T Minus 7 Days

I've been crazy busy getting ready for school, sorry for the lack of posts.

Riding

I did end up riding... and it was drop-dead gorgeous!

I may just have to ride

Only a high of 77 today (currently sitting at 66), 0% chance of rain, and sunny as all get out. What an awesome, awesome day! I'm going to have to get out and ride. There is no question about that.

I'm pretty sure I can rig something up so that I don't cause any damage to my stitches. Anyhow, the nurse told me that I didn't have to follow everything the doctor said to a T. I did ask her about mountainbiking, and she did say that it sounded pretty extreme and that I should wait until ten days have passed. But the gash they put in me is healing up rather nicely, so I think I'll risk it.

Drop-dead gorgeous

Well it has turned out to be a drop-dead gorgeous day outside -- the first in about a week. I couldn't really think of a more perfect day to go mountainbiking, and yet the six stitches in my foot keep me from doing anything aerobic. I am forced to have to settle with listening to hardcore and lifting weights. I was on the internet for a while this morning (doing college research and such), and once I'm done weight lifting I'll probably do some reading. I did get a lot of other loose ends tied up that needed to be taken care of before I leave for school, but that still doesn't keep my from wishing I was on my bike.

Awesome mountain bike photo

Check this out:

Laid up, and pondering the state of the world

As I am currently laid up with 6 stitches in my foot, I will probably have a lot of free time on my hands to post a bunch of randomness up here on Randomer. Right now, I feel like there was something interesting I was going to right about, but I can't remember what it was. Nevertheless, I feel like rambling right now.

What I'm going to ramble about, I haven't entirely decided yet. Maybe the state of the world that we live in. That is one of the things that I think about most of the time when I'm working: the general state of the world: why people do what they do, what makes them tick. No seriously, that's what I think about most of the time. That and the upcoming school year. I usually end up with the conviction that I should be reading my Bible more, because life with out Christ at the center appears futile. Yet, I still struggle with doing my quiet times. Whenever I think about what non-christians possible motivations for living are, I always arrive at the conclusion that life without Christ must feel pretty hollow. I feel hollow enough with Christ in my life. That thought usually leads me to the idea that I should read my Bible more, but from there it usually doesn't go anywhere. I did have a couple of quiet times this week, which was good. But on the whole, it typically isn't what it should be. I don't know why, but it has always been a struggle for me.

Pictures from graduation

These have been sitting unused in my photobucket for a while, so I decided to post them. Here you go:

Jumping off of a Cliff

So I was up north visiting two friends of mine (Katie and Emily), and we went and jumped off of this big 30 foot cliff (by we I mean I). And, I think it was legal, so all the better. Check it out:



Here's me standing next to the cliff, just to give you an idea of how tall 30 ft. is:

Big Sky Bible Institute

As you may know, this fall I will be attending school at Big Sky Bible Institute in Big Fork, Montana. BSBI is a 1 year Bible study course. It is set up in modules, and each week the school brings in a different pastor or professor to teach. Topics that we will be covering range from studying a specific section of the Bible (ex: Romans), to how to study the Bible (ex: studying the wisdom books), to a topic studied from a Christian viewpoint (ex: Christian finances). It is a very small school, and our class this year consists of 9 students, none of whom I have met yet.

Naturally, I have been thinking about school all summer, as there are quite a few things that I have no clue about. For instance, I have been wondering what my class mates are going to be like, what the campus will be like, how much free time we'll have, how much I'll have to work, where I'm going to even get a job, how tough will the classes be, will my car be sufficient for the next year, where am I going to get decent skis for cheap, what am I going to do if I keep breaking my bike, and other associated problems.

Those issues have occupied my thoughts all summer, but hopefully it looks like things will be pulling together. I believe I just acquired an excellent pair of skis for dirt cheap, and my car... well we won't get into that right now. But with God's help, the quandary of where I was going to find skis to ride for not much money may be resolved. Believe it or not, it really was one of the problems in the forefront of my mind. I really should have had a new pair of skis two years ago, but I have been just getting by on the ones I currently own. I have two pair which I have been riding: a pair of 150 cm Atomic C:9's and a pair of 160 cm Salomon Verses. The Atomics are a great pair of skis, but they are just two short for me: they just can't hold me when I lay them over in the turns. The Salomons, while they are long enough, simply will not lay over at all. They are basically a rental quality ski, which I have been spending most of my time on for the past 2 years. But that problem my be fixed via eBay. Last January/February I bought a pair of skis off of eBay, but they never came. I did get my money back, but alas, no skis.

