Obligations

Welpt, I guess since everyone else is blogging up a storm these days it would only be right for me to keep pace with my companions...even though I march to the beat of a different drummer (little bit of Thoreau for ya.) Things have been busy, as usual and with Summer around the corner, they show now signs of slowing down. This is OK. Sometimes busy is good, as long as you aren't too busy. The things that usually wrap us up are church, friends, camp, family...like I said, sometimes being busy is good.
I decided last night that I am going to write a book. Let me rephrase that, I decided a long time ago that I wanted to write a book and for close to 10 years now I have dabbled in doing so. At one point, about 6 years ago, I had quite the start on my book, having composed several chapters. These chapters (along with every other important document I had) were erased soon after I wrote them when I reformatted the hard drive on my computer and forgot to save them elsewhere. Ooops.
I intend to base the book on my experiences growing up on the diary. Now, anyone who grew up on an actual dairy or has even driven by one would scoff at my statement. When you think of the place I called home you wouldn't label it as a dairy. However, we did at one point have two heifers and so if I want to call it a dairy then I will do so. I have started writing down funny memorable stories from my upbringing and not all of them took place on the homestead. If we ever shared a funny moment, beware, for you might end up in my book. Unfortunately, your name will be changed.
There are several things to overcome on my path to writing a bestselling novel. The first thing has to do with my excessive usage of comma's. It's always been a rough relationship between me and the comma. Not sure when it started but it came to light during my Jr. year of high school when I had class with Mrs. Tompkins. For two years she drilled into my head the strategy behind using a comma in the appropriate place. Apparently it didn't stick because I still struggle. Oh well, I guess I'll leave that up to my editor.

The near future...

Welpt, booked some tickets yesterday to head to Minnesota to see Josh, Big Al and Jasper. They are closing on a house at the end of April so that'll be neat that we'll be there the first weekend of May to see the house and the little monster. I've never been to Minnesota before but I've seen pictures...it looks cold. Hopefully the first of May won't be too bad.
In sports news, the Orioles are now 4-0 which is their best start in many, many moons. It might be nice this year to have a team to pull for that might actually win at something. It's too bad I won't be at Camden Yards to see them live this year, but I did purchase MLB.TV so I can actually watch them.
As far as extreme sports go, I went ice skating for the first time on Sunday which was pretty neat. Yes, I was pretty bad at it, but not as bad as I was at snowboarding. I fell on the ice once pretty hard and as I was lying there I couldn't help but wonder why in the tarnation someone would want to go gallivanting around on the ice in tights or a skirt. Call me crazy, but falling on  ice hurts. Whether it happens while you are strapped to a board and flying uncontrollably down a hill or strapped to a boot sitting on 1/16th of an inch of metal, when you hit the ice, it hurts.Speaking of hurts, I watched the movie "127 hours" the other day. Dude. Guy gets his arm trapped under a rock while he's out being dumb in the dessert and then he cuts his arm off to get free. Good for him. Had I been out being dumb in the desert (by myself) and got my hand trapped like that, I would have been like, "PEACE OUT." And then died.
I guess that's why I'm not an extreme sports kinda guy. Which you already know because I classified ice skating as an extreme sport. Don't judge me. 

Ummm.....

I have no witty title for this post. I don't really even have a lot to post about other than that it's been a long time since I last posted. Things have been pretty busy and it's hard to believe that March is almost over. This past weekend we took a group of kids from the youth up to Cathedral Pines (which is where we attend church camp) to do some renovations on the lodge. Cathedral Pines is a beautiful place located all up in the Sawtooth National Recreation Area. It is especially awesome in the summer but in the winter it sees a ton of snow. It snowed close to 18 inches while we were there and that made for a very fun time with the kids. I love how easily entertained they are. I noticed it in San Diego last year on our mission trip. They worked in the mornings and then after that they played in the ocean. That's how it went all week. There was never any whining about shopping or sight-seeing or any of that. It was "lets work," and then "lets go get in the ocean." So naturally while we are up at camp there is no ocean, but there was tons of snow. Same concept though. They worked hard and then they played in the snow. It's intriguing to see 16 year old kids grab a shovel and spend hours upon hours digging a fort out of a 6 foot pile of snow. What's even funnier is that by our 2nd day, I was right out there with them totally caught up in the enthusiasm.

Our first night at the camp we spent doing mainly demolition. It was during this session of tearing 30 year old paneling off the wall that I made a startling discovery. The vein in my right forearm started popping out. It has been YEARS since I have seen a vein pop out in my arm. I showed Adam and Dave my discovery and then decided to name the vein. From that point forward, it's name was Donald. If the vein in my left forearm ever shows up, he will be called Reuben. Why Reuben and Donald you might ask? Well, I took Spanish II as a senior in high school and my Spanish name that year was Reuben Donaldo (yes, I was the only person in the class with a first and last name...even though both of those names are first names...don't judge me). Anyway, I was pretty excited about all that.

