Fired Up Randomness

Marathon #3, It's a Wrap.

Trust me, no one looks their best after just having run 26.2 miles.

Last Sunday I ran the Skagit Flats Marathon in Burlington, WA, which is about an hour north of Seattle.  It was not Boston friendly, at least for me.  Monday, September 9 was the last official day to qualify for the 2014 Boston Marathon so I thought I would give it one more shot.  Here's a brief recap.

I ran the Vancouver Marathon in mid June, took a little time off, then pretty much stayed in marathon training mode thinking I may want to give  Boston one last try because I still feel like I have the ability to qualify within me, call that naivete or false bravado or whatever you want, but I feel like I can do it, even though my previous results have proven otherwise.  I didn't tell anyone that I was going to run the race, I wanted to have a clear mind, not think about it at all and really just wake up and do it.  So Sunday morning I got up at 4 a.m., prepared myself and drove to Burlington for the race.  When I got there and checked in they gave me a rules sheet that said "No iPods" because the course was on roads open to traffic.  I was not pleased, but what could I do at that point.  The course was relatively flat and was an out and back; meaning we would in essence run 13.1 miles northwest of Burlington, turn around and come back the same way.  Not ideal, especially with the roads being open for cars, but again, it was what it was.  I was going to go for my Boston time of 3:15, that was why I was running this race so there was no reason to hold back.  I went out really hard and felt really good for the first 10 miles or so, then the humidity really started kicking in.  Turns out it was literally 100% humidity and the sun was shining bright and got to 80 degrees.  After only a few miles I was completely drenched in sweat and uncomfortable, but nothing you can do about it but keep going. The next 5-8 miles weren't too bad, I was missing my iPod by about now as we were on country roads with virtually no spectators, running through farm land, no funny signs, quite isolating.  Around Mile 20 I knew I was slipping off pace but tried to stay strong, but I was really starting to hit the wall. Around Mile 22 I knew I had 4.2 miles left and I used to run a 4.2 mile loop around my neighborhood that I called my Tillman Loop based on the Tillman Race I ran last spring.  That gave me life, but for only about a minute.   At a certain point for everyone in a marathon your brain is just shot and I remember thinking, "all right 4.2 to go, Tillman, you got this", then all of sudden I felt like I got hit by a truck.  I could hardly see straight, I couldn't run straight, every step I took felt like I was stomping into the ground, my mind was completely gone, it was brutal, so I had to walk at points and eventually this last stretch destroyed any respectable time I was going to attain, certainly not Boston and I ended up finishing yet again, just like before, time-wise.  But I was okay with it because I went out hard and went for the qualification, I wouldn't have done it any different.  A marathon is just a long ways and you can feel great, awesome in fact, at points, but eventually you hit the wall and have to try to grind through.  My cousin Matt came to the finish and sat with me in the grass afterwards while I recovered and then we went to eat somewhere, but I'm not entirely sure where as I was still kind of out of it. At one point my friend John Eloff called me, not knowing I was running a marathon that day, he said I was babbling incoherently and he was right.  Funny now, actually it was kind of funny then too.  After a few hours I was fine both mentally and physically, some soreness but hardly anything noteworthy.  In the end I did what I could, it just wasn't meant to be for me this year.  But I will not give up, I really believe I have a 3:15 in me and I am going to keep trying including running the Seattle Marathon on December 1.  I'm still Fired Up!




Meanwhile back in Portland...

LARPing.  Not a woman in sight.  Coincidence?

Wait this isn't in Portland, it's in Seattle?!?!  Oh no.

When my friend Kevin visited recently and we had our adventures around Seattle, at one point we went to Gas Works Park on North Lake Union.  A great spot to get a view of the downtown Seattle skyline, watch the float planes take off and land, view the floating houses, watch the Duck Boats carrying tourists float by, lay in the sun, and Kevin got some great pictures.  Well as we were walking back to the car, behind the Pavilion we came upon this.  LARPing.  If you're not familiar with the term, lucky you, but it stands for Live Action Role Playing and is basically a bunch of people that try to act out their fantasy worlds in full costume.  It is every bit as stunning, awkward, disturbing and hilarious(although not to them) as you can imagine.  I found it completely comical as one guy was trying to teach another guy the proper technique for dispensing his weapon.  Think about that for a second.  Proper technique for a FAKE BATTLE!  Not sure technique is very important for your pretend storming of the Fantasyland castle, Knights of the Dork Table.  I suppose since Microsoft is based here and we have lots of other techno geeks we may be prone to this type of activity, you know by the kind of guys that were actually excited about this year being the 25th Anniversary of Willow and couldn't wait to the get the new Blu-Ray version with extras.  Definitely not my type of thing.  We moved on quickly, but only after a few laughs.  Make that many laughs because you know there's nothing better on a hot summer day then putting on your fake suit of armor and having a pretend battle with your Renaissance fair friends, with proper technique of course.  Nice work LARPers.  Good luck in mom's basement.



Yeehaw, it's Rodeo Time!

