A Wedding Day to Remember

No. Not my wedding. Although I'm sure that if that day ever comes it will certainly be a day to remember! However, that hasn't happened yet so I'll just go with what I've got. This story is about the wedding of Jon and Katriina Hopper. Actually, to be more specific, the day of the wedding of Jon and Katriina Hopper.

The date was August 17, 2002. It was a beautiful day in Upper Michigan. Sunny and 70 degrees. Perfect weather for a wedding! One catch. In Phoenix, MI that day there were wind gusts clocked at 97 mph. This made it very interesting and ended up playing a major role in the events of the day. The wedding was held at an Apostolic church in Laurium. The ceremony went well and a private camp on the shore of Lake Superior had been reserved for the reception. I think it was about a 15 to 20 minute drive out there to the camp. Not sure on that one though. I do know that I started to drive out there but knowing how easy it is for me to get turned around I decided to go back to the church and follow Jon's Dad, Charlie out there. Charlie and Jon run a web site (http://www.pasty.com/) on which they have pictures, web cams, bulletin boards and most importantly, they bake and sell pasties (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pasty) . They must be pretty good. They've shipped almost 480,000 pasties to all 50 states in the last 11 years! Because they bake them, ship them, and sell them it only stands to reason that Jon would supply pasties at the reception, and he did. His dad and I got everything together to take to the reception and headed out.

While we were en route the wedding party was getting their pictures taken and were late getting to the reception. They were late because a tree had fallen (http://www.pasty.com/discuss/messages/994/1470.html) across the only road they could use to get to the reception. (One of the disadvantages to living in an area with only two main highways, both going in the same direction) Jon and Katriina were the first to arrive because Jon just drove around it in his Jeep Wrangler. Oh to have a Jeep! The rest of the wedding party arrived soon after that. The wedding pictures taken at the reception captured Jon in rare form. The wind made it look like he had just rolled out of bed. I asked him why he had worn his tuxedo to bed and he said it was in case he overslept. :-) I guess he wanted to make sure he wasn't late! Good call, Jon!

After the reception ended I was helping to clean up and the power went out. Wind gusts off the lake were still causing havoc. We loaded my car with all of the gifts as well as some stuff that needed to be brought back to the church and headed out. (For the record, to that point, I had never had that much stuff in my Intrepid. The trunk was full as were both the front and back seats.) we arrived back at the church and started to unload the chairs and tables that had been used. As we pulled the first 8 foot table out the wind caught it and it moved like a flag in the wind. Had I not had a good grip on it, it would've taken off down the street. So we quickly unloaded the rest of the chairs and tables and then I had to drive up to Eagle River where Jon lived to drop off the gifts. By now it was dark and when I got to Jon's house it was almost midnight. As many times as I had been through there at night the days events were taking their toll. I was exhausted. The wind was still pushing some massive gusts and M26 had become a wind tunnel.
It must've been around midnight when I finally arrived at Jon's house to drop off the gifts. He and his wife were at a Bed & Breakfast and family that had come in for the wedding were staying at his house. Because of the late hour I figured that all the lights were off in the house because everyone was in bed. I was right...sort of. I had noticed that there was an oil lamp burning on the mantle and my thought was that it had been left on because it looked nice. It most likely had been left on for me but there was a bigger reason for it. The power was out. The oil lamp was on because nothing else worked. I walked in the living room and tried to turn on the light. It didn't work. I figured it was a blown fuse. I walked through the living room, into the kitchen, and opened the refrigerator door before I realized the power was out. The ironic thing its that the whole town was without power and so the streetlights weren't even on. Yet it still took me having to open a refrigerator door to figure out he power was out.
In total I drove 100 miles that day but given the events of the day, the uniqueness of it, and the paticipants involved, it was well worth it. The coolest thing though is that Jon is even a better friend now and he and Katriina are still very happily married.

An interesting day

My small group (Adam Jared, Jon, and myself) and I decided that we were going to use this Saturday (today, August 14th) to go on a hike. So we left this morning around 8am. We had hiked for quite some time an we weren't quite sure where exactly we were but we knew the direction we needed to go as we had a GPS so we started trailblazing. After awhile we came to a creek which we quickly crossed. Of course I didn't make it across without completely submerging my boots, but such is life.

We crossed the creek and came to a relatively steep slope. Jared was leading and so he started up the hill. After making it the majority of the way up he stopped to make sure Adam and I made it up safely.

The ground on the slope were climbing was,in one major part at least, essentially all gravel and very slippery. I made my way up slowly to a set of large rocks. My intention was to climb them as they seemed to be a solid footing. I took one step on the rock and it broke in half. I was in front of it so I wasn't harmed. Adam, however, was behind me. Now when I say rock I mean boulder. It was about the size of a 27 inch TV. I had told Adam what I was about to do so he knew what to expect and was watching me. As a result he saw the rock break and come right at him NOT a pleasant sight! I highly recommend staying away from watching a large boulder roll toward a good friend (or anyone for that matter). I jumped/slid down the slope to where he had stopped. It looked like it had hit him square and I was concerned that he had broken something or worse. Thank God he was alive! The rock had hit him in the shoulder puncturing a hole in the skin. His hand was also pretty messed up and there was a nice mark on his leg as well. After very slowly getting him down the hill and out to the road we took him to the hospital where they cleaned him up. The skin on his hand looked like white stones were covering it and underneath the skin there was mess of dirt and rocks. They were cleaning his hand for maybe 30 minutes. At one point he started bleeding and the blood was bringing dirt out. When all was said and done he went home with several stitches in his hand, leg and shoulder. Praise God it wasn't worse! I don't know how I would've reacted had that rock killed him or done worse damage then it did. However, all in all it was a fun day.

