The best use for Crocs

This makes for a rather random post number two, but I'm trying to get in the habit of noting short fun things. I'd rather have more frequent short posts rather than long ones. The fact of the matter is that I am more likely to tell you things if I keep it short!

This evening we had a torrential rain and thunder storm here in DC. The rain really fell in torrents for a while. I had a package slip on my door though so I slipped on my new Crocs after dinner and walked over to the West building where the concierge desk is. It's always fun to get presents, even if I already know what they are. (In this case it was my new sheets from Sierra. They are light purple and very soft.)

One the way over though, I learned that Crocs are great for splashing in puddles.The water swishes in and out of the holes in the toes and then the shoes get all squeaky and you can feel like a duck and splash around.  At least this works as long as it isn't too cold and, given the hot muggy day we had here, it certainly felt good to me this evening. There was some pretty spectacular lightning too, although I couldn't actually see very much of it out my window.

In other news I bought a bike today from Phoenix Cycles. It's a program based over in Arlington that teaches at-risk youth to work on bikes and provides the usual sort of activities and counseling I believe. One of the ways they make money for the program is by rehabbing and selling donated used bikes. I decided that was a program I would just as soon support and I though that I might find more selection in one place than trying to respond to craigslist ads. As it turned out, they had a number of bikes for sale but not many of them fit me. But one was all it took and I finally settled on a Schwinn Crosscut with fairly upright handlebars and, I think, larger tires than my old bike. I hope naming the bike means more to my readers (like you, Bill?) than to me. One of the reasons I fizzled on craigslist is that I was overwhelmed by all of the brand name and spec listings that I didn't really understand.

The folks at Phoenix were very nice though and I am very happy to have wheels again. It didn't take me long at all to really start missing riding. I think this bike will work very well as a city beater and for the occasional longer weekend ride too. I also spent the $30 for a good solid U-lock, and I hope that between riding a relatively old and scratched up bike and being careful to lock it up when it's not safe in my front hall that I will manage to escape the infamous DC bike theft problem. At least this bike doesn't scream "Steal me now!" when you look at it the way a new one would. I still spent $160 on it though so it probably does have some theft-value.

So here's a picture of the bike:

As you can see it is purple. I've got something of a theme going with that color at the moment: sheets, bike, and the Crocs which were at least the most fun of the things I got at Goodwill.

Well that's all for tonight. Here's to hoping for another good rainstorm!

~Sarah