Monday, February 7, 2011

Random shots of stuff and my Superbowl Sunday

In an earlier post, I talked about eating General Tso's, drinking green tea and boning up on my DMV knowledge to pass the stupid test. Voila! Here is that lunch. Not bad for middle of nowhere. 

The little old chinese lady saw my raw manliness coming through the door and gave me the appropriate mug.  
Here's an iphone shot taken in the bathroom. Spiffy, donchathink?! Look at that moustache!!

Sunday morning, before the Superbowl, I took the snowmachine safety and operation course offered by Outdoor Recreation. Definitely good action. The course started out with a long talk about how snowmachining is inherently dangerous, basically the 1000 ways snowmaching could kill you, from cornices to crevasses, hidden stumps, falling through ice on lakes, rivers, etc. Alaskan quicksand (water covered over by light snow). Freezing cold, hitting stuff, getting trampled by mooose and eaten by awakening bears. All fun stuff. After this diatribe of death we shifted gears to the useful stuff, controls, stances, parts and maintenance.
We were even shown how to start the engine with a tow strap after breaking the pull cord. Good tip for sure.
Then we hit the trail for about an hour. The red machine above was my animal for the first half, then the guide, Mark and I switched for the second half of the ride, I was then on the black ski. We went over hill and dale, across roads and through narrow slots in the trees. The only real funny happening was when I flipped my ski. We had stopped after doing donuts in this open area and I was sitting on the low side of the ski with my foot down, kind of sidehilling a little bit. When we started going, I gunned it, but instead of going, the right ski hung up and the track spun out from underneath me and we both rolled over. I was laughing my ass off. Stupid rookie mistake. The rest of the ride was a blast, but I was improperly overdressed and absolutely soaked by the end. Nothing like a drenched sweaty head at 0 degrees in a 20mph wind.
After the ride, I grabbed some lunch and headed home to shower. After warming up in the shower, I lay down for just a second and was out cold. Luckily, I set an alarm.
I woke up with just enough time to get ready and head over to the bar to help set-up for the Superbowl crowd. We had about a dozen folks show up to watch the game.
Not having a dog in the fight, I just enjoyed the game. Luckily it was a close one. Unfortunately for Uncle Tim, his Steelers didn't pull it out last minute. I'm sure he was holding his breath there at the end. Oh well. There is always next year.

No comments: