My Side Door

I’m in the market for something relatively big and expensive.  Call it a car or a painting or a piece of industrial equipment…it really doesn’t matter.  So, where do I start my search?  Why online of course.

The item I want is manufactured to customer order and as a result most manufacturers offer them in custom colors with custom add-ons.  They have websites that talk about how great theirs is, with pictures of it, and customer testimonials about how awesome their product is.  There are technical specs about how physically large it is, what capacities they offer, and all sorts of bits of information that will help a buyer make a decision.

The odd thing, however, is most manufacturers do not list a price for their products online.  Talk about annoying.  One manufacturer has a class form to fill out to submit an online price request, which I did last night.

This morning I get a simple form email asking me some obvious questions (questions that I believe I answered when I submitted the form), for which the answer was once again answered.  Then, instead of getting pricing, I got a 2nd email, once again with more questions.

At this point, I became more than a little annoyed.  How many times are we going to email each other back and forth, before this company salesperson decides to let me in on the secret of the price.  I began to feel like I was taking part in an infomercial, with the classic, “but wait, there’s more!”.  Finally, I got back a fancy color PDF for the 2 products that would obviously work best for me, and that included….the PRICE!

I’m still clueless as to why getting a price out of this company was tougher than pulling my wisdom teeth.  Oh well…every business can’t always operate under the mantra that their product needs to be great, price accordingly, and then you don’t have to keep the price a secret.  If that’s what “Great” costs, then that’s what it costs.  I still think this company’s product might be great…just annoyed that I jumped through hoops to get it.

If you sell, manufacture, or provide a service, and are offering that product online, do yourself a favor and list the price.  Online consumers expect to the see the price.  If, for some unexplained reason, you cannot list the price, then absolutely, positively give the customer the price the second they ask for it.

The graphic you see at the start of this post has appeared at the bottom of the middle sidebar on the right for over a year now.  The graphic states, “I make comments participation is king”.  Tyson Crosbie created that graphic for those of us that participated in his soft edit comment process to proudly display on our blogs as a show of support for his approach to social media and photography.

It’s been a long time coming, but alas, right now I need your comments.  Tyson has published my soft edit on Flickr and for the process to work most effectively I need you to go to Flickr, view the 15 images- and via comment -vote for which image you believe best represents the words “spontaneous, inspired, and direct”.

And now that I’ve asked for a favor, a few words about the images and the experience of being photographed by Tyson.  Because I was a lucky winner of one of Tyson’s fine art photographs in his contest Living With Art, Tyson needed to come to my home.  As a result, the photos were taken there on the day I received #9.  Tyson’s wife Jamie was also present.  She told me this was the first time she’d seen Tyson take someone’s portrait.

In the past, I’ve had my portrait taken a few times.  The process in the had always been the same.  The photographer asks me to sit in a spot, look in a certain direction, tilt my head a certain way, and then a few clicks later, my portrait was complete.

That Saturday was very different.  Tyson gave me very little direction.  As you look at the images in the soft edit, you can probably identify the shots in which I was given the most direction.  These are the images, in which makes it becomes painfully obvious, I could never be a professional model.  Instead, for the most part, I was simply chatting with Tyson and Jamie about stuff.  Just talking about this and that.  Learning more about each of them, and them a bit about me.  Small talk, really…the kind you might do at a dinner party.  It was certainly nothing like what I expected a photo shoot to be like.

But the results…they speak for themselves.  Still, the process is far from complete.  To be the most effective, this process needs you to participate as well.  So head over to Flickr, and please, please comment.  Let me know what image or images you think capture those three words.

Thank you.

