April 2004 Archives

Final: A's 8 Mariners 2
Seats: Section 341, row 1, seats 5, 6, 7 ($24.00 x 3)
Weather: Sunny, upper 60's
Roof: open
Grass: checkerboard
Grounds crew: danced
Moose: rode around on his ATV with his goofy helmet, got water dumped on him by the M's bullpen
National Anthem: Richland High School choir, Henry liked it
How long we stayed: all 9 innings
Hydros: yellow
Hat Trick: hat #2
Food: 1 kosher dog ($4.75), 1 large cookies 'n' cream Dippin' Dots ($6.00), 1 pretzel ($4.00), 1 Ivar's salmon salad ($8.00), 1 Ivar's fish and chips ($6.00)
Drink: 2 bottles water ($3.50 x 2); 1 large lemonade ($5.00), numerous water refills from drinking fountain (free)
Transportation: Northgate Park and Ride, bus ($2.75 roundtrip x 2)
Play Area: open, crowded, ran into a boy from Henry's music class
Freebies: 2 "I was there" stickers, 1 Eric Junge baseball card, 1 Compass Club lanyard
Purchases: 1 size 4T cotton Mariners home jersey ($24), 1 XXL men's 3/4-sleeved cotton jersey ($45.00), 1 Mariner Moose luggage tag ($6.00), minus $5.00 for Compass Club coupon, plus $6.16 tax
Total Cost: $194.41

A stinker of a game, the Mariners did not look good. Their defense was sloppy, with the crowd actually booing Randy Winn after his second mistake in center field. (We did not boo. We'll boo bad calls or bad sportsmanship but not bad play. Groan, yes; boo, no.) On the other hand, the day was sunny and warm, the sky was very blue, the grass very green. We had a great view of the field, some of our neighbors were good baseball fans; it was another fine day at the ballpark.

Changes to the Mariners caps are a future possibility. Hey, if it helps their defense...

Well, the Mariners won on a walkoff balk, 2-1, in 14 innings last night. We were at the game and made it through 10 innings before returning home with a very sleepy Henry. He was having fun in that loopy, overtired sort of way but it was clear he'd had enough. It was hard to leave such an exciting game, but it had to be done. Our game summary:

Final: Mariners 2, A's 1
Seats: Section 112, row 28, seats 1, 2, 3
How long we stayed: 10 innings of the 14 inning game
Hydros: red
Hat Trick: #1 (What happened to the old music we so loved?)
Food: 1 Minor League hot dog, 1 Ivar dog, 1 BBQ pork sandwich, 1 small vanilla Dippin'Dots, 1 pretzel with salt
Drink: 2 bottles of water, 1 regular size Pepsi, 1 hot chocolate with whipped cream
Cost: Augh! I keep forgetting to keep track of this...
Transport: Drove car, parked for $15.00 in our favorite lot.
Play area: Closed due to rain, though they were letting kids run around on the ground in the play area. Henry joined in the melee.
Freebies: 2 "I was there" stickers for Henry's poster
Other purchases: none
Ichiro!: Saluted crowd as he took the field. Almost robbed Jermaine Dye of the game-tying home run in the 9th.
Weird dream: I was the Mariners' bike mechanic and had to fix Freddy Garcia's bike. Luckily, I woke up before they discovered I don't know much about fixing bikes...

Back in college, I bought a Cannondale touring bicycle that I rode quite a lot for a while. It's a great bike—I still have it—but the last few times I've tried to ride it, it's been pretty uncomfortable. My back isn't what it used to be and sitting all hunched over while riding can be downright unpleasant.

Ever since Kathy bought her gorgeous new bike last year, I've been wanting to ride again, but the inertia of sitting still was too much, especially because every time I considered riding, my thoughts turned to back pain. Then, I read a weblog entry by Matt Haughey—he of MetaFilter and PVRblog, among others—about his visit to a company that makes recumbent bikes.

I've seen recumbents around town and always thought they looked comfortable. They allow you to ride in a more normal seated position than traditional bikes. I decided it was worth a look. BiGHA is a new company that makes a pretty unique recumbent. They're not cheap, but they do offer a money back guarantee (they'll even pay shipping both ways), so I went ahead and ordered one. It arrived on Wednesday. They ship the bikes almost fully assembled (I only had to attach the seat), so it took less than ten minutes to get it unpacked and ready to ride.

My first ride down the block was interesting. As expected the bike is extraordinarily comfortable compared to a traditional bike. It also handles differently. I suspect it will take me a while to get used to the sensitive steering. Overall, though, I love it.

