Independance, and Self Reliance

If you have experience with either of these two devices, or any other setup for the activity they are intended for let me know so I can pick your brain. I'm trying to learn the ropes............. so to speak.

40 Year Old Skateboarder

Brett has been really harsh on me lately. I guess he has finally been my friend for so long that he has picked up sarcasm as a way of being friendly. Not one of my better traits to emulate. In fact he just recently (look at my last post) accused me of fishing for comments when in reality I was testing the comments section to see if I can't figure out why you guys can't post. I hope to someday have that figured out because the comments add more to Broken, Beat & Scarred than the posts do.

So I thought I would post the picture Brett wanted to see when I posted about skateboarding down at the UofA. He said he wanted to see pictures of the 40 year old skateboarder. So here it is folks.



Rector knee pads were all the rage in 1987. Helmets weren't.



OK, so maybe the guy in the picture isn't 40...........yet, but I am now. That guy looks just like me only about twenty three years younger (oh, to be that lean again). And yes Ann, he is totally rad (Ann has been picking on me lately too).

Washing a Rope

Saturday Tony Horness came up to me with black hands, and tried to shame me into washing my rope. I don't know why, but my rope is black with aluminum dust. I know it wears on the carabiners and belay devices, but none of my other ropes have gotten this black.

So I threw it in a mesh bag, and ran a couple of rinse cycles through the washer to get rid of any residual soap. Then I washed the rope along with a couple of towels to keep the washing machine from getting out of balance.

I finally found a legitimate use for an ironing board as a rope drying rack.

I had great hopes of a clean rope, but it still looked pretty black while I was laying it out to dry.



After I laid it all out I looked at my hand. Not as black as before, but still not clean. I am due for a new rope pretty soon anyway, but I don't think I will waste the time washing another rope except after I make rugs out of them.

Comments On "Life"

I really enjoy getting comments on my blog (even though some of you are still having trouble posting). It reassures me that someone is still reading my drivel. Especially since we have three doctors, three engineers (one who is also a doctor), a couple of teachers, a couple of business people, a chemist, a biologist, someone with a couple of bachelors and a masters, in fact several someones, many very talented artists, etc. So all of the comments are important to me. I value all of your opinions.

On my last post the Ironman commented. That is always a treat for me. Brett, Stayc, and Steve all sent e-mail messages too because blogger wouldn't let them comment. I got one comment in particular that I was....... I guess maybe proud of? My friend Janet commented! Not only that, but it was positive.

For those of you that don't know Janet she is one of the smartest people I know. She usually has an opinion, and it is always well thought out. Even if you don't agree with her there is no catching her unprepared. I have gone to Janet when I have had trouble, and I needed a unbiased opinion. Since Janet liked my last post I figure I must have gotten some wood on the ball for a change.

Thanks for all of your comments, and thanks for reading Broken, Beat & Scarred.

The Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Life.

Yesterday in church someone asked if anyone "has it easy?" Two of us raised our hands. The other guy who raised his hand is a ridiculous optimist. I really like the guy. Amy looked at me funny, and said "you think you have it easy?" I said I really thought I did. While running today I thought about it some more since my iPod battery was dead. How did I survive without my iPod for fifty some minutes? Here is what I came up with.

I eat everyday, have clean water that is usually cold to drink pretty much anytime I want. But water is so plain tasting. I think Diet Coke should come out of the tap. How do I survive this injustice? I sleep inside almost every night except when I go camping for fun. But sometimes my house that was built in 1959 is hot. I mean like really hot. Maybe eighty degrees, and in the winter sometimes it will be in the sixties. I have a job that pays me way more than I am worth, but they expect me to come everyday, on time, and actually work. That's just not fair. I have health care I can use whenever I have a health concern, but I have to make an appointment. In fact, believe it or not, I have a co-pay when I go to the doctor. NOT FAIR. I get six weeks of vacation a year, but can you believe they make me schedule it in advance? I can't just take it any time I feel like it. That's just not right. I run, climb, mt. bike, hike all for enjoyment, and to help keep the extra weight off that all that good high calorie food I have access to puts on me if I don't stay active. It's just not right that I have to watch what I eat and exercise. I should just stay naturally slim. I have nights and weekends off and that gives me time to spend with family and friends, and engage in activities I find enjoyable. It just sucks that I have to spend so much of my free time resting so I can go back to work. I should get paid for rest time since I can't use it to my liking. I have five tents, seven camp stoves, and enough climbing gear to climb the nose route.............twice. Can you believe that I have to ride a ten plus year old mt. bike? How do I do it? I have great kids who do well in school, but they require that I spend my free time with them. They are so demanding. Who could ask for a better wife? Even though she won't let me B.A.S.E. jump, rope solo, or have a twenty year old girl friend. I must be a saint to stay with her.  I have three vehicles, but the newest one is three years old. The oldest one is a decade old. I deserve better for sure.

