I attempted to cancel my cable a couple of days ago. With summer and better weather around, I can get rid of some of the indoor luxuries and save some money.

Well, the cable company wasn’t having any of that. I initially wanted to just reduce my service down to limited basic cable (the 10-15 basic network channels.) Well, after throwing a handful of bundling offers (tv, internet and phone) at me, and lowering the price of extended basic 3 times they finally lowered it enough to where I said ok, that’s good enough. Though, after taxes I was only saving $10 and I still had the same service!

I called back the next day and told them I just wanted limited basic. They threw their offers at me again, but I refused each one. When told that limited basic was $19.95 I told them I would rather just cancel the service. So they canceled it.

I went a day with getting only NBC through the antenna when the cable company calls me again. He says it’s “to verify that I am going to cancel my service,” but then launches into the deals. I refuse 3 of them, and he hits me with one more: Limited basic cable for $9.95/month for 12 months. You just can’t go wrong there. And it’s probably good to have some sort of reliable TV for weather and such, right?

Oh those cable companies, they know how to get a guy!

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For my last full day in Boulder, CO my cousin Bart and I headed out to his mountain cabin to spend the day there. The weather began cloudy and rainy, and it even hailed on us as we stopped for lunch at a Mexican joint on the way up. Later I learned that this system of hail was the same that produced tornados about 10 miles away from Boulder! Yikes.

At the cabin Bart did a little a bit of landscaping and I helped him gather some rocks from the hill to make some walking paths and borders around the cabin. This made both of our backs hurt so we didn’t do this for long.

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Saturday I went with my cousin Bart to a Habitat for Humanity build that he was looking at working on. I thought it was a great idea and a very good way to spend a day.

The house was a two-story house built on lot in a trailer park, which was kind of strange. Nontheless we went to work. I began by helping finish the drywall on the stairway, then went on to help get a bolt loose from the corner of the house that needed repairing. After sawzalling a hole in the side of the house for the dryer vent, it was lunchtime. Chick-fil-a provided some pretty tasty sandwiches. After lunch I helped finish the roof on the shed in the back yard, and finished up the day by siding the back of it.

On the job for Habitat for Humanity

After the build Bart and I returned home and headed to the pool and hot tub in his condo area. It was very hot and sunny in Boulder so it felt great to take a dip.

Later we visited the mega church that Bart attends, and viewed a nice service. A dinner of fajitas later and it was a day.

Sunday, another mountain hike!

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Friday was kind of a hang out and explore sort of day again. I rode the ol’ bike into town and did some shopping and eating for a few hours. I also rode through the University of Colorado campus which is very nice with many brick buildings. Though it was very hilly and not too bike friendly (at least for a flatlander.)

Colorado University at Boulder

Later on Bart and I made up some tacos for dinner, then ventures into town to check out the bar scene a little bit.

We first stopped at some Texas-style bar where the waitresses all wore bandanas for shirts. Yes, that’s it, just a bandana tied in back. It was quite distracting, I must say. We watched some people fall off the mehanical bull and then took off. Next we cheked out a band at an Irish bar and caught a rendition of “No Quarter,” a great Led Zeppelin song by a very not great band. They definitely thought they were better than they were.

This convinced us we were tired and also tired of the bar scene, so we went home. A couple bites of some Ben & Jerry’s later, and it was bedtime.

Tomorrow we’re volunteering for Habitat for Humanity! Very cool.

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The second half of Thursday consisted of a continued bike ride around the city of Boulder. I saw much of downtown, and rode for a while along the river bike path, which was very cool as the river was fast with some rapids and there were lots if good sights of the mountains right there at the foothills.

The bike path into town

The river next to the bike route

After getting sprinkled on a little on the way home, I hit my cousin’s condo pool and hot tub for a bit. I loves me some swimming so that was very refreshing. Later I took a walk around the block until my cousin got home.

My cousin has an old cabin up in the mountains that he has refurbished so we decided to grab a pizza and head up there to check it out. It’s absolutely beautiful up there, with the winding roads and rolling hills and trees forever. However, Bart (my cousin) proceeded to tell me horror stories about mountain lion attacks which made our upcoming hikethrough the forest all that much more exciting.

After taking a quick tour of the cabin, we headed up into the woods. Bart wanted to ty and clear amy deadfall from a trail he usually mountain bikes on. We headed right into the belly of the beast, straight up he mountain over treacherous terrain and loose footholds until we came upon and old aquaduct that is pretty level and makes for a nice path. Armed with only some snips and a hand saw, we were watching the tops of trees and any rock platforms for the lions to pounce. There were quite a few opportunities for some great photos which I will share later (typing this from my iPhone due to limited web connectivity here.) we eventually made it back, lucky or unlucky enough to see any bears or mountain lions, depending on perspective. It was great hike and really the only one I’ve ever taken.

In the gorge

Some of the small mountains and hills around the cabin area

We were quite tired from the day so we came back to the condo to shut it down. Friday consists of another bike ride into town, and more exploring!

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Began the day by sleeping in until 10, except in CO time that was 8am! It was pretty chilly out at about 54 degrees, so I killed some time by watching “Airport,” an old Dean Martin movie.

After cleaning up, I borrowed my cousins bike and trekked a few miles (5 maybe?) in to downtown Boulder. There’s a no-cars-allowed street mall there and I have been shopping. I found a bandana at the army surplus to cover my badly sunburned head.

Downtown Boulder - Pearl St.

Right now I am eating an Italian Stallion from Lindsay’s Boulder Deli. Fun times so far!

PS – the mountains are awesome looking

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I’m in Boulder, CO for 5 days visiting my cousin and exploring the area. It is a graduation gift from my parents.

If I remember, I’ll be updating here on the things I do and see. So far it’s a bunch of people, buses and street lights as it apparently gets dark here earlier than at home. But tomorrow, the sun will rise.

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These usually start off with an explanation of how I’ve been very busy lately, too busy to type a blog post about what I’ve been busy doing. Which would probably be an interesting post, actually.

This is followed by a short summary of the things keeping me from posting, but why waste that here?

Then people usually pledge to update more when things settle down, which would be nice, but who knows when that will happen?

I guess I’ll just skip one of those types of posts (wow, that is so cliché for me to say!)

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Make sure you check out the 2009 NBA Playoffs Bracket as it is constantly being updated with all of the latest playoff games.

It will also tell you what games are coming up, on what channel, on what day, at what time! Whew!

As always, comments are welcome and encouraged!

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