What's Eating Gary's Gauchies?????????????????

I would first like to say that this may be my last post for a while. It will become obvious to every one (all 4 of you) of my readers that I am running out of subject manner and therefore I have decided to "jump the shark" so to speak which is a show biz term for using the absurd in a vain attempt to keep people watching a dying sitcom. Some of you may say that writing about my heart rates, boring bike rides and other men grabbing my ass was jumping the shark but I am about to sink to an all time low reminiscent to the introduction of the Great Gazoo on the Flintstones. When he appeared it was obvious that Fred and Wilma had but a few shows left before being unceremoniously dumped. I can only hope that committing literary hari kari as I am about to do will not turn me into more of a social outcast than I already am.

Let's get to it. About a month ago I climbed out of the shower, dried off and went straight for the underwear drawer because there is nothing scarier than a 55 year old man walking around the house starkers. I grabbed the first pair of undies I saw and yanked them on only to flip out in a literal sense which left me hanging......so to speak. Please be aware that my being of Scottish heritage means I can't throw my underwear out until the elastic goes. When I am forced to reach down my pants about 20 time a day to yank my briefs back up is when I realize it's time to start using them as a dish rag. Just kidding, usually by the time the elastic gives out they have the absorbency of a fishing net. Anyways this pair was fairly new and therefore the elastic was strong and they were diaper like in their absorbency. The front of them was chewed to shit. Several holes and cloth dangling and all I could think of is I have mice or there is some kind of dangerous substance emanating from me or mine.....so to speak.

I have never seen mice in my house nor have I ever seen any evidence of mice but I checked the underwear drawer and found no evidence of the little critters. Now I have a mystery on my hands. Is Guinness secretly rummaging through my laundry in search of the ever pungent underwear and then chowing down? I suppose this is possible because he is a dog and does all the usual dog things like ball licking and shit eating. Yes, it's hard to admit to but I have seen him eat shit so I suppose my underwear might be caviar to him. Who knows?

I had almost forgotten about the chewed up underwear incident when last night I was again making the naked 55 year old sprint to the underwear drawer. I grabbed the first available pair and as I was yanking them on I could see carpet through them. This is what I discovered.

That is about a 2"x 3" hole and it sure looks like something has been chewing on them to make it. Now I must admit I was relieved when I discovered the hole was in the ass of that pair because I was able to eliminate the something emanating from me scenario. I mean, I've never been old before so who really knows what happens to ones body. I was perplexed about what the hell was going on with my underwear but I was even more disturbed that I was a 55 year old man standing around starkers so I reached into the underwear drawer one more time and tried my luck again. I quickly yanked the new pair on and felt better for about 2 seconds. As soon as I made a quick move to the t-shirt drawer (because I'm a 55 year old standing around without a shirt on) I flipped out in a literal sense which left me pointing east (Mecca?, a bar? A WOMAN!?) out the side of my underwear. I slowly removed the underwear while checking to see if Guinness was peeking around the corner and laughing at me but he was nowhere to be seen.

Once again there I was starkers in my room inspecting my underwear and this is what I found.

That looks like something took one big chomp and went right through the border. What the hell could it be? I don't think it's mice but I guess that's a possibility. It's not like they are edible underwear that I bought by accident because I am pretty sure Mark's Work Wearhouse doesn't carry edibles unless they are WD-40 flavoured and I doubt mice would like those ones. I have decided that I am going to put some cheese in my underwear drawer tonight and see if it has been eaten tomorrow morning. And if my underwear smell like cheddar then I can only hope all my jobs for the next few days are for people who don't own a dog.

