Bioride 2008

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Politics

Apparently I'm a Social Liberal - although there were a few of questions where I wasn't exactly sure what they were asking... Really, I'm just saying that because I don't like thinking I'm "mainstream" about anything.

Social Liberal

A social liberal believes in little to moderate government intervention on personal matters and moderate to high government intervention on economic matters. They tend to be opposed to war, police powers, victimless crimes, and what they may consider to be a corporate state or rogue capitalism. They generally support personal liberty and believe in a social safety net or welfare state. They support self-ownership and privacy. Social liberals are essentially the "mainstream" left and left of center.

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Surfing Superior

I have to hand it to my friend Pete here....

He excitedly emailed me the other day,

"The mid-superior buoy's are up to 8' and building, definitely a surf day!"

I'm thinking, it's October. The last time I was in Houghton for October, it was snowing. I can't even imagine the wetsuit it would take to get me in Superior in October when I'd lived and swam there for 5 years... and now I haven't been in water cooler than 75deg in another 5 years.. How long would it take me to defrost? How long would I sit and absorb the sauna? Shit, how long would I sit in the sauna now without even going in the Lake?? I have to admit it sounds pretty damn nice tonight! I mean winter's coming to Kaneohe and I was going to have a ginger foot soak tonight (until I got distracted... again)!

Our conversation continues as I comment that I don't know if I've seen 8' swell on the lake ever. I'm impressed he's going out.

"I think it might be a little scary today, I bet it's pretty big. If the wind is just right I can paddle out along the break wall and then drift into the swells away from the wall. The water's still pretty warm (warmer than the ocean was in July after Ronaldo's wedding)."

The 'water is still pretty warm' and inside I laugh at myself and how thin my blood has become. The next day I get the message

"Wow, it was big yesterday. I'm sure some of those waves measured 10' from trough to peak. I haven't been out in the Lake in waves like that before, it was really awesome. I got worked a lot but once I caught the feel of the place I got a lot of great rides. I wish it was big like that more often."

I want pictures! I want to see the waves and see the coldness of it and the crazy water, and little Petey riding the waves all by his lonesome - like a Great Lakes Jeff Clark! Awesome! I didn't have too high of hopes, but I asked anyway..

"It wouldn't have been pretty. I'm so used to Lake Cuddlebunny waves that these took some getting used to and I spent the 1st hour there pretty much getting tumbled and worked. But then I got some really fun rides (still not pretty I'm sure). It wasn't really a storm, just a strong wind right out of the west. It didn't last long but I think it was blowing at 35-40 knots for 8 hours."

But here they are: a few select nibbles of the Lake Superior surf scene... of couse " location is considered TOP SECRET"

PETE!

It's not 8-10' here, but it looks pretty cold and gnarley

Awesome

Fool me once... or is it twice now

I'll have to check with bushy on that one..

I don't know how anyone could have missed hearing/reading about my 'exciting' Friday night a week ago, but I haven't had the chance to really tell the whole story to too many people.

Amy and I got our purses stolen off of the stage at Next Door. We'd originally set them down there because we were dancing directly in front of them and were constantly keeping an eye on them. Of course, dancing is not a stationary experience, and eventually we found ourselves out of line of sight from our things. That was that. Our things were gone and no one had seen anything. That was the beginning. We ran around trying to figure out what to do - asked bouncers, talked to the people around us, checked trash cans in the bathroom, and eventually wrote a statement to the owner who was kind of a jackass.

Anyway, after the adventure of getting out of Chinatown and back to Charyse's, canceling everything important, borrowing her car, breaking into my apartment, breaking into Amy's house, and sleeping for 2 hours before getting Charyse her car back so she could go to class.. began the fun of replacing everything.

The most fun was trying to sweet-talk the AT&T guy into letting me buy a phone without a state ID... ridiculous. The actual best part was the locksmith coming to get in to my car. I had to pay $200 for him to unlock my door (it actually took a WHILE), take apart my door, remove the lock that had once been drilled, take it back to his shop (he was out of toyota blanks), create a key from my busted lock, replace the busted lock, put the door back together, and saw off the Club. I was greatful. And then I went to City Mill and had 3 more sets of all my keys made.

In the end, I have [hopefully] learned my lesson and will remember in the future why I never liked carrying a purse in teh first place - they're just too easy to forget about (but so damn handy when you have a lot of crap to carry around!) and all I really need when I'm out on the town in money, keys, and an ID.. MAYBE my phone.. damnit - I just need all of my clothing to have cargo pockets!

quote

''I don't know if you've paid much attention to the past eight years, but it has been a s---burger supreme. If somebody gives me an empty burger, it's better than eating s---.''

- Stephen Colbert

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