Justa Rollin’ Right Along


Snow Driving In Central Connecticut – 2008 BMW X5

Saturday, January 10th, 2009

When I went and bought this car, I knew I wanted the “xDrive, intelligent all-wheel-drive,” but never really thought I would use it. At this point in the season, I am beginning to see how it can be handy to have around.

I got a great idea around 7PM this evening. I was getting hungry and it was snowing outside. I would say about an inch already fell. What better way to celebrate our current snowstorm than to go out and get some pizza?

The pizza place is a few miles away. There are no serious mountains to climb or drive down, so I didn’t really see anything wrong with hopping in the car to go for a ride. Actually, I was looking forward to it, because from what I have already experienced, driving in this car is like riding a train. BMW is awesome.

As I was cruising up the driveway, I gave it a little something extra, like I usually do. I didn’t get that normal 4-wheel spin, but I did get some pull. I credit the snow with not being all that slippery for that. As I drove down the road, I did a little zig-zag to see what the roads felt like. Nothin’. It didn’t budge. As I went around the first tight corner, I did feel a little slip, but the car corrected by itself. I think I was getting a little too comfortable.

I was about half-way to the pizza place when I realized that I could be taking pictures of this whole experience. I mean, how often do you get to see pics and vids of someone driving in the snow? Not often. Oh, you are going to love this…

2008 BMW X5 driving in snow storm

2008 X5 driving in snow storm

2008 BMW X5 driving in snow storm

2008 X5 driving in snow storm

I couldn’t decide which of those two photos was better, so I posted both of them.

Snow coming down at gas station

Snow coming down at gas station

Gas prices - central Connecticut

Gas prices - central Connecticut

The photo above is for my father. He is always asking about the gas prices here. It’s what fathers do.

2008 BMW X5 tire and rim

2008 X5 tire and rim

That’s just a random shot of the car tire. I was standing there pumping gas with a camera in my hand. What did you want me to do?

2008 BMW X5 dashboard at night

2008 X5 at night

Oh yeah, I got some video for you too. Check ‘em out. And to think, I wrote all this, the same day I wrote about blogger’s block. By the way, that’s “A Prairie Home Companion” and “Thistle & Shamrock” on the radio in the background.

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A Little Saturday Snowboarding

Saturday, December 20th, 2008

After I got in from clearing off the this morning, I thought it would be a great idea to pull out the old snowboard to see if she is up for this season’s abuse. I went downstairs to inform Laura of my plan and to ask if she would be the camera woman for the occasion. She replied, “Just make sure the car is ready for when I have to take you to the hospital.” Obviously, she has never seen me carve up the mountain.

We have this hill in front of the house that goes up to the road. It’s a nice steep hill that is ideal for snowboarding, or sledding, if you have a sled. We don’t. All we have is a snowboard. The hill continues, but flattens out as you continue on towards the back. I figured that I could get in about 100 feet or so, before I had to end the ride.

I made about 5 different trips down the hill. We got some shots of all of them, but some were better than others. I kept the good ones and pasted them together in sequential order. You can tell they aren’t all from the same run, so you are going to need to use your imagination.

Here we go…

Me, analyzing the hill.

Me, analyzing the hill.

Getting ready for the ride.

Getting ready for the ride.

Boy, this is steeper than I thought.

Boy, this is steeper than I thought.

Confidence is back. Carving it up.

Confidence is back. Carving it up.

Wipe out.

Wipe out.

Man, that was fun. I even sat on the board to use it as a sled. I think we need to go out and buy a nice sled though. It really is the perfect hill.

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The Funniest Thing That Happened in my Life – #2

Saturday, November 29th, 2008

He should have never bought that gun.

You know, for the past few days, I have been agonizing over how I am going to make this story good. On the surface, it seems like a simple task, but the more I have been thinking about it, trying to make someone smile through writing is a challenging feat. I knew I had to start writing soon because I had already committed to it a few days ago. I’m not sure who wants to see this story on my blog more, you or me.

Recently, my Aunt, who is a writer, told me that she really gets a kick out of what I jot down here. This means an awful lot to me because she is in the writing business. Truthfully, I have absolutely no training at all when it comes to expressing myself through text and it’s a little intimidating knowing that someone with years of successful stories behind her is on the other side of the screen. I mean sure, I attended English class back in high school and college, but I’m not sure I retained anything. When the day finally came where I wanted to get something off my chest, I started to learn.

I asked her to give me feedback if she saw a glaring error. Actually, I would appreciate feedback if I make a small mistake, like using “it’s” instead of “its.” What would be great is if she let me behind the scenes regarding strategy. How do I start a story off? What should be the first line? Where should I begin the crescendo, like in music or a verbal story? These are all things that can make or break what I, or anyone else, writes.

As you may have noticed, some of my posts are better than others.

Sometimes, an entry comes out nicely when I least expect it, like my recent post, “Snowboarding Is Back.” I really just wanted to get something down quickly, but after I started getting into it, I got more and more motivated.

