Journal Entry: October 6, 2001

Last month, I refinanced the mortgage on our house.  I paid off the existing mortgage plus the car loans for my and Honda Civic GX with a new loan from the University of Colorado Federal Credit Union at a much lower (and fixed) rate.  Other than having monthly payments of about $800 less, one other benefit is that I got a big fat refund check from the feds for a bunch of mortgage insurance I’d paid (since the previous loan was from FHA and required mortgage insurance).

So, with the check from the Department of the Treasury filling my pocket, I decided to go on a shopping spree and buy some outdoors clothes and equipment that I’ve wanted for a long while.  I got:

• Columbia hat - I’m running out of baseball caps and wanted something that isn’t made of cotton.
• Marmot Catskill sleeping bag - Why do I need another sleeping bag when I already have 3?  Well, one of them is a double wide for summertime camping with Beth.  One is 20 years old and doesn’t insulate very well anymore.  And one is a very warm mummy bag that has zippers that always catch and doesn’t work well for someone who sleeps on his side and rolls around a lot (that’s me).  This Marmot semi-rectangular bag doesn’t have the insulation value of the Cabela’s mummy bag, but it’s got an awesome zipper design, with special panels sewn into the bag to prevent the zippers from catching on the fabric.
• Pacific Trail Pac Tech Terrain jacket - I’ve wanted a true waterproof breathable shell for a long time.  I had a decent water resistant shell but I gave it away and it wasn’t fully waterproof.  This one is great.
• Galyan’s brand polar fleece sleeping bag - supposedly you’d use this for summertime camping, but I bought it as a liner for my new sleeping bag for times it’s cold.
• HydRID LightWeight long sleeve t-shirt - If you’ve never owned any clothes made of CoolMax, you should.  CoolMax is the most awesome fabric I’ve seen.  It wicks sweat away from your skin really nicely - 5 times faster than cotton, they say - but is as comfortable as cotton.  I bought a pair of CoolMax underwear several months ago for wearing while hiking and playing Ultimate Frisbee and when I saw a long sleeve t-shirt made of the stuff, I just had to buy it.