I flew out to the West coast a couple days ago for a meeting.  I couldn’t believe it when the guy at United told me it was going to be $175 for a bicycle.  I had some old bike vouchers.  A couple were expired.  I had a couple that had no expiration dates.  He told me they were “expired” too.  I said I didn’t think so.  He say that “they” should of stamped an expiration date on the voucher.  I said who he was referring to when he was saying they.  I told him that they was United, who was the voucher issuer.  I showed him the expired vouchers.  They had stamped expiration dates.  And the other one didn’t.  If it was an error, then it was their error.  Long story, I paid the “grandfathered”  rate of $100 and he gave me a $100 voucher good on United.  Fine.

But, that doesn’t negate the fact that I’ll never, ever fly on United again with a bicycle.  It is like they were so much behind the sport and they go 180 degrees in the opposite direction.  I don’t know who makes these decisions for the company, but that amount of money, $350 roundtrip, is enough that anyone that is familiar with their charge not ever going to use their airline. The charge needs to be an amount that will not “scare” off their customers.  That isn’t the case.

I’m a big Southwest Airline fan right now.  It is kind of weird how over the years you have favorite airlines.  Originally I had a ton of Continental miles.  Then with Specialized I started flying American.  Then United.  Through all those years, I frowned down upon Southwest.  I felt badly for the people that “had” to fly it.  Now, I am so depressed when the city I am flying to isn’t served by Southwest.  The two main reasons to fly Southwest.  1) You can miss the flight and you have full credit still for any other Southwest flight in the next calender year.  You don’t even have to cancel your flight.  Whenever I think I might fly somewhere, I just go ahead and buy a ticket on Southwest.  I know if  I don’t go, I will use the $ later.  2) That the bike charge is $50.  That still is a lot.  But, cheaper than all other airlines.  And half the time they don’t charge anyway.

OK.  This all just reconfirms my driving lifestyle.  It used to be anything under 600 miles.  Now it is creeping up to nearly a 1000.  The longer times, costs and humiliating hoops you have to go through to fly to races is making it a no brainer to drive.

I was at a fashion show in a mall last week.  Actually, I was at a mall that had a fashion show going on and I couldn’t believe how tall the heels were on the shoes the models were wearing.  The shortest heel couldn’t of been less than 4 inches.  Every model was wearing these.  Then I started looking around the mall and realized that virtually every woman there was wearing something similar.  The models were walking pretty good in those things.  They had a little issue right at the end of their step when they twist their legs like models do.  But, the average shopper wasn’t nearly as adept.  I hadn’t noticed before, but nearly all the women there were walking in some sort of abbreviated state to stay on top of their heels.  It was not a pretty sight.  Anyway, I don’t get it.  It has to be horrible on your legs.  Not to mention your feet.  Someone needs to explain it to me in practical terms.

To change the subject, I was at the local farm store here in Topeka and the chicks are in.  Every February they get in boxes of small chickens and keep them in cages under heat lamps.  They are so cute.  I’m not sure if these are chickens that lay eggs or to eat.  I’m thinking the latter.  But, if they are the ones to lay eggs, I’m thinking of getting a few to wander around my backyard and eat the leftovers.  It might take some initiation time to get the dogs and cats under control, but I think it is manageable.  Maybe.

And, I got this photo and a bunch more on an email  There are schools of stringrays in the Gulf of Mexico that number in the 10,000 range.  I had no idea that so many stringrays would mass together to migrate.  I would pay anything to personally witness that.

Bike racing.  I’m going down to Texas to do 2 weekends of racing.  I’ve done these races for the last few years and it’s a good way to get a jump start on the season.  Very painful though.  I guess that a few of the Toyota-United guys that didn’t get sponsorship are riding for San Jose, an Austin team. And the Kelly Benefits Pro squad is in San Antonio for a training camp.  So there should be 14 or so of those guys there.  That might just make the racing a bit stupid, but it doesn’t really matter in February.