Just Enjoying It All

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I received my copy of the 2010 Burton catalog, The Good Book, yesterday.  It's done in a kind of Bible style and it's chock full of good stuff if you're interested in snowboarding.

Ever had one of those moment where you're just happily going about your day the suddenly a quick bit of pain shoots through you for no apparent reason?  That was me yesterday.  It turns out I had a nick on my finger, just a little one, which I discovered while mixing a bowl of red onions and balsamic vinegar.  Yowzers!  That'll wake you up in the morning.

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My experience this evening would have my old Cub Scout leader going on a rant for the ages.

I was dropping off Dude for his weekly Beaver meeting and they were getting ready for an evening of Halloween delights.  They were just setting up the bonfire when I noticed a gas can next to the fire pit so I walked over and casually said "My old Scout leader would go crazy if he saw a fire getting lit with gas and at the Scout Hall no less."  The leader thought the wood was too wet to light due to the recent snowfall so she was using the gas.  The only thing she was actually slightly embarrassed about was buying a jerry can of gas while wearing her uniform.  This does of course reveal that she bought the gas before she checked the wood for the fire.  Definitely not the scouting way!

When I was in Scouts we were always taught the proper way to build a fire and it works really well.  Plus our leader always challenged us to build our fire with only one match and most of us got pretty good at it over the years.  He even showed us how to build a fire without matches and I was very bummed out when I couldn't make it happen myself, no matter how many times I tried.  We were even able to start our campfires in the middle of January only using wood we found in the forest.  It's damn cold and it's tricky but it does work.

Beagle-scouts-campfire

October is usually the time of year my mind starts to anticipate the upcoming winter season and this year is no different.  Everyone has something that officially tells them winter time is here and I'm no different.

Everyone knows that people are creatures of habit right?  For starters I always put on my shoes, pants and drawers left foot first.  I also always hang my shirts in the closet with the fronts facing to the left.  There's no particular reason but if I do it the other way around the whole procedure just feels wrong.  Very strange indeed.  So, is this just and old habit that won't die or some kind of minor compulsive behavior?  

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Ever seen an electric powered El Camino?  Well, take a look at this bad boy referred to as Electro Camino.  Now that's a nice looking truck.  The engine has been completely removed and replaced with 46 rechargeable batteries.

I know a lot of people dislike the El Camino but I really like it.  In fact, I have an old 80 in the back yard that's just pleading for a rebuild.  I'm not sure if electric is the way to go however it can be considered an alternate fuel vehicle since it's been converted to run on propane which did save me a lot of cash when I drove it all the time.

Dhannah_camino

As I'm writing this I just remembered that Daryl Hannah has an El Camino converted to run on Bio Diesel Fuel.  That's pretty damn cool too.  She uses the Camino and her site dhlovelife.com to promote greener living.

I got up this morning all ready to start my new job.  I was full of energy and things were looking good until I pulled into the parking lot and saw the police officers poking around the back of the building.  Turns out someone broke in late last night.  They weren't fooling around either since they cut the phone lines before crowbarring the door open and disconnecting the siren on the alarms.  Then they proceeded to mess up the offices and break into the liquor room.

Needless to say nobody was interested in an orientation and training shift so I got to go home and chill for the day.  Better luck tomorrow.

Okay everybody, here's a few pics and videos of Little Dude and myself at the Skateboard park I talked about the other day.  Make sure you're sitting down for this because our skills will blow you away. :)  Dude is especially proud of the little wheelie he pulled on the scooter as he went by me.  My Dad even jumped on the scooter for a couple minutes but we didn't get a photo of it.

All the pics and videos of me were taken by the 5 year old.  He loves to take pictures and he's gotten pretty good with the camera the last couple years.

Pics of Dude:
Pics of little old me:

And here's the videos:

Skatepark

The other day my little Dude decided he wanted to get his bike and head over to the local skateboard park which is also right beside the Rec Plex I mentioned in my last post.  I figured he'd just sit around and watch the bigger kids but he actually rode around a few parts when it wasn't too busy.  He had a great time and we spent about two hours there.

He wanted to go down there again today and since it beats sitting around playing Xbox, off we went for another couple hours.  This time we took his bike and his scooter.  While he was riding the bike I noticed his scooter just sitting on the grass all lonely so of course I jumped on and took it for a spin.  Now imagine an old guy like me (36) riding a scooter made for a 5 year old.  Needless to say the wheelbase is rather short, the handlebars are fairly low and my center of gravity his rather high in comparison.   It was pretty wobbly at first but I kind of got the hang of it while chasing Dude around the park and he had a great time outrunning me with ease.  No I did not take any big jumps, and I won't be anytime soon.

Scooter

Sounds like he wants to go again tomorrow.  I'll try to remember the camera and snap a few pics.

Moonlite

Our local Rec Plex recently did something very different for around these parts.  Just outside the entrance they built an exercise park with a bunch of outdoor equipment from outdoorfitness.ca.  The only difference from the gym is they rely purely on body weight for resistance.

Everyday for the last week my little Dude wants to head over for a workout after his swimming lessons.  Sometimes it only lasts five minutes other times close to an hour and there's almost always a bunch of kids there working out so to speak.  Now, a lot of it's just monkeying around but sometimes they're actually doing the exercises properly.

It's nice to see kids picking up this stuff even if they don't really care about the exercises right now.

I only wonder if the equipment will stand the test of time with our weather around here.  Supposedly it's going to stay up over the winter which seems kind of pointless since there's no roof over it.  We'll see I guess.

UPDATE:
Added a few pics of the area below