Fall
10/16/2

So, where did I leave off, besides the tuna gum?

Saturday, after Christine�s performance, we did�not much, I suppose. Sunday was church, then we took Aisai�s mom with us and went to the Atlanta Bread Company, which is a deli actually, and in Huntsville. Sure, there are some in Atlanta, too.

I�ve eaten there three times now and there is only one consistent thing. I always get pumpernickel bread. I�m not crazy about it, but it�s in my top five breads. Mainly because, how many kinds of bread are there? Wheat, White (or French if you do it right), Pumpernickel, Sourdough, and Rye (or, I put some caraway seeds in the Pumpernickel which I didn�t make so dark).

What makes pumpernickel dark? I�ll leave the answering to you googlers who actually care more than I do.

Sunday afternoon, Aisai and I went and took pictures of the skatepark they are building in Madison. It now has a vert ramp and lots of other ramps. It�s a legit skatepark. Not only that, but it has two bowls. Or really one, and one is more a bowl which opens to a lower level, which makes it something totally different.

Monday, work was very fast. You can look in the stuff�rum and see my timewarp entry if you do it quick enough (meaning if it�s past April, I doubt it�ll still be there). Afterward I went skateboarding.

Usually, I skate on weekends or at night. So far I�ve skated at the building where I park to do stormwater sampling yearly, the mostly abandoned Raytheon building a few blocks down from there, the Time Domain parking lot (where I almost lost it on a hill that leads to a lake). Unfortunately, all of those places would be full of cars during work hours. And it was work hours. And I wanted to skate.

So, I thought, where is a parking lot for people at night, but wouldn�t have anyone during the day. Ah ha! I went skating at the raised parking lot adjoining the Regal Cinema 18.

What was cool? It�s nice and secluded while still being able to see the traffic on an overpass. There are very few small rocks and there�s also a hill I can bomb down (perhaps a stronger word that appropriate for this small hill, but hey, I�m scared of the thing).

What�s not cool? I ran through a puddle of grease. That hill, which is taunting me mind you, is pretty scary for my level of incompetence. And, worst of all, I fell.

Yes, me. Not light as a daisy, adult, full grown fella. Fell to my hands and one knee. Skinned the left knee but didn�t damage the hands but it made the �behind your shoulders but on the outside of your shoulder blade� muscles sore a day later. I also got a yellow mystery bruise on my upper right arm.

Ouchy. I didn�t leave. I refused to have the fall make me leave. I sat next to the car on my board and waited for my leg to stop hurting so much. When it did, I stood up and my jeans ripped the scab my leg had formed with them.

I skated a little more and decided to try the hill. I went halfway down and hopped into the grass. Then I hopped back on the board and went the rest of the way down. Victory! I left.

Got home and worked out. Arm day seems hard, but when you�re finished you don�t have some gigantic muscle trying to kill you for attacking it. Arms are arms.

I also really wanted to go on a walk with Aisai. Not only is it exercise for her, who was just in a car wreck, but also for me, and we get to talk. She didn�t want to. I realized I was just eager for more work.

So I did 100 sit ups. Yeah, me. I did. Here�s how I did it. I set my watch for a 1 minute countdown timer which will beep and start over. First minute I did 22 situps (not stellar, you could beat me I�m sure), then the next minute I would rest, then situps, I think I got from 22 to 38 then, then a minute of rest. I think it was nine minutes total for me to get it all done. Maybe more. Once I hit around 60 I was getting between five and eight in my work minute. The last minute, I only had to do two, but I just wasn�t able to get them squeezed out in the previous work minute.

As you might have noticed, I am not in the best shape. But now I�m actually enjoying doing this kind of stuff.

I was moderately concerned about my fall. I don�t normally fall and being hurt is not really my thing. Also, I noticed that Bam Magera, Mike Vallely, and Chris Markovich don�t tend to really hurt their hands when they fall. I posted something about falling and mentioned this on alt.skate-board. Two people gave me some real insight and I guess I already knew it.

See, Bam hurts his elbows, as does Vallely. But never hands. Bam is a borderline stuntman since he does work on Jackass. He has a kind of tuck that he does and lets his ribs or back take the hit. Markovich always has bandages on his back (and I�m sure his tattoos are trashed because of all the damage). One person on alt.skate-board falls like Markovich. When he falls, he watches his board leave and just ends up holding his limbs in and hitting on his back with his head pulled up so it doesn�t get hit.

And speaking of Jackass, I always think I�ll like that show based on the ads. Well, Bam lost some respect points from me and I decided that I�ll not watch again. Some of their �practical jokes� are just borderline criminal and just plain mean.

Yesterday it rained so I didn�t skate. I was lazy so I didn�t workout my legs. And my abs were sore so I didn�t do the situps. What I did do was go by the body shop and get Aisai�s garage door opener and parking permit for school and also went by Bed Bath and Beyond and bought an imitation mink comforter for the bed.

Soon, Aisai will paint the room and then we�ll replace the flooring with fake slate. It�s all part of my overall house theme of techno-rattan. To Aisai, this is the morocco room.

Now where the fake mink comforter fits into a morocco theme, I couldn�t tell you.