Not a whole lot going on in the near future other than just trying to plan some trips for the summer. I am SO ready for it to get warm so I can fish and ride the bike. Mandy and I might even try to do a little camping this summer with our homies, Adam and Amber (they are from Idaho and know the land a lot better than us). But, more on that when the time comes. For now, it's almost time to call it a day and as it's Thursday, Buffalo Wild Wings has their boneless wings on sale for $.60 a piece...I will be making a stop on the way home.

Darn you, Michael Bolton!

Soooo...it's been a while since I last wrote. My bad. A lot has been going on though and the end result of all the happenings has been me getting sick. Two weeks ago it was youth Sunday, then Brad and Matthew came and visited from NC and now I have the youth Valentines Formal just 2 days away. I have felt bad since about Wednesday of last week but just in the last couple days have I started coughing up nasty stuff and having dizzy spells. Mandy also started feeling really bad yesterday so we both spent most of the day in the bed or on the couch. I have rested about all I can stand to rest and despite my ill feelings, I will work through it.

The last time I posted we discussed music and it's ability to make people do dumb things. The topic of this blog and the bitter feelings behind it come once again on the heels of a snowboarding trip to Pomerelle. As I said, Brad and Matthew spent a few days in the Twin and I figured it would be a good thing to get them out and on the slopes if even for a little while. The trip up was uneventful - it's been a few weeks since we've had much snow so the road was night and day better than the last time I went up there. The problem this time was that the high there that day was 3 degrees....being cheap, we of course decided to night ski so that it would be cheaper. When we started skiing/boarding at 4:37 p.m. the temperature was already below zero. The slopes were FAST. Much better than last time when there was 23 new inches of pow. Problem with slopes being really fast is that this typically means it is pretty much all ice. This was the case. Ice is not fun to wipe out on. Before I talk about that though, let me share with you the sign. The sign that I refer to is usually a point in the evening when something bad happens that foreshadows an even worse event that is to come. For example, in the last post, the sign was my zipper popping off my jacket. This time the sign came as I was riding up the lift for my first fun of the evening. I pulled off one of my gloves so that I could situate my ipod earbud in my ear and in doing this somehow managed to drop my glove...off of the ski lift.  To make a long story short, I didn't get my glove back until I had made my last run of the night.

Let's talk about what Michael Bolton has to do with all this. On about the 3rd or 4th time down the mountain Brad decides to tell me he is impressed with my skills. Apparently my brother Josh had told him that I sucked and so he didn't expect too much out of me. I, in all of my humility proceeded to tell him why I wasn't that good. It all comes down to carving. Good snowboarders can carve. This means using your heels and your toes to steer you as you go down the mountain. I can't carve. I zig zag back and forth across the mountain so I only have to use my heels, no toes. Using toes usually results in me doing a face plant. As I explain this to Brad he asks, "so why don't you practice carving?" He didn't give me time to come up with a witty reply before he turned and started heading down the hill. As you all know though, carving = faceplant and faceplants on ice are no good. Enter Michael Bolton and his song "Steel Bars." It only took a moment, a glimmer of hope shone in my eye and in that moment had a vision of myself carving. I acted before I thought. You can imagine what happened next. I was gaining speed, put a little pressure on the toes, toes caught in the snow and I suddenly became airborne. What happened next still confuses me. Usually my face breaks my fall. However, this time, my coccyx managed to put a stop to my tumbling. Not sure how it happened but my best guess involves a somersault. Anyway, I laid there for a few moments...at least until "Steel Bars" was over and tried to decide if anything was broken. Once I was able to move all my limbs I picked myself up off the ground and finished the run. I shared the story with Brad and told him that is why I didn't practice carving.

Bad Medicine.