Snapping turtles, updated

It seems this year is a banner year for turtles. I mentioned in an earlier post about the two painted turtles that sadly ended up as roadkill. I have seen several snapping turtles as well trying to cross the highway so I have had to stop a couple of times to help them across the road before they became roadkill. The snappers I have seen have all been about a foot in diameter and they are ornery buggers when you pick them up to help out. I have been told and that they have really long necks and can still bite you even if you are holding them at the side of their shell. This is not true. The couple that I have picked up could never come close to biting my hands at the side of their shell. You have to watch out for the claws but overall there is little risk to picking one up.
That being said the snapper I saw yesterday at the side of the road didn't need any help. When I saw her she was about 5 feet away from the road edge where the road shoulder is starting to fall away. I knew it was a she because when I stopped for a closer look I saw the most amazing thing. She had dug a hole about 8 inches deep and when I took a peek in I could see a bunch of eggs at the bottom. They were about  3/4 of an inch in diameter and translucent white in colour. Apparently it is fairly common for snappers to bury their eggs in the shoulder of the road because the mixture of gravel and sand is perfect for the eggs. I watched from a distance for 1/2 an hour and she was still laying so I moved on hoping that she wouldn't try to venture across the road when she was done. Let's hope the babies know which way to go when they hatch. All in all it was a pretty amazing thing to see. I'll have to start bring my camera to work.

The update: So today I bring my camera to work and I am driving down a sideroad near Elora when believe it or not I see a snapping turtle on the shoulder of the road and it looks like it's laying eggs. The first thing that came into my mind was....Friggin turtles are getting way more action than I am. The second thing was to take a picture of the blessed event. So I did although today you cannot see the eggs in the hole so I am not sure if she had laid any or if they were being blocked from my sight by her leg. Amazing though, two days in a row and two turtles laying eggs. What are the odds? Obviously better than me getting.....?

She's a looker

Digging the hole

Enough already.

It was six days ago when the Bruins beat the Canucks for the Stanley Cup but I think there has been more hockey shit on the radio and tv since then than at any time throughout the season. Coverage of the riot, panel discussions about the riot, the parade in Boston, panel discussions about the parade in Boston and on and on and on. Give it a rest. It's the first day of god damn summer and in this country you can't get away from hockey.
I went out for a ride tonight and when I get home and turned the tv on it was tuned to TSN and guess what's on. What else, the same group of morons I been watching for the last friggin century it seems like. And guess what the show was about? No sane person ever could. It was a mock draft as in some so called experts give their opinions on what order the incoming junior players will be drafted. That's right, speculation by a group of manglers of the english language on what might happen 3 days from now if Sagittarius is in the fifth moon of Johnny Bower during an eclipse. And do you know what constitutes an expert nowadays? All it takes is one arse to say he's an expert and then find someone stupid enough to agree with him. Presto! An expert is born.
It's like today's news reports. Half of it isn't news, it's reporting on the comments of a so called expert (an arse who found someone stupid enough to agree that he is) who has decided that oil prices might go up in the next year unless of course they don't go up. It's fucking madness and I have no idea how this shit has become newsworthy but I suppose there is so much time to fill and so much media trying to justify their existence that just about anything can become news.
That being said the mock hockey draft has come to an end on TSN and the show following is, wait for it....... drum roll please............Hockey 2 nite. Give me the strength to not throw a brick through the tv in hopes of hitting Pierre MacGuire, the mouth that never shuts the fuck up. And what the hell is with 2 nite? Is it possible to misspell a word any worse than that. Damn!

