Australopithecus, Jellyfish & Mummies
Published August 26, 2011 | 
My 10-year-old had been lobbying all summer for a trip to the Shedd Aquarium in Chicago. Of course you know how summers go… Well, with only a week before he went back to school, we finally put the pause-button on the daily grind and took the 3 hour drive to the city. Did I say 3 hours? Well, that’s what it would be if not for the long traffic jams that seem to be part of daily life in Chicago. I used to be pretty good at getting in and out of Chicago while rarely worrying about traffic. In the last couple years however, it seems that morning and evening rush hours have merged into an almost debilitating all day event. Continue reading
Skerray Monday
Published August 22, 2011 | 
I was going to sit down and write about the Gales Storm Gathering symposium coming up this October 8th – 10th, but instead you get a picture of my Rockpool sitting in the grass by a posh looking fountain filled pond. The reason is that I spent yesterday teaching an all day class at Rutabaga (Home of the posh pond), and I have to zoom back down there this morning to do another. I’ve no time for anything but gibberish this morning! I often teach a lot more in this time of year, when all the college students go back to school and they’re forced to let us old geezers out to teach again. Continue reading
Faster Than…
Published August 20, 2011 | 
Went running again yesterday. I’m finally feeling back on task and back in the swing. Hilly trail, 4 miles, 3 days a week. Good, good. My lungs seem happy, my heart has found its comfort zone, my sprain finally has healed and even my legs seem content to carry my not-s0-tiny frame up and down the bluffs. I’ve been feeling pretty good. Each day, my goal is to add just a pinch more speed. You know the thing about that don’t you? It’s not that you need to out run the bear… you only need to out run the slowest person in your group . . .Puts a whole new spin on never going hiking alone… Happy Saturday!
**Image licensed under the Creative Commons Attribution-ShareAlike 3.0 License.
Posted in My Weird Life, Nature & Wildlife, Outdoor Recreation, Quixotica, Random Thoughts | 
trail running | 
2 CommentsToday
Published August 10, 2011 | 
Today is Wednesday, August 10th, 2011. The heat wave that has gripped my little part of the world has broken. Well, It’s changed anyway. The Costa Rican humidity has passed and average high temperatures is back around 80 degrees Fahrenheit. Today I’m meeting a new rolling student who’s driving down from LaCrosse for a bit of coaching. I love private classes.. I also feel a bit humbled by the fact that someone would drive so far to hang out with me for a couple of hours. I’ll tell you one thing, I want to see her rolling before the days out. Now here’s a few more thoughts that popped into my crazy head this morning… Continue reading
Night talk
Published August 2, 2011 | 
Stay in bed why waste my time
Open your eyes but only if you can
Office in a sidestreet is no place for you
Night talk and romance like beat the clock.
- gary numan
Just as the last of the day’s light was fading into the north-west, and just as the last two rec boats were coming off the water, I was backing my Jeep up to the shoreline. In the mix of black and blue shadows I managed to find a thin strip of grass where I could put my 3 piece Rockpool Alaw Bach together. It’s not that the broken stones and gravel that surrounded the little island of grass could have punished my boat anymore, but I do try, sometimes, to lessen the scars. Continue reading
The Mission
Published July 19, 2011 | 
Those of us who are into kayak rolling always say that one advantage of rolling is that when we get too hot we can just roll and cool off. Well, not always. Sometimes the water and the air are both thick and hot, so much so that you can hardly tell where one stops and the other begins. I went out rolling yesterday to get some relief from this crazy heat wave and within a half hour I was zonked. The water wasn’t cooling me down, while the heat, humidity and the rolling was just leaving me dizzy. . . dizzier. For a while I found myself just lying there on the back deck of my boat, arms wide in a jet black replication of that poor priest in the waterfall scene from The Mission… Oh, a nice cool water fall… That would be sweet! (Well, not like in the movie of course!)
ri·dic·u·lous
Published June 21, 2011 | 
Is it any wonder I’ve got too much time on my hands
It’s ticking away with my sanity – styx
Well, it just gets out of hand doesn’t it!? One day you decide to buy a kayak because it’s something to do when you’re tired of sitting at your desk all day, or when all you’re other favorite pastimes have become.. well.. a bit stale. Little did you know that it wouldn’t be long before your home would be filled with kayak junk. Toys, books, DVDs, broken paddles used as decorations, mugs, posters, mukluk lamps, pictures.. and on it goes. Every holiday for 10 years seems to add to your kayak related trinket collection… I didn’t even mention the worst of it yet did I? Continue reading
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