Bakerstreet

Here’s what I did today:

Maybe this will make it on to a t-shirt?

sherlock rolls over and puts his hand on wRitErsbLock’s shoulder.

WB (pulling away): Don’t touch me, I’m nekkid.

sherlock (confused): Why are you nekkid?

WB: I don’t know.

Next morning in the shower.

S: so were you nekkid last night or were you talking in your sleep again?

WB (confused): what?

S: last night at 3am you told me you were nekkid.

WB: Why was I nekkid?

S: That’s what I asked.

WB: What did I say?

S: You said you didn’t know!

Several years ago, some friends and I rented a cabin in the mountains of north carolina for a week. We  drove down to find a secluded cabin miles from any town and the nearest other cabin was far down the road and not visible from the cabin we were at. The scariest part was at night when it was pitch black and all you heard was the creatures of the night wandering around in the woods.While there we were mostly out of touch with the world at large and without television or radio most of the time it was kind of like being in a Steven King novel, the fact that we I had just finished reading The Girl Who Loved Tom Gordon and so had wRitErsbLock, didn’t help as we sat around in the cabin at night.

We would hike around in the woods during the day and luckily we were smart enough to bring a GPS with us. Unfortunately the batteries died on it several time during our hikes, it really sucks up the batteries, but on those times we had gotten back to a point where we could find our way back. At night we would sit around and talk about what would happen if we got totally lost.Of course, we would mostly talk light-heartedly about it and make jokes about not having to outrun the bear and being made to squeal like a pig, but deep in the back of our minds was the fear that the GPS would die with us lost deep in the woods.  What would we do? It would be days before we were reported lost, maybe even a week or longer. While we had a great time and would surely do it again, I think we all agree that making sure to carry a GPS is the smartest thing on a trip like that.

That brings me to The Mist by Stephen King, The movie began yesterday. I remember reading The Mist a few years ago and how scary it was. I plan on seeing it this weekend, hopefully it’s as good as the book.

I love riding my bike, it’s fun and provides some serious exercise. When I was a kid I would go everywhere on my bike, walking was never really an option. I rode my bike to school every day during elementary school and junior high (when they still called it that!). Sadly, High School was too far for the bike but I would ride after school. Me and all my friends would ride miles and miles on our bikes every day. School alone was a mile each way so that was at least two miles everyday, then the several hours we rode in the woods on the trails we created; no mountain bikes for us, just regular bikes at our disposal.

Then one day my best friend got a car, that ended the bikes as our main source of transportation and I stopped riding for several years until one day I finally decided to get a new mountain bike to ride. I got a cheap bike from Target and started riding again. Seeing as I don’t sleep very many hours during the night (we’re talking 2-4 hours of sleep a night), I started getting out of bed early in the morning before work at around 4-5 am and would head out and ride around the lake I was living on. To make a full round of the lake was exactly a mile so I kept track of how many laps I took to know how many miles I went. On the weekends I would ride with my now ex-wife, my brother and sister-in-law (also now an ex) and we would ride even farther. I purchased a much better mountain bike but stopped riding because of moving around, not having much time and other factors.

When I finally got back to being able to ride, my knee started giving me trouble. After just riding for a little while it starts hurting and I have to turn around and go home. It seemed to be determined not to let me ride but after several months it started getting better.

So as you read in my last post, I went jet skiing with my brother and did some hiking to boot at Hontoon Island Park. On the hike I seem to have hurt my knee again and haven’t been able to ride. I’m thinking that something like Freeze It Gel might help. It says it can help with painful knees/ankles, muscular strains and even back pain which I sometimes have problems with also.

Winning a years supply of Freeze It would be awesome, I would be out riding my bike again every day. I would use my company benefit to get a new bike next year!

I went out jet skiing with my brother last weekend, we went out on the St. Johns river and went up a couple of miles to Hontoon Island Park and back. On Hontoon Island we did a little hiking up to the indian shell mound. It was a little cold to be out on the jetskis but it wasn’t bad until the return trip when the sun was low and sometimes blocked out by clouds but overall it was a great day for it. The bigest highlight of the day was when a bald eagle swooped down in front of us and snagged itself a fish dinner. It was less the 100 ft away from us and we had a great view of the action. Sadly, it took to long to take the camera out of the bin it was in and turn it on without looking (I was watching the eagle) to get a picture of it.As it was, all the photos I took while on the jetski came out blurry, I think because the vibration and motion and I may have had it on the wrong settings, I was using a small point and shoot. While I had fun, I don’t think that I am a jetski person. They are loud and tiring to ride, and a little hard to control when going slow. There were times I thought of taking a photo but the shot passed by before I could slow and get in position for it. I think I would prefer a kayak or canoe for photography. It would be quiet and peaceful, and wouldn’t scare the wildlife as much as the noise from the jetski does. several shots I tried to take never came about because the subject flew off or jumped in the water. If I get a kayak or canoe, I would like to get a motor for it, most likely a small electric motor so that I can move around easier and faster then rowing.