On the last winter trip I really learned the value of anti-balling plates for crampons.
Because crampons are metal, snow sticks to them. If too much snow sticks to the bottom, you'll lose the effectiveness of your crampon spikes, fall and send yourself over some cliff.
Anti-balling plates are simple plastic covers for the bottoms of your crampons to prevent the snow from sticking (strips of duct tape work as well I've heard).
Not that I expect a whole lot of snow over the next two weekends for my "winter trips", but they're good to have just in case.
With a six hour drive ahead of us and Gretchen without a run in a few days, I had no choice but to head out into the rain (and small game season) for a ride.
It wasn't a full on rain, but it had been misting heavily for almost two days. I wasn't looking forward to the mud, but the dog needed to run.
Luckily it wasn't muddy (and no hunters). It was wet and slick, but very little mud.
The run did well for the drive, but she's been nuts ever since.
For some reason I've been randomly thinking about skateboard stuff lately.
I've been thinking it wouldn't be a half bad idea to build a little half-pipe or quarter pipe for lip tricks and stuff.
I guess since the new job (2 years ago now, is it really new?) I'm always considering convenient and fun ways to work out or get some kind of physical relief after a long hard day.
A few runs on a half pipe seem perfect.
Then Marc has to make a few posts about his recurring skateboard fantasies (here and here).
Well that was it. This morning I'd had enough (and I'm on vacation). As soon as the mother-in-law was awake I was outside (8am).
First I put on the shoes.
Then grabbed the necessary tools.
And set up a curb of sorts
I have to admit I was pretty rusty. My ollies barely got off the ground and my legs started to hurt in places with muscles I haven't used in a while. I quickly broke a sweat in the 40° F morning sunshine.
But I kept at it. I knew it's lots and lots of practice that lets me get anywhere with anything, so practice I did.
Sure enough I started landing ollies to front side 50/50s on my makeshift curb. So what if the curb's only 3" tall. It's the best I've done since high school.
Hell I was so excited with my progress (and afraid I wouldn't get a chance to improve upon it for quite some time), I decided it was skate movie worthy.
Yeah. I wouldn't hold your breath for anything better anytime soon.
Went for a ride the other night with Gretchen. We did the quarry side of Marsh Creek.
The quarry is creepy.
It's at the farthest point away from everything else. There's a long narrow gauge rail bed that stretches out into the dark to the quarry.
It's literally colder out that way.
The quarry itself is fenced in. Presumably for safety (more like liability. the two are not the same) that might not have been present in the past when it was needed.
So you have all that, then you have my over active imagination. As I get closer, whether going that way or not, the skin behind my ears gets tight. My peripheral vision gets more acute (imaginatively).
Then the voices start. The voices of warning. The voices in my head or in the woods. The voices about the boy that drowned in the quarry.
Of course the closer I get the louder they get until I get right there - right there at the quarry, then it's quiet - very quiet. Nothing moves. There's no scampering in the leaves or lazily swinging limbs in the breeze. It's all very still, very quiet, and cold.
Gretchen's collar jingles beside me. We are the only life witnessed by what's not. We pass through as quietly and quickly as we can. We climb from the bottom to the top and off the backside - through the garden of the dead, then we're gone. The voices are gone.
Yeah so that's all the shit going through my head. It's my imagination. I've seen too many creepy movies.
I have no idea whether anybody ever died there. It's probably better that I don't know.
We ride it anyway. It adds a good two miles to the loop with some decent climbs and descents.
The word picture is called a Wordle. You can create your own here. I thought it would better capture or at least visualize the jumble of voices and words that go through my mind. It sort of did.
I try not to ride in the mornings this time of year. It's hunting season now (archery mostly - requires lots of peace & quiet in the woods) and I like to give them their chance.
Yesterday morning I went anyway. I couldn't motivate myself to go the night before, so got up and went in the morning. I figured it was a Monday morning, the archers would be less motivated.