8 seconds doesn't seem too daunting, until you see these bulls up close!

10 gallon hats, boots and spurs and belt buckles the size of the Wimbledon trophy; yep, it's Rodeo Week and I got to take part for many, many, many days.  Well not really that many, but more than I hads ever envisioned I would in my life.  Seems that Ellensburg, WA, also known as Rodeo City, is a stop on the National Rodeo Tour and I had to, or should I say, got the pleasure of,  hosting clients there for the weekend.  It was definitely a new experience for me as I've not only never been to a rodeo, I've hardly been to anything that would be even quasi similar.  So with my own preconceived notions I went forth to the Gold Buckle Club at the Kittitas County Fairgrounds and proceeded to learn all that I could have ever wanted to know and witness regarding a rodeo.  The big Super Bowl of Rodeos, if you will, takes place in Las Vegas every year and I was familiar with that as I have some cousins that are way into it and go every year and my Uncle Al, who lives near Las Vegas has told me all about how big it is.  For you city folk, like me, think March Madness, but for cowboys.  From what I understand the Ellensburg Rodeo is the last big stop before Vegas where the cowboys can qualify for their respective events, so the rodeo tends to draw all the top names, thus making this a big deal.  The good news was that we were in the Gold Buckle Club and therefore in the VIP area, ostensibly, so we could sit out of the sun, were close to action and had all the food and drink one could want.  After watching the bucking broncos, the barrel runs, calf roping, and a contest that involved trying to milk a running cow, it was time for the main event, bull riding.  Again, I know nothing about this, but even if you're not all that into it, sitting that close to these snarling, angry bulls and watching the cowboys try to ride them for at least 8 seconds, which is required to get a score, it was exciting.  The scoring, however, seemed to remind me of Olympics in that you have to stay on for 8 seconds but beyond that how the judges determine how to score each ride seemed subjective.  Although there didn't not appear to be any Eastern European Bloc judges from what I could tell at least, but there was definitely controversy.  In between each event was the fabled Rodeo Clowns, hilarious by any standard, except for anyone that has a standard.  Well that may be a bit harsh, but it was clearly pratfall humor for the masses.  Kenny Bania would be proud, I wasn't.  At any rate after 5 days of rodeo I'd seen enough, one day would have been plenty.  I definitely learned how much of a city slicker that I apparently am.  But if I have to go again, and in all likelihood I will, I still won't be wearing any chaps.  Giddy up.




Battle of the Basement

SafeCo Field, a beautiful stadium, but not so beautiful baseball.

I had the chance to take in a Seattle Mariners baseball game the other night at SafeCo Field.  The weather was perfect, our seats were very good(as you can see above), it was a great summer night to watch the second to last place Mariners take on the last place Houston Astros.  Thus it was going to be a pillow fight for futility and neither team disappointed.

My cousin Matt and his friends go to Mariners games fairly regularly and they asked me to join them, so I did.  When I first got to Washington I went to a game the first or second night I was here for work, but the weather was lousy and the Mariners got hammered right out of the gate and it was not a great experience, so I was happy to go again and hope for a better time.  Well both teams have struggled all season, although at one point Seattle was threatening to be at least a .500 team,  but their play the last month has taken away that hope, while the Astros have been awful from Day One.  So the game was lousy, neither team could get a hit, although at the same time, neither team's pitcher looked dominant, it was clearly a battle of last place teams.  However in the 7th inning a newly called up Mariner hit his first career home run giving them the lead heading into the 8th, 3-2.  Seattle's Charlie Furbush pitched a solid 8th leading to the Mariners turning to their closer who proceeded to not close out the game, but rather give up 4 runs.  Houston, not to be outdone, nearly gave it back away in the bottom of the ninth but eventually held on to win 6-4.  Not great baseball for the electric crowd of maybe 5K.  However, SafeCo Field is fantastic!  The views throughout the park are great, the concourses and food selections are tremendous and of course they have a million IPA's for your choosing, although SafeCo also has the highest beer prices in MLB, sweet!

As we were watching the game my friend Doug texted me about the Monday Night Football game going on at that moment and I told him I was at the baseball game, to which he replied:

"Didn't anyone tell you baseball season ended Aug. 30 when the football season began?!?!?"

Great point Doug.  Baseball, you're done, now let's get back to the pigskin.




Spartans that can actually score and win!

MSU vs. Louisville? Not quite.