The evolution of mountain biking

In my last post I discused the differences between my Sugar and my Hi Fi mountain bikes. They look roughly the same but are very different due to the ever advancing research and development to create bikes that ride smooth and will go over anything. When I first started riding over 20 years ago the technical innovation that we thought was fantastic was indexed shifters which allowed you to change gears without having to get the shift lever in the exact position. Just push with your thumb until you hear a click and presto you are in the next gear.
I remember my first rides at Kolapore when we had no suspension on the bikes and so going over obstacles was not a great option so you went around them. We used to end many of our rides around Blue Mountain by racing down Happy Valley (without suspension) and your biggest problem was visibility because your head was bouncing up and down so fast from the bumps that it was tough to see. We did it though because Jozo's and a cold beer was at the bottom of the hill. A fall was guaranteed to hurt. I first met Lori after a crash she had coming down Happy Valley and I don't think her shoulder has ever fully recovered so rest assured it was risky coming down there. I'm know full suspension bikes come down the hill much faster now but I doubt it is any more hair raising.
A few years later suspension forks came on the scene which help take some of the pounding and then full suspension bikes started appearing about 15 years ago but like any other innovation it has taken quite a few years to refine those bikes although in racing hardtails are still prevalent and winning. I think for most racers hardtails are lighter and because many courses are not that technical the hardtail is the choice.
With the new big travel suspension bikes has come a change to trails and the way they are made or maybe the bikes have changed because the trails are becoming more technical. A chicken or egg scenario. All I know is trails are getting rockier and more technical but because of these new bikes have so much suspension travel it's not much different than the riding on tamer trails with no suspension.
The sport of mountain biking has changed over the years and I don't think it's any better or more fun now than it was 20 years ago but there is no doubt about it, it's different.

Three Stage, Day 2

It was back to Three Stage again today with Terry along for the ride as well as Steve. We did a lot of trails that weren't covered yesterday and some trails that I have never been on before.
Before leaving I went to the Rock Shox website to look for info on my fork which didn't seem to be working very well for me. There were no schematics or air pressure information that was of use to me so I headed out with some questions about whether or not it is a terrible fork or I haven't set it up correctly. I don't mountain bike near as much as I used to so it's hard for me to tell how much is my poor performance and how much is the bikes.
I will say that I have had this bike for a few years now but I have never really warmed up to it. It's a Gary Fisher Hi Fi and it is a much different bike than the Gary Fisher Sugar that I rode and raced for many years. I still remember my first ride on the Sugar. It took about 15 minutes of riding for me to realize that I loved that bike. It just fit my body and my riding style perfectly. In retrospect I wish I had kept it and the odds are I might still be choosing it for rides over the H Fi. The Sugar was quick and nimble and it suited my active in the seat riding style perfectly. The Hi Fi is heavier, I sit straighter up on it and it's 4.5 inches of suspension travel allows you to ride over more obstacles. I guess the problem is my style has always been to thread the needle, go around things if I could. I liked the Sugar's thinner tires which fit between rocks on the trail. Because it was so nimble it reacted quickly to my input and always did what I expected it to do. I had 8 years of great riding on that bike. The Hi Fi does some things well but overall it does not have a race bike pedigree. The Sugar was a scalpel, the Hi Fi is a dull knife.
That being said one of the reasons I was having trouble on the Hi Fi was the Rock Shox fork was simply awful. It was like having a pogo stick on the front. Hitting a small rock would cause the fork to kick back at me and make riding technical sections doubly hard. I tried adjusting the rebound but that didn't seem to help. I finally got Terry and Steve to help me out and it turns out the air pressure in the fork was down to 60 psi. That's much too low so we took a guess and pumped it up to 125 psi which did the trick. From then on it was a much different bike which pissed me off because the only reason left for my lousy riding was operator error. I did improve on yesterdays ride but I suspect my performances on the Hi Fi will never come close to what I was able to do on the Sugar. That Sugar was one sweet bike (sorry, couldn't resist).
It was great to be out riding with the boys again as well because they put up with my ranting and raving on the trails. I called myself a fucking idiot about 30 times today so that's a reduction from yesterday. At least I improved on something.


The Sugar at Gooseberry Mesa in Utah



Three Stage

It took me a while but I finally got out for a ride on my mountain bike. I met my friend Steve up at Three Stage and we headed out for a nice ride on what could only be described as a beautiful day. The trails were dry so the traction was excellent.

