New Camera

I got a new camera! Been a long time since I got a new camera. Zip back to 2000 when I got a Canon G1. I paid over $900 dollars for it. Got a ton of accessories and batteries and packs, blah blah blah. I still have that camera. I can still take infrared pics with it at least. There's one on ebay with 4 bids for 10 bucks. The latest version is the G12 and it tops out at the market high end price of $500 dollars.

I just wanted the smallest and lightest camera I could get. I was using my wife's Canon A70 for a while. Crude, but for a snapshot it was fine. It was just too big for cycling or running, not to mention a complete battery hog. My new camera is a Nikon S3000 which only weighs 4.1 ounces with a battery. It's as small as it gets, about the size of a credit card and half an inch thick. The pic quality is decent enough and the price was 130.00, which was very decent.

So expect more pics in the coming weeks. Maybe even some video.

Oh and I think Nicole is losing all organization. Tell that to the people in Wilmington! But for the Gulf area, good thing my Nostradamus skills are bogus. Course I didn't give an exact plus or minus, and I say there is still an open prediction of formation till sunday which is unlikely thank goodness.

Halloween Costumes

Whoever dresses up like Johnny Depp's mad hatter is out of his mind!

Have you seen the lack of imagination in womens' costumes? Ughhh how about a nun top , but lets make the lower half a super short skirt and call it party nun. Jeez... Halloween is pretty sexist. Was it always this way? I mean look at Avatar costumes. I think Jake Sully should be sportin some blue leotards too! What? no skin tight Dr. Manhattan outfit pumped and lumped in all the right places? Nope, just clogged artery hands and a mask. Those gloves are funny. They'd make for some funny skits.

Mountain Run 2

Forest Gump is a movie that always gets me. I'm can just start watching at any part and feel good about it. Funny how that works.

So my Friday run was canceled. I knew Asa's school had 'Western Day" planned for Friday ( she wore a cowboy outfit), but I found out when I dropped her off that they were having a show at 3pm. No way I could've gotten back in time had I gone to the mountain. Which turned out fine, cuz I was feeling cruddy on Friday anyway.

I did watch Les Stroud's new show on survival where he hangs out with primitive cultures to see how they survive. He hung out with Sea Gypsies off the coast of China. I forgot how much I like Les. Those sea gypsies have a hard life indeed. It's a great show to watch especially if you liked Survivorman.

So I got up early this Saturday morning to hit the mountain. It's so odd for me to get up specifically to run ,it almost makes me nervous like I am going to a race. Ate some fruit and bread, filled up 80 oz of liquid in 3 containers. Packed a banana, peanut butter sandwich, an apple, a lot of other odd items , and off I went.

I went a different way than normal. Instead of going up all the switchbacks to get to the top, I drive a little further and just go up one long road, about 15 miles straight up. I passed about 15 cyclists on this road. I go way around them too, because these guys are just grinding it nonstop uphill the entire way. I think that's gotta be a sunofabitchof a ride! I did see one woman running downhill. She looked fit as could be from shoulder to calves and was moving at a good pace too. I have to wonder where her starting and stopping points are. A crazy thing was on the way home I saw a guy in full battle dress uniform, including a hat and camelback running through the cactus where there is no trail. This was at noon too in the hotter portion of the desert. I thought that guy is training from something hardcore like badwater or Green Beret school.

It's the weekend and there are a lot more people on the mountain today. I've decided to go to the other trailhead and see what that portion of the trail is like. I've brought my Brooks Mach 11's with me today. I tried on 2 pairs of La Sportiva trail runners at REI and man they both felt really good. The Crosslites feel a lot like the mach 11 only with big rubber nubbies on the sole. I managed to refrain from buying the Sportivas on the thought that I'd try the machs first.

I'd done a lot of reading and pondering on how to carry liquid. A camelback just seems better built for a bike or hiking with the straps on the shoulders. Another option are various waist packs that hold bottles on your back or waist. I was all set to get one of these, but you really have to wear the belt on the outside of your shirt, which I don't think I'd like. So I went the cheap route. 2 cycling water bottles holding 24oz each. It's all about symmetry. Most people don't like the sloshing and your arms do get a little tired, but it didn't bother me so much last week.

This other side of the trail is completely different than last week. Last week was a mostly 6ft wide path of rocks and gravel, that while bumpy was fairly uniform. This upper side is thin, much more technical with huge rocks and roots, very steep in some places, lots of very uneven footing twisting all over the place. Going up on a mountain bike would be crazy hard I think. The first mile and a half was really difficult. I was out of breath a lot with a lot of walking. I felt like I was climbing bleacher steps in many places. Some of the downhill areas came to just a foot wide on jaggy rock. I made sure to walk on that. If you slipped off it wouldn't be certain death, but a high chance of something being broken or sprained.

