The perks of being a blogger

The Fedex truck just stopped at my house and dropped off two pairs of Smartwool cycling socks. These are courtesy of Zach, who works at Smartwool, and whom I've never met but reads my blog (or at least read my entry about socks). Incidentally, not five minutes after the Fedex truck pulled away from my house, I got an email from Fedex confirming that my delivery was complete. My internal geek was duly impressed.

One pair is the PhD Cycling Ultralight Mini (shown above). The other is a very similar, yet-to-be-named short crew length (it goes almost to my calves rather than just above my ankles) pair of very similar construction. I would take a picture and show them to you, but Zach said they are a prototype, and I'm worried that they'd blow up or a ninja would come to my house and kill me if I went around showing everyone the top-secret stuff that Smartwool is working on. Either that, or I'm too lazy to take a picture of my own feet. Regardless, I'm going to start riding with a blow gun and poison darts in my jersey pocket so that if anyone sees me wearing these socks, I can kill him. I've already had those bladed hubs like on the chariot in Ben Hur mounted to my single speed, so don't even think about looking at my socks if you see me on a ride. (You may be relieved to know that the rumors about one of the stuntmen being killed during the filming of the chariot race are false.)

After I've had a chance to wear these socks for a while and really see what they're made of (besides wool, obviously), I'll do a little writeup here. I'll admit that since I got these socks for free, it's kind of hard to be objective about them. In fact, I'm wearing the top-secret pair while sitting here at the computer just because they were so comfy when I put them on that I didn't want to take them back off. Regardless of how this particular pair feel in my cycling shoes, I like Smartwool's corporate philosophy. It's refreshing to see a company that's about something more than making money. I'm a little fed up with organizations where every interest is subordinate to the almighty dollar.

These socks, incidentally, are the first benefit of any monetary value I have received from blogging. I think they're worth a little under $30 for both pair. Which means that I make less than a dollar an hour from blogging. My advice to myself would be: don't quit your day job. If I had a day job, that is. Now, if I can just find someone from Rudy Project who wants me to test sunglasses or someone from Louis Garneau with bib shorts for me to sample.