On the Road, Day 3

On the Road, Day 3

The French Language -- I don't know it and I have no idea how to pronounce it. It is fortunate that most people speak both French and English in this area of Canada, but sometimes the signage is in only French. Practicalities aside, I enjoy this feeling of alienation: it is almost like walking into another world, fumbling over street names and offering a soft-spoken "Merci" when I can. A few years ago, I tried to teach myself French, telling myself that it was the third most spoken language in the world and that it would be useful, but that never panned out. I resolve to learn enough French to hold an uninteresting conversation in two years.

Does anyone find nature and the natural world ugly? Sure, Nature is a cruel mistress and there are certainly ugly situations (e.g.: freezing to death alone on a mountainside, getting killed and eaten by some predator), but for the most part, I find that natural landscapes elicit this inexplicable but pleasant feeling. I really can't imagine someone looking out from a mountaintop with sunlight streaming through the clouds onto the valley below and saying, "I find this an unpleasant sight." Let me know if you think or know differently.

Speaking of ugly, my car is the ugliest and dirtiest it has ever been. It's amazing. I'm so thrilled.

It was cold today. I mean, real cold. Canada cold. I've never had my knees go numb before. And yet, this morning, there was a guy riding his bicycle through the wind and the slush on the streets of Montreal, sliding around in traffic. You crazy Canadians. I admire you, in a way. But it was too cold to have fun snowboarding at Mont Tremblant. I think we spent most of the day indoors, drinking coffee, eating poutine, trying to beat some life into les frozen limbs.

On the Road, Day 2

On the Road, Day 2

We woke up to about two inches of snow and slick roads. It would snow another four or five inches through the course of the day, putting us in the enviable (in my opinion) position of being at Whiteface on a powder day. Unfortunately, beneath the fragile layer of fresh snow lay the ever-present East Coast Sheet of Ice. Nevertheless, Whiteface is a fun mountain.

Incredibly, we ran into Soonjae and wifey at Whiteface. The were there for a few days, taking a short vacation around Lake Placid and staying at this bed and breakfast that we wanted to stay at: Winterberry Inn or some such name. Coinciding events are such an interesting thing. We were not able to spend much time with the above-mentioned couple because we had to make our way across the border to Montreal, QC, Canada. Wait at the border crossing: 1.5 hours.

After checking in and eating dinner at a pricey yet mediocre restaurant, I passed the hell out.

On the Road, Day 1

We were supposed to have been on our way to Hunter Mountain at 7a today. But, since we left our packing for the last minute and had to do laundry, we went to sleep at about 5a. Needless to say, we never made it to Hunter.

Now it is almost 11p and I'm writing this from the Willkommen Hof, in Wilminton, NY. We've driven about 250 miles due north of Brooklyn, NY today. And, just to relive days of my winter driving past, I drove my car straight into a snow-filled ditch, driven wheels first (I thought it was a snow-covered driveway). If I'm good at one thing, it's freaking out the Girlfriend.

Winter Weekends

I practically live for them. I'm not just saying that, either.

I've spent the last two weekends in Vermont, getting my snowboarding fix at Killington. That would put my total number of days on the snow this winter season at 7. This was a particularly popular weekend at Killington; I ran into many acquaintances, family, and friends. And as far as to why I like winter weekends so much, I'll let pictures do (most of) the talking.

Driving to and from points North used to be a nightmare because of inclement weather, idiotic drivers, and holiday traffic. It is usually especially bad in December and January. But, since I've put a set of snow tires on my car (after sliding into a ditch off the side of a particularly icy mountain road in Vermont), my car eats snow the way Bob Barker eats pieces of sh-t for breakfast.

And just one more thing about winter that I like: Brooklyn Brewery's Black Chocolate Stout: 10% ABV, dark as night, pours like honey, and feels like velvet on your tongue. It is probably my favorite beer in the world. Girlfriend likes hers with a scoop of vanilla ice cream as a chocolate stout float.

Busted. Again.

Cop Magnet

I think I look pretty innocent.

Van Gogh, Starry Night Over the Rhone

This is amazing.

New York City: Bushwick

I Like This One

Even if it means that my motorcycle is on the ground. See here and here.

Roxy Paine, Maelstrom

This is Roxy Paine's installation at the Metropolitan Museum of Art. It would've been 300x better if there were less people. The piece is made of welded, ground, and polished 6061 aluminum. The exhibit is long over, but I never posted these.

New York City: East New York

New York City is a million things to a million different people. This is East New York, frequently regarded as one of the worst neighborhoods in Brooklyn, if not in New York City as a whole. The neighborhood can be scary at times, but I'm such a sucker for industrial landscapes, steel structures and urban decay. People tell me I'd have a field day in Detroit. I wish that I had taken advantage of my close proximity when I was in college. I also wish I had something better than a camera phone to take these pictures with, but this will have to do for now.