Last week I was straight up giddy about taking a group of youth on a skiing/snowboarding trip to Pomerelle. The majority of Idaho had been pounded with snow and it was looking like the conditions would be perfect for hucking some serious gnar. Pomerelle specifically had received about 22 inches of snow the day/night before and the snow continued to fall. The temperature was 18 degrees and winds were 15-20 mph. We didn't care though, there was 22" of new POWDER! I'm here to tell you, at 5:00 p.m. that evening, we cared. Getting up the mountain to the resort was a chore in itself and I knew that getting down was probably going to be much worse with the blowing conditions. There were 9 of us in the group and I believe that 6 of the kids went down the slope 1 time and then hung it up. The snow was simply too deep for boarding. However, it was perfect for crashing. There are few situations involving my body being hurled uncontrollably through the air that I enjoy, however, the perfect wipe out on a snowboard is one of those situations. The thing with a perfect wipe out is, there has to be a good base of powder (otherwise you are skidding across ice and wiping out on ice is not pleasant.) So imagine for a moment that you are flying down the hill, wind blowing through your hair, the mountain is your playground and suddenly, the front of your board catches a burm that you didn't see. Within a split second, you go from controlling your gnar hucking destiny to flying through the air, uncontrollably, with only your face to break your fall (enter the benefit of powder). You hit the ground, hard, but your pain is forgotten when the spray of fresh fluffy snow fills your nose, ears, eyes, mouth (and if you aren't wearing bibs, your britches). It's like colliding with a cloud. You really haven't lived until you experience a wipe out like this.
Anyway, enough of that, let's discuss why this trip was terrible. As I said, conditions were less than desirable and most of the kids stopped after 1 run. I had paid $15 for a lift ticket though and despite the conditions and my misery, I was going to get my $15 worth. When you get to the top of the lift you can go right, to the easier runs or left to the terrain park and some more difficult runs. Last year I enjoyed going through the terrain park so I decided I would give it a whirl. So I boarded slightly down hill to the entrance of the terrain park only to see that it was closed...bummer. I had two options, I could unstrap and walk back to the top of the lift and go down the easy slope, or I could continue on to one of the more difficult runs. Unfortunately, I had an earbud from my iPod in one ear with music blarring. Now, I'll be the first to tell you that music does indeed increase adrenaline in the body (I did my senior project research paper on this) and I should have seen it coming. That's when Bon Jovi wrecked my party; specifically, "Bad Medicine." I can't help it, it's a good song and before I knew what was happening I was at the top of a hill that I really had no business descending with a fire burning in my eyes. I cranked the volume in my ipod, put it in a pocket that zipped so I wouldn't lose it and then violently zipped my coat up. Apparently I zipped it too violently because it broke off. So now I am at the point of no return on a large hill, 18 degrees, 20 mph sustained winds, Bon Jovi in the driver seat and my coat flapping unzipped in the wind. I should have, at this point simply surrendered but as I stated (and have research to back), music does weird things to people. I'll leave the rest of the tale up to your imagination but will tell you that it took me a while to get back to the lodge and when I finally made it, I was not happy. Next time I go snowboarding, it will be during the day. The temperature will be above freezing. Winds will be calm. My iPod will be loaded with Enya. Darn you, Bon Jovi.

The anniversary...

So I'm trying to celebrate the 3rd anniversary of learning to snowboard, but the weather just doesn't seem to want to cooperate. If you look back in my posts you will come across one in which I talked about my first ever experience on a snowboard. It was one of those things that in the midst of it, while I was thinking, "this is much harder than it looks," I swore I would never do it again. There was a tremendous sense of accomplishment felt though when I finally reached the bottom of that hill after 2 hours and 47 minutes. I had even at one point, gone over 30 yards without falling. I went boarding one other time that year and really enjoyed it. Last season I bought a board and continued working on my skills. I realized that there is nothing quite like wiping out on fresh powder...it's like hurling yourself into a cloud (except its cold and if you aren't wearing bibs, you get snow down your pants.) I'm not a glutton for pain, if you come at me with a needle, chances are good I'll put up a fight, yet despite that pain that comes with boarding, at the end of the day, it just seems worth it.
In case you ever decide to pick up the sport of snowboarding, I have compiled a list of tips to help make it a more pleasurable experience.
1. Wear bibs - no one likes snow down the pants.
2. Stay away from the trees.
3. Learn how to get up off the ground before you go to the top of the hill.
4. Learn how to slow down and or stop before you go to the top of the hill.
5. It's all about heels and toes. Personally, heels = good and toes = faceplant.
6. Stay away from the trees.
7. Don't be fooled by the seeming serenity you experience while riding the lift, you're about to feel the burn.
8. Stay away from skiers - they hate you.
9. Regardless of how easy the little kids make it look when they go off the ramp, DO NOT TRY IT!
10. Stay away from the trees.

And so there you have it, a few beginners tips for getting started. Now, I will continue to wait and hope that they get the road headed to Pomerelle open so that the kids and I can go huck some gnar.

Tarnation

Well, as always, it's hard to believe that it's been a full year since last Christmas. I haven't posted much since then and so you wouldn't have to search back too far to read about the Christmas debacle. I remember saying last year that I would NEVER put myself through that again (keeping multiple kids on Christmas) but this year since it has been just Mandy and I, I kind of miss the kids we had last Christmas. We did get to see them a few months ago and they are all doing really well, which is great to see. This holiday season has been pretty low key, we have been extremely busy during the month but this week has been nice. Today is Christmas eve and we have a service tonight at the church in which our youth band will play for the first time. I'm pretty excited about that. Tomorrow we will get up whenever we darn well please, open up a few gifts, eat some breakfast, probably take a nap and then head over to Adam and Amber Walkers to cook up a massive crab pot. We got king crab, we got dungeness crab, we have shrimp...it's gonna be good. Anyway, that's about it for now. I haven't posted in a while and this seemed like a good time to do so. Merry Christmas!