Single Rider Tour 2008 — part ten in a series
Check them out here: Single Rider Tour 2008 collection
I live for comments so please let me know what you like, or what needs improvement, in the comments here or on flickr.
Too bad cock-blocking (the visual kind, not the While you were ordering drinks I told that hot guy you were talking to that your rash is probably not contagious anymore…Hey! Where did he go? kind) isn't a recognized event, or Angel would be a world-class cathlete.
Here he is sticking the tricky off-axis back horizontal double block. Even with a difficulty rating of 4.6 and the obviously biased German judge, his flawless ear to speedo synchronization could easily win more medals than Michael Phelps. If, of course, censoring speedos during the men's synchronized diving finals with your ears was a medaling sport; it's still just an exhibition sport I believe.
When I was but a wee tyke, TV commercials had a pretty powerful impact on me. They made me want things. They made me beg for things. Sugary breakfast cereals. The latest whiz-bang toy. Fishing rods that collapsed to fit in your pocket. Unfortunately for an active pre-preteen consumer like myself, I had to rely on good ol' mom and pop to finance such pursuits. And 99 times out of 100, they failed to recognize the enormous significance of the item requested.
My mom being somewhat of a health-nut never bought us anything even remotely fun for a breakfast cereal. If we were lucky, we'd get granola with raisins, but the rest of the time it was puffed millet or Uncle Sam Cereal. I would have to sneak over to my neighbors house and covertly raid their Fruit Loops and Cookie Crisp supplies when they weren't watching.
As far as toys went, anything involving guns or violence were always passed on, and again, I would have to turn to the kids in the neighborhood for a little GI Joe action. Or in a pinch, there was always my sister's Barbie dolls. Hmmm…I wonder…
While my family would drive the hour to the lake to go waterskiing, that was the extent of our aquatic sportsmanship so I never learned out to fish, which means that now I have a fear of getting lost in the woods and not being able to survive because I can't catch a fish to literally save my life.
It may seem odd that after 30 years I'm just now living out a childhood dream. Sadder still is that I probably could have done so much sooner, but simply didn't realize it. That dream? To have a Snoopy Sno-Cone Maker of my very own. Growing up I had a love of all things Peanuts, partly because there's a narrow connection in our extended family to the creator of Charlie Brown, Snoopy, and the rest of the Peanuts gang, Charles M. Schulz. For some reason I just figured they had stopped making toy long ago and thus, never really thought about it again until I saw it advertised at the bottom of an email from CreativePro.com. Instantly I flashed back to my youth and could vividly remember how much I wanted one. Within minutes I was smiling at the order confirmation screen, brimming with self-satisfaction.
When it finally arrived, Betty helped pop my sno-cone making cherry — apparently she's a pro when it come to making sno — and after a quick assembly process we started cranking away. Maybe the shaving blades of the original version were sharper back in the day because honestly making sno for one serving took more than a lot of effort, it took a long time. How on earth did kids power this twenty or more years ago? Oh that's right, they were all amped up from the sugary breakfast cereals. As my first taste of the icy and sweet treat hit my lips, I felt like a part of me had been completed.
A random passerby asked what we were doing (all that ice scraping produces an obscene amount of noise and can attract the wrong kind of attention) and Betty filled him in on the fulling of my childhood wish. He saw it as me trying to complete a bucket list, which brought a whole mortality level into the conversation that was kind of a downer. Fortunately all it took to distract me from thoughts of my now apparent doom was another cold. syrupy-sweet jolt of cherry flavor. That, and a muscle cramp in my forearm.
Had the opportunity recently to spend a little time in The City. Meant to go out and take more pictures than the ones I did, but halfway through the day the motivation left me; too cold, too crowded, too expensive. But I still captured several shot that I like (and surprised they turned out as well as they did as handheld shots because neither my camera nor lenses are particularly great in low lighting situations). The day proved that maybe I need to consider contact lens rather than glasses as viewfinders and glasses aren't very compatible.
Little by little I'm starting to ramp back up creatively outside of work. Will need to especially if GPP is going to go anywhere.
Can't wait to whip this puppy out on Friday. Methinks I should invite Betty over to enjoy a cool and refreshing icy treat too. Hope she likes grape.