Come to think of it, I don't care if my garbage can eats better than 60% of the rest of the world. My life is horrible. I think I will go hang myself now.

(I hope everyone takes this in the way it was intended. I have no intention of hanging myself.)

Five Finger Death Punch-Under and Over it

Cool new song by FFDP. Hope you enjoy it.

Desert Tortoise

Last week I went for a mountain bike ride. It was slightly overcast, and not as horribly hot as it had been so I thought I might see a tortoise. I did. I was riding a tire width chute between two rocks when I saw him. In the chute. I only missed running over him with the front tire by about a half an inch. I was afraid I would get him with the rear so with a little help from gravity I (gracefully) laid the bike down, and sort of jumped, ran off.

Luckily I didn't hit him, but he seemed to realize how close he was to getting acquainted to mountain bike tire tread. He was really trying to make tracks, and get out of Dodge. He was only about two inches long. I figure maybe last year's hatch. I moved him off the trail, and told some other cyclists I ran into to watch or them.

In case you were wondering Ol' Blue survived unharmed.

Longboarding

Saturday I took the kids longboarding. Philip had gotten a new longboard for his birthday, and was dying to give a good test. We invited my niece Harley to go too. We started out downtown, but there are way to many no skateboarding signs there. So then we headed over to the UofA.

 There was lots of good longboarding to be had a the U. I'm not sure why Caitlin is acting so weird in this picture. Oh yeah, it's because she always acts weird.

 We found some big open spaces around McKale center.

 Harley making a big circle.

It was overcast, but still pretty  hot and very humid. Here we were taking a rest and getting a drink out of the "hobo fountain" as the kids named it. If you are wondering a hobo fountain is a hose bib. Later we found a real drinking fountain.

I rode Philip's skateboard. That small deck, and hard, tiny wheels made for a really rough ride. The bottoms of my feet are still numb. I was just glad not to have broken any bones. I never even hit the ground which I think is pretty good for not having skated for twenty plus years. We did get harassed by the UofA Police. He was a nice old guy who just wanted to know what we were doing. I told him we were just skating around. He said that was fine, but "if the wheels come off the ground we're going to have trouble." I told him"dude, I'm forty. If the wheels come off the ground you are the least of my troubles."

Not Bragging.....Really.

I am not known for my financial planning skills. In fact I have been known to "invest" any money I have in quickdraws, cams, bicycles, tents, stoves, sleeping bags etc..............

A few years ago I decided to buy some silver. I didn't want to  hand over my cash to some suit and in return get a piece of paper that says I allegedly own some silver. Nope, I wanted to hold it in my hot little hand. I looked around, and the easiest thing to do was go to a coin shop and buy Silver Rounds. They are just an ounce of 99.9% pure silver minted to look like a coin. I would buy one or two a week for a while until I had a little silver.

I gave a few to the kids, and my niece and nephew. I think I gave a few to my mom and dad too. It was just kind of cool to hold an ounce of silver. I have been watching silver go up pretty steadily lately, and have thought of selling it off. Then a while back George Sorros sold of a huge amount of gold and silver. The market dropped over night. I kind of forgot about it for a while.

Last week Amy told me that silver was back up to $50 an ounce. I decided it was time to look into selling my silver. Silver doesn't sell for the price it lists at for some reason. It sells for the "spot" price. I called around and found a coin shop that was paying spot (some less reputable dealers were trying to pay less than spot). We gathered all the silver in our house, which when you live with a fourteen year old boy can be an ordeal to find anything in his room, and went to the coin shop.

I got $38 per ounce of silver. We had nineteen silver rounds. I was pretty happy that I had turned $8-$9 into $38. I know someone who knows something about money could probably have made a small fortune out of that. I was just glad not to have lost my shirt. I would have had to go wandering around the climbing gym asking people if they had seen it.