bobble

its raining. can't frickn' believe it. time for Buck Hill Season Pass Holder Hard Core Watch. so far the chairs are running but no one is on them. time is 9:52 AM. crap, now the camera is out of control. maybe i'll hit the roller rink.

here are my pictures. the one where my leg is purple is about a couple days after my injury. the second where i'm standing is about 3 weeks later. note the freakish flesh balloon next to my knee. last year i accidentally went through a mogul field on hardboots. i flew off one mogul, hit another, then caught toeside edge. i had severe hematoma on my leg next to the knee. it was really huge like a water balloon. when i stood up it hurt like hell because the weight of the fluid would sort of split the epidermal layers. its sloshed around. it really sucked at work. i went to urgent care three times asking them to drain it. they wouldn't which was strange because they had no problems draining a previous injury to my hip. i had to tape my leg to keep the hematoma from moving around. after about a month i started snowboard again and the fluid started to drain. it felt really great after a few days boarding. some parts of my leg are still numb from the injury. maybe there should be a freak show gallery of snowboard injuries?

went out from 12pm till 3pm. it was on the soft side of being hero snow. kinda fun actually. i came home drenched. my hands were severely pruned. i think someone must've changed their diaper right out on milkrun. seriously, where does that brown snow come from? its all over the place!!! i made a new lift friend. we accidentally knocked boots while getting on the chair. after exchanging the usual pleasantries i introduced myself to her as Marty McFly. she said her name was Martha Stewart. i hereby declare Martha the new buck hill bunny of the week.

the exploding cords make me think of the water fountains at the bellagio. i do like picture. i bet i fell down on that one. my heelsides have been terrible lately. got that budweiser thing going on the rear hand. trent, please consider a career as a sports photographer. you are the man!

snow is carveable but very soft. for awhile there was corduroy. it wasn't icy as i thought it would be. i fell down alot when the board sank into the snow. right near the chairs it would give way. there's open water out on crystal. that lake is going to be stinky and weedy this summer.

couple years ago i got hit from behind by another snowboarder while on toe-side edge. i landed on my hip so hard i thought i'd broke something. there was a painful burning sensation. i was able to get down the hill. i went to the emergency room. they just said to keep it iced and keep pressure on it. the swelling was huge and it literally sloshed around -- you could hear it. all i could wear were sweat pants. it hurt like hell walking around. after a week i went to see a doctor whereupon he drained some blood out. it was just too much to be re-absorbed. he didn't get all of it because it started coagulating. i couldn't board for more than a month or so. i bought crashpads after that incident and wear them all the time. hope your injury is not as bad.

forgive me BHD, for i have sinned. its been 48 hours since my last carve session at le mont buck. my sin - i was out on a different mountain. her name is spirit. she didn't mean anything. it was just a one time fling (actually more to come). spirit mountain... they reported yesterday that only 60% of the runs are open. its really brown up there. absolutely no snow in duluth except on spirit and thats only where they've set up their snow guns. i was told by another carver, russ m, that there have only been 4 brown christmas' in the past 100 years. the last one was in 1979. its gotta be killing all the snowmobilers. the good news is they are blowing snow but there's just so much area to cover. the grooming was very good but there's ice underneath. after about 2 hours i felt like i was riding on peanut brittle. there was no sun this morning until around 10:30 or 11am so i stayed over by 4-pipe. went down skyhook a couple times -- very good run. problem was getting there, there was no direct route due to lack of snow. you had to head to the main chalet and veer to the right towards 4-pipe. also met bump rider or bumpy rider who frequents this forum. he's from seattle and picked up an F2 at the house. it got dicey with the crowd so i left.

i just pray that the season doesn't end prematurely. sitting here in duluth and there isn't any snow except spirit. boggles my mind. christmas and no snow?

went to the magic mountain. in attendence were myself, trent, dave, bob d, flavor flav, and some other carver (i think doug?). conditions were excellent. all our slopes are belong to us. it was pure pleasure carving deep into the loines of the mountain. trent brought out the cameras. dave was so overjoyed he felt the need to really connect with trent. looking forward to see some pictures of this joyous event. i think its fare to see good time had by all. my legs effin' hurt. stop the cat box.

no kidding! hey, did you go to buck? right now its sunny. wondering if its better. i'm going to a christmas party now. i bought the welch/spirit pass so i should be good to go. i'm going up to spirit on sunday afternoon. coming back either tuesday or wednesday. we're staying in canal park this time. i really hope there's some good snow up there.

went to our beloved mountain on the lake. this season sucks. today the conditions completely sucked; flat light, very light fog, chunky fast snow, icy patches, and ski racing. it looked like they might've groomed but if they did the skiiers already had their way. i left after three runs. maybe i'll go out later. if anyone else goes tell me if you agree.

what did they use at SES? was it PVC pipe fittings? how far were they spaced?

minnesota bound? i don't watch it but that would be cool. does anyone have the limbo gear?