Getting at last to the title of this entry... I had a problem. I shifted a little too late as I was starting up a hill and it took a bit for the bike to settle into gear (same as any bike). But then, everything stopped. I couldn't pedal forward or back, couldn't roll the bike backwards, nothing. A quick look down and I found the problem. The rear chain had fallen off the chain ring and jammed tight between the front chain and the frame. Some determined tugging told me this was a problem that would involve tools and time.

I commented to Kathy that this would be the real test of what kind of company BiGHA is and indeed it was. I sent them an email explaining what had happened and soon after received a phone call from Lee, their "Sales & Customer Service" guy (we had exchanged emails before I made the purchase). He gave me two choices: I could pack the bike back up, ship it back, and they'd build me a new one; or he would overnight me a package with all the tools and instructions I would need to fix it myself. I chose the latter and looked forward to getting the package on Friday.

Mid day Thursday, I got another call. One of their guys from manufacturing was going to be in Seattle over the weekend and would it be okay if he stopped by and fixed it for me? Of course! So Friday morning, Keith arrived with his toolbox and fixed my bike. It took about an hour and a half, during which time we chatted about BiGHA the bike and BiGHA the company, about weblogs, the Internet, and doomed startups (R.I.P. Kozmo and HomeGrocer), about public transportation, taxes, and VWs. It was a great experience, not to mention that my bike is fixed! Cool.

I know the odds for a small business like BiGHA aren't good. It's entirely possible that they won't be around in a year. Nonetheless, they could teach a lot of bigger companies a thing or two about customer service. They deserve to survive and I wish them luck. Now, where did I leave my helmet?...

It's nice to hear that our favorite former Mariner is doing well.

Yay! We Tivo'd the game and so got to see some of the excitement of the Mariners' first win of the season. I was starting to worry that the name "Basementball" was having some kind of negative effect on the team. Actually, I blame the revival of the upside down trident vintage M's logos of the 1970's and 1980's. According to the Seattle Post-Inelligencer, a former team owner changed that logo (scroll down to list #15 "M's Oddities", item #2) because he thought it was bad luck. The players aren't wearing it, but plenty of fans are, for some reason.

Yes, we survived spring training (and the Grand Canyon, Zion, and the long trip back home). It was hot (even for Phoenix, with temperatures in the 90s) and dry (though we missed a dust storm by a few days) and very allergy aggravating. We all wilted by the end of each ball game. We saw the Mariners beat the Rangers (on 3/25, 4-3) and the Giants (on 3/26, 10-4), and we watched some practice action the mornings before the games. Henry liked it but I think he had the most fun when we got his bat and ball out and played some ourselves. I'd go again, though. It really was fun to be at a ballgame again.

We're home! Actually, we've been home for almost a week now, but we haven't gotten around to writing about it. We spent a little over two weeks in the southwest enjoying the warm weather, seeing the sights, and stopping by a couple Mariners' spring training games in Peoria, Arizona. They may be having a hard time getting started this season (currently one of only two winless teams in the majors), but we were treated to two Cactus League wins.

We all had a wonderful time. It's amazing how much better Henry handles traveling than he did just a year ago. He really enjoyed a lot of the things we did, too: a tour of Lehman Cave in Great Basin National Park, hiking at Sunset Crater (a VOLCANO, cool!), seeing the Mariners practice & play, more hiking at the Grand Canyon and Zion, visiting the Thiokol rocket display in Utah, etc.

My favorite part of the trip was our three-day stay at Zion National Park. I'd been there as a kid, but didn't remember much other than the tunnel, which was the coolest tunnel I'd ever seen (I'm think it still is). The park is absolutely gorgeous and Springdale, the little town just outside the park, is pretty nice, too. It's kind of like Moab lite: a smaller version of Moab without the hoards of mountain bikers. The Desert Pearl Inn was by far the nicest place we stayed on the whole trip. Our room opened up onto a lawn, beyond which was the Virgin River and the cliffs of Zion. I could easily see spending a couple weeks there.

We were lucky to have nearly perfect weather for most of our trip. We had a little snow heading over Snoqualmie Pass as we left Western Washington and a little rain on one of our driving days, but other than that it was sunny, dry, and warm. Phoenix was going through an early heat wave while we were there, which dampened our enthusiasm for sitting outside and watching baseball, but it wasn't unbearable.

We've posted a bunch of pictures of the trip on flickr for your viewing pleasure. Enjoy.