I'm either referring to the slooooowly increasing number of posts as I'm on the doorstep of the magical milestone of my 100th post, or it was the rapidly increasing number of shots I was taking last weekend at the Old Mission of San Juan Bautista for Betty's weekly Photo Project. Unfortunately it's not looking promising that I'll be out shooting anything for the most recent "texture" project. Oh well, next week's "household item" project should be a snap…especially since the weather won't be as much a factor.
But getting back to the 100th post, it's coming very soon, most likely on the one year anniversary (another milestone in the blogging world from what I hear) of this site. And with it, a little bit of a surprise for fans of this blog…all 3 of you. Like the writers of Lost, I gave some completely disjointed clues that will all add up to what I'm hoping is a big payoff. Keep in mind a "big payoff" from where I come from is getting an accidental extra taco for free in your number 4 combo meal from Taco Bell. So yeah, as they say in the corporate world, just wanted to "level set expectations." By the way, using corporate speak does not make you sound smart or professional, it makes you sound like a pretentious asshole who is trying to cover up that they don't know what the hell their doing. You're verbal camouflage ain't working, honey, and everyone knows it and talks about it behind your back. Deal with it.
Wait, got a little side tracked…sorry 'bout that. Here's a sampling of the photos from last week's (and, finally, my first) Betty Photo Project. Click on through to Flickr to see all of them and enjoy! Or not. Whatever, I'm going to Taco Bell.
www.flickr.com
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I promised Betty that I'd get some posts, um, posted in the month of December and with the last day of the month quickly approaching, I'd better take a break from all the remodeling tasks (and the Futurama marathon currently playing on Adult Swim on Cartoon Network) and post something. I have another post that I just realize is still in "Draft" mode that I need to publish too, but first things first.
Many of you in the blogiverse have no doubt been wondering what the heck is going on with the remodeling project. And to answer the question everyone is asking... no, it's not done yet. But that's actually ok because if it were going any faster, I'd be completely broke at this point. The fewer hours the contractors work, the less it costs me each week and right now I'm anxiously awaiting to be able to sell some stock after 12/30 so I'm not hit with short-term capital gains tax. But after that I'll be able to refill my reserves and crank up the speed. I'm also going to take back some of the projects from the contractors and finish them myself (installing baseboards, painting, minor rewiring work, etc) to save some cabbage.
It's been kind of nice being home during this past week (company break) and actually having people to talk to. The contractors are really nice guys, friends of a relative-in-law, and fun to converse with (which is good because I'm probably paying for said conversations). With as long as this whole process is taking, it's really good that T-Snake and Carlos aren't here, as it's been challenging enough for me to "rough it" with only a working faucet in my bathroom and a microwave for cooking. Trying to manage these conditions with two other people would be a living nightmare, literally. I'm not sure if they see it that way, mostly because neither side has made much of an effort to stay in touch, but as I write this I don't really care. Or at least that's what I'm telling myself. But honestly, it's really for the best and I need to accept that and look to the future, not the past.
Anyway, the countertop that I finally selected (why is it so hard for me to decide on things like this?) looks amazing after the contractors roughed it into place. Take a look at the pics and see for yourself. The following slideshow actually starts in the future and goes backward to the early days of the project, when I still had money to spend on things like food.
Ok, now before you get too excited and go flying off the handle, waking up the neighborhood with your shouts of, "Huzzah! Praise be the interwebs!" there's only 5 photos from my recent trip, but I think they're pretty good. These were taken at the Vans Triple Crown of Surfing event. Enjoy! What do you think? Share your thoughts in the comments!
Green and red... festive! 
This one makes me melt. Melt! 
Handsome!
The last one there is Bethany Hamilton. You may remember her in the news a couple years back when she was attacked by a shark and lost her left arm. Watching her fly over the waves was amazing. I have no idea how she does it. I sometimes have trouble walking on land with two arms, she's truly an inspiration.
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Worst thing about today: The HORRIBLE customer service the neighborhood's new Best Buy tonight.
Best thing about today: Walking out in the middle of the transaction at Best Buy to go over to Target and buy the new Futurama movie "Bender's Big Score" ... let's hope I don't fall asleep watching it tonight!
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The images in this post are licensed under a
Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial 3.0 Unported License.