When I was trying to find a place to live here in Metro Seattle I went east of town and as I was driving to my new place I went right by the high school that is a mere stone's throw away, Skyline High School.  The reason it stuck out, they have a big sign out front of the school with the Spartan head, the same one and the same colors that Michigan State uses.  Having grown up in the shadow of Sparty, I took this as a good omen. But as I was soon to learn, these are not your George Perles smash mouth, always close but never quite there, Spartans.  The Skyline Spartans are a powerhouse.   Seems the school has only been around about 15 years and in that time they have won 7 state titles in the state's largest division, including 6 in the last 8 years.  Running a high octane spread offense, these Spartans are a true dominant force and have had the #1 rated high school QB for the last 6 years in a row.  Clearly they don't have the same problems MSU does in scoring points, maybe State could learn a thing or two from these kids.  At any rate, as cool as it is that the Spartans are in my backyard I then found out that the other state power is Bellevue HS. Bellevue is in the next division and they have won state titles 10 of last 12 years.  Their nickname, the Wolverines and they use the same colors and logo as scUM.  I found this all completely fascinating. There must be former scUM and MSU people in this area to have made this happen.  They are both completely dominant, so much so that since they are in different divisions there has been talk of a +1 game after the state championships the last few years because they both destroy their own divisions and yet, don't get to face each other.  At any rate, I think it's great that I moved to a new state and yet I can still cheer for the Spartans and completely hate the Wolverines even though I'm 3,000 miles away from Michigan. More importantly it's nice for once in my life to see Spartan football as the dominant force.  Go Green and Screw the Blue!



Seattle Desert?

Palm Trees, where am I again?

If you've never been to Seattle, no matter where you are from, the first thing you will notice when you get off the plane and step outside is how green everything is and how there are so many trees and such.  I guess all of that rain counts for something.  But when I went to Vashon Island to visit my cousin Matt for the first time after moving here, we went to a local pizza place and outside the restaurant I did a double take and noticed that there were two palm trees.   At first I felt like my mind was playing tricks on me.  I mean coming from Arizona there were palm trees everywhere so it wasn't anything new for me to see some, but here in Seattle and not in the desert?  Turns out here in Seattle, because we rarely get any snow and it rarely gets below freezing, there are certain types of palm trees that live and thrive here.  They may look a bit different than the your typical tropical palms, but seeing them made me feel more at home.  Spartans, palm trees, is Seattle trying to make me feel my roots or something?



The History of Cactus Chip

If you are, or ever have been, a Chippewa then you are Forever Fired Up!

I have had a few people ask me why the name of my blog is "Cactus Chip" and what does that mean, so here is the story.

I went to college at Central Michigan University and I often think about how that period in time was some of the greatest moments of my life.  I made life long friends, won a national championship and had about as much fun as anyone can have in college while still actually going to class and getting their degree.  CMU's nickname is the Chippewas, based on the Chippewa Indian Tribe whose land that area of the state once dominated. Thus for nearly 100 years the chant of Fire Up Chips! has been heard at any CMU sporting event or really any kind of CMU event for that matter.  It is our alma mater rallying cry, if you will.   Anytime you see someone wearing CMU clothing  a mere shout of "Fire Up" in their direction will undoubtedly be well received.  When I started this blog I was living in Arizona and since I am a "Chip" I came up with the name Cactus Chip.  Now that I live in Seattle I suppose I could change it to SeaChip or something like that, but I plan to leave it just as it is.  But Fire Up! has become something I live by and say quite often.  In fact when I went to the Space Needle for the first time I was wearing a CMU shirt and two fellow Chips recognized the logo and we had a nice chat as they were visiting from Ft. Lauderdale, FL.  Nationwide Chips!

For all my road races I write "Fire Up" in red ink on my arms, a way for me to see and feel some inspiration as the race gets difficult.  I am a Chip for life and I say that proudly.  I grew up in Lansing, also went to Michigan State and still have great affinity for all things Sparty, but I am and always will be first and foremost a Chip and Forever Fired Up!

Marathon war paint, I am always Fired Up!

Thanks again for stopping by.  There is plenty more ahead including an epic night with Trucker Todd, that I am still debating about posting but ultimately will, and an upcoming trip back to Scottsdale, can't wait for that! Stay tuned.

K&S Invades Seattle

The Gum Wall downtown, not all of Seattle is this gross.

Two years ago one of my best friends of over 30 years, Kevin Kowalk, came to Arizona to visit all the way from South Korea and we hiked the Grand Canyon.  It was an adventure of a lifetime that I blogged about and worth revisiting if you get the chance.  Last year he and I hit Chicago and although we only had one day to hang out, we made the most of it.  And now for the third year in row Kevin was in the States and at the end of his business trip he flew up to Seattle for another K&S reunion.  Being that Seattle is my new hometown it was only fitting that the old band got back together here in the land of indie music and grunge, so we went out to explore the city to learn and experience all we could and maybe even get that elusive record deal.

Seattle's music scene is legendary and in the heart of it all is the Croc.

His first night in town we went to the famous Crocodile Club in Seattle's Belltown District.  The Croc is a tiny little venue that has been around for decades and virtually every band that got mainstream success that came out of Seattle, cut their teeth here.  My cousin Matt joined us as he was interested in seeing one of the 3 bands we were seeing that night.  Note that indie rock is not my thing, but Kevin was really interested and so was Matt so who was I to be the buzz kill, well at least for the moment.  Before we went to the club we went to a few local bars including one of Matt's favorites, Cyclops , as they have a ton of IPA's, and then a quick trip to Shorty's.

Coulrophobic?  Then don't go to Shorty's.  We left abruptly.