Sometimes entries don’t come out so nicely. I think I had high hopes for my, “The Rules Of Blogging” post, but I was a little perturbed when I sat down to write that, so it didn’t come out as planned. I actually had to delete an entire paragraph from that one because I thought it came across mildly abrasive.

When I think about what is going to make or break a post, like trying to figure out the answers to those questions I asked above, I think it’s entirely up to me. If I took lessons from someone, the story wouldn’t be entirely mine and it might seem “forced.” It depends on how I feel right at that point of what I am doing.

My Aunt tells me that she enjoys the details. I enjoy writing them. If I can express to someone how all those little green blades of grass feel when they are softly tickling my toes, I think that’s a success. Otherwise, we have a bland story, and no one wants that.

Just a few minutes ago, I was standing in the shower trying to raise my body temperature. As the water got hotter and hotter, I began thinking. I guess the water temperature got my brain moving. I had so many thoughts running through my head about just how I would explain the beginning of this post. So many thoughts were good, although I’m not sure I just spent the past fifteen minutes expressing any of them. I forget so easily. If I could figure out a way to lay my thoughts out faster, I might be on to something, until then, this is what we get.

So it begins…

When I graduated college, I had zero dollars. I was broke. I’m not sure I was in a position to do anything with my life other than to live at my parent’s house and find a job. At least I would have had someplace to sleep and I would be fed. Looking back, I think that might have been a good idea, but that really wouldn’t have put me where I am today. I took the challenging path, which is the one I usually end up taking.

In the past few years, I have had more conversations about how other people live their lives than I care to admit. “If I did it, then so should you,” is how I would usually end a conversation. I probably got that line of thinking from my father. It frustrates me when I see people not working to their potential. I’m not sure why, because seriously, it’s none of my business. It’s just that when I think back on all the adventures I have had through life, I guess I want others to share in those kinds of adventures too. If they are taking the easy way out, then they are missing many of the challenges and rewards that life has to offer. When you take the hard path and accomplish something, you tend to realize it once it’s done. That, my friends, is a good feeling.

A few months before graduation, my friend Rob and I decided to look for a place to live. We had been hearing many good things about Atlanta, Georgia for a while and decided to hop in the car for a trip down South. I actually had a professor who used to live in that city, so I would pick his brain during our student/teacher meetings. I am sure that time could have been better spent (at the rate I was going), but now I’m not so sure. What really struck me was his recollection of Lake Lanier, North of Atlanta. He said it was very active, very deep and very cool. I have always wanted to live near a lake, so hearing this only made me all the more excited for our trip.

Rob is a fun guy to travel with. He can be trusted behind the and the conversation is good. We seem to be on the same page a lot, which makes for a good amount of agreement when it comes to really trying to analyzing something, such as a new place to live. If you had been sitting there, listening to us that first night in Atlanta, you would have heard a, sort of, agreement fight. We were so involved in what we were agreeing on, it may have been viewed as an argument. It’s to engage in and I’m sure it’s even more to watch.

Rob at age 14 (I think)

Rob at age 14 (I think)

I remember a little something about our first drive South to the town nicknamed, “Hotlanta.” We were cruising down one of Virginia’s most scenic highways, Interstate 81. Rob was behind the of his Honda CRX and I was in the passenger seat, trying to get some sleep with one eye open. I generally don’t trust anyone behind the besides myself, but as I said above, Rob is okay, hence, only one eye being open.

The car was already a mess. For some reason, it is impossible to take a trip that lasts more than three hours without the entire car being filled with garbage. This is a phenomenon I will never understand.

I am not sure what began the exchange, but when I opened the other eye, I peered over to see Rob giving someone in a bright blue pickup truck next to us the one finger salute. I got all excited and told Rob to cut the crap. I said, “Rob man, these people aren’t like us. If they somehow get the cops down here to pull us over, they are going to tear our Yankee asses out of this car and no one will ever see us again.” Of course, Virginia is only a few miles past the Mason-Dixon Line and I was at a very ignorant point in my life. Rob tried to explain that the pickup truck had cut him off and the finger was warranted, but I wasn’t having any of it. All I wanted was to get to Atlanta in one piece so I could make a decision that would affect me for at least the next year of my life.

We drove for a while longer and eventually forgot about the whole exchange. The conversation was fluid, but we both agreed that it was time to pull over, get some and browse the service station aisles for its best and healthiest food. After all, we were already at the bottom of Virginia and had been driving for a good long time.

We found an exit that had a huge “” sign next to the exit ramp. We pulled off the highway and made a right. We quickly made another right into the station.

While Rob was creeping along, trying to figure out the best place to fill up, something made me glance out the back window. A few moments after I did, I managed to force out an, “Uh oh.” Um, yeah, you guessed it, a bright blue pickup truck was pulling in right after us. Mind you, this was like an hour after we had seen our last bright blue pickup truck.

We stopped in front of the pump.

I saw Rob stiffen up when the pickup truck guy start walking towards the car. I had no idea what was about to take place, but I was ready to pounce. I was going to let this good ol’ boy know what it felt like to get his ass whooped by a young and limber red headed Yankee.

As he approached the car, the pickup truck dude finally said, “What are you doin’, showin’ me your age?” to which Rob replied, “I don’t know what you are talking about.” The guy responded, “Don’t act like it never happened. I saw you back there giving me the finger.” Rob came back with a swift and forceful, “I didn’t give you the finger, that would be road rage.”

Okay, after I realized the pickup truck guy wasn’t going to try to tear either of us out of the car, I let my guard down and loosened my grip on the fist of death. There would be no altercation today. The gentleman, who actually ended up to be quite pleasant, walked away with another story to tell his friends and we filled up the tank, did our thing, and continued on, headed South.

We made it to Atlanta, and after a few days of driving around, we decided against moving there after graduation. We thought the culture was oriented too much around work. Everyone seemed to be working all the time. Work, work, work, work, work. That went against the grain of Jay and Rob, who honestly weren’t all that much into the whole work thing. We left and headed up to Nashville, Tennessee. Now, that’s a story for another time.

A few weeks later and after hanging out up North for a while, I made the call. I said, “Rob, let’s move down to Atlanta. What the heck. It would be something new and if we don’t like it, we won’t stay past the first year’s lease.” He agreed and we decided to move on down after I came back from college in Binghamton.

Rob helped me out a lot those first few months. As I already mentioned, I had no money. The complex we lived in had a pretty sweet deal…either take the first month’s rent for free, or spread a discount across all twelve months of the lease. Since I moved down about a month earlier than Rob, I said that we should take the first month free, and then we would split the remaining ones after I get a job.

Rob, Pete and Jay in Atlanta

Rob, Pete and Jay in Atlanta

The job didn’t happen until a few months into our little adventure. We took the first month’s rent for free and then Rob covered the next month. Right at the end of that month, I finally got a job and started paying Rob back. He had payed for more than just rent. He payed for the groceries, the utilities and everything else. You know, he didn’t even make a peep about it either, perhaps that’s why I never made a fuss about what happened next.

One day, Rob decided that it would be a good idea to buy a .22 caliber rifle. That’s right, a rifle. Now, this wasn’t a big, powerful gun, it was basically a step up from a BB gun, but still, it could do some damage. Rob walked into Wal-Mart with a wallet and walked out of Wal-Mart with a wallet and a gun. It seems like Georgia actually encourages this kind of stuff.

There was one thing I knew for sure; Rob should, in absolutely no way, own a gun. He has a little history with guns that I will tell you about right now, in numerical order.

1. One day while twirling my BB gun in the front yard, Rob shot the out neighbor’s house window.
2. One day, while shooting targets with my BB gun in the backyard, Rob missed the target and the BB ricochet about three times and hit me in the temple.
3. One day, while standing at the end of the driveway twirling my BB gun, Rob blew out the back window of our friend’s Mustang, while it was driving down the road.

The fact that Rob owned this gun made me nervous. Luckily, neither of us ever saw it again in Atlanta after the day he bought it. He must have put it in his closet for protection or something.

I will move ahead about a year to get this party started.

After our Atlanta experience, we decided to move back up North. I decided to stay at ’s house for a month or so, before moving back to Binghamton for grad school. Rob ended up back at his parents’ house for a short stay before renting a house down in town.

owned about 40 acres of land up in Oneonta, NY. We would all visit about once a month to see what he was up to. When we arrived, was usually straddling some earth moving machine in an effort to either create a road, a dirt bike track or a pond. Every time we were there, was working on some project. Over the years, had collected quite the array of machinery to assist him in his effort to transform his 40 acres into the land of his dreams.

was quite dedicated and was quite serious.

There was one particular visit I remember well. Both Rob and I were on slate for a weekend visit to “the farm.” Since I was already there, I don’t think it qualified as a “visit” for me. For Rob, the three hour drive definitely made him a visitor.

During the few weeks I lived at ’s, I witnessed him acquire a few neat little machines. These were basically farm type things and I really don’t know what some of them were used for. I know one spread around manure. It was a cool trailer type machine that, when towed, spread cow crap all over the fields for various reasons, such as fertilizing the grass and, well, getting rid of the manure.

Another piece of equipment acquired while I was there was an old dump truck. It must have been from the 60s or 70s. It was old and rusty. This was his pride and joy.

I remember the day he rolled in the driveway with it. I took one look and said, “What the hell are you going to do with that? Does it run?” He replied, “Of course it runs. Do you have any idea how difficult it is to get a good running work truck like this around here for so cheap?” He looked so excited and I didn’t want to burst his bubble, so I just kind of shook my head and walked away.

