Phone Case Woes

When I'm upset or generally just "off" in any way, I tend to shop. Mostly, online, though it does tend to spill over sometimes. Anyhow, I go on Amazon and eBay and buy movies and books mostly, and wall decor and games, and clothes... anything and everything, really. 

I generally have very few problems with the purchasing and receiving of items. Except with one thing lately.

A few months ago I bought a new phone as the screen to my previous one was cracked. It's a nice phone and a relatively expensive one, so naturally I want to keep it protected. So I bought a case. It was a very pretty case made of wood. When it arrived it fit perfectly, huzzah! Except I noted that it was lacking a hole cut where the charging port would be. Obviously a problem. So I wrote to the seller. They told me it was a manufacturing error and that they would make more and send another. A couple weeks went by and I worried about my poor, vulnerable phone, so I contacted them again, asking for a refund and I continued looking for a case.

I decided to go with the super inexpensive ones that are mostly just decorative covers. I assumed that would be good enough. I had a hard time narrowing down the design I wanted, but settled for a map of Middle Earth. Obviously. It arrived from some far away land and I snapped it onto my phone. Not a whole lot of protection, but better than nothing. Until I dropped it and broke a piece off. I contacted the seller for a refund, and realized that though this case fits even with a piece broken, and moderately protects, I need something more sturdy and shock resistant.

I found a case similar to the first one but made of bamboo, that appears to have all the proper cuts in it, and ordered that. It was not as pretty as the first, but it looked nice. I slid my phone in and almost immediately dropped it. Good news: my phone survived without a scratch. The case, not so much. It split down the center and broke in two parts. So I contacted that seller and told them the product was basically useless and I got a refund.

So I thought, the LOTR map one is doing okay, but I needed real protection. Let's up my phone case budget and look at Otter Boxes. Definitely worth the price. Except my phone is the compact or mini version of a phone, so that company doesn't actually make one for my phone. I found a few similar ones, I am trying to keep it slim and small (hence: compact). I don't want the bulky rubber cases I kept finding. But finally I found one. Similar to Otter Box and more affordable from the Amazon Warehouse. I ordered. Package arrived. The case that was sent was for the normal size, not the compact. Bugger. I went through the returns process and after a couple weeks received my refund.

I figured that it was a simple mistake at the warehouse, so I decided to order from the same place again assuming that the mistake would not be repeated. I assumed wrong. Yesterday I received the second phone case. It is for the regular size and not the compact. I am annoyed and frustrated. It's not the money. It's the time. My poor phone is all but unprotected in this harsh world and Amazon is obviously toying with me. I wrote their customer service and they promptly responded, giving me a refund, telling me to order another and send them the order information and they would cover any shipping charges and any price change from the last product. Cool. Let's see if this works.

I moved. Such a relief. It's been a bit stressful. Being told we had to vacate. A desperate search for a house and a different roommate. Success in both. It's more expensive than we were paying, but still affordable. And much larger. And much brighter. It's a very good change. I am still a bit stressed about the disarray from moving. I have a garage packed with odds and ends to sort through. I am closer to work and am excited to start biking to work again. Or even running. I am super close to the canal trail also, so I'll be utilizing that. After a rough start, this year is looking up!

Bleeding Heart

I've been really sad lately. About the state of the world.

This is what I majored in so long ago in college. The world. Emphasis on the people of the world.

I was super upset today by a facebook "friend" who commented on an article I posted lauding the governor for being accepting of Syrian refugees. This person said some very disappointing things to the effect that Americans' comfort and safety is more important than anyone else's. This person is a professed Christian, so I gently brought up some things I know about the Bible (I should know a few things after 16 years of Christian education.) I just don't understand how anyone who professes to follow Christ can have so much hatred and xenophobia. How someone can take some warped sense of selfish nationalistic pride to justify turning away anyone in need. How so many people find it so easy to see everything in black and white. Us and them. Two choices: one bad, one good. It's never that simple. Everything is a shade of gray. To think otherwise is to play into the media; is to begin to think as the terrorist do.

Needless to say this person unfriended me. Saved me the trouble. Too bad I have to occasionally see her at work.

I am not a Christian anymore for a variety of reasons, but one is this horrible hypocrisy I find in many Christians. What I learned of Jesus and the gospels was love. Love your neighbor. Love your enemy. Love those who persecute you. Care for the hungry, naked, imprisoned, sick, strangers (Matthew 25:35-40.) I also very much remember learning and trying to practice another key point: faith is nothing without action (James 2:14-17). It's not enough to simply say you are a Christian. You absolutely must back that up with actions. Truly following in the footsteps.

Anyhow, I realized that I also need to put action to my words, Christian or not. I once was active in the world. I volunteered in a variety of ways to help however I could. But that has lapsed and I feel bad about it. I'm going to find a place to volunteer and/or a job that really fulfills me in this way. As I reread that, it sounds super selfish, which is perhaps why my volunteering had lapsed to begin with. It's a struggle. But I still feel the need to be useful, selfish or not.

