Thanksgiving

{moszoomimglink:Model of Hawai}So what? Turkey dinner is passe! I had several invitations for Thanksgiving (mostly a mix of pity and desire), but shunned them all in favor of the nuclear option: turkey sandwich with brie on croissant. YUM! If the weather is fine, I’m going to haunt (possibly alone) Kehena. Otherwise, I’ll drive to my favorite place on Earth: Honaunau.

Theft

Phil, a friend, told me not to worry about the refrigerator, but about the generator – that’s the item most frequently stolen around here. Well, you know what: that’s what happened to me: I got here late last night, only to find that the generator(s) had gone. Missing were: (a) the good generator; (b) the bad generator; (c) the two gas canisters; (c) the chain and lock that tied them to the post. Continue reading

Casino Royale (2006)

The mannerisms of James Bond have gotten on everyone’s nerves. I suppose there was a time when “shaken, not stirred” was first a symbol, then a trademark. But some time around the late Roger Moore movies, when he was old enough that his sex with the “Bond girls” already seemed implausible, Bond seemed as expired as Moore. Enters Timothy Dalton, enters Pierce Brosnan. No life enters the franchise. 007 movies had become a non-event in the past years: who wants to see a spy movie when there is no Cold War? Continue reading

Won my Custom X!

Guess what: I got really frustrated when I started looking for my dream board. The Custom X was not available at all in many stores, and where I found it, it was the ugliest shade of green anyone has ever seen on a mountain. So I go to my trusted eBay, where I had already bought my new Verizon phone (California law requires handsfree operation now). Get that: I got a Custom X for under $500! Continue reading

Found new site: snocountry.com

Ok, this is going to be hugely embarrassing, since every single one of you already knew about this – but I am entirely surprised by finding out now about snocountry.com. Well, actually, considering how hard it was to find in the first place, I am not embarrassed after all… My friend Doug pointed me to it. The good thing (right now) is that it tells you of the resorts open, how many lifts they have open, how many runs, how much acreage. Continue reading

Postponed…

Well, looks like our friends in Heavenly were a little too optimistic until the last second. It is this morning they fessed up that they were not going to open today, but said they are now “shooting” for next Friday. Of course, anyone in the know is aware of the overpromises coming from skiheavenly.com – the current temperature is 51F, the current snow conditions are laughable, and the likelihood of a start next weekend pretty much nil. Continue reading

CBR 600 RR

{moszoomimglink:cbr600rr_01_.jpg}Well, who would have known? After five years, I finally got myself a new bike again – a Honda CBR 600 RR. It’s a great bike, I always loved looking at it, and the only reason I had to do without a bike for so long was that I didn’t have a garage to put it in. Now I have it (have had it for a year), and it’s time to live dangerously again. Continue reading

Is it going to be Nov. 17?

Check out the Heavenly site this morning (Nov. 12). The snow cannons are on, the mountain is white, and the site hopeful they are going to open on November, 17th! Some people (yours truly) think that may be a little of a stretch: in San Francisco, today, the weather is absolutely gorgeous, with a nice sun warming us at 8:30a, and it looks like it might be a beach day. How can we square that with a mountain run next weekend? Continue reading

And the winner is: Orhan Pamuk

One of those serendipities in life: I had started reading “My Name Is Red,” by Orhan Pamuk. I would read it sparingly, because the writing was incredible and it was a pleasure to just revel on each page; maybe the mystery thriller aspect was not too forthcoming (I find the book still a little on the slow side, of course). In any case, I was about to write wonderful things about the interaction between the original writer (Pamuk) and his congenial translator, a native of Turkey that is to write his first novel. Continue reading

Finding a Custom X

Well, I decided to treat myself to something special, this year – a Custom X. My friend D. has one, and it looked like it could do a lot that my own Cruiser couldn’t. It’s more rigid, but has better torsion flex. The cruiser behaves a little like it doesn’t even have a core! I went to REI, and they had only the green model. Not wanting to look like a frog on the mountain, I checked Sports Basement, but they had only one Custom X, size 160. Continue reading