The concert featured 3 bands, with the headliner the main draw for Kevin and Matt.  The first band went on and I would describe them as a Sponge Bob Square Pants rock band as they had a lot of theatrics and happy music and their keyboard player was dressed as a starfish.  Yes, a starfish.  The second band was from Portland, so there's that, beyond their hometown they were more of a hipster band and trying to be ironically cool or something.  Hmmm, yeahhhh.  The headliner was really the band Kevin and Matt were fans of and they were better than the other two, but it just wasn't my type of music, maybe a bit too fem for me.  So I left out all of the band names here purposely because music is subjective, everyone has their own taste, so it wasn't for me, but I was still happy to go to an iconic club downtown and listen to live music and both of them were happy to have seen the headliner and enjoyed the show.

At the Boeing Factory with many of their jets behind us. Wait, no pictures!

The next day Kevin and I headed to the Boeing factory just north of Seattle in Everett for a tour.  I know what your thinking, a plane factory, how exciting?!?!?  But just as Michigan is, still, the car capitol of the US, here in the Pacific NW, we are the plane capitol as Boeing has been in existence and providing tens of thousands of jobs here since the inception of flight. So to actually see the factory where they make them in an assembly line fashion was actually quite fascinating.  No cameras are allowed on the tour, I guess they don't want to give away any secrets, but we learned a great deal about how it all started.  Seems William Boeing was actually from Detroit and after going to college at Yale, he went out to the Pacific Northwest in the early 1900's to further his family's prominent timber business. Around this time airplanes were being rudimentarily created and he became fascinated and decided he would go into the plane building business.  With that he and a partner formed B&W and got a contract to build two planes for New Zealand.  During the construction his partner decided he wanted out and moved back East leaving it all to Boeing who completed the contract and as they say the rest was history.  Boeing now creates their jets in the world's largest building, a nearly 100 acre building where they can build six 787's at one time as well as at other facilities all over the US and the world.  It is pretty impressive to see it in person and we were both glad to have visited.

Don't worry, explanation below.  Could someone please pass the Purel?

 

From there we headed back to downtown Seattle, met up with Matt again and since he is a local, he gave us the downtown tour starting with the infamous Pike's Market where you can watch them throw the fish that people order.  It is a fun thing to see but after a few minutes, you've seen enough.  Right down the street is the very first Starbucks store and there was a line down the block because I guess getting coffee from the first Starbucks must be more special than going to one of  the other million locations downtown. It's just coffee people!  Around the corner Matt showed us the disgusting Gum Wall which literally is an alley way between Pike's Market and the port.  For some bizarre reason this has become a poplar spot to take wedding photos, seriously.  Although not the day we were there.  It was as vile and disturbing as you can imagine and I am sure I contracted any number of diseases just being that close to the gum.  But of course just to take it up a notch I pretended to lick the wall.  A few people appeared shocked, but then again this is Seattle, probably going to take more than that.  But keep in mind, I did not actually lick this thing, although my friend Bacon says I should have made a YouTube video of me licking the wall and started a new trend.  I guess there's always next time.

The Famous Pike's Market.  Watch out for flying Salmon.

The very first Starbucks, but certainly not the last one.

Onwards we headed down to Pioneer Square to take the Underground Tour.  Yes, another tourist tour, but this was equally interesting and educational. Wow, did I just say that, I must be old.  Anyway, stay with me because it is quite a story in the formation of Seattle and it's all true.  At the turn of the century there was a massive fire that burned all of downtown Seattle, over 100 acres.  The main cause of the fire was from a local wood shop, however, remember this is the early 1900's, Seattle still had outhouses, but had just recently received a shipment of toilets from England. However, not having any sewage system they just basically had toilets in outhouses, meaning the waste just ran out in the streets and when the fire started, the sewage burned and caused many of the toilets to explode, shooting upwards like a geyser.  Upon the rebuilding of the city, they now realized they needed to build a drainage system with piping; however since most of the new brick buildings were already constructed they came up with solution to make the second floor of every building the new first floor and they planned to fill in then land between the buildings up to that level for the road, thereby all the first floors of the buildings would be underground and they would run all the drainage pipes through the original first floors.  Well an undertaking like this would cost quite a bit of money and since there was no taxes on business, at that time, the town council decided they would tax the most profitable businesses for the money.  Keep in mind it was the Klondike Gold Rush era with plenty of people coming through the Seattle port on their way to Canada in search of their own gold fortune, thus there was a fair amount of money floating around the port and many, many men in search of one or two things before they left for their gold adventure: booze and sex.  Well no doubt there were many saloons but as the town council soon learned after sending out a survey to its townspeople, there were an inordinate amount, thousands, of women that listed their profession as seamstress, which was just a cover for prostitute with one Madam leading the charge.  So after the Mayor and Police Chief conducted a lengthy investigation, it was determined that Madam Seamstress agreed to pay for all of the town to be rebuilt and each of her employees would pay a $10 a month tax as well and she was happy with this arrangement as the town's prosperity was good for her business.  Thus Seattle was rebuilt on the backs of....well you can fill in the blanks.  As the town was rebuilt it was then essentially built upwards leaving the original road and first floors of all the original business underground and you can now take the tour under the city to see some of it for yourself.