Well, decided it was worth talking about, so he chased me. He explained that this work truck was going to save him countless hours of time. Instead of moving dirt around with the machines, now he could fill up the dump body of the truck and haul the dirt where ever he wanted. His eyes were so bright when he told me about what this truck could do, he almost glowed. I hadn’t realized it, but he had been looking for a truck like this for some time. They were so scarce because none of the in the area ever let them go. They were all using them for their own purposes.

Okay, if it was important to him, it was important to me. I wouldn’t make fun of it.

Rob wasn’t there for this conversation. Rob had no idea how much loved that truck. Rob showed up and wanted to drink beer and ride dirt bikes, of which we were both only too happy to oblige.

We had a good time the night after Rob arrived. We ate and drank and told stories of all the crazy stuff we used to do. showed us the shiny new rifle he recently bought, but hadn’t fired yet. Living on a farm in the middle of no where, I guess one needs a huge rifle that uses 3 1/2 bullets. I saw them and they could probably penetrate tank armor. was pretty excited about this and said he was going to see how it shot the next day.

It just so happens that Rob decided to bring his gun too. Sure, it wasn’t nearly as powerful as ’s new bazooka, but it would be fine during target practice. I just had to be sure the stay the hell away from Rob when he was firing this thing. At the time, I thought it wasn’t a bad idea to bring that gun up to ’s, since it was on a hillside in Oneonta, NY. There was virtually no one for miles.

You know, come to think of it, at no point that night did ever express to Rob the importance of his new work truck.

We woke up the next morning. As usual, Rob was up first, looking to get a jump on the day. He was always so damn chipper when he was up there, it was annoying. I wanted my beauty sleep, but I guess I was kind of excited too. After all, this was the day we were going to see two guns that had never been fired before, fired.

We took showers and walked downstairs, but couldn’t find . We strolled around for a while, got some coffee and decided to sit on the couch and talk. The house was silent and kind of boring, but we didn’t really want to get into doing farm chores…we would leave those for . We were there to have fun.

After a few minutes of some pretty lazy conversation, we were shaken by a huge “BA BOOOOM!!!” Our eyes shot wide open and poor Rob almost fell off the couch. I think my heart skipped a beat when I heard that enormously loud explosion. I looked at Rob and Rob looked at me. We both thought we were under attack. Rob started to get to his feet, when another “BA BOOOOM!!!” knocked him back on the couch. I felt so bad because he had no idea what the heck was going on. Neither of us did.

We got to our feet and raced to the back window, the one overlooking the mountainside. There, we saw standing and smiling with a grin so wide it went from ear to ear. He was standing there with his huge new rifle in his hand and a new wake up call. He was staring straight at us and obviously knew he was going to scare the heck out of us. I’m not sure if he was so happy because he scared us or that he mutilated whatever it was that he just shot.

Hillside in Oneonta, NY

Hillside in Oneonta, NY

I just stood there staring out the window, frozen, when I saw Rob whiz past me and run down the stairs. Oh no, he had his gun too. I guess I had been in a trance longer than I thought because Rob had actually run upstairs to grab his gun and bullets, got his sneakers on and made it outside before I even knew what was going on.

I quickly pulled my sneakers on and tightened up the laces nice and snug. I flew outside to meet Rob standing a good distance in back of . was setting up for another shot and we didn’t want to be anywhere near him when we heard the…”BA BOOOOM!!!” again. Yeah, that was it, he took another shot.

We were both standing there next to each other when Rob asked, “What in the world is that?” He was looking at ’s new truck. I said, “Oh, don’t ask. That’s ’s new work truck. Like he needs another hunk of junk around here.” Rob said, “Seriously.” and began walking down to , who was filling his rifle up with another bullet.

I remember standing there when I saw Rob stop about half way between and me. He put his hand in his pocket and pulled out a bunch of bullets. He took the clip out of his gun and filled it with the bullets he just pulled out of the pocket.

At that point, things started to move in slow motion…very slow motion.

When woke up early in the morning, he walked down to the new work truck and placed a shooting target on the very rearmost, highest tip of the wooden boards used as sides to the dump body. The main dump body was steel, but there were two 2×10s on each side of the bed to hold more material. This target was placed neatly on the uppermost corner, far out of reach of the rest of the truck. It was almost invisible from where Rob was standing.

When shot his gun, the bullet was so powerful and so fast, it simply sliced through the paper target and splintered the wood. The bullet easily exited the backside of the board. It was almost like there was no damage from the small missiles at all. hit the target three times and the board was still clearly intact.

had loaded his gun and Rob had loaded his gun.

No one ever told Rob that there was a target on the back of the truck.

set up to take another shot when we both heard, “PAP PAP PAP PAP PAP.” It was Rob’s gun going off. I think liked it because now Rob was getting into the mix. Rob was standing there like he was a hitman taking down a rival gang.

