The Lack of Blogging....

Obviously I haven't had much to say lately....since Christmas actually. Spent the entire holiday at work. New Years is always a highlight working midnights. We had three victims of bar fights within a hour. Yes, all of them deserved it. And yes, all of them looked like a bunch of sissy's for coming in. Losers.

Anyways, I'm in the middle of reading the book "A Walk in the Woods" about a guy hiking the Appalachian Trail. I've been thinking about doing some type of backpacking/hiking trip since my short trip to the Porcupine Mountains. Well, I think I'm going to attempt the Appalachian Trail this summer. Of course I can easily get swept into the dream of hiking the entire 2,175 miles of it, but in reality I can't. I have responsibilities at home, as minimal as they may be, that won't allow me to run off into the mountains for 7 months. So now I am in the process of finding some good company to go with me. Most everyone I've talked to so far look at me like I'm on crack, which I'm not. The only person I can find is a guy from work who is rather overweight but wanting to lose 100 pounds next summer. He always makes fun of me about hiking, and how stupid he thinks it is. I find it weird that he wants to go. Safety wise, it wouldn't be a bad idea taking someone out there who looks a little more intimidating than me. I think he would do fine, but I want him to get a medical clearance first. Is that rude to ask a person that? So when summer comes, I'm hoping to head out and spend a couple of weeks hidden in the wilderness.

Other that that, I haven't been up to much. I've been out snowshoeing and cross country skiing quite a bit. And than when I'm bored at home I get on the internet and usually end up spending money. Right now I am waiting on a little toy helicopter to arrive at my house. Kid at heart.

Cheers!

Merry Christmas Gaylord

Another successful Christmas. This is a funny, yet touching video that my family made for us up in Gaylord. Living in the great north, we miss out on a lot of the extended family's Christmas events. Honestly, I can't remember going since I was little. Anyways, having to work yet again this year, I spent a few hours with my immediate family before shuttling off to work. In the mean time, the Early family downstate celebrated without us, again. This year, they made a nice little video for us up in Gaylord. Thanks to youtube, I am able to add it onto my blog for your viewing pleasure. Although in actuality, I'm sure most of you don't even care.

Merry Christmas Gaylord

It is freezing up here!

The forecast for Gaylord, MI:

The current temperature is -2 with a -12 wind chill. Saturday: Wind chill of -12 to -20. This is my favorite, Sunday: "much warmer, high of 15." It is ridiculous that 15 degrees is "much warmer." This is an actual forecast, I didn't make any of it up. That cracks me up!

My Wisdom Teeth.

Well, they are gone. Had my wisdom teeth pulled today. Just so you know, it was a piece of cake. All of those horror stories you hear hardly ever happen. Of course my cheeks are swollen and my gums are still bleeding, but I have hardly any pain.

Everything else in life is good.

A Day of Snow!

Since today is my last day of freedom before heading back to work for a long stretch, I decided to go enjoy the snow. I love to cross country ski so I figured I would head to my favorite trail way out in the woods. It is usually groomed by the state, but because of the big budget crisis, it was cut. I was pretty bummed. They didn't even create a place to park for the person who had enough ambition to cut their own trail (not me). And they didn't even have the courtesy to open up the gate to the trail. Needless to say it probably won't get any use this year. On to my next favorite spot in the back corner of town. Here it appeared that someone had attempted to make a trail, but not a very good one. So I opted to use my snowshoes that I threw in the back of the jeep, just in case. I didn't even have my snowshoes on when this lady in a huge ass Mountaineer pulled up and bellowed at me, "you better stay off the ski trail." Being the sarcastic ass that I can be at times, I yelled back "what trail?" and went upon my way. I did stay off the trail because that would be rude and it wouldn't be as much fun. After spending over an hour walking on the mountain bike trail, I headed back. When I got back to the car, there were a bunch of little kids who were sledding down the ski trail. That definitely made me smile. I think the rude lady deserved it. I just hope that when she got back she didn't scream at the innocent children like the way she did me.

On a different subject, it is so depressing to watch anything on NBC. Thanks to the writers strike, I am watching a 1996 episode of Jay Leno with Chris Farley. Remember him? Maybe I should get cable to increase my viewing options.....

The Storm!

Gaylord hasn't been whomped (a made up word) on with snow since....while, last winter. Two days ago it started snowing and it is no where near ready to stop. Day number one we got hit the worst, I would say Gaylord got a good 14 inches of snow. Trust me, it took twice as long as it normally takes me to snow blow the driveway. A fun activity! The road commission has a huge budget crisis, just like the rest of the state of Michigan. To me that means the potential of getting stuck. One swipe down the main drag by the plow truck didn't cut it for a lot of people. It took me twice as long to get to work that next day and I counted 6 cars stuck in the road (yup, in the road) just trying to get to the main road. Thank God for 4 wheel drive or else I wouldn't have been able to make it anywhere and would probably have been one of the cars stuck in the road. Most of the side roads still aren't plowed and I do feel bad for the people who live down there and have to try and get out. After the big dumping we have continued to accumulate an endless amount of snow with some freezing rain in the mix. I must say though, I actually love big storms, snow blowing, and an endless amount of shoveling. Honestly.