An old bank vault that at one time held over 2 tons of gold.

One of the original toilets that didn't explode.

As you go underground it really feels like you are in a basement, not really creepy or too dirty.  One of the original saloons is still intact, just a little warped after 100 years.  On the sidewalks above there are spots that are glass covered so when down below you can see people walking above, although the glass is so shadowed you can't see through it, more shadows and light.  The gold rush had brought thousands and thousands of people through Seattle daily and when there are that many people, there is money to be made and two prominent business were also formed as as result.  One man started selling hiking boots to all the travelers heading north explaining the harsh winters and conditions in Canada and the need for such footwear.  While another man sold all the warm weather clothing they would need to undertake such an expedition.  Those two men, John Nordstrom and Eddie Bauer.  And as well as there was legitimate money to be made, there are always those trying to make a fast buck as well and Seattle soon was selling gophers by the boatload.  Why you ask, well someone came up with the idea to sell to all of these eager gold rushers that gophers can smell gold, so if you have a few with you, when you get to your claim spot, turn them loose, when they burrow underground, dig there.  Hence the term Golden Gophers.  So there you have the dirty history of Seattle all the prostitutes and raw sewage that paved the way for the grunge era in the 90's.  Seems more appropriate now, doesn't it?

First time in Seattle, well you know what you have to do!

The next day Kevin and I went back downtown to the world famous Space Needle, because no first trip to Seattle would be complete without seeing it.  Built for the 1962 World's Fair the Needle still looms over Seattle even though there are many buildings taller, however none of them offer a full 360 degree view.  It was a bright, sunny day, making it perfect for going up to take a few photos.

A look south, too cloudy to see Mt. Rainier though.

Looking North at Lake Union.  Float plane in mid-flight and my office down below just north of the crane.

After the needle we went to Gas Works Park on the north end of Lake Union where Kevin got some great photos as well as some photos of Seattle overall.

A look from the North end of Lake Union at downtown Seattle.

SafeCo Field and CenturyLink Park.

Looking downtown from the South.

We also drove through the University of Washington campus which is very nice and by their newly renovated football stadium, neither of which hold a candle to MSU, but out west they are the best in the region.  We also went on a search for a Chinese buffet for Kevin.  Yes he lives in South Korea and thus he has his fill of Asian food on a regular basis, but he was looking for American-Chinese food and we sadly learned that Chinese buffet's don't exist in Seattle.  We have plenty of Chinese restaurants but not buffets so we ate at a solid Chinese restaurant, good, but it wasn't the same and Kevin was left to head home buffetless.

Lighthouse on Vashon Island, shades of Michigan for sure.

The South Beach of Vashon Island.

For our final stop we took the ferry over to Vashon Island where my cousin Matt lives.  As well as seeing the Needle, no trip to Seattle is also complete until you take a ferry somewhere.  One of the coolest things about Seattle is that you can live on any number of islands and take a ferry to downtown to work every day for very cheap, especially if you don't bring your car.  Vashon Island sits just south of Seattle and is about a 20 minute ride to downtown. The island is quite large and has about 10K residents, however it's no tourist stop, it's basically a suburb on an island with tons of parks and green space and it's own small downtown and schools for those that live there year round.

It was a great way to cap Kevin's visit as we went to the lighthouse and viewed the shores of Seattle from afar.  This trip allowed us to do and see any number of things and actually left Kevin saying that if he ever does move back to the USA, something he's been saying for years, Seattle would easily be at the top of his list.  In the end K&S may not have gotten the record deal we've been chasing for 30 years, but we were able to get together for a third year in a row and that hasn't happened, maybe ever, since Kevin first went to South Korea in 1990.  I still owe him a trip over there and would love to see that part of the world.  For now I got to completely explore my new hometown and I got to do it with one of my best friends and my cousin, making it that much more enjoyable.  So now I leave it up to you , should you ever have an interest in going up a Space Needle or seeing a half-exploded toilet underground or maybe you want to see a starfish sing, you want a Starbucks coffee, or a ferry ride,  just say the word and we'll send a Boeing Dream Liner to pick you up.

K&S three years in a row, on the ferry to Vashon Island.
This is a good picture of us, but it does seem kind of gay, not that there's anything wrong with that!

 

More Random Thoughts

Welcome to the Murder Capitol!

Only in the D!

On one of my trips to Michigan this year I was at my friend John Eloff's for his famous Pig Roast/BBQ, always an epic time, I went with him down into the belly of Detroit to the Eastern Market where we picked up the pig from the butcher.  This part of the D is not good, not that there are any good parts anyways, but you go in, get your stuff and leave immediately, leaving skid marks on the pavement if needed.  It's not a safe place, anything and everything you might have read or heard about Detroit, it's all true and probably even worse.  It is the murder capitol of the USA and one of the most dangerous cities in the world you know, although I suppose you won't see that on any Detroit Chamber of Commerce brochures. We parked in an alley around the corner from the butcher shop next to this graffiti.  Maybe it's my low-level sense of humor but I found this extremely funny, the fact that someone would take the time to spray paint Poop Juice and Queef, of all things, next to the gang tags.  Some of the other stuff we saw, well, I don't feel comfortable even mentioning, other than a mannequin was involved, let's just leave it at that.  So John being the great friend that he is, had to go into the city for work recently and went out of his way to go by the alley and the graffiti was still there so he had his co-worker take this picture, which makes it even funnier to me as the likelihood of an investment banker, in a suit in an alley in the D, well it's generally not a good combo for survival.  Book your trip to Detroit now!  Thanks for risking your life Johnny!


From the D to a beautiful Island...

My cousin Matt enjoying some pancakes with non-Vashon Island strawberries..

I am fortunate that even though I am new to Seattle, that I have family here, my cousin Matt.  We grew up together and after college went our separate ways and now here we are, years later, back together again.  Matt lives on Vashon Island, a cool place where you can live and still work in Seattle as the ferry goes every hour to downtown in about 20 minutes, which he has done the last 4.5 years.  Vashon had their annual Strawberry Festival so I headed over to the island to take part in the festivities including their annual 10K/5K race.  The race was early in the morning and I was running the 10K and Matt was going to do the 5K.  This was the 33rd year of the race in honor of legendary Vashon Coach, Bill Burby.  The race went well and I ended up 10th overall and placed in my age group despite the extreme hilly nature of the course.  As a cool highlight at one point you run along the eastern ridge of the Island and you get a clear view of Mt. Rainier.  After the race we headed over to the pancake breakfast and had the strawberry pancakes where I then learned that Vashon used to grow strawberries by the truckload but not anymore.  So despite it being the Strawberry Festival, the strawberries actually come from elsewhere.  Not unlike the Traverse City Cherry Festival where the cherries are not yet harvested in time for the festival and are then flown in from Washington, ironically.  So there you have the dirty little secrets of two festivals.  I guess you never know what's in a name.

Matt and I Pre-Race.

From the wayback machine...

Trent and me 20+ years ago "on set" of one of our films.

In a previous blog I mentioned how my brothers and cousins and I made movies when we were little kids.  Well when I got older I bought a video camera and my friend Trent Tollstam and I decided we would make our own films.  During these years we used to go up to my family's property in Northern Michigan, 40 acres of woodlands, for weekend trips in the middle of winter.  The old cabin was quite rustic and in the winter there was no running water and only a wood stove, but for some reason we thought it would be fun to make movies and so we would drag all of our stuff down the 1/2 mile trail, trudging through knee high snow and then using a guerrilla style of film making we ended up churning out some quasi-decent works, especially considering we had zero budget, no acting ability whatsoever and we were even light on creativity.  However our first masterpiece, "Hunting Season", a 5-6 minute tale about being stalked and attacked by turkeys, and easily Trent's tour-de-force,  turned into "The End", a 5+ minute tome in the vain of Brian's Song, which then spawned the remarkable "Long Walk", a 20 minute sojourn with an absolutely unbelievable scene in the middle that still makes no sense to this day, but it definitely makes the movie. Along with the movies I also have hours of tape of us doing Jackass style things long before Jackass existed.   I share this now, not merely for personal embarrassment, but because I recently came across my old camera and these movies I converted to VHS and it got me thinking that I should put them on DVD, or should I?  The movies were only shown to a very limited audience; family, a few co-workers and even the family of the Senator we both worked for at one time, so with apologies to Trent's wife Amanda, I'm glad you're already married to him because after watching some of our antics, you may have had second thoughts.  Intrigued? At any rate, anyone that wants to see any of these classic works, you'll have to visit me in Seattle and even then it'll cost you. Or wait, maybe it will cost me, is there a price on humility?



The hills are alive with the sounds...... of me cursing!

Yes, I draw like a 5 year-old, but you get the point.

Where I live now is supposedly on the Sammamish Plateau.  I say, supposedly, because it's the hilliest damn plateau I've ever come across in my life.  In every direction from my place I have enormous hills, enormous!  Maybe I don't understand the definition, but to me a plateau means flat lands.  At any rate, I was telling my dad how hilly it was and that when I run it's always a challenge because there are so many extreme hills in every direction.  Not to mention that I live on top of a hill on the plateau.  Needless to say, I am getting in a lot of hill workouts, like it or not.  Not usually good times.  At any rate I drew this rudimentary picture and sent it to my parents to explain my plight, feel free to laugh at my lack of drawing skills. But the hill from my place to the lake is about the same height of the Space Needle, 600 feet, so virtually every day I am up and down that thing.  Fun.  You know what they say, what doesn't kill you makes you stronger..........or it just kills you, we'll see which comes first.


Oh Portland, here we go again.

Hmmm, sometimes words just aren't necessary.

