Nov
30
2006
I ran a great four miles in 29:00 minutes. Immediately after I hopped on my bike and rode up West Main hill to Jason Roon’s place the back way to avoid traffic. Jason asked me about my flashers and lights. I ignorantly put on a crappy Black Diamond headlamp I thought would be sufficient. We wound our way through some back neighborhoods until we hit Ravine. This is when it started raining. It was the painful type of rain that had me looking straight down, despite my own fear for whatever lay ahead. I was soaked through in seconds. Luckily it was about 63 degrees. Due to my increased running activity and my lack of food I started cramping in my left calf. I pedaled the rest of the way to Jim’s place on one leg without dropping behind. No small accomplishment as Jason is pretty fast. Jason and I have a history of enduring flash flood conditions, so I was not surprised when it started to pour down on our ride. All I could do was follow his red flasher and his bike lamp all the way to Jim’s place.
We were meeting to discuss a trip for this summer. A Lake Michigan Archipelago trip by sea kayak. The idea would be to paddle the main group of islands of Lake Michigan from the Northern section of the Lower Peninsula. To my knowledge no one has specifically targeted these islands for a trip. I’m sure someone has done the trip. Maybe even Ojibwa in a canoe. However silly white recreational paddlers are another matter entirely.
There are several challenges to this specific trip. First is the distance. There are a few long crossings on this trip at least one that is 19 miles. I have not done any trip with a crossing that long. This is probably why it has not been done in recent memory. According to the map we will be in open water for the majority of the trip. This is never a good thing on the Great Lakes, but it seems it is also part of the allure of the trip. It is so close, and i have only been to two of the islands we will visit. Based on the fact that I paddle Lake Michigan at least once a week in the on season, and a little less in winter, I think I need to do this. Not for the been there, done that mark, but because there is a part of my beloved lake I haven’t seen, and I don’t want familiarity to breed contempt. This is the wife we’re talking about, you can’t let the marriage get in the way of romance. So I will try to take Lake Michigan out for dinner, a movie, and a little dancing later in the summer.
I just hope she lets me score a homerun, because 19 miles is one hell of a crossing, you don’t want to piss her off and have to swim it!
Check out my map.
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Nov
22
2006
This is why Johnny Cash is the baddest man to ever have lived:
God is Gonna Cut Em Down
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down
Well my goodness gracious let me tell you the news
My head’s been wet with the midnight dew
I’ve been down on bended knee talkin’ to the man from Galilee
He spoke to me in the voice so sweet
I thought I heard the shuffle of the angel’s feet
He called my name and my heart stood still
When he said, “John go do My will!”
Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut ‘em down
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Well you may throw your rock and hide your hand
Workin’ in the dark against your fellow man
But as sure as God made black and white
What’s done in the dark will be brought to the light
You can run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Run on for a long time
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Sooner or later God’ll cut you down
Go tell that long tongue liar
Go and tell that midnight rider
Tell the rambler,
The gambler,
The back biter
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
Tell ‘em that God’s gonna cut you down
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Nov
22
2006
Be Here Now: Music Video by Mason Jennings
Choices are often the enemy of life. Any choice you make will eventually come back to bite you in the arse. The best you can do is to make a commitment to be involved in the present. Sure there is tomorrow but who knows what that will bring. If anything can be said it is that to think about what might have been, what could have happened, what might have been will drive you crazy. Ultimately cause you to run headlong into disaster.
Chris Duff wrote in On Celtic Tides about the 5 yard circle around his boat. When the water of the North Atlantic got lumpy and textured, when the wind started to howl, all he could do was focus on a five yard circle around the kayak.
This is often how I feel surfing too. You have to be completely involved in the moment or you will quickly find yourself in trouble. Focusing on the texture of the water, the direction of waves, the speed of the wind. You also have to be flexible. If you get swallowed by a giant wall of water, don’t automatically assume all is lost. Hold on. Brace and see what happens. More often than not you will surface with the paddle in your hand ready to take another great ride.
The sentiment, if not overly sentimental song from Mason Jennings speaks to my state of mind this Thanksgiving season. Be involved in the moment. It won’t come again.
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Nov
16
2006
Rarely is there that opportunity where father and son blog on the same topic, but here it is. The World’s Fastest Indian a film about legendary speed freak Burt Munro tickled my fancy.
Burt Munro set the land speed record for a motorcycle under 1000cc’s at 204.5 mph in 1967 at the Bonneville Salt Flats in Utah.
While my fathers interest was piqued by the motorcycle spin, mine was stimulated by the dialog; which it turns out based on the special features on the DVD was based on something Burt Munro actually said, “You can live more in five minutes on a motorcycle at [that] speed than most people live in a lifetime.”
Apply that statement to anything as extreme as surf paddling, running a marathon, cyclocross and recycle.
I can certainly say that my life has been enriched by stepping out of my box and taking a few risks. I am deemed by folks in my paddling club, my family, my co-workers and the general public as something of a nut when it comes to what I do with my free time. When I saw Burt Munro I saw an old eccentric. How long can I last as a nut, before I am labeled an old eccentric?
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