My Birthday Bike Ride

This Saturday was my birthday. So I went for a bike ride. I started around 10 or 10:30 in the AM. I didn't check. And I wasn't wearing a watch. There are no bike paths around here like in Portland, but there are quite a few untraversed, back-country roads. So I took these. There are a surprising number of hills for a landscape so close to water. It was tiring, but I never stopped on account of the hills... only a few times to pee and once for an Amish father and daughter peddling homemade goods. I didn't buy anything because I would have had to carry it. All I had was my Camelbak. It has one pocket and that thing was maxed out. I had a wallet, a phone, a Moleskine, a passport and a pen in there. It could not hold anything else.

Oh yeah, the passport. I was biking to Canada. Kingston, to be exact. I have driven to Kingston before, but I've only taken the long way around. Apparently, there are two ferries and an island in between that make for a much quicker trip across the St. Lawrence River, by car or by bike. I Google Maps'd the route and it was the shortest distance. I rolled into Cape Vincent just in time to board the ferry. It was just over 25 miles from Sackets to Cape Vincent. The ride was about 10 minutes and cost $2. I thought it would be cheaper, since I was just on a bike. No dice.

Wolfe Island is officially Canadian territory. It is one of the Thousand Islands, after which the salad dressing is named. I had to show the border patrol my passport. They didn't check my Camelbak. I could have had anything in there! The ride across the island was very scenic and it was mostly covered by farmland. The island was also covered with gigantic wind turbines. I had to watch out for potholes during this ride. It was roughly 7 miles across the island to Marysville. I took a picture on my phone of a cool church in that town. There, I bought a Powerade and a warm cinnamon roll from a bakery.

I ate my roll on the ferry ride to Kingston. It was good. This ferry was free and absolutely packed. There were probably 50 or more cars and over a hundred people on board. I took some pictures the trip across. When I got to Kingston, I biked and walked around a little. There is a really cool shopping district kind of like Hawthorne in Portland but probably twice the size and more commercial. I would have taken pictures, but I was still wearing my bike shoes, which are cleated, making me sound like an out-of-work tap dancer, roaming the streets of Kingston. I was already attracting enough attention to myself. So I ate at McDonalds and called it a day. The ride back seemed much longer. I realized that I only had one dollar for the ferry ride back, but the guy let me on anyways. I met a nice family on the ferry back to the states. I chatted it up with them until I got back to the Cape. They offered me a ride home, but I declined. But I did accept the candy that they offered me. I got back to Sackets at about 8 in the PM. And that was that. Word. Here are the pics that I promised:

Live Long and Prosper, Star Trek!

I thought it was going to suck. I really did. I thought it was going to be like the Star Wars prequels, or Transformers, or even the Dark Night, which were movies that everybody seemed to love. I thought they were steaming piles of special-effects-coated crap.

But no. Star Trek did not suck. It was the best movie that I have seen in a long...long time. The action commenced from the very first minute of the movie and lasted the entire duration. I thought J.J. was very true to the personalities from the original Star Trek series. Well, mostly. Ok, my biggest problem with the movie. Uhura and Spock. There was never a hint of romance between the two in any of the original episodes. A very minor issue. The romance didn't take a central role in the movie; it was more funny than anything. Also, I think J.J. cheated. He decided to base the movie around the theme of time travel. This works well with the plot of the movie and sets him up to make more movies in the future. However, he used time travel to change events that were staples of the original series. This makes it so that he can essentially rewrite the plot of Star Trek, completely disregarding the events from previous episodes and movies. This may anger the hardcore Trekkies. Not that I am one, I'm just saying.

There were alot of upsides to the movie too. Many more than the downsides. Number one: Leonard Nemoy. He was in the movie. Playing an old Spock. I'm pretty sure he hasn't had work since he voiced the techs on Civ 4. Basically what I'm saying is that I am a fan of all Leonard Nemoy's work. I remember one day when I was homeschooled, I was done with my work, so I flipped on the TV to watch an episode Perry Mason. Bam, there was a young, pre-Star-Trek Leonard Nemoy playing the murderer. Oops, I ruined the episode for you. My bad. Tangent. Anyways, so the best line of the movie. When young Kirk meets old Spock. Spock addresses Kirk by his name and Kirk asks Spock how he knows his name, obviously because the young Kirk doesn't recognize the old Spock. Then Spock replies, "I have been, and always will be, your friend." These were Spock's last words along with "Live long and prosper" before he collapses and dies in Star Trek 2: The Wrath of Khan. I recognized it instantly. Brought a tear to my eye. And I really just liked all of the actors chosen for the lead roles. I will say that the movie was cast very well.

I'll leave it at that. There were some hardcore Trekkies in there. I could tell. There were 4 fat bald guys sitting in front of me. Seriously, every one of them fit that description. All in a row. And they would laugh at some of the most obscure references. I think fat and bald are 2 characteristics which I am destined to possess. Well, that's it for now. Go see Star Trek. It is worth your time. Nerd out.

Back From The Dead

I got back to New York late last night. 2 hours later than expected, actually. Ranger School really wasn't at all like I thought it would be, but then again, I guess nothing ever is. Tornadoes and golf-ball sized hail tore through Ft. Benning and the rest of Georgia the week before I left. Smashed car windshields and overturned outhouses were not an uncommon sight. But that's all behind me now. Much farther south.