“BA BOOOOM!!!” again. made another shot. “PAP PAP PAP PAP…” Rob kept firing. I think his clip held 20 bullets and he had emptied them all. “BA BOOOOM!!!” had fired his last bullet. What a morning it was.

I stood there watching the whole thing from behind them both. What struck me as odd was the angle of Rob’s gun. It wasn’t lined up with the target and it kept moving from side to side. ’s, on the other hand, stayed straight and steady, like it was in the hands of a trained marksman.

I stood there in disbelief. My mouth parted slightly and hung open as I realized what had just happened. The corners of my mouth began to curl upward. I started walking toward both Rob and when I overheard them congratulating themselves for the massive amount of firepower they had just displayed. I just kept on walking, one foot in front of the other.

When I reached them, the three of us started walking down to the truck together. We were quiet during this time and for some strange reason, no one said a word. The silence was deafening. All we heard was the crunching of the dried dirt beneath out feet.

We had about 100 feet to walk in total and about 50 feet were left. When we reached 20 feet, we all heard a “HISSSSSSSS.”

’s head quickly snapped over to look at Rob when he belted out, “ROBERT, WHAT DID YOU DO???”

I felt a tear forming in the outside corner of my right eye. My upper lip began to tremble in anticipation of the discovery we were about to make. My feet started shifting in my shoes.

A few steps closer and the hiss got louder.

That’s when all three of us simultaneously saw bullet holes peppered out over the entire side of ’s new work truck…his pride and joy…his saviour of countless hours of hard labor.

I began making quiet screaming noises inside my tightly clamped mouth. My eyes were only half way open and my forehead has scrunched up more than it had ever been. At this point, tears were fully formed and rolling down my cheeks. I really tried to hold it in.

As we got closer, we found that the tire was punctured, the windshield was shattered, the side of the truck had about 10 bullet holes in it and the front fender was hit multiple times. There were no bullet holes anywhere near the target at the back of the truck.

I turned around and began walking back up the hill towards the house. looked over at Rob and started yelling at him. I finally let a breath out and nearly broke down in the middle of the field. I looked back to find that they had popped the hood of the truck open. Rob had shot the fender, which sheltered the engine. Apparently, Rob’s bullets made their way through the distributor cap, the and the valve covers. The truck was unusable.

I kept walking up the hill and heard the yelling get louder. It was like a cartoon. A few more quick glances and it felt like someone slipped peyote in my morning drink. I was full fledged balling at this point. All I could do was walk away and dream of brighter days ahead.

I love Rob. I love him to death. The gifts he has bestowed upon me are immeasurable. I am not sure he will ever know the joy he has brought to my life.

This, my friends, was the second funniest thing that has ever happened in my life and I enjoyed sharing it with you very much.

Thank you.

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Snowboarding Is Back

Tuesday, November 18th, 2008

As you may already know, my personality type parallels that of the great adventurists of the world…Richard Branson, the Wright brothers, Ranulph Fiennes, etc… Yes, that’s right, my story will most likely have its own Wikipedia page someday. I don’t see how it couldn’t. With all the exciting tales I endure throughout my days (usually within an acre of land), I am sure I will go down in history as one of the greats.

Okay, let’s come back to reality. I’m just a guy who likes to write from time to time.

I had a grand thought the other day. I was and thinking about how I hate Winter. I don’t really have a problem with Spring, Summer and , but Winter is hard for me.

One problem I have with Winter is with the lack of daylight. That bugs me. Last week, I had to rush back from playing tennis so we could go for a walk up the road before it got dark outside. It was only 3:15 in the afternoon. That’s annoying. I always hated the dark. Not because I am scared of it (which I’m not), but because people go inside and hide when it gets dark. It’s like the show is over and everyone goes home. That’s depressing. Also, the dark stops me from fiddling around outside. It forces me to go in and wind down for the next 7 hours before I go to sleep. I have always hated going to sleep. Who ever thought that I would be as old as I am and still fight about going to sleep.

Another problem I have with Winter is the cold. Things don’t grow in the cold. I can’t go to the store and dream about what I am going to plant next when it’s cold. I have no visions in my mind. It gets a little boring. Also, as you may have noticed, there are fewer pictures to take because I am doing less and things don’t change that much. I am sure I can take pictures of a dying lawn, but I am sure you would get sick of that.

I remember when I used to live back in my home town in the house I grew up in. We lived on a great road that had a nice amount of walkers that would use it for…well, . I like to chat it up with people, so I would spend a lot of time sitting at the end of my sidewalk, waiting for people to walk by. Since this would happen from May through , I accomplished a fair amount socializing. I’m not sure if the walkers appreciated it, but I sure did.

I always remember the times when I would go out to the road, look up and down, and realize the season was over. There was no one and there would be no more walkers until the next season. That thought would always be felt in my stomach.

One more depressing short story and then I will get to the point, I promise.

