h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

I remember that Lady C. Fun! It worked with an old refrigerator box, too. I remember one time when Mike L, Mike F, Ray and Stan decided to see who could slide the farthest one cold winter afternoon when there was still snow on the tailing piles. First Stan, aka Doofus Incarnate, drug his sled to the top of that huge pile between the swimming pool and the cemetery road. Well, it bogged down immediately. Doh! Then Mike L decided to use the tin, which was too bleeping cold to sit on. He always had a skinny butt. So Ray went home and came back with a large piece of heavy cardboard. He wrestled it to the top where it was caught by the wind and went back over the east side. (The east side was too dangerous to slide down.) So then Mike F turned Stan's sled upside down and used it to slide down the northwest side to thunderous applause from me, the two Nancys and Harriet. Since he was the only one to make it to the bottom, he won.

Ah, those were the days.

Gunnison, Colorado - April 16th

If it doesn't stop snowing soon, I'm buying a sled myself.

whoah ... you wilde kids ... heheheheh ..

trouble with snow-sledging was never knowing how to stop the thing ...'tee-heee ... put your feet out Helen' called out those little snotty friends and brothers ...from under their stripy bobble hats .. 'no no no .. how can I put my feet out .. I'm travelling here at 130 mph .. heading for Eternity '...

...and why was there always a ditch at the end of the slope ... full of partly iced slimy stagnant water ...

what about bobble hats then .. I loved bobble hats .. OK .. who here still wears a stripy bobble hat ... I don't but I think next winter I will ...



here's the ad of the moment ... but not everyone likes it ...

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=sN2VukonuWM

PS

on the subject of ads ... (checks yikes button... nervous) ..

did you have Flat Eric in the States?

http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=Z47KUNmmCng

brilliant. I think the guy driving was called Angel ..

actually I just realised that Flat Eric and Angel are American cool dudes ..

I would drive off with Angel any day .. take me to Phoenix AZ, Angel ..



on a more intelligent note .. did anyone ever see the film 'Dodgeball ... a True Underdog Story' ...



saw it on TV the other night ... totally geeky .. hilarious .. erm .. probably not the highest art of the film world .. but I just ordered it on DVD ..

which shows that my tiny world is slowly and methodically collapsing ..



heheheheheh ..

dodgeball looks like an interesting game .. not a sport that English girlies such as I have learned .. though would have like to ...

... we just had lacrosse ..

don't mention lacrosse

lacrosse!

bless you

thankyou

OK .. well .. that's got me off the subject of ads ..

News flash:
A 5.4 earthquake shook the Midwest last night reaching as far west as Kansas City, Mo. It originated from the New Madrid fault. It was felt as far north as Des Moines, IA. and east to Indiana. Any comments, Hyp? (Or anyone else who might be interested.)

On the cardboarding or tinning:
There was a big chat pile behind the cemetery that we used to slide down in the winter. At the base of this pile was a small spring fed stream. One trip across it was about all your cardboard would take. (The stream remained unfrozen most of the winter.)

On one occasion we were tinning at the sand mill (the chats or tailings were finer there). When my piece of tin reached the bottom of the pile, it stopped. I didn't. Ripped the seat right out of a brand new pair of jeans. Mother was not happy!
Luckily I had a flannel shirt on over my t shirt so I tied it around my waist, effectively hiding the exposed backside, and continued with the sliding activity. After all, the afternoon was young.

just been considering Doofus Incarnate ... ..

what are chats? and tailings? please

always travel with a flannel shirt ... .. never know ..what aspects .. life will expose ... >.



an earthquake? more extreme than a tremor? whoah .. erm .. did you feel it? ... what does it feel like? .. is there damage? are you OK?

Chat piles and tailing piles are names for the same thing--the gravel (small rocks) removed from the mining pits and "piled" off to the side and out of the way. There were many of them where Hyp and I grew up. The piles had various sizes of rock in them. We preferred the ones with smaller chips.
The sand mill I referred to was along the railroad track. It was exactly what the name implies. The gravel was ground into sand there and loaded onto railroad cars. It was shipped out for roadwork and other things needing sand.

The Madrid Fault or Reelfoot Rift is thought to fire off a big one every 300 years or so.

The ones in 1811-1812 made churchbells ring in Boston, drained lakes and made the Mississipi run backward for three days. Luckily the area was sparsely populated.

They put the odds of a 6.0 or better quake by 2040 at 90%.

Flat Eric? Never heard of him before. Weird ads.

No, we did not feel the quake. The epicenter was in Illinois, which is north and east of us.

http://earthquake.usgs.gov/eqcenter/recenteqsus/

Yeah, that was a large series.

...a 4.6 aftershock within the last hour...

Doctor Who?

