never raining SPIDERS! Yipes!

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So happy new year to everyone. It’s been quiet on this blog because of moving to a new host situation but now that’s taken care of, so we’re back in biz!

Went skiing for the first time yesterday at Stevens Pass – great day! Sunny, decent snowpack with minimal ice, and my legs held up pretty decently, although obviously I need to hit the exercise bike a bit more. When we were leaving, my fellow skiers were up at the lodge, so I went back to the van to change and then drive up to pick them up.

As never happens (:)) there were some ‘issues’ of course – I had to (try, not really successfully) to scrape the INSIDE of the windshield so I could see out. I threw my skis on the roof rack, got changed and then drove slowly up to the front steps/pickup area, but on the way, due to a dumba** driving the wrong way had to make an abrupt turn around a parked car, and heard a weird noise down on the left front side. I kept on driving up to the front, and when I got out, Karri was pointing to a cone I had picked up along the way, that just kept dragging along with me – see pic below. I also was pointed to the fact that I never *locked* the skis down on the roof rack, so they were just sitting up there, thankfully didn’t fall down (you can see this and the non-see-through windows in the pic too).

So after removing the cone and loading up, we spent the next 10-15 mins scraping windows (again, the inside of them) – it was a multi-person effort! 🙂 and drinking some Lambrusco – delicioso! Then we lit out for Seattle.

A great start to the ski season! Hoping we get a late one like the last couple years that lasts all but into April again!

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Just finished reading Bill Buford‘s 1990 account of English soccer hooligans, Among the Thugs. This is a very interesting book, if you can stomach the violence and nihilism.

Set in the late 1980’s, Buford takes us through several direct accounts of over-the-top drinking, fighting and (effectively) gang warfare amongst English soccer fans while attending pro games (at home and on the Continent). These ‘hooligans‘ were quickly banned from European contests for many years due to their violent tendencies, and may have had a direct hand in bringing about the far more closely-controlled, iron grip the police and security seem to have on such matches today (notwithstanding the even more overt influence of the later events following Sept. 11, 2001, sadly).

What’s weird is that I was actually in Europe for part of this time as a college student (’86-’87 school year), and remember hearing peripherally about English fans being out of control, but as there don’t seem to have been any major matches (battles) in Austria back then, I must have been otherwise insulated from what was going on.

On the one hand, you can see where people want to let off steam and have some fun, and naturally where better than with hundreds or thousands of others there to do the same thing? And Buford talks to this, about the connection to soccer’s huge, working-class fan base and its devotion to the sport week in and week out.

But the darker, increasingly violent side takes its toll and eventually overshadows whatever joy might have been the starting point. As Buford lays out his experiences, some even as a direct recipient of the violence (e.g. the Sardinia experience near the end of the book) you really lose your sympathy for what’s going on. While I never favor the police treating the population as a convenient punching bag or as cattle to be herded with riot weapons and clubs, I can easily see where these violent hooligans may have (literally) pushed them to that extreme in a number of the confrontations described here. And ultimately the hooligans can only blame themselves for the outcome(s), despite likely most of them escaping accountability, as only the worst, most obvious and devil-may-care of the bunch ever seem to get caught?

The other stories I couldn’t help thinking of here were those told of John Bonham from Led Zeppelin when he got drunk and raged out of control back in their heyday – or even Keith Moon in some cases, even though he was far too much a dandy (and addicted to property damage above all else anyway) to start fights he’d almost always lose (unlike Bonham). Again, you have people with some hidden character issues that alcohol or intense situations really set alight, and then consequences be damned (or at minimum, a lot of money and lawyers are required to fix). It’s safe to say most people in common society never behave this way, and if they do, they are isolated quickly and in the lockup before long – but the precise nature of the ‘crowd’ is what seems to have protected the hooligans from paying the price, at least early on. As Buford notes several times in the book – there was never any underlying ‘purpose’ behind the battles with police and other soccer fans (English or otherwise) – in the end, it was all just a playground revolt that escalated WAY beyond anyone’s expectations, including the participants.

A unique take on a years-long situation that may never occur with such regularity again – and quite honestly, that’s a good thing.

Other reviews:
Amazon

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What else is there to say? And to think the current recordholder did it in 1960(!)

Skydiver Fearless Felix jumps from 18 miles up

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judge for yourself ….. candybowl

That fox is so cute! The eagle is very Zen.

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Why did I never think of this – too COOL!

