Just for Fun, Feb. 26, 2009

Who likes a stale blog?

On a serious note:

On a serious note, one of our own needs some help. Washout shred-meister and all-around good guy Scott Hantske had his house burn down a couple of days ago. The family was all out of the house when it happened, so, thankfully, no one was hurt. But they lost everything they own. They have temporary housing thanks to the Red Cross, but need just about everything. There are three girls, ages 2, 3 and 6. ESA director Nancy Hussey is co-coordinating the relief effort. She says that gift cards to area stores or cash donations would be the most helpful. The girls are sizes 2T, 3T and 8 if you have some clothes. If you would like to help Scott and family rebuild their lives, contact Nancy.

Eastside Surfblog past entries

02/26/09

Now is the winter of my discontent
Made glorious summer by my hands typing search words
And the images served by my mouse
Are in the deep barrels of ocean waves buried

What a crumby week for surf we just had. This flat swell has me hunchbacking about the castle like Richard the Third. I looked at it on Sunday and the wind was all over a tiny swell — so a brunch sounded better than a surf. Passing over the Inlet after eating, I did see some of the kite crew out at the point. Pretty hard to tell who those guys are anymore from the shore. Back when they were all into sailboarding, you could tell who was who from the rig, but they now all have a quiver of kites to match the wind conditions and you can’t tell anybody apart unless you are out there day to day. One thing for sure, it had to be cold fighting that NW wind back toward shore. I did run into a large contingent of the kite crew at Poe’s the other night, and over Hoegaardens and fish tacos I heard that Jani Dilling and some of the other zanies have been going out there after dark for night kiting sessions using glow sticks strapped to their bodies to keep track of each other. Just to put this into perspective, rigging a large object with glow sticks and moving it back and forth over the inky water outside of the inlet also sounds like a great way to catch a big fish. When I mentioned this, all I got was demented smiles. Hope there are waves soon, the cold and flat is making normal people nuts and I can now see what it’s doing to the already deranged.

Looking at the swell models like I always do before writing this, I can see that this Saturday has potential for some small waves. Sunday has a big glob of green offshore which means a pretty good sized swell, but the wind model looks like it will be blowing hard from the SW. Great for the kiteboarders, but if it blows too hard, we surfers could be consigned to brooding hunchback status once again. High tide will be at 10:45 on Sunday so check it early and maybe we’ll get something worthwhile before the wind tears it up.

The other thing that has me torqued this week is taxes. I hate tax time. It’s almost as painful as childbirth. Although, come to think of it, childbirth wasn’t all that painful. And I should know, after all, I have two sons. I do remember getting a mild sore throat from randomly yelling PUSH and BREATHE at Mrs. Blog. And I also remember some discomfort at trying not to hurl on the doctor when the babies came out. Sort of like watching that gnarly movie they made you sit through in middle school science class. But time has a way of healing these wounds, and now when I think about my sons’ birth I only get slightly nauseous. So I can safely say that taxes are worse than childbirth. I really don’t mind paying my fair share, but the process is so complex and utterly stupid that I just want to put all my receipts in a shoebox and mail it to Uncle Sam with a letter saying he should just figure it out. Plus I really feel like I should get to have some say on what they spend my money on. At least it would make me feel better. What I think they ought to do is create some kind of voluntary graduated tax scale.

So free of charge, here is the SURFBLOGGER’S TAX REFORM PACKAGE:

At the lowest percentage, say 15%, you would just send your money in and shut up. For 25%, you should get a picture in the mail of what they bought with your dough. For 50%, you should get to choose what they buy — and it would be something cool, like a cruise missile. Maybe even put your name on it like NASCAR. At 75%, you could push the button and shoot the darn thing and watch stuff blow up on your home theater with a couple of cold ones and a bowl of pretzels. And at the highest level, you could choose who you shoot it at — like the bankers from Chicago who took all that bailout money, laid off a bunch of people and then spent a couple of million on a golf trip to California. Crack me a beer, hand me the pretzels and see if they could fend off a cruise missile with a nine-iron. On second thought, maybe this isn’t such a good idea because my friend Vinnie would choose the 100% tax bracket, be penniless in no time and the surface of the earth would be covered with thousands of smoking craters before the rest of us even got a chance to shoot one.

Who likes a stale blog?

Get freshly baked blog delivered to your inbox every Thursday. Sign up for Weekend! and get 10 ways to play and the Surfblogger and go have some fresh fun.