As some of my readers will agree, the lake in my home town was the bomb-diggity when we were growing up. I have no idea if people still use the lake for today, but when I was a kid, it sure was the place to be. From June 27 through September 3, I would pretty much somehow end up at that lake to swim…every day. My friends and I walked, rode skateboards, rode …whatever, to get down there and hang out.

I usually had the best times right in the middle of July. Everyone in the area had somewhat committed to the fact that the beach was where it’s at. I remember my friend Brian’s mom showing up in her station wagon full of people, Russell’s mom showing up in her maroon Pontiac and some people even . You know, those lucky people who lived close by.

We would all do our thing and swim all day. I remember back from the raft one day and standing up in the shallow water. My lungs were starting to hurt because I was so water logged. I recall looking up past the sand at the big tree that stood near the clubhouse and watching the wind blow the leaves. Everything was kind of hazy because my eyes were so used to being open under the water. This is the era of zinc oxide sunscreen and turtle hunting (we would let them go). This was also the era of Ocean Pacific t-shirts and wondering what the people over at the town beach were doing. Man, I would probably be happy if I could just live those days over and over again for the rest of my life. It really didn’t get any better than that. But, things just refuse to stay the same.

One day, late in the season, I decided to go down to the beach. I knew there wouldn’t be many people there because the sky was a bit cloudy, but I gave it a shot anyway. When I arrived, the place was empty. I was completely alone. I decided to walk past the fence and take a stroll to the end of the dock. I thought I would just hang out until someone showed up. All I really needed was for a few people to come by and we would get something going. Well, no one ever came.

I decided to take my shoes off and hang my feet in the water. I untied my sneakers and finally got my socks off. I walked over to sit at the edge of the dock, but when I looked at the water, I was horrified at what I saw. Little specks of “lake” were floating around beneath me. It was turning. That was the sure sign that the season was over. Once the lake turned, it was time to go home to return only when it was warm again the next year. For anyone who remembers those days, you’ll also remember that school was about to start soon as well. That always gave me a sick feeling.

At that time in my life, I was too young to realize that Winter was just a short hop, skip and a jump away. Now, I understand that the time between the end of the Summer and the beginning of Winter is short…very short. Time seems to really fly by these days.

These are just a few of the memories that have moulded me into the person I am today. I have a strong sense of my past and I truly miss things. I guess when it comes to weather, I prefer to play. I really, really like to play. Laura always looks at me like I am crazy for the words that come out of my mouth, but when I think back and daydream about all my best friends and me riding our bikes as fast as we could down the Road to get some pizza at the corner, I get a little sad.

Maybe that’s why I never liked the idea of high school reunions. Seeing everyone so different would probably break my heart. It’s a reminder of how much we’ve changed. Worst of all, it’s a reminder that much of my past is never going to happen again.

Okay, time to get back on track. I just love it when I look up after a half-hour and realize I wrote absolutely nothing I had planned on.

Back to what I was thinking during my walk the other day. I decided it was time to come up with a plan that would take me away from the Winter blues I experience every year. I had to think of what types of activities I like to do during the Winter. Well, writing on this blog certainly is one of them, but unfortunately, that doesn’t get me out of the house. Playing indoor tennis is most definitely going to help, but what else have I enjoyed in my past that I really got a kick out of? Ahhh, snowboarding.

Back when I was living in Binghamton, my friend and I decided to buy snowboards and all the equipment that came with them. We bought the boards, bindings and boots. I also got all the apparel that made my days on the mountainside comfortable. I always said that if I stayed warm while riding on a snowmobile at midnight in mid January, that was good enough to stay warm while snowboarding. Luckily, I still have everything I started with.

When I first started snowboarding back in 1997, I was hooked. You couldn’t stop me. Since I was in college, I was flat broke, but somehow I always had money for a lift ticket. That first year, I went to Catamount, Hunter (about 10 times), Scotch Valley, Jiminy Peak, Greek Peak and some others I am sure I am forgetting. I remember that I would be able to snowboard for 9 hours straight. The next season, we went to all those mountains again as well as a few others, like Stratton, up in . It was awesome.

Rob and me at Stratton Mountain in Vermont

Rob and me at Stratton Mountain in

After I graduated college and moved to Atlanta, there was no more snowboarding for a few years. I guess my body lost its snowboard-ism, because the next time I went snowboarding up at Bristol Mountain, near the finger lakes of , I went with an 18 year old kid. He was on fire and I only made it down the mountain twice. I felt like a smoker of 40 years. It’s amazing how fast the body can fall apart.

I called a few friends over the past couple of days. One of them is a skier who is willing to learn how to snowboard. The other is Rob. Rob told me that he will hit the mountain with me. I am sure that it won’t be too often, so it shouldn’t conflict with his busy schedule.

I think this will make for a more exciting Winter. At the very least, it will make some some really neat pictures of various mountain tops and ski trails. I bet you can’t wait for that.

