Maybe not.........

Although I said my skating days were over due to a knee injury, I was wrong. After a visit with the doc who pushed and pulled my leg every which way, he said he does not think that any ligaments are torn. It was nice to hear that. So, on we go. I will be skating again in about another month after the knee heels up a little more. I look forward to it. I had really caught the bug last year and couldn't seem to skate enough. Although I will be taking it a little easier and not trying to push myself to do tricks that I have no business doing, I will skate again. I am just not the gym type of person. I need exercise but going to the gym is worse for me than the thought of going to work. I despise lifting weights and doing stationary stuff. I know it is helpful and can be good for you, but I despise getting on a stationary bike after a guy who weighs as much as a small whale and sweats more in 5 minutes than someone who has been working out for an hour. But maybe that is just my Mysophobia kicking in, and yes i had to look up what the real definition of germaphobia is. Who the heck would have guessed Mysophobia. Anyway, the gym is just not for me. I need to be outdoors moving around to enjoy physical activity. So I look forward to skating and hitting some the demos with Weatherd Skateboards. Keep it rollin' Randy!

Oh and you gotta check out this video on youtube of my youngest son Pandamonium at Six Flags New England. Hillarious!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nxmdh04nhdw

Skating is over for me.....

Well, this is the last post of my return to skating blog. I am officially done. I blew out my knee at Granite Skate Park a few weeks ago. It is not getting better. So, thank you to all who read this blog. It was fun while it lasted but my body is just not durable enough for the abuse skating puts it through. So signing off......

Winter is long.....I hate it.

It certainly has been too long. Life is just way too busy. I really wish things could just slow down and we could all take a breath and enjoy life. Yes, the old cliché to stop and smell the roses. We did a little of that yesterday. After running around to different stores getting things we needed, my family and I decided to take a nice drive to wherever. We just drove around with the warm sun beating down on the windows, warming us up and giving us a nice relaxed feeling. The feeling of not having somewhere specific to be, not having a specific time to have to do something. Just drove around, looking at beautiful houses and scenery, thinking about a time when things will be much easier going. A time when life will be (cliché coming) a bowl of cherries. It was a beautiful afternoon spent with people I love.

As far as skating goes, wow, it’s been a long time. The brutal winter kept me out of it for a while. That and my wrist is absolutely destroyed. I went to our event at RAD Skatepark in Mendon, MA a few weeks ago with the intent on skating. Lost my balance (barely) braced myself on the wall and the pain was intolerable. A long time ago, 1996 to be exact, I fell while skating and snapped the ligaments in my wrist (see diagram). The problem is that there is nothing holding those two bones together so they keep separating and the #4 carpal bone has pushed its way to down in between those two bones. This creates a snag point for the other tendons and ligaments in the area. So I constantly have loud popping in my wrist, and a lot of pain, when the ligaments get stuck and then pop back into their proper position. So, I have gotten a few different opinions and the only option is surgery. I did get a cortisone shot but it doesn’t seem to be doing a whole lot. So, in short, I can’t do much skating or sports because it hurts so bad. I can’t throw a football or baseball, I can’t shoot a basketball and I can barely work. It is terrible. But, gotta deal with it anyway. So who knows when I will be able to skate again. I might just try to deal with and skate, or play sports anyway, because it was good getting exercise. It felt great to get out and break a real sweat. Yes, that is what I will do. Just try to ignore the pain and do what I want to do, skate, play football with the kids and have fun, especially since spring is coming up on us.

Fingerboarding....

Here is some fingerboard stuff I built for the kids. I know, not too great, but I am just starting to do woodworking.

"You know you're fat, you're fat, you know it"

The Weird Al song mocking Michael Jackson’s “Bad” keeps resonating in my head. You know the one, “You know your fat, you’re fat, you know it, whew!” My gluten free diet is way off track and is making me feel terrible and gain some weight back, especially in the gut. This is hindering my ability to skate as well. Why is diet so hard? Why can’t I do what I know is good for me? Why can’t I just be good and eat right and get plenty of exercise and sleep? Self control. That is the key, something I really need to develop more of. I just can’t help myself when I see a box of cookies or a bag of chips sitting there. It feels as though they’re talking to me, telling me that if I just have a little it will be okay. That is where the downfall begins. I have a little, then a little more, then a little more and before I know it a whole sleeve of Oreo’s has been downed along with a half gallon of milk. Man I love Oreo’s. It is so hard to stay away from those things. And then there’s the chocolate covered Oreo’s! OH SO GOOD! Oh man, I have got to stop doing that to myself. Shake it off, you don’t need it. Okay, so I just need to develop more self control. Then I will be leaner (90% fat instead of 99% anyway) and I will be able to skate a little easier. It might even make my balance better. All I know is that I want to do whatever it takes to be able to skate better. To be able to progress and not feel like the Stay Puffed Marshmallow Man on wheels. I can do this. I can lose 10 pounds by end of April then 10 more by the end of August. I can do it. I just need to eat right and skate as much as possible. So that is what I will do. Eat right, exercise and skate. What could be better anyway?