Soon I started to get some groove going and then it hit me. I have to pee!! I couldn't see a good place to go either. There were lots of people out as I could hear them talking. I'd have to be quick. I saw a big rock up ahead and thought why not. I started ascending up this loose soil slope trying to step on craggy rock. After about 10 feet, my stupid light came on. I looked back down and thought, ok this is nuts. This is sprain my ankle city. So back down I went and onward I went. Luckily the urge went away for a while.

I met several dogs today. All of them very nice. One looked as if it had a Corgi head, a bassett butt and tail and was colored like a dark german shepherd. Very cool dog! One dog started running along behind me for a while. I never did see his owner. I didn't come across another runner the whole time. Lots of hikers though of all ages. I passed 2 guys and I heard one say, "I remember when I could do that." Then I came behind 2 hispanic guys with hiking poles. One of them whips around with his pole like he was being snuck up on by an attacker. His face had a big smile though and he made a noise like gotcha! I laughed my ass off at this. Totally unexpected funny for me it was. I ran past 4 hispanic women sitting on a log and I heard one of them say, "oooh so healthy". I don't feel like I'm a super healthy person or anything. I'm pretty slow when it comes to running imo, but running through the mountain today, people look at me like I'm crazy and super fit. It's kinda cool I guess. I finally went down a side hill and peed behind a big tree. Had to get some rocks out of my shoes too.

I ended up just running the whole trail back to the trailhead from last week. I figured I'd just run up the road to the other trailhead. Jeez that was hard getting on pavement and going up really steep hills. Lots of walking that was. I got back to my truck and put up my water bottles and decided to go on the trail again for about 20 min. I ran really fast at first psyched to have my hands free, but got out of breath really quick again. 9000 feet is hard!

Walking in a section of yellow leaved aspens though is really nice. It's a nice serene glow with warmth to it. I saw a sign on a tree and stopped to read it. It was a paper with a picture of a man. I can't remember his name, but someone was thanking him for showing them more to life. A strange memorial really. As I stood there, it occurred to me that it was really quiet and I could hear my own heartbeat very well. I was pretty amazed that I could hear it so clearly. Can't remember the last time that happened.

Soon I decided I'd had enough and went back to the truck to eat and stretch a bit. I walked up the street and took this pic of the area. ( psst click on it!)



My quads don't feel quite as obliterated as last week. But my ankles are none too happy. We shall see how they feel tomorrow. I'm torn over getting those Sportiva shoes, the grip would be welcomed in some spots but maybe not so much in others. Seems there is no perfect shoe either. Anyway, I should be ready for the Leadville100 by next year (insert maniacal Santa laughter right here!)

Crackin Teeth

Guess I should sort my beans better. I bit down on a tiny rock today. Holy ouch! Felt like I cracked a whole tooth out of my mouth. You can imagine the horror I had for a split second upon running to the bathroom mirror and looking at my upper left molars seeing what looked to be a huge chunk of something hanging off. Oops, just a piece of chewed up uneaten bean that was stuck to my teeth. Durrrrr.

I watched The Cove yesterday. It's a documentary film about the slaughter of dolphins in Japan. It's filmed and put together very well. The music, the timing of tensions, the editing that puts a laughing Japanese fisherman in frame right after watching a dolphin bleeding out and sinking below the surface all come together to evoke a powerful emotional response. I admit, I tend to anthromorphisize dolphins, and the movie had me in teared up knots by its end.

Aside from the obvious ugliness of the slaughter, there are other crucial issues such as the extremely high levels of mercury in Dolphins and Japan's history with mercury poisoning followed by the idea that the Japanese meat industry sells mercury rich dolphin meat as whale meat. Supposedly the Japanese government is covering up this fact. Seems kind of sketchy to me, but after hearing about the government's treatment of survivors from Hiroshima and Nagaski, maybe it's true.

There's still this loose understanding of how the Japanese culture, their history, and traditions continue to support their efforts to hunt whale and other cetaceans. Is it really just to give the western governments the finger, so to speak? It seems like the Japanese are far too practical for such an emotional grudge. But I'm no expert so who knows.

There's no denying though that the movie produces heated debate about animal rights, culture, and animal intelligence. Ultimately, it just makes me feel a bit more guilty for being a carnivore.

Canis Lupus

I recently decided to get my credit card a new look. After a security breach earlier this year, I had been reissued the standard plain jane card. Normally, I would always get some kind of crazy geometric shapes on my card. It's always when I go into a small town and end up at a place like Wendy's and the person working the counter will take my card and stop, hold it up, and say 'wow! that is one crazy looking card." Well, this time as I was scrolling through, the card with a picture of a Wolf stuck out to me. Ya know, those Wolf Eyes, that stare. Did you know they tilt their heads down slightly to ensure that the strip of their retinas with the most receptors is fully used?

So yah, the Wolf stare is an amazing thing. It seems to catapult them from wild animal to an old intelligence that can see into your soul. No?

I was at the BX the other day and the woman working at the register was sitting down. She was overweight, with short reddish hair, and large red tinted glasses. She's says, "cash, credit, or debit?" I tell her credit and hand over my card. She takes it from me and pauses for 2 whole seconds and then breathes in and says, "oh my goodness! Can you believe I have the very same card?!!!" She points to her name tag and her name is......... Wolfina!!!!!

She asks me if I am a 'wolf lover'. Asa is listening to this conversation as well as the two other people in line behind me. What would you say to this? I decided to say 'yahhhhh' in a positive tone while nodding my head in a manner that said 'yes I think so'. Wolfina asks me if I am up to speed on the current struggles of wolves. I say ever so innocently, noooo. So she stops and prints out some paper to write down a web address for me. She tells me about how Wolves are being shot by farmers and that there's a program that will come in and pay the farmers fair maket value for any damage and peacefully remove the wolves.

You can go here to see this web site!

Finally, Wolfina encourages me to come through her line again. She has "so much more to tell me" and that meeting another Wolf lover is so rare these days. Holy cow , what did I get myself into? I admire her passion for the wolves, but I was glad I didn't have to go through her line again.

No way!

Things always happen when watching The Soup it seems. Our house is right next to a street that goes through the whole neighborhood. It's rarely busy as we are on the outskirts of suburbia. Last night though we heard a vehicle scream down the street. Not a big deal. But then another rrrrrrrrreeeeeehhhhhhmmmmmnnnnnnnn goes on by. Liz and I look at each other with slanty eyes and word bubbles floating around with WTF in them. Minutes later we hear a helicopter flying around. Again, not a big deal because this is probably the third time a helicopter has come back in our neighborhood late at night with it's spotlight. I also receive a local paper which clearly shows the crime in our area is many blocks south of us.

That's when we heard some gunshots! Or was it? We both went to look out the window. There's a lot of activity going on outside. I go upstairs to get a better view. There are at least 4 police cars spread out with lights on and our whole backyard just got lit up by the helicopter spotlight. My crazy neighbor (always have one of those!) is outside with a toddler on his shoulders looking around while his buddy is smoking next to him. His buddy drives a uber beater 80s Monte Carlo.

We on the other hand do not venture outside and instead arm the security system. I can remember as a kid when I heard a commotion outside my bedroom window like someone cutting the corner and running right through mother's azaleas. The next day there was a set of huge footprints in the ground. Whoever was running was pounding it for dear life. As he should have been with all the police cars outside that night. I want to say there was a local story about a convict escaped from the Niceville jail that very night.

The heilcopter continued to fly low and around our house, lighting up the whole street with its spotlight. I wonder if they have thermal cams on board? Then we a voice coming over a loud speaker. Is it the helicopter or a squad car? It says, "Come on out now..come on" followed by a flurry of Spanish words. I laughed thinking, no way in hell I'd come out to that voice. That voice was really saying come out so I can shoot you.

Suddenly a big white suv flew out of the church parking lot nearby. Apparently he was hiding in the dark. He was headed right for an intersection with a police car blocking the perpendicular lane. The cop must have gotten in or something because he literally rammed the truck. Corner to corner and smash!! We are watching all of this from our bedroom window. You then see 2 men come out from the SUV , one from each side as they run out of view. Then a police officer on foot is running after them coming from the direction of where the truck was originally. The helicopter is all over this now and from a bullhorn you hear those words you always hear in movies. "Stop now or we'll shoot", followed by spanish again. We can only see the helicopter and then we hear several shots fire. Several more police vehicles come down the road. It's a flashing red and blue circus! My neighbors are still outside with a kid!

Ok none of the above paragraph really happened. But that's what was going through my mind. In reality, we just watched the police cars for a while. Our other neighbor has a big plastic dumpster in their backyard. Liz says, what if whoever they are after was hiding in there? I look at the creepy box in the shadows. I say'You want me to light it up?" We laugh thinking that would be crazy if someone came rushing out of that thing. At one point, the police cars finally moved on. The neighbors finally went inside. Vegas still has some crazy though.

Crawling Apart

There goes my head again!!