I Need To Tell You Something

I bought a Sackville/Rivendell bag for my front rack a coupla weeks ago. The rack's been lacking a proper bag ever since it got built and I hope this fits that bill, but that's not what I really wanted to tell you.

It's working out pretty good so far, except that the rear loop of the rack sort of interferes with the zipper path - some dumbass built the loop just a tad tall. But that's not what I really wanted to tell you.

The bag comes with D-rings for shock cord (aka bungee cord material) on top, but without the actual cord - you hafta supply that yourself. My go-to place for bulk 1/8" shock cord is REI, but when I went there, they were out of stock. I don't really have a backup source. Shit. Life can be a bitch sometimes. But you already know that, and it's not really what I wanted to tell you.

I coulda looked around and found it somewhere else pretty easily, but that woulda taken some time and that's what I have least of, so I headed straight to Lowe's and bought a 15" x 18" cargo net, which I presumed (read gambled) was made up of one continuous piece of shock cord for $10 in round numbers. This is the starting point of what I wanna tell you.

I un-knotted the net and ended up with one continuous piece of 1/8" shock cord and a buncha leftover hooks, so it's do-able. So that's the first thing I wanted you to know.

I ended up with somewhere in the neighborhood of 27' of cord. Which would have cost me $6.75 at REI. Versus $10 for the net. Not to mention saving a half hour of my life. Point being that, if you're ever faced with the same decision of whether to buy bulk or dismantle a net, go bulk (assuming money is all you care about).

And that's pretty much what I needed to tell you.