Day’s Verse:
Don’t hoard treasure down here where it gets eaten by moths and corroded by rust or—worse!—stolen by burglars. Stockpile treasure in heaven, where it’s safe from moth and rust and burglars. It’s obvious, isn’t it? The place where your treasure is, is the place you will most want to be, and end up being.
Matthew 6:19-21
[Note: This was also yesterday’s verse, but it seemed incredibly appropriate for today, given my Garmin’s death]

When I was a kid, we had a book called Fortunately, by Remy Charlip. In it, the protagonist experiences a series of events, each starting with fortunately or unfortunately. It started with, “Fortunately, he was invited to a surprise party.” On the next page it said something like, “Unfortunately, on the way there, he tripped and fell into a hole.” The entire story went from there. I liked it.

My day yesterday was a fortunately/unfortunately kind of day:

Fortunately, Dad and I didn’t get rained on as we rode to Cascade Bike Studio (CBS) to order his new Seven.

Unfortunately, the Burke-Gilman trail was still under construction and we had to take the extremely hilly, unpleasant, and slow detour.

Fortunately, we’re in good shape for climbing hills.

Unfortunately, we got very turned around and rode up a few more than necessary.

Fortunately, we got to CBS only 10 minutes late and everything went very well there; Zac gave Dad a free waterbottle and (for me) pink bar tape. Yep, get this: FREE PINK BAR TAPE for next time I need to do the handlebars on Artemis. She’s slowly getting more and more pink. Hehe.

Unfortunately, we decided to catch a bus across 520 from Montlake, but missed the first bus as it went by.

Fortunately, another bus came along shortly, and it had space for 2 bikes on the front rack.

Unfortunately, when we got of the bus at Evergreen Point, we had no idea where we were.

Fortunately, there were signs for a bike path nearby that got us oriented so we could find our way.

Unfortunately, as I rode down Lake Washington Boulevard, which is currently ground up preparatory to repaving, my Garmin slipped off my bike and I didn’t notice until a mile later. When I retrieved it, at least one car had run it over.

The Garmin had 7 days’ worth of data on it that is now lost (Ian told me to back it up; stupid me, I didn’t), plus any rides I do until we do something to replace it will be data-less. I love my data — it’s one of my favorite parts of riding, the post-ride data processing. I’m a nerd. So sue me.

Fortunately, this means I can now get a Garmin 800, which looks really cool. Touchscreen?!

Unfortunately, the Garmin 800 is also very expensive.

Fortunately, I just got paid by the Bike Alliance for September, just enough to cover a new Garmin and have no other impact on our finances. Fate?