New York City: East New York

This is super cool. There is an unused rail line below that terminates in an huge, dilapidated steel-and-brick rail station that is fenced off by barbed wire. One of these f#cking days I'm jumping down here and following the rails to the station. Because that's what cool kids do.

New York City: Water Towers

Water towers are quintessential NYC.

Tacos for Dinner

In addition to our endeavors at the taco blog (http://carnitastacosnyc.blogspot.com), I've been thinking about making tacos at home. They are so satisfying; I can't stop eating these damn things. How many pigs have I killed in the last month alone, in the the name of a greasy, savory taco?! I don't know. Call me weak, but I wish that plants taste better than animals. By the way, if you're in Sunset Park, it is cheaper to buy tacos from 5th Avenue than it is to buy: carnitas, onions, cilantro, corn tortillas, limes, and salsa verde.

Goddamn My Car Is Dirty

It just so happens that the next morning, I found the missing cable in my motorcycle jacket.

I didn't realize how dirty this car is until I took these pictures at night. But anyway, shown in red are the Cravenspeed Strut Tower Defenders (STD). Whether they will function as advertised is pending a suspension once-over and a force diagram. So, what is it that they are supposed to do? Well, repeated high-g loading (read: potholes) deforms the strut towers (3rd pic) and this results in sloppy suspension feel. If it gets bad enough, the mounts can break. I was charged $400 once to fix it; if some stupid pieces of aluminum can prevent that, I'm all for it. I figure I'm going to be driving on a lot of pot-holed and frost-heaved Upstate NY and Vermont roads this winter, so now is a good time to do it.

Slow Posted Rork

Did that make you hungry? What I meant to say was, 'slow posting', because I lost the USB cable for my camera phone. Therefore, no pics and no posts.

Girlfriend and I had an awesome Thanksgiving dinner w/ my family and I was probably full for two days. I'd been looking forward to this dinner for a few months because of the great food, fun with the family, and that it's usually the official start of the snowboarding season. Well, that last one didn't quite come to pass just yet.

I'm also putting myself out on the slippery slope of car mods. First, it's a few cheap bolt-ons. Before you know it, you've dropped $5k on an engine & transmission swap. To put it another way, it's like taking ibuprofen for pain, and before you know it, you're the neighborhood connect for meth. But anyway, pics forthcoming.

I Made a Clock

Day 2, Killington

I went up to Killington for the day again, yesterday. Probably not the best decision, being sick, having slept just two hours, a 10-hour round trip drive, etc. Oh, and it had been in the 40s and 50s and rained the last two weeks, so the conditions were probably not going to be very good. But a fix is a fix, and I needed mine.

That said, the second day on the snow felt a ton better than the first. I didn't tire as easily and I felt a lot more comfortable with carves and small airs. Still hesitant and uncommitted with jibs in the park, but I guess that will come.

Still feeling sick and I don't really want to leave the apartment, but there's no food, there's no coffee, and the girlfriend isn't coming back for hours, so I don't know what the hell I'm going to do.

Opening Day!

This past Saturday, November 7th, I left the apartment at 5:45a for what would be the earliest opening day I've ever experienced. Killington opened its lifts to the public, and I'd be damned if I wasn't there for it. Unfortunately, the Girl had her yoga instructor training and I couldn't convince anyone else to come, so I had to make the trip with just the Mini Cooper.

It shouldn't come as a surprise that no one wanted to go: lift tickets were $50, snow quality was unknown, and the trip in each direction was going to be 4.5 to 5 hours. After everyone dropped out and my girlfriend suggested that it wouldn't be a good idea to go on my own, I reconsidered it for a second. But like I said, I'd be damned...

Incredibly, I was able to make the 300 mile or so trip in about 3.5 hours, speeding along the NYS Thruway at 90-100mph. I saw one cop on the Interstate, but I'm pretty sure he was sleeping, because a few cars passed him at over 80mph without incident. That's the good thing about driving early in the morning, I guess.

Killington was open for riding from 10am to 3:30pm, but honestly, I got really f-cking tired at about 2pm, to the point that I could barely control my snowboard. I didn't want to take any chances with injuries, so I called it a day, packed my gear and headed back. 5 minutes out of Rutland, VT, I get nailed by the police doing 75mph in a 55mph zone. Damn.

After this episode, I drove slowly out of Vermont, into NY, and then into the thickness that is Saturday evening traffic in NYC. Took me about six hours, one large coffee, one Red Bull, and many CDs of loud-ass music to get home.

So, was $50 in gas, a $50 lift ticket, a $99 speeding ticket, $16 in tolls, and 10.5 hours of driving worth four hours of snowboarding on four trails? Hell yes.

Yo, New York...

Sometimes you ain't half-bad.

Down with Delta Airlines!

