rhaskins

Got the truck on Friday. Thanks much. Purdy. Rick

Nice website tho. Rick

Yeah, yeah, yeah. I could send out a hundred emails in a couple three hours if I was motivated. Some of them might even make sense even. I still see no reason not to communicate with the people on a regular basis that buy your product. I get mass emails from them. Rick

I really like Catek bindings, I own 2 sets of OS2's and one set of FR2's. But I have been very frusterated by the non-communication in the past. I really don't know if this hurts business, but it must in these present times of the Interwebz and such. I know that if I lived anywhere Newport RI I would have driven over there and knocked on the door to find out what's up. Since Scott took off for England, the response has been abysmal. I have been given a spiff because of the communication issue and delayed shipment, I am happy, they make a superior product, but I worry for their reputation and their future. I think that any carvers in a 150-250 mile radius should get together and pull an intervention on em. Get across the idea that some customer communication is a far better thing than no customer communication. Get Jeff liquored up and make him pledge to send timely updates to paying customers. Or something like that. Buy advertising space across from his facility/house, on his way to work. Something. Have the local police stop him every day and question him on his customer relations. Get his Clurgy to give a sermon on customer communications. God knows there has to be some way of getting a message across to them. I know from personal experience that telephone and email communications don't work, neither does fax. Rick

Still available? email me at ricohaskins at gmail dot com. I would like to purchase your truck, sir. Shipping to zip 55311. Rick

Back in the eighties, a guy I knew that owned his own franchise, decided to take his wife and secretary from Bloomington, MN to Rochester for lunch on secretaries week. So they flew down in his private plane, had lunch and got back in the plane to fly back. On the runway gaining speed to take off they were hit with a gust of wind that took the plane up a few feet, the gust then passed, and the plane plummeted down, hit hard enough to bottom out the landing gear and did a slight nose-over, making the prop hit the runway. The plane then immediately looses power, and "lands" normally although it had to be towed off the runway. First, everyone had to change underwear. Second, they had to have someone drive down to Rochester to pick them up. Third, the FAA required that the engine had to be completely torn down and examined for any damage, new prop procured and the landing gear fixed, air frame examined for issues. Ultimately after all the fixes, the plane was airworthy. Lunch, tho, was extremely expensive. The guy wouldn't even talk about it, I had to find out the details from some of his sales guys. The sight of that plane on the road above has dollar signs all over it. But, since they got to walk away, they were good landings, right? Rick

That's some real money right there. Aren't pilots supposed to like, walk around the plane and inspect it before they hop in and fly, huh? Just askin. Rick

Did so! Rick

Jon: Oswald killed Kennedy. Rick

In the NYT today, they had an article: not too bad right now, looks like it is stabilizing. BUT: It could head to the southern hemisphere and incubate and morph there during their regularly scheduled flu season (now and over our summer), and come back next flu season in the northern hemisphere resistant to everything we have. The great flu epidemic of 1918 did just that, the initial wave died out fairly rapidly, and then came back with a wallop. Hey, it's all natural, it must be good! And speaking of incubating and morphing, we have set ourselves up pretty good: Anit-immigrant ranting putting illegals on edge, 40 some odd million citizens without health care coverage, all pretty much not going to go to any hospital or clinic to get treatment ulness the flu is really bad. The illegals because of immigration worries, and the poor because of the expense. That will get the flu season going pretty good next year if the stuff comes back. If your barely ecking out a living your not going to let a little punkiness stop you from working at Mickey D's or cleaning office buildings or washing cars & etc. How I envy Canada during the next flu season.:D And one final tidbit: most deaths in Mexico from the flu are in women. No one seems to know why. That makes it suck even more. And then we have the "conservative" talk show hosts blaming anything Mexican for the disease and the diatribes on illegals. THAT sucks even more. Unbelievable that anyone with any sense of humanity or just plain good manners could go on that way. Some of the stuff these talk show entertainers are saying about Mexicans just makes you want to puke. Rick

Quivver so far: Subsonic Saint 30, Radikals, Retro Zig Zags; Subsonic Pulse 40, Bennett 6 and Tracker RT, Avalons; Sector 9 something-or-other (really great board), Gullwing Chargers, Abec11 Gumballs; Earth Supercharger, Tracker Fastracks, Earthwing Superballs; Loaded Dervish, Paris, Seismic Blast Waves; Landyachtz Evo, Bear Grizzly, Abec11 Flywheels; Gravity Logan Earth Ski, Bennet 5.0 and Tracker RT, Sector 9 Race (these are gonna change, too slippery); Earthwing Drifter, Independents, Earthwing Superballs; Cones + Parts+ Tools, all ready to roll any time, any where.

