes channels pretty much instantaneously. AT&T pushed Direct TV on us the last time my bundle had expired and we we happy with U-verse TV back then. This time they suggested that we go back to U-verse TV when it was time to bundle again. Good riddance, Direct TV!

 

We “cut the cord” several months back and I regret not doing it much sooner. We don’t watch a lot of TV, mostly kids shows/movies and Live PD/news/Jeopardy/Wheel of Fortune. Hulu with Live tv and Netflix is all we subscribe to, Amazon Fire TV sticks for apps/internet type content (even though our 2 TVs with Amazon sticks are smart TVs I prefer the Fire platform).

I think we reduced our monthly payment for TV by $80-$90 by doing this and I actually prefer the way it works over old school cable/satellite.

 

Pretty sure that is where everyone is headed, eventually.

But I am a simple minded fool. The idea of having multiple means of access could drive me to going postal. I like having a hub. One clicker, one provider. Easy breezy...

If anything, I'd say the next step for us would be to dispose of our TVs all together.

 

I was like you until I did more research then we did a trial run parallel with our old setup (free trials for Hulu/Netflix). Didn’t take long at all before I was on the phone with the cable company saying goodbye.

The Amazon Fire TV makes it all one hub, even Red Bull TV is right there if I want to watch mountain biking in mere seconds where I used to have to go to an app screen or to AppleTV before.

This is the only remote we use now:

 

See, they are making it more simplified. I told that this is where it's headed. Still, there is multiple networks and that confuses me.

"Let's see, ESPN is on Apple TV, movies are on Netflix, MSN is on Hulu,..."

So for now, I will stick with my U-verse TV and my Eagle drive train.