i'll be there. maybe this year i'll make it without a concussion or a hemotoma on the knee. that would be... perfection. -markie mark-

today the runs were groomed on our beloved mother mountain. unfortunately the temps didn't get low enough to blow snow during the night. the runs were very fast. after awhile the snow turned to chunky crap. accoustics were very loud. lighting was another factor -- it was flat. junior racing was going on so some runs were closed. it was crowded for a sunday but the lift lines were short. buck has a new run. its not named and isn't on the map. probably because its only a couple meters long and spills out onto crossroads. its name is "orifice of perpetual misery". its next to all the coffins stacked up near olympic wet dream. those who carve will fear the orifice. those who ski like passing through it. the discharges from the orifice cut wide swaths across our fall lines. patience and good timing are key to surviving this menace. positively. i miss the bulk hill public address message with the really groovy keyboard music. i haven't heard it yet this season. i wonder if its available on itunes? ka-chow

i put on my soft boots and brought my hardboots just in case. the light was very flat. the snow was groomed but it was deceptive. it doesn't hold up too well. the skiiers were carving (or sinking) big trenches into the soft snow. i was envious of their craft. indeed. after a few runs i was having problems. the trenches were multiplying and i was bouncing out of the simplest skid turns. truth be told, i fell a few times. the ice below the snow was showing. the snow was turning brown in some locations. the blue smerfs showed up. they suck. period. they are a nihilistic lot that disobeys all common sense and defecates on our beloved mountain. their instantiation poses a threat to all those who take great pleasure carving in corduroy 100%. the blue tards need re-education camp just how to queue up in the lift line. todays crime: they let two empty chairs go by because they were at the front of the line waiting for their tard-buddies while a long line was forming. using my athletic prowess and brute force i skillfully pushed through the bourgeois crowd to secure my lift chair solo. shouldn't these people really be over at teachers pet learning chair etiquette? can't buck hill just take their money and make them go away? the sight of their blue jackets with the vaporized skiier logos made it easier for me make my decision to leave early. if i had stayed i would have killed for it is written in their jammer manifesto that "he who is uphill always has the right of way" and "blessed is he who has more momentum and no skill". i left early. i came home unharmed and rewarded myself with a nutritious snack. high five.

thursday night kinda sucked. the new Powder Ridge was uncarveable... it was rutted and had huge potholes. Crossroads was semi carveable but you had to ride your edges high and you'd get buffeted by the snow. i kept falling down near tower 6 because the snow would give away. it was really fast snow. the backside towards teachers pet had bare spots. i left after 1/2 hour. not sure what to expect this weekend. i might breakout the soft boots.

okay, now in this scene i want you to keep your knees together, get really really really low, look up to the camera and act like you're enjoying the moment. very nice-eh. high five!

one or two seasons ago, the guys at november had their tent at buck. we, the bob d and myself, talked to the guy about alpine boards. the guy said there was some interest in making a board. he thought that they had the tooling to make one but they didn't know what was important in terms of geometry, flex, etc. i think bob d. offered them a board in order to reverse engineer. bob d, sent them an email distribution list. i don't remember if there was any follow up.

Wow, cool pix!!! really good pictures of joe. i wish i could've gotten you in the whole frame dave. that would've a sweet picture. i hope that wasn't the only one of you that's post-worthy.

Well, ChadX, since you asked... The golden hoof award is euphemism. No one actually got one. The owner of the company is an Egyptian. The Hoof awards were some strange inside joke at the company. It was all about camels. If you performed well in the eyes of the owner, you gained his favor. You became the “golden boy”. He would be extremely gracious and would award you with new work and extra long hours. He micro managed things such that it was always one fire drill after another. It really sucked. Anyways, I somehow became the golden boy. I don’t know what I did but co-workers were saying I was the “pharaoh’s new golden boy”. One of the guys would go round the building saying to coworkers “Hey, did you hear? This year’s Golden Hoof Award goes to Bobble”. I guess I took it as a compliment as I had no idea what it meant. The owner was happy with my work. I was employed as a project engineer. I thought it was some sort of congratulations for making a scheduled deliverable. I found out a couple weeks later what it meant. I was told that when a camel urinates, it usually pisses on one hoof and they called that hoof the Golden Hoof. I should have gone for the Ivory Hoof award, the hoof that doesn’t get pee’d on. I shared an office with this guy that looks a lot like Carlos Mencia (like Comedy Central’s Mind of Mencia). He bet someone that I wouldn’t make it a month at that place. It took a long time for him to get him to like me. I knew I was on his good side when he showed me a letter and a sketch he received from his friend who is on death row. How many companies you ever worked at were ever investigated by the FBI? The place was so bizarre.

what a bunch of farkin bastages! someone should get fired for gross incompetence. i used to work for a company where the president would walk around the place every friday at 4pm and ask people what time they will be in on saturday. he expected everyone to work overtime. so the question was when, not if they'll be in on saturday. oh the stories i could tell. the place was like prison. the lucky ones were the people who got fired. there was a chair they called "the ejector seat". it was rumored that anyone who sat in it was fired within a few weeks. seriously, they'd bring in these software engineers and they'd sit in the ejector seat and then they'd disappear. i sat in a bunch of times but it didn't work. there were people there who hadn't had a raise since '96. it was really strange. i kept thinking that they suffered from stockholm syndrome (where the hostages identified with their captors). if you did somehow get a raise, you were expected to work more hours. one guy refused to accept his raise so that he didn't have to come in. every payday he'd go into the president's office and pay him back in cash until they rescinded his pay raise. completely sick. it took me 11 months to get out of that hell-hole. ask me about the golden hoof award.

i wish i would've tried out buck. welch was humbling for me and i just suck on steep runs. skidded alot on dan's dive. on my 2nd to the last run on lookout i almost bit it at the bottom. i told trent that it was time for me to go. i didn't want to end up on disabled list. seems like i always get injured at welch. can't have that.

wait... you're saying it snows in Iowa? and there's even a hill? sounds like someone saw "office space". "Oh, oh, and I almost forgot. Ahh, I'm also gonna need you to go ahead and come in on Sunday, too... "

yes, i will be there saturday and maybe sunday. hope the new chair opens. conditions today at welch were marginal. actually, it kinda sucked. its not groomed out very well.