New toys!

Brent and I had a long conversation tonight about money, fantasizing about all of our dream purchases and thinking about how those fantasies might change over the course of our lifetimes. We quickly came to the conclusion that we’re both much more pulled toward experiential expenditures. An extravagant race. A summer road trip. Tickets to a concert. A month of backpacking across Germany. Those things feel far more important than a new car or a fancy television.

That said…

I have new toys!

Armed with the promise of two coaching paychecks for the fall, Brent and I decided to invest in a stationary bike for the house. We headed to Sears, and then to Dick’s Sporting Goods, and were rewarded for our efforts with a Schwinn Upright 130 – with no interest and no payments for 12 months (cue jingle and flashy commercial)!

We got home and promptly set it up in our office-cum-guest room-cum storage closet.

It offers so many possibilities.

You can read while you ride. You can watch Gilmore Girls. During the day, you can stare out the window and watch my friend Jeanne lock herself out of her house.

I took pictures of all of these things from the bike’s point of view, but then discovered that my card reader is on the fritz. Hmm…

The only problem is deciding who gets to use it when. Tonight, we worked out a carefully calculated schedule. I got in a “ride in the park” (one of the six preset workouts) while Brent marked tests, and then he saddled up while I graded papers. We may not see much of each other anymore, but at least we’ll be riding high.

Then came the motherload.

Every year, on February 28, REI sends out their annual dividend statements. Having an REI credit card and buying far too much gear for our own good leaves us with a healthy chunk of change come March. And this year was no exception.

One of my grand plans after letting my gym membership expire was to save up all the unspent monthly dues and buy myself a garmin. But then I realized – REI sells them! I would be getting half an REI dividend check! Garmin, here I come!

I had no patience for the US Postal Service today, so I decided to call the store and see if they’d tell me the total over the phone (we each attempted this once last week, with little success). I thought I’d have to pony up at least a little bit, but it turned out that I could get my new toy and still leave Brent with more than half of our booty for his new bike fund. Score!

We braved the icy roads this evening and set off for our local store, and I headed straight to the gizmo counter. And just my luck – they even had one in stock! I opted for the Forerunner 205 instead of the glitzier 305 or 405. But it was just what I wanted. Pace and distance and route. Now I could run to my heart’s content and never have to worry about pre-mapping a game plan.

Tomorrow, I’ll be testing out my new friend on the snowy Wissahickon trails.

I love REI Dividend Day!