Yes, I'm a bleeding-heart liberal as my neo-con professor would dub me. And I'm totally okay with that.

Shooz

That's apparently how it's spelled now.

So I wore out my New Balance MT10s. I had them for two summers and put a lot of trail miles on them. Running, hiking, a couple 14ers. So the soles right at the balls of my feet started sifting sand into the shoe. Ew.

I've been looking for new shoes most of the summer, as I'd realized that these were on their way out. I am very interested in the Merrell Vapor Glove, but can't find it in my price range. And I had a very hard time finding MT10s in my price range for ages. They are scarce now apparently and run about $115. I bought my originals for about $60. And just recently I found another pair for $60, hurrah! I mentioned in my original review that I couldn't tell that the MT10s had a 4mm drop. I sort of can now. Compared to the old ones and my vivobarefoot pairs, these have a noticeable stack height and drop. Nothing worrisome, some slight protection is good for the trails, but I can tell the difference. I really wish Vivobarefoot made the Neo still...

You can see I really beat up the old ones.

Here's to getting back on the trails!

Just in time for winter...

Nostalgia: A weekend with the Parents

I had a good weekend with my parents. I went back to help them butcher turkeys. They've raised them most every year since I was quite young and it was as much for nostalgia that I went as to actually help (and of course score a nice juicy turkey.)  I know it's probably odd for me to feel happy about plucking bloodied feathers off poultry, and yet.

There were nine all told. The biggest tom weighed in at 30 pounds. I remember one Thanksgiving we had a 35 pounder and had to rig two roasting pans together. Good thing my mom has a restaurant size oven. The hens were all in the upper teens.

We ate one for dinner of course. Nothing like eating meat so fresh it was breathing hours ago and never frozen. The meal was accompanied by all sorts of home grown veggies too.

And the company was nice too. For years I sort of avoided visiting. I always mostly blamed it on the distance or the unpredictable weather. But really, I was just unsure of myself. I hate confrontation. I know that many of my choices have disappointed my parents and I simply didn't want to face that. Over the years, I've come out of it a bit. Perhaps because my parents are getting more used to seeing me with a beard. Or they maybe just miss me. And probably also because I'm more confident in myself. I don't pretend to be anything I am not and I am so far past most of my transition that I can endure the wrong name and pronouns without undue cringing and absolutely no confrontation.

We all seem to know enough not to talk about points of contention: my transition, religion, politics. However, some politics came up. We talked about GMOs a bit. I am not as worried as my mom is, apparently. And we discussed Trump or "The Donald" as my parents dub him. We agree he's full of shit and also scary. This is a relief to know that they don't side with him.

On Sunday we went on a very small, but very pretty hike. I had Zorro with me and he and my mom's dog loved playing in the water and running around off-leash. There aren't many places around Denver that Zorro is able to do such things.

I will spare the audience any photos from the day before. Only the hike.

Happily swimming Zorro and Blaze. If it were summer, I may have swum there too!

My parents.

Just before heading homeward, my parents loaded me up with meat and veggies and fruit and jams. I got a cooler full of turkey, chicken, beef and lamb. Several homemade jams. Fresh green beans, carrots, zucchini, apples, plums, and grapes.

So despite driving 350 miles in two days, and not feeling 100%. It was a good weekend.

I've been holding off writing this because it's sensitive, and because I'm hesitant to get into my personal life on the internet.

Anyhow.

I'm single now. After nearly five years in that relationship, it's a very new and different feeling.

We're both adamant that we will remain good friends and roommates. Not a whole lot is actually changing. More of a mental shift than anything else.

There was no big moment, it was actually done all in writing, because that's the way we roll.

It's been tough for sure. And lonely. But I know I am not alone. And I know we will still share the best parts of each other.

So yeah.

This week has been expensive for me. I needed to get some things worked on for my car. I knew it was coming, but it just so happened that everything ended up in the same week. Almost $400 for oil change and fixing the brakes. $200 for two new tires. Then of course the car payment itself and insurance. Also my registration is due this month, so altogether my car cost me nearly $900 this month. Whew. Luckily, with all the maintenance, I won't be having to pay much for it for a good long while. Except the day I got my new tags, I discovered that someone had clipped my license plate. They literally cut the bottom left corner, the month tag, off. So I have to find the time to go into the DMV on Tuesday and likely pay more money for that. So frustrating.

I also had a fun dinner with a friend at an authentic Chinese place. I'm sure they had the things one would normally find on a menu in a Chinese restaurant, but we were looking at the things that are not served anywhere else. We got chicken feet, squab, and picked out a live flounder to have steamed. The chicken feet were not good. They were cold and salty and chicken feet. The squab was delicious, even if its head stared at me as I ate. And the flounder was very good, though perhaps not worth the price.