It's been a while....

Well, i know it's been a while since my last post. No excuse at all. Just this fat lazy butt not doing what it should. Playing way too many video games late at night instead. I really need to keep this up a little better. Anyway, I have been skating a few times since the last blog. A couple Saturdays ago went down to the Fitchburgh park, shoveled out some snow and skated with Randy, Darrell, Tommy, Arturo and some others. What a blast. I really like Darrell's advice to me on how to drop in on the quarter pipes. He told me "It's not hard, just lean forward." In a sense he was right. I just leaned forward. Unfortunately, I leaned forward a little too far. Ouch, shin right on the rail. That hurt. But it was a good day anyway, even though I had limited time to skate. Drove 2 hours round trip to skate for one. That's okay. It was good. Then the following Wednesday I went to Rye Airfield for the second time. That was a blast. I must have been tired though because I took some vicious spills. Man did that hurt. But not as bad as this Jack Brown megaramp slam. This is crazy!!! http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CTeXKHkNqgk&playnext=1&list=PL9D13224B9D6140CE&index=37

Anyway, Rye was good. Randy, my brother Billy, Tommy and Arturo. Good times. Looking forward to Saturday's Weahterd demo at Techneeks in Keene. Should be a good time. I am really hoping I can get a little better. I am not progressing too much because of this stupid winter thing. Not too many opportunities to skate. And after today I have had enough shoveling. Although it was fun. The boys, my sons Caleb (9) and Connor (5), and I shoveled all the snow off our deck and made a huge snow pile to jump into off of the deck. That's not teaching my kids bad things, right? Well, even it if it is, it was fun and we will do it again. But I have had enough of shoveling out snow. 3 hours today was plenty. Just going to go to Rye and wait for the spring when all the beautiful flowers bloom, the birds sing and life is wonderful. Ahh, for the days of warmth and sunshine. For the days when we can skate every day. But again for now I will have to practice at Rye and play Tech Decks with my sons, which is really fun by the way. My son Caleb is obsessed with the Ryan Shekler line of finger boards and parks. He is getting good at fingerboarding too. He knows more trick names than I do, which actually isn't saying a whole lot now that I think about it. But he is looking forward to coming to Keene with me on Saturday and hopefully being able to use Techneeks fingerboard park. He really wants to get into skating as well. I will have to find him the right board. I might even look into the Ramp Camp at Rye to see how much that is. We'll see. But, I htink on February vacation I will bring hime to Rye with me. He can bring his scooter or something until I get him a board. And don't worry, I will teach him proper skating etiquette. So, until I go skate again, I will say goodbye and hope you all enjoy the rest of the winter sitting inside, sipping on whiskey and enjoying the company of some good people. Don't isolate yourself, this is a tough time of year. Get together with friends, hit Rye or Techneeks and skate as much as you can.

Love Rye Airfield..

So Wednesday night Rollin' Randy Richard, Jaw Dropping Jared Brooks and myself went to Rye Airfield for Old Guys night. $10 for a 2:45 session is quite good. Especially at this place. Rye is amazing. I can't wait to go again. If you have never been I suggest it strongly. It has something for every level of skater. My personal favorite is the micro area. That little spot is enough to make me want to go back. If that is all it had I would still go back. But that is just a small portion of this amazing skate park. There are 3 bowls, a nice street area, a nice ramp area where most of the bikers are and a HUGE vert ramp. Thing is intimidating to look at. Maybe one day I will drop in on that, but probably not. I don't think I could ever get up the nerve for that. That thing is crazy. But what a great park. I will definitely be going over there as much as possible.

I really loved that micro area. I actually dropped in on the quarter pipes and used the half pipe in there. I almost was able to do a rock and roll fakie. Took a few hard spills trying it, but it was fun. Again, my knee took the worst of it. I gotta let that thing heal. I could feel blood dripping down my leg half way through the night. Anyway, almost got the fakie down. I am excited about that. I am going back sometime this week to work on that. Hopefully I can figure it out and be able to do it regularly. I also was grinding the rail on the little box in the micro area. I actually made it all the way across a few times and stayed on my board. I am happy about that too. It was such a great night. Skating with some of my best buds, not much better than that. I really look forward to skating there again. It is such and awesome place. Join us every other Wedenesday night. Next time we will be there is January 5th. Let's skate! http://www.ryeairfield.com/