Planet Charles

Well, we finally got the dog Amy has been bugging me about for the last year. We got Ruby (named after the Stones song “Ruby Tuesday”) a couple weeks ago, and I guess I’ve just been to busy to post  anything. I’ve posted some pictures in the Ruby album. Border Terriers were originally bred to hunt foxes, and other small vermin, so they’re small and compact. Females max out at 13-15 lbs. We decided on the breed after researching lots of different dogs. I think the deciding factors were that they’re small in size, energetic, won’t affect Amy’s allergies, and they’re hard-working scrappy little dogs. For a pure bred, people often thing BTs are mutts because they’re not very “fancy” looking. That’s just the type of dog I want, not a fussy “foo-foo” lap dog. She’s turning out to be a great dog. Housetraining is going very well – no mistakes in the house. She gets into her crate when it’s time for a nap without too much fuss, and she sleeps through a 7 hour night without any whining. She’s a fast learner, already doing sit, down, shake, etc. She’s only on her second round of shots so we can’t let her on the ground yet in public (even though we’re dying to) – couple more weeks before we can do that. So we’ve been carrying her around, letting her meet people, other dogs and see and smell lots of stuff. I made a “puppy playhouse” out of a water-heater box with lots of little doors and windows for her to play in – she loved it. I bought her a big Labrador sized bone to gnaw on – funny to see a little dog working on such a big bone. We let her run around the back yard – she loves to dig down into the mole holes.

Got bored this morning, so I longboarded around the neighborhood and got Amy to video some of my antics. Nothing extreme, but shows how nice the new board cruises, and shows some of the cross-stepping tricks I’m working on.

So I got a sweet new longboard yesterday – The Dancer by Loaded Boards (see the awesome promo video for the board here). The board is nearly 5 feet long – designed for cross-stepping and other longboard “dancing” maneuvers. Today’s forecast was for rain all day, so I was to be tortured by the fact that I wouldn’t be able to ride it. Then I came up with the brilliant idea of going to a parking garage that is only 2 miles from my house. I got there and it was better than I had expected – I patted myself on the back. I went up to the 4th level where there were no cars – the air was crisp and cool and I had views of the mountains all around. I spent about an hour and a half circling, working on tricks and maneuvers : various Cross-Stepping both sides, “Chopping the Wood”, Walk the Plank, Skogging, trying to Nose Manual, etc. Basically having a blast and working up a good sweat. After a while of this too good to be true fun I got to wondering whether I was allowed to even be up there, so I went over to the big white posted sign. Sure enough, as I had feared rule #3 said “No roller-blading, bike riding, or skate boarding”. A $500 find was also threatened for transgressors. Bummer. I figured they wouldn’t bust me though – I’m a good guy, so I went back to skating around. I then noticed all the cameras mounted – I pictured some poor dude eating chips in a dark control office somewhere monitoring me as I circled around doing crazy tricks. I even pushed my luck a little bit by flying down the ramps for 2 levels, then taking the elevator back up and doing it again. Just like a ski lift! Then after skating for about 2 hours it finally happened – a cop car pulled in on the level below me and parked by the stairs. I remained calm and continued, so I could plead ignorance when he made his way up to me. A second cop car pulled up to my level, so I skated over to him, doing some gnarly cross stepping on my way :) I pulled up to his car and said “This can’t be good” with a grin as he got out. He finished talking on his radio, probably to his backup below, then said “Well, its not baaad, but it’s not good either.” I took off my helmet, so he could see I was a law abiding bald dude, not some punk kid. He asked for my ID, explained why I can’t be up there, took me over read the sign to me and all that. He was nice about it – basically said that they had to kick me out, since I’m on the parking garage’s video. The backup from below had pulled up by now, so there I was with my board surrounded by 2 patrol cars! I thought it was pretty cool – I wish I could have gotten pictures for this post :) I even said to them “I wish my wife could see this – me getting busted for skateboarding.” We stood there chatting for a while, they even admired my board. I jokingly told them that since they were kicking me out, I guess I’d just go back home, sit on the couch, eat chips and watch T.V. They said they heard me and were sorry, but they had to do their jobs. A third cop car then pulled up and he too got out - “All this for me?” I said, and he smiled saying he was just in the area. They must have planned it that way, blocking my exit points in case I tried to split or something. I got in my car at that point which was parked on the same level and left. I guess for rainy days, I’ll have to find some local indoor skate park or something. I wonder if they have skate parks for longboarding dudes my age? There’s also a covered concrete play area at the school in my neighborhood – not as big as the parking garage, but it might work.

Here’s a great picture of Amy with Peter Rabbit – couldn’t help posting it. We spent a couple days in Portland this weekend touring around and this picture is from the Oregon Zoo – they were having an egg hunt for kids. It was fun to watch that – waves of sugar crazed kids unleashed in groups of 30 onto a small green covered with candy. While we were in Portland, in addition to the Zoo we went to the Art Museum, toured their magnificent Japanese Garden and Washington Park, explored all over down-town, spent time in the famous Powell’s books. One destination for me was Daddies Board Shop which is a great skate shop specializing in longboards. After trying out a board, I couldn’t leave without buying it – The Dancer by Loaded Boards. See my next post for more on that :) We also by chance ran into a unicycle/juggling shop called Serious Juggling. They had a Coker Unicycle that I’ve been wanting for some time – it’s got a huge 36” wheel. They let me try one out for a while in their parking lot – it was great fun. I’ll have to get one some day.

Click the turtle image below to jam to the turtle song! The crazy song is from an Oregon Coast Aquarium commercial.