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08/03/2004 Entry: "Monday Night - August 2, 2004"

Our Skate, Skate, Skate
On Monday Night – August 2, 2004

Welcome back Weblog Readers !!!

(This entry is dedicated to Jenny X & Brenda C - we wish you God's speed in recovery.)

It’s been a long - - little while since any effort’s been placed into this APRR blog-thing, but my life (as still lacking a good woman in it) has been a little upside down. So, during this past week, I’ve shuffled my life up a bit by putting behind me my full-time architectural job – that I may more easily gear myself fulltime for my photography endeavors. Up until now, photography has only filled in cracks, but the cracks have been full for a long time coming - - and my life - - has never the less been upside down – and eroding.

Driving south down Ga-400 and entering onto I-85 via the country’s absolute WORST engineered connection ramp, I could not help but notice the most beautiful, and huge cumulonimbus rain clouds. They extended upwards to perhaps 35,000 feet, were brilliant white at the top, red-orange in the middle, dark red-orange to gray in the lower half, and black at the bottom. Gray streaks of rain sought the ground just to the south of the city’s skyline. The interstate I was on was totally dry. I had to assume that the city’s streets may or may not be wet.

The Carter Center parking lot was indeed partially wet. A handful of skaters stood next to their cars laxly with bare feet and wearing dry frowns. “Well, should we skate tonight?” asked Mark D to no one in particular but hoping to get an answer of some sort. “I broke my wrist not too long ago and I can’t afford to fall. I don’t think we should go.” Mark then asked Mims if he was planning on skating. Without saying anything, Mims provided us with one of his common, albeit famous, lips-sealed, head cocked, arms-extended, palms up shoulder shrugs. And without question, John M was now putting together the final touches of lacing up his recreation skate boots.

“We’re skatin’,” came blurting out to the growing group of potential skaters. “We’ll be goin’ slow - - but let’s GO !!!”

As many of us know, Mark D is highly technical and forward-looking when it comes to terms of dogging rain on skates. “We should skate to the northeast. I don’t think the rain’s been there. Anybody know?” he asked out loud to all of us.

Then, as highly technical and all-knowing skaters, we each gave Mark our own report & account of the recent summer-like rainfall. All of which completely contradicted each other’s stated report.

After causing quite a BROKEN mishap with Mrs. Brenda
just the other week, tonight, no one really wanted to be
within a hundred miles of Ms. Nancy. And when it was
actually Ms. Nancy who ended up crashing to the ground,
everyone of us then knew that she was indeed some sort
of CURSE. We'd rather have been on some other
continent. (We LOVE you Nancy!!!)

.

During the 80’s, while astronomer, Dr. Carl Sagan was
still alive, he often professed Einstein’s theories of light –
of the speed of light – and of the physics of physically
traveling at speeds close to the speed of light. Being
inline skaters, we’re all well aware that as we approach
the actual speed of light, light waves become increasingly
distorted – and of course – so do we. Here, traveling
from the right to the left, Nancy has already blasted through
whatever sound barrier there had been and is now seen
quickly approaching some type of quantum speed.

Perhaps Einstein or Dr. Sagan would have been able to
explain it better than this.

.

Mr. M Riley skates through some residual rainwater,
over the Piedmont Park bridge, and under a clearing
summer sky. Mark R is everything about the definition
of ‘COOL’ in his hot-yellow custom made skate boots
by Pinnacle Racing. Ask him how much he paid for his
ceramic bearings and super-duper lightweight frames
- - and he’ll tell ya’ that he got a super-duper deal !!!

.

Nancy G’s friend, Cindy K, joined us for the first time
tonight. She’s been skating for many years and knows
about good taste. Her fairly new skates were smacking
delicious looking. And after wanting to kiss her all over,
I wanted to kiss her boots too.

.

What might as well be an ad for Solomon fitness
skates – Cindy really makes these boots look exciting!

.

Cindy making her way up the sidewalk on the 14th Street hill.

.

At Colony Square, our already small group split apart.
Some of us were wishing to be more spanky than others
and others of us wished to simply more leisurely enjoy
the hot, muggy, sweltering, heavy Atlanta overly humid
evening heat. Shown here are Jason, Nancy G, and
Nancy’s friend – Cindy K. Also with us was John M, who
joined the more spanky skaters and did a fantastic job
of staying with the pack. (Hey John, you'll naturally
become faster by skating with others who are faster!)

.

Mark R called my house the other day and left a message
on the voice mail: “Dude! … You gotta’ check out my
new skates, dude! … I finally got everything! … New
frames – which are as light as hell … 84mm wheels…
Ceramic bearings … New custom-made boots … I’ve got
everything … I’m stoked dude! …. I’m totally set-up! …
You’ve gotta check it out ! … I skated P2P with Beth
and a few others, and the Silver Comet with Jim – I’ve
put in 80 miles this weekend !!! … okay dude … I’ll see ya’
… (click)

I later called Mark back and listened in detail to his
excitement over his new old house and new, new boots.
I then mentioned to him my own excitement about getting
a new super-huge sized computer CRT monitor (for
my high-end photography work) and a screaming fast &
powerful video/graphics card (as in basically the same
price as the $1,000 CRT monitor). “Oh and by the way,”
I continued. “I’ll get a color calibration kit in a week
or so…”

(Shown here prior to my color calibration kit – and being
able to properly color calibrate my new monitor – are
Mark’s new super-duper politically correct and highly
politically slanted customized skates.)

Replies: 1 Comment

Hey there! I'm Nancy G's friend, Cindy and I wanted to thank you all for welcoming me into the Monday skate. It was a lot of fun and hard work as it was blazing hot and humid that night. The pictures Mark took are quite amazing and the commentary below was a hoot! I look forward to joining you all again. Thanks!

Posted by Cindy Kim @ 08/04/2004 12:16 PM EDT