Because I have not been mountain biking for quite a while my skills were lacking. I hit a lot more rocks than I usually would that would have to be attributed to poor vision. I have always stressed to new riders how important it is to look ahead as much as you can but that's easy to say but a little harder to do. I found myself looking down far too often and when this happens the result is you hit more rocks. Looking ahead allows you to plan your route and instead of reacting to obstacles in the trail you are anticipating them and therefore missing most of the things you wish to avoid. Looking ahead allows you to flow through the trail and that results in speed with less effort. I was also looking at obstacles instead of looking at the route I should be taking which is not a good idea for we all know one of the golden rules of mountain biking is if you look at that rock you will hit that rock.
Steve rode pretty much flawlessly for the ride but I knew many years ago when he first started riding that he had what it takes to be a great rider. He is fearless going through the tough technical stuff and just knows what to do to get that Santa Cruz humming along at a great pace. I was left banging off of rocks trying to keep up. The only thing that may have slowed him down was his wondering what the hell was with all the swearing behind him. I guess that will be my strategy in future rides.
All in all a fantastic day at Three Stage topped off perfectly with a couple of cold beers that Steve brought along. That boy has his priorities straight, I'll say that.

Steve at the lookout

Golf to die for

I think I have mentioned in earlier blogs that I have a love hate (mostly hate) relationship with golf. It has driven me into short term bouts of insanity at times. Something always strange happens on the course when I am out there and that may be why I don't golf that much anymore.
One day in particular comes to mind though. It was hot as hell that day and I had a chance to get out golfing with my friend Josef , Al  and the other golfer in the foursome was Rudy who I discovered had coached Todd Brooker ski racing many years before. Rudy was around 70 years old but was still active and a pretty good golfer as well. Rudy and I were walking that day so I had the opportunity to have some nice chats with him while we made our way around the course. I remember at the 10'th hole he soaked his hat in cold water and then put it back on so he could stay cool for a while. When we got to the thirteenth hole (the most difficult on the course) Rudy was the first on the green and had a 15 foot putt for par which was impressive. He was repairing ball marks when he suddenly stood up straight and then almost flipped over on to his back. When we got over to him he was gasping for air and things didn't look good. We tried using all the first aid we had been taught over the years but it was obvious very early on that Rudy wasn't coming back, paramedics or not.
Now I know there is nothing funny about this at all because he was putting for par on the toughest hole on the course and didn't get the opportunity to make the putt. Maybe the pressure got to him but I doubt it. I do remember when I was walking out to the parking lot shortly thereafter Josef came chasing after me with a rain check for another 18 holes because we didn't complete our round. I thought that was nice but honestly, at that point I wasn't too worried about not completing the round of golf. I took the rain check anyways. Then Al looked at me and said something like it had been a hell of a day and we should go smoke a joint, to put things in perspective I suppose so there we were in the parking lot donning an illegal smile. Then it was off to the Beaver and Bulldog for beers. As strange as all this seemed I think because Rudy was an avid golfer and nice guy he would have understood. I sure hope so.

The Scenic Caves climb

Today I was able to get out on the road bike and give the Caves road a try. It's been several years since I have climbed it so there were some doubts in my mind on whether or not I could climb it on the Trek. The tough part about the Caves road is the fact that it isn't terraced like most of the other climbs in the area. That means no places to get a little bit of a rest.
The ride over was into a stiff cool breeze so when I got there I was still a bit chilled. I decided to ride it without going into my lowest gear so my quads would get a good power workout. I have done that climb many times but I found myself cursing on the way up because there is simply no place where you can ease up. Near the top my speed was down to 7 kph which is damn slow.
The results were what I should have expected. It took 17 minutes for the climb so that's nowhere near my best time which was slightly under 15 minutes on a mountain bike. I think if I had gone up in my lowest gear my time would have been possibly 1 minute less because there's no doubt in my mind that I would be faster. My reason for thinking that is I really couldn't have pushed much harder on the pedals and because of that the surprising stat is my heart rate going up the caves averaged at only 153 bpm. On my ride last week my average heart rate for over 3 hours was 160. I think a higher cadence climb in my lowest gear would have been faster and I would have been able to work harder and more efficiently and therefore gotten to the top faster and with a slightly higher heart rate. Maybe the fact that I had a tough time staying warm had something to do with it as well.
The rest of the ride was all rolling hills to Ravenna where I turned south to Grey 19 and then made wicked time on the way back because of the wind at my back. The ride took 1 hr 45 mins with a heart rate average of 138 and a max of only 165. The distance was 42.3 km and I hit 75 kph coming down Grey 19 so all in all it was a pretty good ride. I'm glad I went out even if I did miss the F1 race in Montreal because it's always better to be out doing something than sitting at home watching someone else do something.
I did something stupid on the ride as well. At the lookout just past the Scenic caves I saw a friend and stopped for a couple of minutes to chat. When I started up again I was in a big gear and instead of downshifting I just stood and tried to get the pedals turning. That was a mistake. I tweaked my knee and although there is no pain every time I sit down there is a small click so lesson learned. Don't push real big gears.

