Day 1 (3/30)

Seeing as I originally didn't plan on starting this challenge until nearly the end of the day, I have little of note.

Day 2 (3/31)

Man I need to get out of the house. I was back in WA this weekend, so getting some reprieve from travel was nice, but has now overstayed its welcome. I was meaning to take my bike to the store, but what I thought was going to be a 30 minute meeting turned out to be 2 hours. Then it was time for work and we were getting tickets at a high enough rate that I couldn't justify taking my laptop with me for a quick trip to the store.

The problem is, I started a new mini-project that ended up sucking me in. I've been trying Claude code and holy moly is supervised vibecoding fun. Suddenly those simple apps I have always wanted are far easier to build. I simply have to get the core functionality working myself, and let the bot write all the stuff that boils down to essentially boilerplate, while I get to fill out the core logic.

I wanted a TUI that I could use to quickly navigate through directories without needing to keep typing "cd ../../.."

Then I just asked the bot to make minor tweaks and I had exactly what I wanted.

Tomorrow I'm making a rule, I have to be outside for at least one thing before 11:00.

No sense in not using a car if you don't go anywhere.

Day 3 (4/1)

Today I drove my car... NOT haha April fools.

No today I held true to my promise of yesterday of getting out of the house before 11:00. Well... it was more like 12:30, but I got out of the house and that's what matters.

I didn't need much from the store, just some olive oil and laundry detergent, but while I was there I got some cheese and salsa for tacos. Somehow in 2026 that is $72. Now mind you I was buying the larger options, 32 fl.oz. for the oil and 132 fl.oz. for the detergent, but still that doesn't feel like that should be over $50.

The bike ride to the store was nice, there was a calming, gentle rain.

The ride back wasn't bad either, but man, even having fairly moderate weight cargo really does make pedaling a little bit harder.

Having that break from being in my room gave me just enough motivation to clean up a bit and toss out a lot of things I know I don't need anymore. I know I will be moving out of here before the end of the year and so the junk I have accumulated over the past almost 5 years living here is beginning to feel overwhelming.

Tomorrow I'm going to my girlfriend's family's house, which according to maps is a 1 hour bike ride. I am a little nervous since it's been some time since I've gone that far on a bike, but a challenge is called a challenge for a reason.

Day 4 (4/2)

Phew what a ride! ~24 miles round trip

I knew I was in for a treat when I felt some soreness from the short ride I took yesterday. It seemed like no matter how hard I pedaled I was not keeping much momentum. Then I looked down and noticed my tires were low on air... that would explain it. Fortunately, I was only about half a mile away from the university and they have pumps near all their bike lock-up areas, plus I was already going to pass through it to get on the bike trail. Once I filled up it was far more smooth sailing.

I was going to meet up with my girlfriend's sister. We got close while my girlfriend was away at boot camp and we try to hang out every week or two to swap family drama. Fortunately for me, her afternoon plans got cancelled so I wasn't in a huge time crunch to get there, but didn't want to leave her hanging either.

As I kept pedaling I could feel myself getting tired, but I tried my best just to pace myself instead of resting.

I made it to the house about 12 minutes later than what maps had originally estimated. The blame lies more with a wrong turn I made more than my pace, but it was not quite into the range of being rudely late.

Our chat was short, but nice. She asked about my trip and I asked about the going-ons of her life as we shared lunch. After the natural flow of conversation slowed we said our goodbyes and I was on my way back.

This leg of the trip was a lot calmer without the time crunch. I took a few water breaks and enjoyed the cool breeze.

Though pleasant while seated, the breeze was annoying while riding. It's amazing how just the little bit of extra resistance makes it feel twice as hard. As I got further away from the river, the breeze died down and I was back in the hustle and bustle of the intersection of 65th and Folsom. After a quick run to the store for some milk on the way back, I rolled into my neighborhood and felt eudaimonic.

The quick trips back and forth to the store are fun, but with this challenge I wanted to really see how different my life would be without using the car. This normally quick drive to their house ended up being an activity that took up the majority of the day. With our modern world being so hyperconnected both with the internet and with high speed transportation, it's easy to forget how big the world truly is. I had the same feeling over the weekend while riding on the Bremerton ferry to Seattle, watching the city skyline creep into view as the water lapped at the side of the boat.

There's a sort of peace of mind that comes with a car, you don't have to put any physical effort into going anywhere; you just get in your little box and go. Sure, it costs gas and different routes take longer, but a long car ride only will drain you mentally. Furthermore you're isolated from the outside world, you don't really have to worry about weather, temperature, or time of day, for the most part your car can adapt to nullify pretty much all these factors in a way you can't with a bike or on foot.

You just don't get the luxury of divorcing yourself from your environment.

Day 5 (4/3)

Much like how the challenge started, I don't have a need to leave the house today and thus don't have much to note.

I'm just happy I took the time to complete it, to do something just for the fun of the challenge. I may try doing more of these, so long as it doesn't interfere with the rest of life.