I’m currently planning my cycling events for the year and working to get back into better riding shape, now that the worst of the heat of the summer is starting to inch behind me.  I’m already registered for The Tour of the White Mountains (TOWM) and El Tour de Tucson (ETT).  TOWM is October 3, so just 2 short months away.  I’m signed up for the 65 mile course along with Chris Z.  Robert and Chris M are supposed to sign up any day now.  This is the distance we attempted and failed miserably at last year, having finished only ~45 miles of the course, before being forced to DNF by race organizers as the rain/lightning was about to pound us into submission.  Honestly, I was toast anyway, so the rain didn’t actually stop me.

Finishing the 65 miles will be challenging.  It’s a challenging course, and even without the challenge, just riding 65 miles on a mountain bike is a long ride on dirt.  Currently, my strength is well off what I need, while my endurance is only off by a bunch.  Stated differently: I could ride 65 easy miles without much worry, but TOWM doesn’t offer 65 easy miles…they are tough, high altitude miles.  That means more hill climbing work in the McDowells over the next two months to build my strength up.  Sunday, I had visions of a Sunrise climb, but failed 1/3 the way up, as I was simply feeling “cooked”, from the early morning heat at only 7:30am.  Due to misplaced sunglasses, I left my house at 6:30am, which was 30 minutes later than intended, and under the direct sun, just couldn’t motivate myself to push through both the heat and the pain of the climb.  I still rode for 90 minutes, but it wasn’t pretty, and demonstrated to me, just how far out of mountain biking shape I really am right now.

For ETT, my goal isn’t to just finish.  I’ve finished the 109 mile event the last 2 years in a row.  Two years ago it was in 6 hrs 23 min, and last year in 6 hrs 1 min.  Both results were Silver medal finishes.  Gold medal finishers are under 6 hours.

Naturally, this year, I’ve got my sights set on Gold.  And I don’t want to just make Gold, I want to cruise comfortably into a Gold finish.  That means 5 hrs and no more than 45 mins.  5 hrs 30 mins would be better.  I’m currently riding the 45 mile Cave Creek loop in under 3 hours, including the necessary stop at Cave Creek Coffee Company.  That’s a good start, but I need to lop off a good 30 minutes from that ride/route.  I love the route for it’s relative lack of traffic, and similarity to ETT’s course conditions, so it’s tough to want to mess with a good thing, but I found a way to add 9 miles, including another 3 mile climb, without adding any traffic, so from now on, my Cave Creek ride will be 54 miles.

The other big ride I have yet to do this season is the Rio Verde around the mountain ride.  That’s roughly 50 miles, but it includes either going up 9 mile hill (up Dynamite Road from Rio Verde) or the 10% grades that are in Fountain Hills, depending on which direction is ridden.  Either way, it’s no picnic, with terrain significantly harder that ETT, and thus why it’s a good training ride.

But the ride I really want to complete during preparations this season, and if I can I’ll know 6 hours is well within my grasp, is the Bartlett Lake Dam ride.  From my house it’s nearly a 75 mile ride.  And it’s either up or down…there’s almost nothing flat about the ride.  I tried it last year, and failed to get to Bartlett Lake, riding only 50 miles, instead of the 75.  It was brutally windy that day,  but I know it’s a ride I need to conquer if I really think a Gold finish is within my grasp this year.

FYI, the Bartlett Lake ride is one that Lance Armstrong was known to ride back in his US Postal days when he stopped in Scottsdale after visiting Tucson to ride Mount Lemmon.  I suppose that’s the allure for me as well.  If it’s good enough for Lance, it’s certainly good enough for me.

I’m also 100% committed to riding the 24 hrs in the Old Pueblo again.  Team Are We Dead Yet? will hopefully continue to build on it’s experience and strengths and find a way to complete 14 laps this year.  If we can stop sleeping together as a team, I think we can do it.

I’m also probably going to ride Tour de Phoenix (April 2010?), as Chris Z said he really enjoyed the ride last year.  It’s 75 miles, and seems poorly named as the ride never once pedals over any portion of Phoenix soil, but the ride should be fun, and a great way to maintain my fitness/focus after the 24 hr race, which annually seems to be a problem for me.