it's not like losing a finger

on Friday, November 2nd at approximately 8:00am, the hard drive on my 10-month old macbook died. like an idiot, I hadn't backed it up since mid-September. and there were some things (like my calendar and my 9,000-song iTunes library) that I hadn't backed up at all.

for the past two weeks my hard drive has been at Lazarus Data Recovery in San Francisco, being cloned and analyzed in a clean room. the prognosis is bad. at this point, there's only a 40% chance that my data can be recovered (and only after I plunk down another $400, in addition to the $225 I've already given them).

so, I started thinking about just how bad is this? what have I really lost? is there anything that I can't re-create? I lost some photos from a recent bike tour and some other events. and I lost a month or so of my training journal. and some financial records. yeah, the calendar is a big one.

but I guess it's not really that bad. I mean, it's not like losing a finger or losing a loved one or losing your job or losing your hair, right?

life's really tough decisions.....

.....which candy bar to purchase from the vending machine @ Lick Observatory.

yesterday I chose PayDay. the Dutchboy got a Snickers (my other choice so we shared). Emilie got a Nature Valley Granola Bar (boring). And Shawne got 3 or 4 different varieties (glutton).

I was honored to take three virgins up Mt. Hamilton yesterday for a beautiful, epic day -- and there were no sacrificial offerings!

it doesn't get much better than this.