Iced Tea Forever

Here’s an x-ray of my neck. And Mark, just in case you’re wondering, the writing was stuck on the image afterwards, it’s not actually part of my being.

Note the curvature in a forward (left) direction. Is this good or bad, I’m sure you’re wondering. Good question, let’s find out.

Here’s the chart that shows you good and bad necks. Click on the image for a larger version.

I know you’re alarmed to see that a healthy neck has a curvature in a backwards leaning direction!

What does this mean for me? My neck is leaning in the wrong direction! It simply means yet more medical attention. Don’t worry, I’m used to it.

In my consultations with varying medical professionals, we suspect that it is the result of a head-plant I did on my dirt bike out at the sand dunes many years ago. I was riding my ancient ’81 Honda CR250 across some rolling dunes with Josh and Chip, and suddenly there was a big gully right in front of me. There was no way to see it in time and there was nothing I could do.

I went off the edge (it was maybe 6-10 deep), flew through the air maybe 15-20 feet straight into the other side. It was like riding into a wall. My neck initially hurt very bad, I was somewhat concerned for a moment or two.

But I was fine. Until years later, of course, when they x-rayed my neck.

Click here to see the whole Spinal Degeneration Chart.

I’m sure one of the foremost questions on everyone’s mind is, “What is the ITF Policy on dancing?” I’m here today to put that question to rest.

This came up in a recent yay-hoo chat with an acquaintance.

(Somebody was going to a wedding.)
ITF: don’t sprain an ankle on the dance floor!
ITF: I’ve heard it from a conservative Mennonite preacher, it’s ok to dance as long as you dance with your wife!!!
ITF: over the pulpit at B-ville, it was
(Bob): Wow. Well, that’s my take on it too.
ITF: It’s only in the last year and a half or so that I’ve been qualified to dance
(Bob): You shouldn’t dance unless you’re married…
(Bob): and then you shouldn’t be dancing with anyone else’s wife!
(Bob): Si. How is the dancing?!!
ITF: you could be an expert at dancing by now
ITF: I’m pretty bad
(Bob): Oh ya, I’m pretty good.
ITF: she just told me that last night. but I was doing it by myself right then
(Bob): Well, that’s okay.

There you have it. Go ahead and dance, if you’re qualified.

Although it wouldn’t be that much of a stretch for my dancing to be construed as “cruel and unusual” to any bystanders.

I had the idea of using some utopian images for a header. I never did like the header of this theme, but I didn’t know what to do about it.

I grew up in the shadow of Snow Peak, and seeing it fills me with benevolence and good will. So I thought it might make a good header. I got my buddy Stanny to take a shot of it, and I liked so many of them I thought I’d use them all.

I used this neat little image-rotating php script I found at A List Apart (my favorite source of CSS guru-ness), so when you refresh the page a new header image will come up.

And Stanny’s going to be taking more pics for me throughout the changing seasons, so we all have even more to look forward to.

During the fair this summer here in Hoosierville I went to the tractor pull for a little while. Unfortunately, it got rained out, but we got to see some pretty cool stuff while it lasted.

I’ve been to a tractor pull or two in my day, but none this big. There was some pretty serious equipment there.

I caught a video of a pull too, check it out (1.9MB).

These machines were incredibly loud, you could hear them all over the countryside. Way cool.

For quite a while I’ve been subjected to these asinine PSA’s and billboards about asthma and kids. I think it’s a safe bet that whoever was the creative “force” behind them has never suffered from asthma.

One of there main things they feature is a little kid sadly saying that when he has an asthma attack he feels like a “fish with no water.”

Give me a break. First of all, a kid as young as he sounds would never come up with that on his own. Secondly, it’s a horrible analogy that just doesn’t work. My experience as a life-long sufferer of chronic asthma qualifies me to make this judgement.

What a dumb analogy. In order for an analogy to work, you must be able to identify with it. You can’t identify with a fish, because a fish breathes water! That is so counter-intuitive and against our nature that you think, “breathe water?” and your mind locks up and rejects any further exploration of the notion.

It’s a survival instinct, out entire being violently reacts to inhaling water. We are incapable of effectively imagining what it would be like to breathe water and then suddenly have that taken away. It’s way too much of a stretch.

Dumb, stupid ads.

Amazing! And to Goshen, no less!

The King’s Singers are an amazing a cappella group, a must-see if you ever get the chance. I got to see them at the Barbershop International Competition in Portland a few years ago, they were a guest artist there (they’re not barbershop!).

Absolutely incredible performers, I can’t wait. Nov. 17th, I got my tickets. Thank you Kyle for the tip!

So I’m home last Saturday listening to the Evergreen District Barbershop Competition webcast. I wanted to catch my buddy Coby’s chorus, the Cascade Chorus from Eugene. He’s been directing them for the past few years now. The webcast video is pretty much nonexistant, but the audio actually isn’t too bad.

Their first tune was Lorabelle Lee, that’s one me and Coby used to do in Razorburn! I think it was Razorburn, maybe it was in the Allnighters.

Anyway, it sure brought back memories. Indeed, just thinking about District contest brings back some pretty good memories! I should get the necessary permission to tell a few stories about some quartet experiences at district. Man, I miss singing in a quartet. And there’s nothing quite like competing in a quartet contest.

Coby, I miss you buddy.

Here I found some pics of Coby (wearing his Razorburn jacket) and the chorus. Looks like he shaved his head! I think I’ll reserve a place for him in my next artistic masterpiece!

NOT “futbol,” that abomination. But the all-American sport of real men, football.

Yes, most people have written my off physically, thinking I was past the point of vigorous mobility. Ok, I actually was chief among those people. And it turns out that I am past that point. But I found that I still AM capable of limited cautious mobility.

Because of my age and the probable brittle bone condition that comes along with it, we played flag instead of tackle. Evidently they don’t make flag belts for grown men, just skinny little kids. All the other guys had several feet of extra flag belt waving in the breeze, but I couldn’t even fasten mine. We had to put two belts together to encircle my impressive girth.

An oft-heard comment during the game, especially after a brilliant reception or defensive maneuver by me, was “Wow! I didn’t know you could move so fast!”

Well, when they had probably never seen me move faster than a walk, a brisk shuffle looks pretty impressive!