I keep getting contacted by a recruiter for a job in Portland, Oregon.  In case you haven't been paying attention to my blog, Portland is not my kind of city. So I find this funny, although the headhunter that has contacted me twice already doesn't seem to get the joke.  Too bad for her, I've been trying to be tactful,  I may have to be more blunt next time.  Portland go ahead and stay weird, but just stay away.


More Cougars, YES!!!

Cougar Mountain on a summer morning.

Since I moved I was almost chased by cougars, not the right kind though :(, but now I live in the shadow of Cougar Mountain.  Seriously.  This the view from my place looking South at Cougar Mountain on a recent morning.  So far I have not had any animal cougar sightings, although I'm told the park to the west of me has black bears.  Whatever.  I sure do wish it was this kind of cougar though, then I'd be at the Cougar park daily:

Jennifer Aniston, still making it happen.  Although she's not chasing me either.  Dammit!

Let the College Football season and scUM hating continue!!!!

Looking good bro!  But it's not "Hail to the donuts" dumbass.

I am so happy that the college football season is all but upon us.  The fact that they are in training camp has me bursting with excitement.  One of my greatest joys is not only cheering for my beloved Chippewas and the Spartans, but vehemently cheering against and hating anything and everything scUM.  They have the worst fans, an enormous and crappy stadium and arrogance off the charts, mostly from dickheads like the two above who I guarantee did not attend scUM, at best they graduated from some crappy downriver or shitsville town high school yet they will forever profess their love for all things scUM.  Screw them and Screw the Blue!  It makes no difference if CMU or MSU have a bad season, I'll hate scUM no matter what, if you can't understand that, I don't know what to tell you.  I'll be having my own Spartans-Wolverines battle in Seattle on September 7, more on that later.  Time to play some football!  FIRE UP CHIPS! Go Green!


Accents aplenty.

Why thanks for stopping by Miss Russia.  Be sure to tell all your friends.

In a previous blog I mentioned how my blog seems to be frequented by people in many different countries.  At the time I posted that, Germany had the most readers(outside the USA), however since then the Russians went on a mad tear and are now leading the charge, considerably, for the international sect.  Although in addition, many more countries have found their way to this site, for whatever the reasons.  Again, I don't advertise and only post the blog on my Facebook, so it's amazing to me how it not only finds its way across the world but readers in those countries keep coming back.  I'll never understand why I guess because I certainly don't pander to any other countries or to anyone to read my silly little blog, however I do seem to attract accents, but that's another story.  At any rate thanks for reading, hopefully you find something enjoyable about it from time to time, if not, too bad for you.  Here is a full list of all the countries that have repeatedly stopped by the blog:

Russia
Austria
Bulgaria
Canada
China
Cyprus
Ecuador
France
Germany
Indonesia
Italy
Malaysia
Mexico
Morocco
Netherlands
Romania
South Korea
Spain
Sweden
Ukraine
United Kingdom

That makes 21 countries besides the USA.  Now that is Portland Weird.  Who's next?


Cousins, through the years

The Original Six cousins, 1976.  Readers really seemed to like this photo, so here's a follow up.

Reunited and reposed, 1996.

The bottom row back together again, 2013. My cousin, Trucker Todd, visited Matt and I recently in Seattle,  I mention this now because it was an epic night and there is a tremendous story that will be told soon.  Stay tuned.
Can we get all 6 of us together by 2016?

Thanks for stopping by!

 It's not Arizona, but I guess living here isn't so bad, it's no Detroit..
Poop Juice!  



StuMar West: Mt. Rainier Edition

This picture hung at my grandparents home for all to see for many years.
Back Row:  My brother's Jeff, Rob and Cousin David
Front Row:  My cousin Matt, Cousin Trucker Todd, and myself. 
Circa 197......old. 

Growing up in Michigan I was really fortunate to have two cousins close by, David and Matt.  My dad's sister, my Aunt Sue, their mother, lived only about 30 miles away near my Grandparents and there were many, many weekends that our parents got all us kids together.  Between my two older brothers, Rob and Jeff, all of us were within 5 years of age, so we had a lot in common at that time of life.  Often times, as parents would or should do, us kids were either banished to the basement or outside to create our own fun.    Somehow we became in possession of an 8mm camera and soon StuMar Pictures was born. Just like Steven Spielberg did as a child, we spent many hours and days making our own movies.  Unlike Spielberg, however, none of these "films" were of great quality, after all we were only little kids, but we did make a few feature films entitled; Crump, Return to Crump, Little Children and our own version of James Bond.  They were all horrible I'm sure, but like good parents and grandparents our families all got together to watch our premieres each and every time.  I'm not sure I'd want to see them nowadays, but then again, I suppose it would be good for a laugh.  As we grew up we all moved our separate ways.  But just this last weekend I was able to get together with David and Matt here in Washington and we decided it would be a great idea to go to Mt. Rainier for the day.  So with that, 3/5 of StuMar headed south, albeit without those cool pants of yesteryear.



No Matter where you are in Seattle, you can almost always see Mt. Rainier.