On a serious note:

On a serious note, one of our own needs some help. Washout shred-meister and all-around good guy Scott Hantske had his house burn down a couple of days ago. The family was all out of the house when it happened, so, thankfully, no one was hurt. But they lost everything they own. They have temporary housing thanks to the Red Cross, but need just about everything. There are three girls, ages 2, 3 and 6. ESA director Nancy Hussey is co-coordinating the relief effort. She says that gift cards to area stores or cash donations would be the most helpful. The girls are sizes 2T, 3T and 8 if you have some clothes. If you would like to help Scott and family rebuild their lives, contact Nancy.

02/26/09

Now is the winter of my discontent
Made glorious summer by my hands typing search words
And the images served by my mouse
Are in the deep barrels of ocean waves buried

What a crumby week for surf we just had. This flat swell has me hunchbacking about the castle like Richard the Third. I looked at it on Sunday and the wind was all over a tiny swell — so a brunch sounded better than a surf. Passing over the Inlet after eating, I did see some of the kite crew out at the point. Pretty hard to tell who those guys are anymore from the shore. Back when they were all into sailboarding, you could tell who was who from the rig, but they now all have a quiver of kites to match the wind conditions and you can’t tell anybody apart unless you are out there day to day. One thing for sure, it had to be cold fighting that NW wind back toward shore. I did run into a large contingent of the kite crew at Poe’s the other night, and over Hoegaardens and fish tacos I heard that Jani Dilling and some of the other zanies have been going out there after dark for night kiting sessions using glow sticks strapped to their bodies to keep track of each other. Just to put this into perspective, rigging a large object with glow sticks and moving it back and forth over the inky water outside of the inlet also sounds like a great way to catch a big fish. When I mentioned this, all I got was demented smiles. Hope there are waves soon, the cold and flat is making normal people nuts and I can now see what it’s doing to the already deranged.

Looking at the swell models like I always do before writing this, I can see that this Saturday has potential for some small waves. Sunday has a big glob of green offshore which means a pretty good sized swell, but the wind model looks like it will be blowing hard from the SW. Great for the kiteboarders, but if it blows too hard, we surfers could be consigned to brooding hunchback status once again. High tide will be at 10:45 on Sunday so check it early and maybe we’ll get something worthwhile before the wind tears it up.

The other thing that has me torqued this week is taxes. I hate tax time. It’s almost as painful as childbirth. Although, come to think of it, childbirth wasn’t all that painful. And I should know, after all, I have two sons. I do remember getting a mild sore throat from randomly yelling PUSH and BREATHE at Mrs. Blog. And I also remember some discomfort at trying not to hurl on the doctor when the babies came out. Sort of like watching that gnarly movie they made you sit through in middle school science class. But time has a way of healing these wounds, and now when I think about my sons’ birth I only get slightly nauseous. So I can safely say that taxes are worse than childbirth. I really don’t mind paying my fair share, but the process is so complex and utterly stupid that I just want to put all my receipts in a shoebox and mail it to Uncle Sam with a letter saying he should just figure it out. Plus I really feel like I should get to have some say on what they spend my money on. At least it would make me feel better. What I think they ought to do is create some kind of voluntary graduated tax scale.

So free of charge, here is the SURFBLOGGER’S TAX REFORM PACKAGE:

At the lowest percentage, say 15%, you would just send your money in and shut up. For 25%, you should get a picture in the mail of what they bought with your dough. For 50%, you should get to choose what they buy — and it would be something cool, like a cruise missile. Maybe even put your name on it like NASCAR. At 75%, you could push the button and shoot the darn thing and watch stuff blow up on your home theater with a couple of cold ones and a bowl of pretzels. And at the highest level, you could choose who you shoot it at — like the bankers from Chicago who took all that bailout money, laid off a bunch of people and then spent a couple of million on a golf trip to California. Crack me a beer, hand me the pretzels and see if they could fend off a cruise missile with a nine-iron. On second thought, maybe this isn’t such a good idea because my friend Vinnie would choose the 100% tax bracket, be penniless in no time and the surface of the earth would be covered with thousands of smoking craters before the rest of us even got a chance to shoot one.

Eastside Surfblog past entries

Read 02/12/09 entry
Read 02/05/09 entry
Read 01/29/09 entry
Read 01/22/09 entry
Read 01/15/09 entry
Read 01/08/09 entry
Read 12/31/08 entry
Read 12/24/08 entry
Read 12/18/08 entry
Read 12/11/08 entry
Read 12/02/08 entry