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This has nothing to do with music but that’s OK. It’s close to deer hunting season and this is partly a deer hunting story so it’s OK.
My roommate back in college was this British guy named Neil. We met when we were both on the cross country and track team at Eastern Michigan University. I quit after one year but Neil stayed because he was on scholorship.
So we were roommates and good friends and I invited him to go deer hunting with me, since he had never even seen a real gun before, let alone gone hunting, being from England and everything. We went up to Northern Michigan to the family farmhouse and hunting land, and Neil was with me out in the blind when I bagged a pretty good sized deer.
We took the deer back to the farmhouse and sat down in the kitchen with my dad and Uncle Steve. We were drinking some beers and talking about the hunt and then Neil pulls out his crumpled pack of cigarettes, or “20 pack of Marlboro Lights”, as he always asked for ‘em at the gas station, and lights one up. My dad looked at Neil a little funny and said in sort of shock, “Neil, you smoke?” “Sure do mate,” Neil responded with a grin. “Goes well the beer, doe’n't it?” Well, we kept on drinking beers into the night, maybe a little bit of scotch, and Neil kept smoking away those cigarettes, like he always did when he got to drinking, which he did about 3 or 4 nights out of the week, and we had a great old time.
So, a few weeks later, Neil goes out and wins the Mid American Conference indoor championship in the mile run, and not only that, but he sets the all time MAC championship record in the indoor mile. My dad laughed - he couldn’t believe it.
Neil sure was the greatest.
A non-music post here, but I had to inform the world of my latest excitement.
I woke up early on Saturday and despite the below O temperature, decided to take my dogs for a run. I usually try to go at least 2-3 times a week, even in the winter. While I was running through a snow covered field near our house I suddenly had the stongest urge in the world to be pulled by my dogs on skis or a sled while I ran with them. My dogs, Sally (70 lb hound) and Zoe (50 lp terrier mutt), love to pull and love to run.
When I got home I throught more and more about this and decided that my life had new meaning with the possibility of being able to do this incredibly fun new sport with my dogs. I thought about what would be the most practical way of going about it. I’ve never been cross country skiing so I had to do a little research about what’s out there for this sort of thing.
I found out the sport is called skijoring, and I would just need some sort of a ski to do this, as I already have harnesses and a cord to connect my two dogs on one leash. I wanted to get something short and wide for control like a snow shoe, but still be able to be to actually ski and climb hills. I settled on the Karhu Meta ski, which is an all terrain ski-snowshoe hybrid that doesn’t require a special shoe.
The next day I took the dogs out to a trail and brought a plastic sled and they could pull it with ease! I sort of surfed but then just sat down and it worked great. It was incredibly fun - they already knew my commands from running with me so much. The school district was closed (no work for me!) Monday and Tuesday and we went out both days and just had a blast. My skis should be coming via UPS sometime next week, so I’ll let you know how it goes.
Also check this video out on Alaskan Skijoring: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=AsvdAwPeJxg
I have entertained thoughts of driving to Cleveland to see this movie tonight, but I do not think I can make it. Hopefully it does well enough to go national. The website for the movie has this sweet pinball game and you can play it here….
Try for the Homeruns!
Post your High Scores!!!!!
Cousin Justin
I was in a corporate office last week during a “wear your jersey to work day”, in honor of the new football season kicking off. One person I was introduced to was wearing a Syracuse #44 jersey. I’m a huge sports fan, and I asked who it was. “Ernie Davis,” was the reply. I still didn’t know who that was. “The first African-American to win the Heisman trophy,” he told me.
So my curiousity peaked, I did a google search for Ernie Davis. What an amazing story. I’m shocked I didn’t know who he was. A three sport star in high school in the late 50s, he went on to star at Syracuse from 59-61, where his senior year he became the first African-American player to win the Heisman trophy. He was the number one draft pick in the NFL, but never got a chance to play as he died suddenly after from leukemia.
The article I read talks about how bad the race relations were back then. Ernie won the MVP trophy at the 1960 Cotton bowl against Texas, but he was only allowed to pick up his trophy at the reception dinner and not stay, because only whites were allowed. This reminds me of the movie and book Glory Road, about Texas Western’s 1966 national basketball championship. What they had to go through at the time was amazing. Definatly worth checking out.
But the Ernie Davis story is both amazing and sad. I found this great article about him if you want to investigate further: http://espn.go.com/classic/biography/s/davis_ernie.html
The Detroit Tigers beat the White Sox again yesterday, 2-1 to take the series and go up 5 1/2 games in the division. Cousins Vinyl guarentees a World Series victory this year.
http://www.freep.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20060721/SPORTS02/607210418/1048/SPORTS