The three of us figured out that we hadn't been together in almost 10 years, the last time being at their mom's funeral, my Aunt Sue.  I'd seen David a few times in between there, but I hadn't seen Matt since I moved here to Washington this summer as he lives near Seattle on Vashon Island.  Unfortunately Rob is in Maui and Jeff was in Banff National Park in Canada, so all 5 of us couldn't get together this time, but maybe someday we will.  So Saturday morning I went to the Fauntleroy Docks to pick up David and Matt from the Vashon Ferry and we drove down to Mt. Rainier.  

Looking south from Seattle to Tacoma, Rainier stands tall.

Rainier really does stand out like you can't even begin to imagine.  It truly is like something out of a postcard every day.  Standing at 14,410 feet in elevation it is one of the 20 highest peaks in the USA, with Mt. McKinley in Alaska being the tallest at 20,320.  The drive to the Mt. Rainier National Park is less than 100 miles from Seattle, but it takes over 2 hours with the switchback roads and two-lane traffic.  However, despite not being together in years, the three of us seamlessly connected just like old times.  We told great stories about our grandparents and parents and had a fantastic time reminiscing on the way there.  Even though all 5 of us lived in 5 different states, until I moved to Washington, we spent our first 18+ years together  in Michigan and that bond will apparently never be broken.  It was great.  As we made our way to the park entrance, we then drove another 45 minutes or so up the mountain to Paradise where they have a lodge and visitor center. 



The road up, windy and scenic.



The drive up was very scenic.  At times we were buried beneath the shadows of massive pine trees and then we'd be on the edge looking at the range of mountains all around.  The road does stay open in the winter, although tire chains are virtually mandatory to ensure a safe passage.  Cell phones don't work anywhere in the park and that's a good thing as I am as guilty as most of constantly checking my email and such.  Up here you can't do those things, so you have to soak in the views, relax and have a good time, as it should be.

 When you could stop and take it in, the scenery was fantastic.

A view of the lodge with cars parked along the road, on our way up. 

Once we arrived at Paradise we soon learned the biggest challenge, parking.  With a fairly decent sized lot already full we were forced, along with many others, to continue on the one way loop road to parallel park about 1.5 miles away.  We walked up to the Lodge and had lunch at the Paradise Inn, the only place to eat, before they closed at 2:00 p.m., then went over to the Visitor's Center and looked at some of the 3-D Maps and trails and then went out to hike.

From the Lodge and Visitor's Center.

Marian Falls.

With Mt. Rainier virtually staring us in the face, we first headed up the Alta Vista Trail to Marian Falls.  It was a short hike and the Falls were nice, but having grown up in Michigan, we'd all seen falls much bigger, however, never near a mountain.  We then headed up the Skyline Trail which went West along the base of Rainier, before going right up it.   The slope was mostly subtle so you could keep going and going and before you knew it, you were miles from the Lodge.  But it was sure worth it, especially today as the temperature was a perfect 70 and there wasn't a cloud in the sky.

Looking back as we climbed up. 

Looking back to the South.

With Rainier at 14K feet, the Lodge is at about 5440 feet and we then hiked about 1K feet up and even though we were now in the snowy area, the temperature didn't seem to change or at least have any affect.  I suppose if you plan to summit you would definitely need cold weather provisions.  The trail we were on ultimately led to Camp Muir which is the base camp for the first night for those doing the summit and is about 5 miles from the Lodge.  Mostly led by a guide company, it is a rigorous climb to the top, with one Ranger telling us it has all the challenges and effects of climbing Mt. Everest despite being smaller.  But just being as high as we were, the views were indeed worth any efforts we had made.

Matt and David. 

Getting closer to the top! Well for today anyway. 

Snow in late July? Must be a long ways up. 

The infamous Mt. St. Helen's to the south. 

 Mt. Baker, another prominent Washington peak.

Mt. Rainier, as close as we were getting to the top today.

After really just sitting and taking in the views in all directions, we started our hike back down.  It's a lot to take in visually, stunning in every direction, especially on a day like today with the bright sunshine and blue skies.  We took a less traveled path on the way down and found ourselves all alone on a ledge of the mountain.  We stopped for a moment and realized we could see Mt. Baker in one direction, Mt. St. Helen's in another, Rainier was behind us, the Nisqually River and Falls were below with wildflowers in every direction and then it all hit us, that maybe we hadn't stayed in touch all these years like you might hope.  Life's trials and tribulations had affected all of us at various points, but yet here we were today, the three of us, just like it was 1980, acting like kids, cracking jokes, telling stories, enjoying our life's history, knowing that our grandparents and my Aunt Sue were there with us in spirit and so very happy I'm sure that we all found our way together at least for today.  Hopefully it's not another 10 years before we can make it happen again.  And next time maybe we can get Rob and Jeff in on it too, StuMar Pictures may just have another film to make.  But for today, it was a fantastic time with family at one of nature's most spectacular creations.  You know they say a picture is worth a thousand words; today I think we just made millions.

StuMar Lives!

StuMar West waiting for the other two.