I made it

I made it to the wedding and it was a great. As soon as I finished my roller ride I showered and hopped into the batmobile (I have heard my car called the batmobile several times and I first figured that people thought the car looked like the batmobile but I later realized they called it the batmobile because they thought the operator was batshit). Once I pulled my pants up after getting by security (OK I'm lying, security was 2 twelve year olds in a golf cart) things went well and Ronda and Dave were married and are now off to the east coast for their honeymoon. A disturbing thing happened at the wedding though. Steve, my other regular blog reader (I have 2) mentioned that my paragraphs were much too long, that I was running on, mixing more than one train of thought into the same indistinguishable blob of words. I was shocked because after the NFP (new fucking paragraph) key was explained to me I figured that issue was done. Apparently not. If my name was James Joyce not a word would have been said but because I am not the king of stream of conciousness writing it seems I have a presentation problem.
I don't know what to do now.
When does one start a new paragraph?
Is there a hard and fast rule or is simply
a perception issue.
And whos perception, the readers or
mine.
I am so confused. I thought the NFP key would solve all my problems but now it
seems it has only complicated things. This should be ea
sier than it has become. Da
mn.

Scenic Caves road

I haven't climbed Scenic Caves road for a while but overall I have probably gone up it at least 100 times. I still vividly remember the first time, gasping for air, not even close to the first turn and wondering how the hell I was going to make it to the top. My heart rate monitor was set for a high of 186 and it would flash if you were within 10 beats of your max. It flashed pretty much the entire way up the hill. That first climb was probably the most difficult thing I have ever done in my life but there was certainly a huge sense of accomplishment when I made it to the top in 18 minutes or so. Later on as I continued to ride and improve my fitness the time went down to slightly under 15 minutes which isn't super fast but it's not a snails pace either. All of these rides were done on my mountain bike which is geared low hence making it an easier bike to climb on. I have ridden up the Caves road on my old road bike and I do remember it was a tough grunt. I guess it's time to ride up it on my new Trek Madone and see if I can still make it. I am fitter than I was years ago but I am not sure if I still have the determination and the willingness to accept the struggle that it will be. It's supposed to clear later on today and if it does I am going to head over there and give it a go. Lets hope I make it
OK. Not a lot of time. No ride up the caves road today. It's 10:05 AM and I have just realized that I have a wedding to be at in the Georgetown area at 2 PM! Why the hell didn't someone remind me???? Don't they realize I live in a dense fog for extended periods of time????? What should I get for a gift????? Where the hell am I going????? Who's getting married????? Just kidding, I know that much. What am I going to wear???? I'm tired of looking like a Mennonite when I get dressed up. All that's missing is the straw hat. WHAT'S MY NAME??????????????
OK. I couldn't ride the caves so I went downstairs and got on the rollers and did 22 km in a little over half an hour so I averaged at least 42 kph which is pretty good. A simple ride like that helps me forget all the days problems. Right! Like I need help forgetting. Gotta get moving now.