The Yield Sign

    So previous to my major crash last week I had a minor a couple weeks before.  As usually I was riding my bike to work.  I was coming down a hill on the sidewalk, using both front and back brakes to keep my speed down.  As I reached the bottom of the hill I went slowed to cross the street.  I glanced behind me to see the traffic.  I was too close to the edge of the sidewalk and I ran into a Yield (ironic don't you think?) sign.  Not something I recommend.  Fortunately I had a couple layers of clothes on as well as a backpack, taking the brunt of the impact.  So there ya have it.  Yet another crash to add to my portfolio.  I probably should just ride a bus.  Nah!  I need the exercise.  I've got  more stories I want to share but I need sleep.  

Mountain Biking

I'm off today and Joel was going mountain biking with a friend so I tagged along. It was trail riding and the trails were pretty rough. We were riding up rocks and around tight corners. It was quite fun. Somehow I got separated from Joel and I went down the path I thought he had gone on. I'm not exactly certain what happened but I think when I came around a corner there was more of a slope then I anticipated and I went down the hill and at some point went over the handle bars landing square on my left shoulder. It didn't hurt at all. (Yeah, right.) If you believe that I've got a bridge to sell you. The outer marks you see in the picture are really nothing compared to the bruised back and shoulder. It was the first time I actually had to really work to get myself up. It took a couple minutes. Yes, Mom. I was wearing my helmet. Good thing too. There was a nice little dimple on the side. I really do feel sorry for my guardian angel. Actually there's probably a team of them by now and they all get lots of overtime. Fun stuff! I'm seriously looking forward to my next outdoor adventure!

A VERY wet ride

I ride my bike to work. I'll ride in any weather. Rain, snow, whatever. It may not be the wisest thing to do but it keeps me awake and I get good exercise. Of late here in Colorado we've gotten a lot of rain which has made riding my bike to work all the more...interesting. Last night it started raining when I left for work so I rode eleven miles in the rain. I was wearing a raincoat but it really made no difference. Every time I would move my head rain would roll off my helmet into my face. and the closer I got to work, the harder it rained. The last intersection I rode through before I got to work was literally flooded.

I found that riding on the road was difficult because all the rain was pooling up and so riding the sidewalk was the better choice. Ironically it was the "dryer" choice. One thing about Colorado Springs is that they always keep their grass green and so the sprinklers run regardless of the weather. I'm guessing they are on timers or something. Anyway, they're usually running when I ride by and I try to avoid them as to keep from getting wet. However, on this particular night when the thought to avoid them crossed my mind I had to laugh because I was drenched and getting hit by a sprinkler wouldn't have made much difference. Thankfully I had an extra pair of clothes in my backpack. I did have to buy some shoes but other then that, I survived the night. It was a VERY wet ride and it makes for a good story. :-) Maybe someday I'll have grandkids to tell it to. Who knows? Stranger things have happened!

I'm Still Alive!

One of my brothers sent me an email awhile back saying reminding me that I had not written in my blog in a long time. He was right but I got sidetracked and haven't written. However, over the last couple weeks I've started coming into contact with a lot of people I haven't seen in awhile. Plus with the link to my blog on every email I send I thought it might be good to actually write something for a change. In this particular post I'm going to focus on this year rather then go through the whole eight or nine months I've been here.

  I seem to be having the same issues with the bikes I own. Yes. I said bikes. The first one I bought at Walmart and actually held together surprisingly well. They must actually make sure they are assembled well here. However, the quality of the bike is horrible. Both brake lines broke, and the rim (as a result of an unintentional jump) is bent. and am now back in the freezers. It's a curse. No one likes the freezer so it's easy to get into it but really hard to get out. That's ok. I've dealt with the cold before so this is nothing new. Since I've been here I've been able to go up Pikes Peak, see the Garden of the Gods, as well as going up near the Rocky Mountain National Park. I've lost a lot of weight (not that I needed to). Riding almost 110 miles a week will do that.

I've also started bowling again. My first game in over year was a 188! My first series in over a year was 482! Not bad for a guy with a not so solid 126 average. I've actually been able to raise my average 11 pins! Crazy stuff!

This past week I turned 35. Good grief I'm getting close to being old. I caught myself saying "many years" as well as other statements you can only make when you've been alive more then 3 decades. A friend of mine was kind enough to encourage me by saying I was halfway to 70. With friends like that who needs enemies? :-)

(Just a side note. This blog has been written over the last couple weeks and I'm going through my brain right now and as I write (or type) I'm remembering things that are happening. AS a result it may seem like these are just snippets. Some are. But it's getting the juices flowing and eventually I will have much more to say in longer segments.)

My brother has been gracious enough to me to charge me cheap rent for the specific reason that I will be able to get out of debt faster. Hence, I've been trying to get rid of my credit cards as fast as possible by making massive payments. One was just paid off last week.  In fact, I was finally, for the first time ever, able to pay the entire balance on my credit card in one month. (Now I just need to find a woman who will pit up with me...not sure if there is one out there) Next will be working toward a much more solid budget.  I'm slowly but surely making headway.  That's all for now.  More will come.