Ya know, over on the telemark site everyone is having shoulder surgery. Is this the season for surgery or something? The ortho's have to be just raking in the bucks. I hope that you guys heal up well and any PT goes good. I feel lucky to not have these kinds of issues despite the abuse I subject myself to. Hope to see ya all back on the slopes some day. Rick

Thanks. We can't find out because of the privacy rules. The guy has been charged, he waived his arraignment hearing as there were just too many witnessess - none on his side of the story. I guess he didn't make bail yet. I lay money on him cutting whatever deal he can get. Rick

bjvircks - sorry to hear about this, watching anyone self destruct is very hard. I have personally had my time with alcolhics and other dependant people. You can get dragged down. Eight cents of advice: - You don't want him to go to the military. It would be a set-up for him to fail again. They will not keep people despite their problems. The military does not want to be a nursery for deliquents. I believe the marines would chew him up and spit him out a broken guy. Mental toughness is required. - Change, no matter how you want it to happen, can only come from within. You can tie yourself up in a lot of knots over this, but you have no control over him. - You gotta take care of you and your wife first. You and her might want to go to alanon or some other support group for those involved with addicts. Serenity prayer and the rest. It works. You'll understand what is going on better. Good luck to ya. Rick

Ya gotta watch out, my last 2 years of undergraduate was a "total immersion" deal, I had a study team and we worked on classes & class work 6 days a week as our job. It worked out as far as grades were concerned. Did I mention my divorce in my senor year of college? Bad things can happen if you get too focused. Rick

You going to Med School? 8 years? What? I gots me 2 post graduate degrees and a total of 9.5 years of University, broken up in chunks, and worked full time during my last 2 degrees. Can't have too much of that there education tho. What's the 8 years gonna get you for a degree/profession? BTW, aint any of my degrees in English lit. Rick

Check to see if the pins in the heels are loose or if it is the fit in the receiver. If the pins in the heels flex around, my opinion is that your heels are toast (and not the good English muffin kind of toast). If they are just loose in the receiver, you can adjust that out. I have many days on a set of Intec heels I bought new, and they are just fine. Rick

Or, the first guy was the attorney for the doc. Rick

the second guy either had "managed" health care or was a medicade patient. Rick

My fixie is a Surly Steamroller built on some Shimano wheels I had built up, I love that bike at 42x15. My single speed mountain bike is built on a Salsa Juan Solo frame and Chris King wheelset, it weigh about 17 lbs. It is a great bike. 32 x 16 or 17 or 18 or 19 or 20 depending on what we are climbing. The eccentric housing is just great. I have also used Fetish Cycles Fixation frames in the past, they seem very well made, made a great SS. They were very cheap, but their prices have gone up. Rick

"It's just a flesh wound" - Monty Rick

"I am a sick man . . . I am a wicked man. An unatractive man." Fyodor Dostoevsky I can't let a Dostoevsky quote go unanswered. My favorite 2 lines from any prose. Rick

Thanks all. I had him read this and y'all made him blush. Keep the little girl in your thoughts. We do not know how she is doing because of privacy rules. Rick

So, two weeks ago my son was coming out of the coffee shop heading across the sidewalk to his car when this guy off to his left, who was yelling at his 3 or 4 year old daughter, grabs her by the hair, whips her off her feet and slams her to the ground. Jake yells out “you son of a bitch” and whips out his cell to call 911. Before Jake can make the call, the guy runs to him and punches Jake in the chest. Whoa. Jake is ex Marine Corp and has always been a good street fighter. Jake grabs the guy’s shirt at the collar with his left hand and twists it so he can’t get away, and then pounds the crap out of the guy with his right fist. Mall security shows up and arrests Jake and puts him in a squad car, the guy was unconscious on the ground, the little girl was hurting. This was done in front of the lunch time crowd in a mall, in plain view of the people in the coffee shop and the Chinese resteraunt next to it. Turns out about a dozen people had called 911. When the cops arrived, they took statements and let Jake go. They arrested the Dude – he lost a few teeth, had is front lower lip split in two and was black and blue all over his face. The little girl was being checked out for injury. They were concerned with a spinal cord/brain injury due to the way she was grabbed and whipped around by her father. Child protection was on the scene as were medical personnel. Believe that? Jake is on standby if he has to come to the arraignment. Freaking people that can’t control themselves. We don’t know how the little girl is doing, they can’t release that info. Rick

Yeah, seems like everyone is afraid of being judgemental or being labeled judgemental. Why? Let's change the facts a little. Instead of an upscale golf community, say it was a trailer park in the mid west. People would be ragging on the trailer trash parents (no offense trailertrash) not controlling their offspring. As a parent of a male offspring I have had several occasions where I have had to say no, ain't gonna happen and mean it no matter what and make it stick. ANY parent that buckels to their kid's ultimatum on an important moral or safety issue is part of the problem. To get respect, give respect, and that means to your neighbors, society and your community and to the world at large, to your kids also. To be clear: the parents are at fault but not the siblings. Unless you subscripe to some sort of touchy-feely non-judgemental crap philosophy that says no one is at fault ever. Then the kid was taken too soon through no falut of his own (sob sob crap crap). After putting the Mercedes in the pond, if he were my kid he would have had to bust thru 2 chains locking the wheels to the frame, and break into the safe to get to the keys in order to drive that cycle. He would not be driving for quite a while after a stunt like that. And he would have lost the priviledge of driving if the neighbors complained at all when he did get the priviledge back. I am truely sorry that he is dead. But for some fortitude by his parents, he would most likely be alive today. That is a tragedy that the parents and the siblings will have to live with, and the guilt will be terrible. I don't know what I would do with myself under those circumstances. I feel truely sorry for them for their error. I hope they get through this. Flame on. Rick