Category: Flashbacks

Posted on

Choosing the Right Skateboard Parts

Once I started reading up on skateboards I got really into it. I’ve still got my last skateboard from when I was kid. Well, it’s stashed at my mom’s but I still have it until she decides to clean out the garage.

Anyway, my old board pales in comparison to the new designs and components for putting together today’s boards. If I was going to make my own board now here is what I need to choose and pull together:

  • Skateboard Deck – getting the right size is critical
  • Set of Two Skateboard Trucks for mounting the wheel
  • Set of Four Skateboard Wheels
  • Set of Eight Skateboard Bearings (2 per wheel)
  • Mounting Hardware
  • Grip Tape to Slip-proof the Deck
  • Skate Key/Tool

Optional:

  • Skateboard Riser Pads
Posted on

Custom Skateboards

My sister called this morning and invited me to her son’s birthday party next week. She can’t do it this weekend because of the Super Bowl, so they picked next Thursday for the celebration. Part of the reason they picked Thursday is because they booked a suite at the Sommet Center for the hockey game that night against the Anaheim Ducks. There is a family joke about the Mighty Ducks, but that’s another story.

I’m not sure what to get this kid for a cool birthday present. He’s turning 8 and is just a typical eight year old – into all kinds of sports and video games. Uncle Adam’s present has to be awesome! I’m thinking it might be a good time to introduce him to skateboarding. I think that’s about the age when I first got interested in the sport. Of course, things have changed since I was riding skateboards. The boards themselves are much more tekkie and its all about a custom designed board.

The best web site I can find about skateboards is called www.warehouseskateboards.com. I’ve been reading up on their page “Skateboard Buying Guide” about skateboard basics and how to choose the right boards and components based on age and size. They also have some really wild designs for a huge selection of boards.

If I order it today I can get it shipped here in time for the birthday party, so looking at their choices for a longboard complete package, I’m going with the rad “Blind Reaper” design. This will blow his mind!

Posted on

Spring Break Means Florida

Ever since I was a little kid my family has always gone to Florida at least once a year, usually for Spring Break. I can’t imagine going anywhere else for Spring Break – it’s our family tradition.

My parents bought a condo in New Port Ritchie back in the 1970’s. It used to be a small town with less tourists than most of the Orlando area developments. Of course, after all these years the area has grown and its more crowded now. But it is still a little different feel than closer in to Orlando – less crowds, less traffic, less noise and less kids.

Last year when we went to the condo we decided to explore some of the other little cities and towns that were close by and not spend so much time in the theme parks. We had a nice time exploring the Gulf Coast, and that area is still my favorite spot in the United States. I haven’t found any place nicer.

Posted on

Semi Tough

For some reason I ditched regular TV tonight and decided to find a movie “On Demand.” I’ve been using the On Demand feature from Comcast for a couple months and I have to admit that I’m getting really spoiled with the convenience of seeing a movie not only when I want to watch but it lets me pause and rewind, as if it was a VCR tape or a DVD. Very cool for when you can’t hear a mumbled line and you want to know what they said.

The movie I chose was Semi-Tough, with Burt Reynolds and Kris Kristofferson as two professional football players in a love triangle with the team owner’s daughter. There are some great lines in this movie that reflected the social times and values of the early 1970s.

Posted on

The Right Gear

My grandfather bought his first motorcycle in 1929, when Harley Davidson came out with their new engine, the 45 cubic inch V-twin that became known as the HD flathead. He used to tell us great stories of his adventures on that bike and I’ve been around bikes my whole life. My dad bought me a minibike when I was 4 years old and I’ve been riding two wheels ever since.

One of the most important things about riding a bike is to protect your body. When I ride I’m going to have everything covered for protection, from a helmet on my head to boots on my feet. If you look at an experienced Harley rider, you’ll see that they protect their bodies, too.

When you see cops on motorcycles they will be riding Harleys and they will be fully covered for protection, and if you pay attention to what the cops wear, you’ll see they have on high, leather boots. Most of the time when I ride I have on leather boots, but not the ones like the cops. But then I got to thinking that maybe I should try a pair of those.