It was a very gray morning.
But gray did help to show off Gretchen's new track jacket.
It's got this reflective white piping that runs horizontally across her body. In the dark when she's running through the woods, it looks like a laser.
About the time we were the furthest from the car, not necessarily furthest from civilization, and just at the point I didn't need my light anymore, gun blasts started firing off. They were close too. Like "right over there" close.
Suddenly I remembered it was Monday and thought some new season (perhaps muzzle loader, but the blasts were very rapid?) had started. Quickly I put together a plan to get out of the woods. I took only the trails that went closest to houses (actually signed the safe zone), popped out onto the gravel access road and took it all the way back. Meanwhile the gun blasts kept firing.
We made it back safely. Even managed to avoid the killer horses.
When I got home I checked the game commission website (poorly designed unnavigable piece of crap), but didn't find anything with guns going live. Maybe it was Turkey, but I've never seen turkey in the area of the park we were in.
Oh well. Lesson learned. Stay out of the park in the mornings this time of year.
The collars for our dogs for their invisible fence requires a battery plan - up till now.
The battery plan gives us two new "Power Cap" (i.e. proprietary) batteries four times a year or every three months, so for eight batteries it costs us $160.
A while back a friend found a site online that described "hacking" the batteries and making them your own. It sounded interesting and much cheaper, but I had just started a new subscription to the plan and had to wait.
The hacking is simple. The batteries are even simpler. The whole power cap thing is mostly a plastic housing with a CR1/3, 3 volt battery inside.
You simply cut open the plastic so you can reuse it (I wasn't very successful with the one)
Buy the battery at Radio Shack (nice slogan)
reassemble it and you're saving $80 a year. That's at least two cases of beer!
So the price of the battery at Radio Shack was a little more then I expected ($10), but there are places online selling the battery for a quarter of that price. Either way I'm saving $$ and not tying myself to some silly plan.
Mostly because they're cumbersome in the trash, but also because they'll sit around in a landfill longer then I'll be alive.
Knowing that my landfill takes mixed metal for recycling, I decided to break it down and see what was left.
The top pile is all the metal I busted out of it. The bottom pile is all the rubber and plastic. Though the bottom pile will go on living long after I'm gone, the top pile will get recycled as something else.
You also learn the quality of your wiper brands when you try to break them down. The cheaper ones have more plastic and come apart easily. The better quality brands have more metal and are a pain to get apart.
Because crampons are metal, snow sticks to them. If too much snow sticks to the bottom, you'll lose the effectiveness of your crampon spikes, fall and send yourself over some cliff.
Because crampons are metal, snow sticks to them. If too much snow sticks to the bottom, you'll lose the effectiveness of your crampon spikes, fall and send yourself over some cliff.
Was asleep by 6:30pm.
So now it's "Over the hill and through the ghetto to Grandmother's house we go!"
What was supposed to take only an hour went three.
Then grabbed the necessary tools.
And set up a curb of sorts
I have to admit I was pretty rusty. My ollies barely got off the ground and my legs started to hurt in places with muscles I haven't used in a while. I quickly broke a sweat in the 40° F morning sunshine.
Hell I was so excited with my progress (and afraid I wouldn't get a chance to improve upon it for quite some time), I decided it was skate movie worthy.
- b
Was actually better without the olive. The olives were good, but only on their own.
Of course the closer I get the louder they get until I get right there - right there at the quarry, then it's quiet - very quiet. Nothing moves. There's no scampering in the leaves or lazily swinging limbs in the breeze. It's all very still, very quiet, and cold.
But gray did help to show off Gretchen's new track jacket.
Buy the battery at Radio Shack (nice slogan)
reassemble it and you're saving $80 a year. That's at least two cases of beer!
The beer was top notch.
Mostly because they're cumbersome in the trash, but also because they'll sit around in a landfill longer then I'll be alive.
- b
