So, I've been majorly sleep deprived lately, averaging about 4 hours sleep per night, over the last few weeks, and last night I only got 3.5 hours sleep. Ideally I like to stay up late and have a leisurely start to the morning, waking up whenever I feel like it and reading in bed for at least an hour before starting my day. But now I'm on a new schedule, one of the major freelance gigs I do that currently makes up more than 60 percent of my income is only available with an early morning start time and is all over by the early afternoon. If you snooze you lose, and I have snoozed multiple times, but cannot afford to snooze any longer.
I have to say, as a night owl who has always gravitated to second shift jobs or jobs that start no earlier than 10 o'clock in the morning, as much as I hate to wake up earlier, it's very nice to be all finished working in the early afternoon, because that's the time I like to be outside experiencing nature, but at the same time, I like to stay up late, so it's just a daily struggle regardless, I'm getting up early and staying up late, and am not feeling all that great. And, because I've been so sleep deprived lately I made a careless mistake.
I ride a bicycle as my primary method of transportation, and I have a decent bike. It's not new, but I've taken very good care of it, and if I had to replace it today, with something equivalent to what I have, including upgraded seat, tires, pedals, racks, etc. It would cost me at least $1500.00 USD to replace it, and that's on the low end. So, I use good locks, and more than one, even have an alarm.
Anyway, because I was so sleep deprived I made the careless mistake of forgetting one of my secondary U-locks in the shopping cart next to the bike rack outside the store I was shopping at that day. Of course when I discovered the mistake and went back there was no sign of it and none of the employees knew anything, even the cart attendant who was like right there retrieving carts the day it happened. The guy looked normal, young, white, light skin, blond hair and blue eyes, early 20s, athletic looking but sensitive, and when I spoke to him about it, explaining what happened and asking for assistance, he seemed completely retarded. It was a shock, because he didn't look retarded at all, but he could barely formulate a complete sentence. It was very shocking. I felt like I was a live action role-playing character in the movie Idiocracy, where the dumb people who are good at mindlessly obeying authority, no matter who they are, get promoted, and everyone else suffers the fools and is treated like a second class citizen and a complete moron who better get with the program or die.
Anyway, so now I only have one primary U-lock, which used to be the best but no longer is, and some cable locks, which really are only for accessories, and maybe your front wheel, and is not something to secure your bike with. So, I have to get a new lock. I've been researching the subject extensively and it appears that you can't get a good lock for less than $200 dollars these days and the best is closer to $400. And you need more than one. So minimum $400 investment.
This is what I'm currently looking at, it's a grinder resistant Hiplock:
But then I realized, WTF, my lock will be so good that they might as well just cut through the bike rack, and they probably will, because the bike rack will then become the weakest link.
It's so disconcerting. I never really thought about that vulnerability before, it's something that can be defeated with a $10 hacksaw. So, it just means having to have multiple locks, and at this rate I may end up becoming like Pee Wee Herman, and carrying locks that either weigh much more, or cost much more than my actual bike, and then it's getting to be a bit ridiculous. The technology needs to advance, I'm thinking psychic force field and more sophisticated alarm system and harsher laws against bike thieves. For now I will only be shopping at stores with security guards and maybe going back to grocery delivery.