Ride for Karen

I don't know if many of you have visited Memory Lane which is a small clearing on the north side of the ski hill of the same name. For several years it has been possible to buy a plaque and have it placed in Memory Lane to memorialize friends or family who skied by there year after year without a care in the world, grinning ear to ear with high speed turns on their minds. Karen Menyes-Gasparini was one of those speed demons, a beautiful skier who graced the hills of Blue for many years. As mentioned a few blogs back Karen lost her fight with cancer recently and there is no doubt in my mind that Karen's name should be placed in Memory Lane. The cost to have a plaque made and placed is $1000 which has to be done through Blue Mountain. To raise money for the plaque we are going to have a bike ride on July 16, 2011 starting at Kim Eckersley-Mosleys chalet at 11:00 AM. There will be both mountain bike rides going as well as road bikes and afterwards there will be a barbeque which will cost $5. We are hoping to raise money through donations and tax receipts will be available. It should be a fun day. An evite has been created and sent out so if you don't get one and would like to attend please let me know in the comments. It will be a fun day I'm sure and like I said before, Karen belongs there. Thanks, I hope to see you on July 16.

NHL

Hockey has become a joke. Nathan Horton just passed the puck and travelled a considerable distance before some piece of shit nothing named Rome aimed and took Horton out and received a total of 5 minutes for rearranging a guys brain. It's official, the NHL is a joke. Garbage hockey players can do anything they want and unless someone dies there will be essentially no repercussions. I'm sure if Horton had somehow gotten up after the hit there would have been no penalty at all. Jim Hughson, the TV play by play guy just said if you like old time hockey you'll love this game. As far as I remember what I'm watching is nothing like old time hockey. It's garbage hockey where some no talent piece of shit like Rome can eliminate talent with no worries of any long term penalty. I hope when Rome comes out a Boston player knocks all of his teeth out with a stick and Rome is unable to play for a few years. That may be the only way to stop this idiocy. They have just said that Horton has been taken to the hospital but the good news is he has feeling in all of his extremities. He has no idea what his extremities are called anymore but hey, that's OK, the last thing the NHL needs is more players with a brain that functions enough to exhibit talent. It's no different than when Steckle hit Crosby several months ago. Steckle knew exactly what he doing when he took Crosby out. Steckles Mom didn't see the play because she didn't think her son was worth the price of admission to watch her garbage hockey playing mental midget on the ice. They should start calling it the Communist Hockey league. You know, From each according to his ability, to each according to their need. Shackle the talented so the useless pieces of shit who were 12 years old before they could wipe their own ass can find a place where they can thrive without being able to accomplish anything other than the destruction of those far better than themselves. Garbage hockey, that's all the NHL is. And by the way Don Cherry is an idiot about 80% of the time. Sorry, a moron actually. OK, maybe fucking arse would be more accurate. 90% of the time.

Decent ride

I'm back from a nice ride on what can only be described as a beautiful day.The sun was shining, the temperature was about 24C and there was only a slight breeze so conditions couldn't have been better. I had been off work the previous week and managed to get in close to 200 kms so I have done some good rides and usually I ride with a purpose so they were good training runs. Due to bad weather and other issues I hadn't been on the bike for a week so I was really looking forward to a good pedal. I started by heading over to Creemore and then turned west and made my way towards Mennonite country and Badjeros. At Badjeros I headed north to Robroy and then down the Pretty River road and back home. My ride time was 3:09.27 with a total distance of 82 kms at an average speed of 26 kph. not bad for an old guy. What really surprised me on the ride though were my heart rate stats. Like I said earlier I was on a weeks rest after some good training so I felt strong right from the start. I didn't think there was any way my heart rate would go much higher than my previous old guy high of 172 but while climbing a tough little grunt I looked at my watch and the monitor read 186. Wow. That's as high as I had it up to about 17 years ago. I hit 185 a couple of other times on the ride and for anything strenuous I was in the 170's constantly. For a ride that lasted over 3 hours my average heart rate was 160 which is easily the highest average I have had for what is certainly the longest period of time. Now the question in my mind is whether or not this is a good thing. I think it is because I am getting in better shape and I suspect with this improved conditioning my heart as well as my legs are able to perform at higher levels. I know that while I was a bit tired at the end of the ride I still felt pretty good and could have continued on for quite a while longer. Overall I am pleased with the results.
After the ride I went to the Admirals Post for the last day under the ownership of Leanne and Phillip. They have sold the Post to move on to other interests and I would like to wish them all the best. The Post has been a home away from home for me and the reason I started going there was because Leanne was the owner and she was a friend. I hope the new owners retain all the staff and things stay just about the same.
All in all it was a great day in Collingwood and a wonderful reminder of why I moved up here 12 years ago.

