Webninja » Misc

Snowboarding

Caleb Shay — Sat, 22 Dec 2007 23:30:58 +0000

Andi got a job at Shawnee Mountain. This means I get to snowboard for free at a mountain that is actually on my way home from work, which rules. So, I went snowboarding today for the first time in several years. I kept meaning to go every year, but something always came up. Moving, moving again, out of work, have work but no time, life threatening car accident, etc. Anyways, I got up a mountain today, and here are the things I’ve concluded about me and snowboarding:

I’m getting old. I’m going to need to start doing some stretches first before I just jump on a board now. I managed to pull multiple muscles almost immediately.
Part of the excitement of doing this was it struck me as a good way to get some exercise to help me lose weight. Problem: I need to lose some weight in order to really be able to do this. Between the extra baggage and the flexibility problems, after I got to the top of the mountain it took me almost 15 minutes to get my bindings adjusted, with lots of huffing and puffing. This got really old after a couple of runs.
Speaking of a couple of runs…that was all I could do before I was exhausted. I guess that really shouldn’t be surprising given the above mentioned items.
Shawnee is a teeny-tiny mountain. Even with my amazing ability to fall almost as much as I did the first time I ever got on a board, a run still only took a few minutes. On the plus side, this means the lift ride is really short, so you don’t really have time to get cold stiff muscles while riding up the mountain.
I need some braces for my snow pants. I spent most of my time going down the mountain trying to pull my pants back up with gloves on and not fall down or fill my pants with snow.
As much as I love snow sports, and as much as I love bars with interesting drinks, the two REALLY should not be combined (but hot cider with a shot of Hot Damn! in it is really tasty).

Part of me keeps saying, “You have no health insurance, what the hell are you doing falling down a mountain?”, but the other part of me says “Health insurance costs money I don’t have right now, but falling down a mountain where your wife works is free!”.

Here’s to illogical logic and crossed fingers…Cheers!

I quit smoking

Caleb Shay — Thu, 30 Nov 2006 15:52:54 +0000

The title really says it all. I’m on day 13 without a cigarette and I’m actually starting to feel better. I took the patch route, which really seems to have taken a lot of the edge off. The downside to the patch is that it gives you really vivid dreams, so I haven’t had a good night’s sleep in 2 weeks. In theory you can take the patch off before going to bed, but then you wake up cranky and REALLY craving a cigarette.

However, I still get irritated easily, but not as bad as going cold turkey. My wife is a saint for putting up with my mood swings.

My 15 minutes of fame

Caleb Shay — Sun, 13 Aug 2006 16:29:45 +0000

This was pretty entertaining. I just ran down to the inconvenience store to pick up a sandwich and it was mobbed with about 15 German tourists. They walk right up to me as soon as I get out of the car and start saying things like, “Ooh, Audi. That is a very nice car. I didn’t know Americans drove Audis.” So, all of them just HAD to have their picture taken with “the American that drives a German car”. It was all I could do to not burst out laughing, but I stood there for 20 minutes while each of them had their picture taken with me and the TT.