OK I admit that a 41 year old man finding a day of enjoyment skateboarding might sound strange but I find it centers me and provides a source of exercise that I can't find else ware. That said I spent the day working on my tuck, downhilling in a nearby neighborhood. I lost count of the number of times I went down the half mile hill my legs are feeling the hike back up (gotta earn those runs) so I'm gonna guess more than 20 times and I know I listened to at least 6 hours of music on my Ipod. I wasn't alone in my Sunday afternoon endeavor, there were another 7 folks from CT, RI and MA taking advantage of good weather and a clean road and we had an audience. Nearly 40 or 50 people including a Ct state trooper spent at least half hour watching us fly down the hill at speeds in the high 30's and low 40's. We carried on great conversations with the folks whose neighborhood we were enjoying....as the day wore on the State Trooper broke out his radar gun and started shooting speed checks on us at the bottom of the hill. I think the fastest anyone went was nearly 50mph but they were in a draft train (think NASCAR); the top solo speeds were in the mid 40's. I set a new personal best of 44.7mph which astounded the officer when I returned for my speed slip and he saw how old I was as I pulled off my full face helmet. It was funny how a bunch of 20 something to 40 somethings (I was not the oldest) impacted a neighborhood such a positive manner doing something that a few years ago would have had the same officer responding in a much less favorable manner.


vagabond-punk

The musings of Tony Peters, a perpetual child, no matter where I am I will find a way to climb something or go skateboarding Read more »

the toils of being a home owner

just when you think that everything is groovy boom your furnace burps blowing all the seals and well $6000 later you can have heat again. Mind you it was 12degrees yesterday when this happened and at present I can't keep my house any hotter than 55degree's or the house fills with smoke...not to mention that the soonest I can get a new furnace installed is thursday. Go »

the next grand adventure..........

as a retired sailor I really thought nothing of deploying and leaving my wife with the cats and dog at home while I went off to fight wars, fix submarines and otherwise earn a living.......now the shoe is on the other foot. I am in school fulltime taking care of the cats, the dog the house and whatever else pops up while my wife and best friend moves to DC to take her dream job. Go »

Yet another funeral

one of the nice things about coming home after nearly 20 years away is that I get to see family the bad part is that the most common place to see family is at a funeral. Unlike last summer the weather was glorious so we have a couple of hundred people come to lay my Uncle Donny to rest. Everything was pretty straight until one of the grandchildren laid a Hot Wheels car of a 68 Chevelle, exactly like the one Donny drove for nearly 40 years, in the grave. Go »

starwars up close

OK I have what is called closed angles in my eye's which although I have no symptoms is considered a precursor to glaucoma...I've known this for a couple of years and since my maternal grandfather had glaucoma and my father has the same problem with his eyes I've really just been putting off having corrective surgery since I returned from Japan 2 years ago. What this means is that the eye's drains which are behind the iris are not as open as they should be which can lead to increased fluid pressure in the eye and posible damage to the optic nerve, or so they tell me. Go »

Magical Mystery tour

well the news today when I got to work was that my holidays will be abbreviated...New Years in Cypress and bowl games in Spain...Getting to Cypress will be easy though it involves flying through Heathrow (my least favorite airport)...it's Go »

Change 3

a 07:30 phone call saying ooppsss uimmmm well it turns out that you are gonna have to go after all and we are gonna have to send 2 teams is not that way I wanted to start the day. Neither is sweet talking the travel clerk who's day we ruined yesterday to redo all the work she did yesterday....however other than cancelling my New Years plans, a ride with my dad and a climb with my brother, this on again off again travel thing isn't too much of a burden. Go »