Boys and their toys

I have never been married nor do I have any kids so that means I have had a lot of time and money to spend on myself. Because of this I have accumulated a nice collection of "toys", mostly sporting equipment which I use on a regular basis for the most part. I have two bicycles, my Gary Fisher Hifi mountain bike and my Trek Madone road bike. I now have two pairs of skis and my ancient but still fun Sims Premium snowboard which still carves a beautiful turn (I help a little bit). I must admit I haven't been on my mountain bike at all this year because I still have newbikeitis caused by the new road bike which is just fantastic. The weather has been dreadful this year but there have been enough good days for some decent rides so I do have a few hundred kms on my legs.

My favourite toy of all though is my summer car, my 2006 Pontiac Solstice. This is its 6'th summer and I have still not tired of it so that's a good thing. I have done many mods to it over the years so it is now quite a bit quicker albeit quite a bit louder as well due to the new exhaust and hi-flow catalytic converter. I sometimes think people must be saying "there goes that middle aged crazy guy" when I drive by. What they don't know is I have been a bit crazy my entire life. One of the most fun things about driving it though is the reactions it elicits from other people. Kids still wave and yell at me, people still say nice car all the time and just last week a gentleman about 10 years older walked up in the Metro parking lot and asked me if I wanted to sell it.  I didn't even think about selling it although I suppose I should have asked him how much he was willing to pay. It is a special little toy for me because I would not own it without my Dads posthumous help. Dad left us in 2004 but because he was very smart with his money he left a nice little nest egg for his four kids and that is where the money came from to buy the car. I would never have bought it otherwise. Thanks Dad. I took a chance and bought the car without even driving one but in the end I love that little car. It is totally flawed in some ways such as having the most useless trunk in the history of vehicles and I worry that the complicated convertible roof may give me some grief in the future. It looks like I will have to remove a body panel simply to put a new battery in when that is needed. I'm not looking forward to that either but as flawed as it is it's a great looking car and a bit of a collectors already because there were only 65,000 built before GM closed Pontiac for good. I will always use it as my summer car though and hopefully I will be able to get out for some drives with that other middle aged crazy guy with the orange car. Yes you read it right, orange. Orange. Really orange. Now that's crazy. Great little car though. 

Dum dum dum dum

Here I sit in the Feversham cental office with nothing to do on this work day but sit and wait. And what am I sitting and waiting for you might ask? Well I could try to sugar coat it and maybe cover things up but I won't. The fact of the matter is I have locked my keys in my work truck and I don't have a second set so I am now patiently waiting for CAA to arrive and open the damn thing up. I lost my other truck key last year when I left a ring of keys, many my own, hanging out of the back door lock and at some point they fell out and have never been seen since. I replaced all of my keys but I couldn't replace the truck key because the key is a chip key which is expensive and the mechanic didn't want to incur the expense. So here I sit listening to the hum of digital switching equipment waiting for a tow truck to show up and have the driver shoot me a "man are you ever stupid look". And he's right, I feel a little stupid right now. I could have started the month of June off in a better way but I am going to try to look at the positive side of things for once. At least I didn't lock myself inside the truck with the keys. Now that would have been really dum dum dum dum.