Elk Creek Campground, Curecanti National Recreation Area, Colorado

The thermometer read 19 degrees this morning at dawn. The campground is empty and silent except for us and several hundred birds chirping about spring. The piles of snow are beating a slow retreat.

We get satellite TV here (Direct), but no cell phone (ATT) or computer air card (Verizon) service. I learned this morning how to record TV programs. The receiver is now set to record all future “South Park” programs until the disk is full. “Dr. Who” was on yesterday with a new Doctor that I didn’t recognize.

I learned that they took out a 56 pound lake trout from the frozen lake where we are camped last year. The fishing here is reported to be the best in Colorado. Soon they will be releasing several million eleven inch sockeye salmon from the upriver hatchery. That explains the giant trout. Trout are very aggressive eaters and love little fish.

We made a special trip to Gunnison to buy a fishing license. The sporting goods store was a rat’s nest of fishing tackle, deer antlers and snowshoes. A good pair of snowshoes goes for $125. The Gunnison library only had seven books for sale, but they had a small paperback exchange section that didn’t really require an exchange.

The hike we took yesterday was an odd mix of deep snow and slippery, gluey mud. We y went up the trail called “The Pinnacles” for about an hour before turning back.. Sometimes we would break though the snow crust and sink to our knees. Sometimes our boots would pick up several pounds of mud where the snow had melted..

One of the things to discuss on a hike is the tracks and the scat. We saw lots of deer sign and a few bear tracks. This is the time that the bears are coming out of hibernation with new cubs, looking foe breakfast.

I fished for about an hour and did'nt catch anything. I scraped up some loose dirt and buried two boxes of worms in the ground and added a little water. They won the worm lottery...never give up.

South to Durango this morning, then out to Goulding's trading post in the Ute reservation near four corners...

Durango?

Mexico?

as in


<<<>>>>

(Bob Dylan ... Romance in Durango)

nah .. wait a minute .. you're in the snow, in Colorado .. must be another Durango ... (heads off to map) .....

When I was a young man
In Sweetwater Texas,
Just one thing stayed on my mind:
To ride a white horse
Over Durango Mountain
And leave Sweetwater Texas behind.


Charlie Daniels Band, from the Saddle Tramp album

Way down in Durango,
We danced to the tango,
While eating a mango...
It was very sloppy
You might even say gloppy
and the dances were choppy..

I can relate to the cold, I camped Friday night at my new naked kayaking venue, and was surprised by the cold night. It was fine the second time I woke up, with the rising sun aligned with the front door of my tent, so I opened up and caught some quiet early morning rays as I waited for the teakettle to boil. The ducks at the lake (I camped on an "island", actually a promontory from the lakeshore, kinda like Florida) were friendly, just a bit nervous until they got used to me, but those geese! Donald Duck has nothing on a goose that gets riled up...and this, in the middle of the night!

The first human life I saw that morning was a naked gentleman with a fishing rod, making a slow circuit of the lakeshore. He was fishing for bass, catch-and-release. He caught a modest one not far from where I was sitting, and he borrowed my swiss army knife to disgorge the hook. I don't know what the bass had to think of this exercise, he had his mouth stretched open and his eyes were bugged out. I don't think his plan for a Saturday morning included this.

Saturday morning is also RV-cleaning time. More than one nude dude standing atop his vehicle with a mop.

Nudists are like hitchhikers in the respect that the Towel is very important. The existentialist hitchhiker would only need a Towel, perhaps in addition to sandals. And sunscreen. And a bota fulla vino.

Pockets are unnecessary after all. (I had wondered since childhood how nudists carry their money, in one cartoon I remember, a naked fellow was asking his doctor to put in a pocket...) As long as I remember my name and account number, I can slip on my sandals and wander into the Lakeside Inn for a brewski. In addition to the pop beers, they offer Sierra Nevada, Red Tail, and New Belgium's "Skinny Dip Ale". Okay.

I need a cup holder installed in the kayak.

After you get the cupholder installed, be very careful with any hot beverage...that's my advice.

Are the nude dudes on the RVs wearing shoes? I'm always worried about stumble, slip and fall up there.

Yeah, rubber sandals, deck shoes, or track shoes. Beside myself, I haven't really seen anyone barefoot. Perhaps that's a tribal taboo I am violating here. In opposition to Japanese culture, I am compelled to don my shoes, instead of doffing them, when entering a building.

The cup holder..verrry necessary, as the only place I have right now is between my legs, a little square portion of the keel frame afore the seat. I don't mind a beer bath, but I'd rather drink it. Hot drinks stay in my commuter cup with its siphon lid.

Beside ducks, geese, and bass, there are beavers and turtles in the lake. Interesting company for a swim.

hey nude dude ... we're there in naked spirit ... heheheheheh



what about piercings then? .. actually I think we've (un)covered the topic before ...

hey turtle let go ...yikes .... dangerous swimming naked with a pierced ..erm .. situation ..

...