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had a GREAT day skiing at Mt. Baker yesterday. Despite the long drive (it is 145 miles from Seattle) the conditions were excellent: over 100 inches of snow, sunny, and minimal lines. The views of the surrounding ranges were also amazing, with many crazy hikers up on those cornices getting ready for extreme backcountry plunges into likely VERY deep powder.

Since I blew out my right knee ACL last year, I’m on the ‘brace train‘ these days, but I was never into the backcountry hiking anyway. Kerewin is doing great on her 3rd year snowboarding too!

Met friends up there and skied with them some – enjoyed the typical beer, champagne and foodfest in the Syncro midday, then back on to the mountain until close – probably got about 12-15 runs total? Took a while to get outta there – sadly someone had to get medivac’d off the mountain via helicopter – then stopped by some friends’ place on the way down the mountain, which meant not getting back until about 9pm (doh!).

Still….amazing day.

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Watched the 2005 Anthony Hopkins movie The World’s Fastest Indian tonight. Pretty good, although a bit slow in the middle. This is the story of Burt Munro, the guy from New Zealand who built and rebuilt his 1920’s Indian motorcycle to conquer the world of speed – first in NZ, then in Utah, USA at the Bonneville Salt Flats, in the late 60’s. The movie doesn’t really dwell on about 90% of his life – it concentrates on his quest for speed at Bonneville and the many obstacles (money, logistics and other various pitfalls along the way) he faced in getting there, getting to run and setting several new world records.

Anthony Hopkins is pretty good and believable as Burt Munro – he plays it pretty minimalist, though and sometimes it’s hard to understand him – not sure how accurate his NZ accent is, but whatevs. The speed runs at Bonneville and elsewhere he does on that crazy old motorbike are very well done and really give you a sense of how it must have seemed to drive at that speed (close to 200pmh) with little to no protection (he had almost no brakes, no protective gear save a helmet and no drag chute, at least in the runs depicted here). There isn’t really much character development of any note here – the story (like the man depicted) is solely focused on speed, speed, speed. But it’s interesting to note from Wikipedia that many of Bert’s records are still standing to this day.

The DVD includes a separate, older documentary of sorts from 1971 with the real Burt Munro in it – while it could have been at least a half-hour shorter, it’s interesting to watch and you can see the 2005 film pretty much nails the character and his quest spot on. Ultimately, ‘TWFI’ is an entertaining and inspiring adult holiday movie to watch if you get the chance.

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Got back out on the water this am in the kayaks, after a couple-week break. Ever since we got back from BC (see earlier post re Tofino) we have been very interested in kayaking. So we got a couple used ones on CL not long after, and have since gone three times locally. Each day we learn something new – mostly in and around loading/unloading and storage, but eventually we will know how to KAYAK correctly too :).

The first jaunt was on Lake Union several weeks ago – we got in the water at the south end of the lake by the Wooden Boat Center – there is a small park and rocky beach where you can launch. We paddled up the east side of Lake Union almost to where it enters ‘The Cut’ – and then paddled back.

Then, we went to Mercer Slough (barely south of Bellevue) a week or so later. We got in the water literally under I-90 at Entiak Beach, and paddled around the bend into the Slough. We went everywhere arond in there you can go, saw a lot of wildlife – otters, ducks, big turtles, geese and some other unknown birds (I think one was a kingfisher as it kept diving into the water, seeming fishing) – very cool!

Today, we launched at Magnuson Park in NE Seattle. We paddled south from there around to the east side of the cut, right by SR-520 (which was apparently closed today, there were no cars on it) and saw a big rowing crew race going on in Union Bay there, just east of Husky Stadium. We turned back after mucking around a bit there and headed back up to MP.

I think this was the most challenging of the three local paddles we’ve done so far, probably the longest distance. It was about 4 miles each direction. There was a bit more current and breeze to battle out there today vs. in Mercer Slough (very quiet water there) and while Lake Union definitely has some chop, we simply didn’t go that far that first day.

But hoping the weather holds up for at least one more weekend attempt to kayak before starting to get really cold out there – the guide back up in Tofino said winter kayaking is among the best because far less people (we only saw one other today, when we were almost back to MP, she was going south) and more wildlife around. Today’s journey was far less on the wildlife, unless you count rich people’s houses along the shore of Lake Washington (Windemere and Viewridge neighborhoods) as ‘wild’ – they sure were big with obviously expensive boats mostly in drydock – we missed the blow-by-blow from Robin Leach. Hopefully we can include some friends on the next one.

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