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My First Nice Bike Ride

Thursday, August 28th, 2008

Yesterday, I decided to start riding my mountain bike in the morning, when it’s cooler outside.

I think we were going for a walk when I came up with that idea. You know, as I was out and about…I always get good ideas. When morning rolled around and I was drinking my coffee, let’s just say I was less enthusiastic.

Even thought I was still groggy, I stuck to my word. I got on the bike and started to ride. For any of you out there who have ridden a bicycle for any amount of distance, I am sure you will agree with me when I say it is great exercise. I already knew that, but was reminded of it as I was struggling to get up the first hill. For those who know what “the Hill” looks like, this hill reminds me of that one. It’s not nearly as bad here, but when I was on the bike, it sure felt it.

I had planned on doing the 3.7 mile ride, but when I got to the end of the road, I decided to make a left and do the 5 mile one. I am glad I did, because I keep talking about doing it. There are tons of downhills and uphills. The uphills are much less fun, but my legs got a great workout.

This area is really great for recreation. I am very pleased that people take it so seriously around here. On the last part of the ride today, I had to go through the woods. That was fun because I got to “get some air” off a few rocks. You know what that means, I think I might need to get a helmet.

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Hiking At Devil’s Hopyard State Park in East Haddam, CT

Sunday, July 27th, 2008

As I have mentioned before, is the place to be if you like parks, hiking, mountain biking and recreation in general. We are learning that people around here take this stuff very seriously. When driving around, it’s hard not to see people jogging, riding bikes, playing golf…whatever.

Last week, we decided to drive down to East Haddam to visit Devil’s Hopyard State Park. I looked at this park’s trail map online and it looked good. The thing that really attracted me was the waterfall. As usual, I opened up Google Earth and checked it out from above. Well, all it looked like was woods. I don’t know, after seeing the satellite view, I didn’t think it looked all that great. We went anyway. I am usually wrong about these things.

I was really wrong about this one. I have been to many state parks in my life and I have to say this one was the best so far. The water does it for me. It’s a very low-key park. There are no highways around and it’s tucked back in the woods. The waterfall is great and the river adds a lot to the hike. This park is going to be on our list for a long time. They also offer camping, which is cool.

I took a bunch of pictures and will add captions where I think they would fit.

We parked on Helon Cone Rd., right off of Hopyard Rd. This was the enterance sign to Devil's Hopyard State Park.

We parked on Helon Cone Rd., right off of Hopyard Rd. This was the enterance sign to Devil's Hopyard State Park.

Chapman Falls on Helon Cone Rd.

Chapman Falls on Helon Cone Rd.

Stone bridge on Hopyard Rd.

Stone bridge on Hopyard Rd.

Random photo of stones that make the stone bridge.

Random photo of stones that make the stone bridge.

Nice rock I found.

Nice rock I found.

The beginning of the unblazed trail heading towards the bottom of Chapman Falls.

The beginning of the unblazed trail heading towards the bottom of Chapman Falls.

Continuing down the unblazed trail.

Continuing down the unblazed trail.

Chapman Falls at Devil\'s Hopyard State Park.

Chapman Falls at Devil's Hopyard State Park.

Field down near the picnic area.

Field down near the picnic area.

The covered bridge at Devil\'s Hopyard State Park.

The at Devil's Hopyard State Park.

Beginning to walk down the orange trail towards the Devil\'s Oven and the Vista.

Beginning to walk down the orange trail towards the Devil's Oven and the Vista.

Eight Mile River at Hopyard State Park.

Eight Mile River at Hopyard State Park.

Cool picture of some moss.

Cool picture of some moss.

Sign leading to Devil\'s Oven.

Sign leading to Devil's Oven.

Devil\'s Oven at Devil\'s Hopyard State Park.

Devil's Oven at Devil's Hopyard State Park.

The perfect camping spot along Eight Mile River.

The perfect camping spot along Eight Mile River.

Cool dude leaning against a big tree. Is that my Sizzle Chest shirt again?

Cool dude leaning against a big tree. Is that my Sizzle Chest shirt again?

Lake at Devil\'s Hopyard State Park.

Lake at Devil's Hopyard State Park.

Like I said, it’s a really nice park. I also took some video. Check them out…

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Hiking at Gay City State Park

Wednesday, July 9th, 2008

This was a long one. At least the air was nice and hot for us during the entire hike…oh man…

We knew which trail we wanted to hike when we arrived at Gay City State Park yesterday. We have been looking at the trail map and we (I) thought we knew exactly where to go. Sure, we started off great, but apparently, we were on the wrong trail from the get-go. I think we started off great because, well, at least we were on a trail.

By the way, Gay City State Park lies in three towns…Bolton, and Glastonbury. It’s pretty big and does the area just fine.

Ok, here is what I wanted to do – I wanted to start off at the yellow trail and go to the end. That would’ve been .8 miles. Then, at the end, I wanted to make a left onto the red trail for another 1.16 miles. I thought that would have brought us back to the road so we could walk back to the car. The problem is that we unknowingly started on the blue trail. I really don’t pay attention to those minor details sometimes.