This is a letter I wrote to Delta Airlines today:

My boyfriend and I had a horrible experience at the JFK Delta check-in counter from 7am through 8am on Oct, 14, 2009. Our flight to Seattle was at 8:30am on October 14, 2009. We had both taken off an extra day of from work and planned our whole day in Seattle around this flight. So we checked-in, paid the baggage fees, and printed our boarding passes online the day prior to our flight to make sure that we were ready to go on the next morning.

We got to the JFK Delta terminal at 7:20am (1:10 hours before our scheduled flight, when Delta only required us to arrive 45 minutes prior to the flight), and we asked several Delta employees where we needed to go to drop off our bags. One said that we needed to check in at the kiosk again. So we spent 10 minutes at the kiosk trying to check in, but the system wouldn't allow us. We asked another Delta employee where we needed to go, and she said we needed to get on the line that lead to the counter (Delta, what is the point of having an online check-in system when people WITH boarding passes has to wait in the same line as people WITHOUT boarding passes?!), which had filled up during the time we were using the kiosk! So we waited in line patiently for 20 minutes.

When we were the second group in line, another Delta employee came around the line and asked what time everyone's flight was (Why didn't anyone do this before!?), and we said "8:30am." He then replied that we've just missed the last bag check for our flight, and stated that we were late! (How could that be? We got there 1:10 hours before our flight!) We tried to explained to him that we were waiting in line, and that we were mis-informed as soon as we walked in. Without trying to help us or get us to a counter quickly or offering us any solutions, he stood there yelling at us, and kept insisting that it was our fault! We were still waiting in line, as he walked away to speak to another Delta employee about us.

The other employee came over, said, "you're late," snatched our boarding pass from my hand, wrote "LATE!" on top, (Was that truly necessary?!), and held onto them (as if we'd take them and run!). When it was our turn to approach the counter, she walked with us, handed our boarding passes to the counter attendants and told the two people (a black lady, and a white guy) behind the counter that we were late. We tried to explain that we had gotten to the airport at 7:20am, and that we were waiting inline for 30 minutes. The two ladies (the one behind the counter, and the lady who walked with us) didn't believe us, and they kept insisting that we had just arrived at the airport (which was impossible, as the line was really long, and we've obviously already made it to the front!), and that we were late (also false). They didn't even try to help us get onto the plane, or figure out a solution to this problem -- they just kept yelling and talking over our voices as they ignored what we were trying to explain -- that we were not late, and that we needed to get to Seattle on the morning flight.

Soon, it seemed that the entire Delta crew at the airport had gathered around us, and everyone had something to yell at us about! The guy that polled the line earlier came back and yelled at us some more. A few other ladies (whom we've never seen during the entire time we were there!) came around in back of us, joined in on the "customer-bashing" and insisted that they saw us when we walked in (which was an obvious lie!). They were all closing in on me and my boyfriend, and we felt like we were going to get gang-raped or beaten up by the Delta employees! (Is this what they're trained to do -- gang up on customers? Or did Delta hire more street thugs and correctional officers to offset expenses?) At one point, the lady behind the counter threatened me, "Keep talking like that!" I was sincerely befuddled, as I was simply trying to explain that we weren't late, and what had happened. (Are Delta employees trained to threaten customers instead of listen to them?) Was it truly necessary to argue with us and to gang up on us? All we wanted to do was to get to Seattle -- the last thing I wanted to do at 7am in the morning is to defend myself against a bunch of thugs!

The only person who was dedicated to helping us out was the white guy behind the counter -- he had blond hair and glasses (unfortunately, I didn't catch his name over all the loud voices around us) -- who had been searching the Delta system for other flights (direct and connecting) that could get us to Seattle. He was very professional and did NOT join in with the other Delta employees while they yelled at us! Eventually, we stopped talking to the other employees (even though they all stood like hawks around us the entire time!), and he advised us that we needed to pay $50/person to get onto the next flight, which was 12 hours away!

"Are you serious?" I asked, and the rude lady behind the counter chimes in with a smirk, "That's right! You have to pay $50/person!" Then, it all became clear -- it's all a part of Delta's policies to make customers, who are at no fault, pay the extra $50/person flight-change-fee to the airline! Do employees get commission for making customers pay the $50/person fee? Is that was it has come down to, Delta? Shame on you!

Delta, just to let you know, my boyfriend and I will NEVER, EVER fly with you again! ... I hope the loss of future business opportunities with us was well worth the $100 revenue in transfer fees that you've received on October 14, 2009. Please also note that I work in an IT department in a the company with 2500 employees (half of whom travel every week to meet with clients!). I will make sure to share my Delta experiences on with everyone in my company over the company intranet. And when I travel for business, I will specifically request NOT to fly with Delta.

Have a nice day!

No Damage to Motorcycle

The frame slider, footpeg, and rear tire are holding up the bike.
Nothing else is touching the ground except for the brake lever.

Today... I woke up to this.

I'm going to make a coffee.