Anyhow, I've been thinking about school all summer, and the first day of school is only 20 days away! It is almost here! Yeah, I'm getting excited!

Iron Cross Tail Grab 1/13/07

Here's a video that has lived on my myspace profile for a while. It consists of me throwing an iron cross tail grab last winter at Bruce Mound.

Bat Infestation

My room is currently infested with bats. Our house has always had bats in it, but they usually keep to themselves down in the basement. Every now and then we'll get one in the upstairs, but for the most part, the stay pretty much out of the way. Well, two nights ago I was reading a book, and a bat started flying around my room. So I went for the tennis racket (we have a tennis racket set aside specifically for bat killing) and disposed of it in the garden. No big deal.

But then last night, I woke up at 4:30 in the morning because I was getting cold, and I heard something moving around in the room. At first I thought that it was a mouse in the wall (we have those too), but as I was trying to get back to sleep, I could hear the wings fluttering over my head. I thought to myself in my groggy half-asleep mind "Ungh, bats, I'm not dealing with it right now. I hope it doesn't poop on me." I tried to fall back asleep, but it was actually too noisy to fall back into peaceful oblivion.

So I got out of bed, plugged my lamp in, and lo and behold there was not one but two bats flying around my room! Groggy and half-asleep though I was, I was 2 for 2 swings for bats. I'm actually proud of myself that I managed that at 4:30 in the morning. They had to be disposed of in the garden, so I ended up trudging outside in my mom's borrowed sandals through the wet grass. Oh joy. What a night.

Last day at the fair

Today is the last day of working at the fair. However, it is by no means the last day of working at the fairgrounds. We'll probably be up there cleaning up for the next two weeks straight. But only one more day of dealing with crowds of people.

The Fair: Before work, Thursday.

Today is the first full day of the Clark County Fair. My life for the next four days consists of getting up early to clean toilets and empty trash cans. Oh joy. If that was all there was to it, the fair would be bad, but it wouldn't be as bad as it is. What really makes the fair bad is all the people: there are people everywhere! (Getting in your way when you try to work.) After a whole year of hardly having any interaction with people other than coworkers while on the job, you're now surrounded by hundreds and hundreds of people. It's like, "Just give me the peace and quiet of a deserted county park!"

July Monthly Update

July has past us. There isn't much else to say about this past month, other than "Let's hope we get some rain."

Jumping off of a bridge
Yes, I'm still alive.

Death at Lifest
Sadly, a teenage girl died at Lifest (on a ride) this year. Some thoughts on that.



Mountain bike tracks at Levis
Two photos of tracks, out at Levis Mound.

The First Time on a Board in 2 Months
It's been a long time since I've mountainboarded.



Female Lingerie and Slam Dancing
About archaic traditions.

Big Trucks

About the only thing that I like more than beater trucks is big trucks. The bigger, the better. Something about being able to jump up and over just about anything just makes them so appealing!

Maybe someday I will own a big rusted-out beater truck.

Speaking of rusted out trucks, I was driving a truck at work today that has completely rusted-out toolboxes. On one of the boxes, the hinge is(was) rusted open, so that it was impossible to keep latched. I decided to not worry about it, but today as I was turning around to back down a boat landing, it fell off. Just fell off. I wasn't doing a donut or anything. Now there's a big whole in the back end of the truck, as the bottom of the box is rusted out and the door is rusted off. Maybe sometime I'll post a picture of it. Anyhow, someday I want to own a truck just like that (except maybe with 4x4).

A Beater Truck

I've realized something over the past couple of weeks: I love old beater pickup trucks. I'm not totally sure what it is, maybe something to do with being able to drive them through almost anything, and not have to worry about scratching the paint or bottoming out; but I just know that someday I will own one. Yes, one of my new goals in life is to own an ancient truck not worth even a grand. It probably won't be anytime in the next four or five years, and it might not even be for ten, but sometime I will purchase a battered old truck that is half rusted out. And I will drive it. And I will love every minute of it.

Color is such a concealing mask

Updates

Well so I've been meaning to write a post for a while now, but I haven't seemed to sit down and do it. Apathy in action.