Well, as it turns out, the blue trail went for .26 miles. It led us to the blue/red trail for another .4 miles. At this point, I said, “Hmmm…this is an awefully long trail. Mileage in the woods certainly seems to take longer than the same distance on the road.” We made a left onto the red trail and walked .91 miles and then (finally) made another left onto the yellow trail for .8 miles. About another .2 miles and we were back at the car. It took a lot out of us, being over 90 degrees and all.

The good thing is that we saw some pretty cool stuff. I could’ve done without the fly that was flying around my head the entire time, but otherwise, it was a good walk.

Here are some photos…

This is the very beginning of the trail. I thought this was the yellow trail. Apparently not.

About half way down the blue trail, we arrived at the Blackledge River. It’s nice a shady and a great place to sit down and take a break. There is a nice bridge and a picnic table. How do you like my Summer haircut?

Back in the day, Gay City State Park was a mill town. Today, all that’s left are some foundations and cellar holes. The top photo above is a foundation that is right next to the brige that goes over the Blackledge River on the blue trail. The lower picture is a cellar hole that (I think) was along the yellow trail.

This is just a random shot of a big Oak tree. We we saw it, I thought that it was pretty straight. The photographer in me wanted to get a neat photo of it.

We haven’t seen any mountain bikers yet, but there are lots of them in these trails. Probably more mountain bikers than walkers. It can get a little lumpy though. Near the wetlands of the red trail, the trails get quite rocky.

This is the lake (swamp) that lies in between the blue trail and the yellow trail. It’s not really a clear lake and I believe it may be responsible for all the rocks and insects.

Finally, a little cooling off at the pump in the camp on the blue trail.

We were going to go back today for another hike, but it’s pretty bad outside. I mean hot. Maybe later on this afternoon or something.

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The Basketball Hoop Being Put to Good Use

Wednesday, June 25th, 2008

As promised, the basketball hoop is being enjoyed by someone who may have a bit of trouble dunking for some time…even when the hoop is on its lowest setting.

My stopped by a few days ago to pick up the whole thing. This, of course, is after I spent a good chunk of time with my sledgehammer getting that large ball of concrete off the bottom pipe. With a bit of sweat and a lot of energy, I removed the concrete. The hoop was as good as new.

I told you he was going to have a little trouble dunking. I can see it now, the next best basketball star telling his story about practicing in the mountains of Virginia.

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Hiking Up Mount Beacon

Sunday, June 10th, 2007

If you are reading this post, you have probably seen Mount Beacon (Beacon Mountain). Maybe you didn’t even know you were looking at it. Just doing a Google Search surprised me…there are so many people interested in this mountain. Here are some interesting links…

- Beauty atop Mount Beacon
- Gateway to Mount Beacon Park
- Save the Mount Beacon Fire Tower
- Mount Beacon Amateur Radio Club
- Mt. Beacon Incline Railway

I always knew there were a bunch of radio towers up on the moutain, but I was not aware of how many people love this place. I once new a guy…yeah, I knew a guy who used to ride a quad up Mount Beacon. Boy, he told me it sure was a difficult ride. The bottom was easy to get up, but once he hit the old ski slopes, it was nothing but huge rocks. That is pretty hard terrain for a quad.

I have heard many stories about Mount Beacon, but I really don’t know what to believe. Here is what I do know…the mountain offers a view over the City of Beacon, NY. There are radio towers, among other towers at the top of the mountain. There are also some old fire towers up there too. It offers some really great ATV riding as well, but you didn’t hear that from me.

Here are the rumors that I heard, which may very well be true. You can see New York City on a clear day. There used to be an old ski lodge at the top of the mountain with ski slopes going down the face. There was a trolly type thing that used to get pulled up the mountain. Who knows…

One of the most interesting things to me is the reservoir at the top of the mountain. I have some of that below. Well, what am I waiting for? Let’s see the

mt-beacon-reservoir-1.jpg

See, I told you there was a reservoir on the mountain. This old broken down sign tells us that the reservoir holds 125 million gallons of water.

mt-beacon-fire-tower.jpg

This is a view across the reservoir to one of the old fire towers. This particular one is towards the back/side of the mountain and is not as well known as the one people generally talk about at the front of the mountain.

mt-beacon-reservoir-dam.jpg

This is a photo of the Mt. Beacon reservoir dam. Yeah, this holds all the water back, so don’t jump on it.

mt-beacon-view-bridge.jpg

This photo is a view from the top of Mt. Beacon. This view overlooks the Newburgh-Beacon Bridge and the Hudson River.

mt-beacon-view.jpg

This is a photo taken from the same spot as the last one, but looking more North up the Hudson River, towards Kingston, NY.

Do you have any fables, myths or truths about this mountain? I would love to hear them.

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