I lost about 20 pounds, but have gained it all back. I feel like I have been eating constantly. My food regulator is broken or buried beneath weeks of 2-meal-days, and MREs to boot. I am polishing off a package of Keebler EL Fudge cookies and a venti caramel macciato-however-you-spell-that from Starbucks. I learned how to count calories...the opposite of how most people do. Most dieters are so concerned with calorie intake that they go to the extreme of measuring foods into exact serving sizes or buying Nabisco 100 calorie packs. I was eating about 2500 calories a day and burning about 3500, thus losing weight. I learned how to be a shrewd MRE dealer. Skittles have 250 calories and vanilla dairyshakes have 460. You've got to find that guy that absolutely loves Skittles, make the swap, and bam, that's 200 more calories than you had before. Now you have all kinds of energy, while Skittle guy is struggling to kick it up the hill.

Much of my last month was spent in the mountains of Northern Georgia. The Appalachian Trail cuts right through the mountains of Northern Georgia. I say mountains, but really they are more like hills. We would go up and down 3 or 4 of them in one day. The funny part is, we shared the Appalachian Trial with civilian hikers. They would be relaxing around their warm camp fire around 9pm, settling in for a nice, long 5-plus hours of sleep. My Ranger buddies and I, on the other hand, are cold, dirty, stinky, and still have an ambush to set up at the top of the next hill. So in other words, no sleep until 3am, with a 430 wake-up. but I laugh to myself, because I'm pretty sure these Marmot/Merrill-wearing hikers only have granola and rice to look forward to. And I have a dairyshake. And Skittle guy has Skittles, if he hasn't eaten them yet.

My fingers are still numb. It's colder than you might think in the hills of Northern Georgia. But that isn't the reason my extremities have lost feeling. The real reason is that wasn't drinking the 8 daily quarts of water required to maintain regular circulation while sweating profusely. Also, my 80-pound ruck sack partially cut off circulation to my arms and fingers. It was really only 80 pounds if I had to carry the m240b ammunition or tripod. Both add a significant amount weight to what would otherwise be a much more sustainable burden. Water is the other weight-adder. I would always try to ditch weight any way that I could. This usually meant dumping water or just not filling canteens. It is much more difficult to ditch rounds and impossible to get rid of that frickin tripod. The only way to shed rounds is, when afforded the opportunity, to completely unload the 240 ammo, in hopes of depleting the supply. This also proved to be a pleasant little bonus, because on those cold and rainy nights, when the 240 is unloading 1000 rounds within a period of a few minutes, it tends to heat about a 10 foot radius. So at least for a few minutes, I would bask in the heat of the 240 and in the glow of its barrel, which usually means it's time for barrel change.

Anyway, I think I'm going to get a kayak. I found a decent on today for $500. It's either that or a bike. I'm still deciding. It's 60 degrees and blue skies here, so I need to seize the carp. That's it for now. By the way, go Blazers. Other than that, that's all I have. Peace for now!

Update

I'm not dead yet. I'm 1/3 of the way through. On to Mountain Phase!

Blog Capsule

Alright, here's the deal. I will be gone for the next 2 months. Don't fret, I'll be back on May 1st. However, due to my lack of internet access and really any type of media access, I will not be able to update my blog, check my blog, or even get basic news. Due to this fact, I am creating a blog capsule. Basically, the concept is that I will write down all sorts of current information. When I get back in 2 months, I will read this blog capsule and laugh at how foolish I, and everybody else was back 2 months ago. I will also make some key predictions, which I fully anticipate will come true in the near future (the next 2 months). Here are some current facts, true as of February 24th, 2009:

• President Obama’s approval rating is 59%.
• There are talks of temporarily “nationalizing” the US banking system.
• The cheapest gas in Watertown/Fort Drum is $2.05 at the on-post gas station.
• The price of GM stock is $2.22 per share.
• The price of Bank of America stock is $4.73 per share.
• The DOW stands at 7,350.94.
• The Blazers are currently holding the 5th spot in the west, at 35-21.
• Greg Oden is out 2 more games and Martell Webster is out for the season.
• All other Blazers are healthy.
• The top TV show in America is American Idol with 24.825 million weekly viewers.
• New England bats are dying by the thousands due to a mysterious white fungus.
• There is snow on the ground outside, 3 or 4 feet in some places.
• The current temperature in Sackets Harbor is 18 degrees.
• The cheapest netbook at BestBuy costs $240.
• I am healthy and have no broken bones or sprains.
• My current weight is 184 lbs.
• I don’t have a Ranger Tab.

Here are some key predictions that will be true upon my return on or after May 1st:

• Bats will be extinct.
• GM stock will soar with news of their mass production of flying cars.
• Gasoline prices will hit record lows with the discovery human fat can be refined to make a high-grade octane.
• Exxon-Mobile will begin paying people to have liposuction, thus eliminating obesity, and putting Jared from Subway out of work.
• Kelly Ripa will just get hotter.
• American audiences will be stunned when Simon Cowell declares himself the next American Idol.
• "Lent" will finally be renamed "Lint", thus clearing up a lot of confusion.
• The Blazers will win the rest of their games, but will still finish second behind the Lakers, despite their losing every player except Luke Walton.
• Freedom of Speech will be declared unconstitutional, as the commies move into power.
• Sprint will reach deep into the jungles of Africa to recruit chimpanzees for their customer service hotline, which reportedly can do twice the work as humans, due to their ability to use their feet hands.
• The hockey season will be cancelled due to global warming.
• I will have 3 broken toes and 1 broken spirit.
• I will weigh in at 153 lbs.
• I will have a Ranger Tab.

Upon my return, I will crack open this blog capsule and see how much of it has come true (probably not much) and how much is complete garbage (likely the majority). I hope everybody has a great March and April. Peace!

It's a Sailboat

I painted a sailboat. One of these days I'll get around to my ultimate goal of sailing from New York to the Mediterranean, but for now I'll have to settle for painting them.

Freight Train

My mom used to play this song when I was a kid. I still remember that riff vividly after all these years. Some day, I'll hop a freight train and just ride. Word.