The web site www.copshoes.com has a great selection of Motorcycle Boots in different styles from all the top brands. The web site lists a toll free number for calls from the U.S. and also a number for international callers. They even ship to APO and FPO addresses.They take all the major credit cards, including Paypal. This is one of the most customer friendly sites I’ve seen and the boot selection is top notch.

Posted on

Mix Tapes

Years ago I would buy albums that I liked and pull a couple of my favorite songs off of the albums to make custom mix tapes. Sometimes a friend would ask me to make a tape for them with specific songs onthem. I always thought that it would be great to make a custom CD with my favorite songs on them, but we did not have the technology available.

Now with home pcs sold with cd burners and dvd burners built in, and the internet with downloadable songs all over the net, we can all do that easily. Yet I don’t and I’m not sure why. Perhaps the thrill of having the music I liked right at my fingertips has waned. Perhaps the music has changed.

There is very little new music that even spurs me to go buy an album. Where I used to buy at least one album from every single paycheck, now I buy just one or two albums a year. Yes, it has gotten that bad. I really don’t like today’s music much and I’m not willing to spend my money on something that I don’t like. I find myself listening to talk radio in the car and you don’t buy albums of talk radio shows.

Posted on

The Dinner Hour

As a kid we were encouraged to go outside and play every day after we returned home from a day of school. Most days, except in the dead of winter for about a month, we had at least an hour or two of daylight to play in the yard or with friends in the neighborhood. But at six o’clock, we were all expected to be home, cleaned up, and ready to eat dinner.

Everyone in our upper middle class neighborhood was expected to eat dinner at six o’clock except for my friend, Sandy. That family was headed by an Army General, and he required dinner at five o’clock. I suspect that a good part of that is because he had to start his day earlier than the white collar dads who had 9 to 5 jobs. The military runs on its own time, and the General leads by good example.

As an adult in today’s world, I almost never get to eat dinner by six o’clock. Most nights I don’t even get home from work until after six. My dinner has been pushed back to seven o’clock most nights. I wonder if the kids from the ‘hood are finding the same thing happening in their lives, or if they have been able to stick to the six o’clock hour for their dinners now?

Posted on

Plans for Reading More

This year I’m working on a personal improvement goal of reading more books. I used to love to read in school. I could read all afternoon and finish off a book a day when I was in junior high school. Of course, I hardly ever had an afternoon dedicated to reading – I was always doing some kind of sports or lessons. But I did read a fair amount and I still like a good book. One of my favorite fiction writers is John Grisham and his series of novels about lawyers and legal cases.

In the world of non fiction I usually stay away from all those touchy feelie, self improvement types of books. I like books about history – especially the Civil War. I also like books about travel and places around the world that will make my “bucket list.”Haven’t been outside of the U. S. yet, but I plan to.

Right now I’m reading a book by Jimmy Buffett, of all people, called, “Tales From Margaritaville.” Although the collection of short stories is mostly fiction, some of them are based on the truth. It makes for interesting reading and stirs up the desire to head for a beach.

Posted on

Blueberry Muffins

Does anybody NOT like blueberry muffins? I think this is one food that is universally loved by everyone.

I used to pick blueberries from the bushes in the backyard of my first grade teacher. She had about a dozen blueberry bushes and would invite the kids to come pick as many as they wanted for free on the weekend of the fourth of July every year. The rest of the summer you could still come pick them, but she would charge $2 per pail.

Posted on

Love the new Challenger

Read about the return of another muscle car from the past – the Dodge Challenger. The retro craze also has brought us the Ford Mustang and the Chevy Camaro is coming out in 2010. But I love the new Challenger.

The new Challenger has three trim and transmission packages that dramatically affect the price:

  • Challenger SE at $21,995
  • Challenger R/T at $29,995
  • Challenger SRT8 at $39,995

Of course, I go for the most expensive model, and at almost $40 grand this car is worth every dollar. It has the muscle under the hood with 425 horsepower in either an automatic or six-speed transmission, and it most definitely has a dramatic retro styling to make heads turn.

  • The SE model gets 17 mpg in the city and 25 highway.
  • The R/T gets 16 mpg city and 25 highway for both the automatic and manual
  • The SRT8 with the extra horsepower gets 13 mpg city, 19 highway with the automatic, and 14 mpg city, 22 highway with the manual transmission.

I want a red one!