It was a fun experience.

Now to let my wallet recover from this week. So that I can schedule surgery for a month or two out.

Trail Tuesday

It's been a month or so since I've done a real trail run. I looked at the weather for today and decided it would be perfect, as it wasn't even supposed to break 70 until after noon.

I originally planned on doing a trail I regularly run, North Table Mountain. But on a whim, I decided to do South Table Mountain instead. It was enjoyable. About 8 miles of enjoyable. Unfortunately, though the temperature stayed in the 60s, it was really quite humid.  But I survived. I am really out of practice though, I think I hiked more of this one than most of my previous trail runs. My Nerd Fitness workouts are definitely helping to strengthen my legs, but I need to get my lungs back up to par.

tiny toad friend.

wildflowers and singletrack forever.

Xero Shoe review (of sorts)

Surely you remember how I'm a minimal shoe (fanatic, obsessee, aficionado) enthusiast. I've been wearing Unshoes Pah Tempe for the past three years or so since they were the only minimal sandals that didn't have a strap or lace between the toes. Early this year I began to have some slight problems with them rubbing a bit where some stitching is. Not a huge deal, but I began to look around and see if there were other options. And Unshoes has changed some things, so I considered a new pair of those. But I also found the brand Xero Shoes. They had a very similar strap design, but a very different sole, though still just as minimal. Since they're located in Broomfield, I decided I'd swing by after a trail run and see if they were any good. Steven, the owner, met me and fitted me with a pair. They were super comfortable. And a bit cheaper than Unshoes (especially without shipping!) So naturally, I bought them.

Initially, I had a little bit of difficulty getting the proper fit. They are infinitely adjustable. The heel strap as well as the continuous strap on the top of the foot. I think they were a tad narrow, or perhaps my foot is weird, or I walk strangely, but my feet had a tendency to twist in the shoes, causing the outside of my heel (mostly on the right) to come up over the side and occasionally the big toe to come over the inside. This was especially problematic as the heels have a sort of bumper, a raised cup to keep the heel in place. I would end up stepping on that fairly regularly. But after a few somewhat helpful (and very prompt) emails, I got that mostly figured out. Until about a month later and 50 or so trail miles when the shoes broke. The straps are attached to the sole by a raised part of the sole that is a hole/slit that the strap is fed through. Though the rubber of the sole is very tough (better than the vibram of the Unshoes, in my opinion), this attachment point is a weak spot. I had to complete my hike to Hanging Lake with a dangling shoe.

Again, they were prompt with responses and I was issued a return label and soon thereafter a replacement pair. Luckily the second pair arrived the day before I was headed to Glacier et al. for a week. Unfortunately, exactly a week after I received the second pair, they broke in the very same spot.

This time I got my money back because it just isn't worth it to me unless they change the design. It's obviously flawed.

I like Xero Shoes. I really do. They're comfortable. Light. Flexible. The sole is super tough. They're local. But they're not so durable for real hiking. Probably fine for playing in the lake, taking walks at the park, etc.

Unshoes have their own small flaws as well, but they've never given up under pressure. So I'll tape that lumpy stitching and keep using them until something else comes along.

National Parks again

What a week!

I just spent a week in Glacier National Park (and a few other parks along the way.) It was a week filled with fun and food and huckleberry mead. And singing. The Pocahontas soundtrack ended up being the soundtrack for the trip. Fun times.

We hiked to Iceberg Lake. Rode a shuttle to the top of Logan Pass. Hiked to Hidden Lake Overlook. Hiked to Avalanche Lake. Swam in the Snake River. Saw several moose. Saw several bears (from a great distance.) Saw a herd of bison. Saw practically ever geyser and geothermic pool in Yellowstone. We even managed a shower partway through the week.

It was quick, and there was a lot of driving and setting up and tearing down of camp, but it was awesome.

A few days prior to us leaving, a fire started at one of the main entrances to Glacier. It closed the main pass through the park. Luckily though, on the day we were planning to head southward, the pass opened up from our side to the top and we were able to take a shuttle and experience the amazing views.

We ended up cutting the trip short by one night. Which was great because it allowed us all a recuperation day before work. But someday we have to actually hike in the Tetons instead of just taking photos of them.

Speaking of which- have some photos (in no particular order):

My friends and I and South Falls, Yellowstone.

South Falls.

Morning mist on the Snake River.

Milk thistle and the Grand Teton.

Hidden Lake and Bearhat Mountain.

Great Prismatic Pool.

Tetons.

Running Eagle Falls.

Fireweed up the trail to Iceberg Lake.

Iceberg Lake.

A moose friend, just off the trail.

Crystal clear up Going to the Sun road.

Wildflowers and Clements Mountain.