Saturday, August 04, 2007

Tag



I was tagged twice last week by A Midnight Rider and Karen of Travelin with/against the Wind. So here is a few random facts about me:

1) I was given a car the other day: 1969 Datsun 2000 Roadster convertible with a hardtop and soft top. Sweet! Needs some work but it's pretty nice. Took it for a spin last night, the brakes whet out heading into a 90 degree corner. I was ready to eject but the hand brake worked! :)


3) I HATE LIMA BEANS and canned BEETS! Lima beans have the same taste and texture of the old Elmer's paste, beets (at least canned beets) taste and smell like Play-Dough. Both of these turn my stomach. Yuck. I also don't like shredded coconut, it can't really be chewed, just swallowed and it seems to hang around in the mouth for awhile. When I was a kid, my mom would occasionally buy those gross Hostess Snowballs, pink or white shredded coconut covered marshmallow, chocolate cake confections. My brothers would tell me the coconut was dried worms. I think that stuck in my subconscious. I won't eat anything with shredded coconut. I do, however, like coconut smell and taste, just not the texture of shredded coconut. As for Lima beans and beets, you may wonder how I know they taste like old Elmer's paste and Play dough? Lets just say I was a "sensory" kind of kid.

3) I used to be deaf. I had surgery to restore my hearing about 5 and 6 years ago, 1 ear at a time. I started losing my hearing after the birth of Bike Boy, in 1991 from a genetic condition called Otosclerosis. Going deaf really sucks, especially here in Alaska where the doctors just don't have a clue or at too egotistic to care about patients getting the best care. When I got the news I was going deaf, I asked my doctor if there was anything that could be done, he said "no", just hearing aids. So I went progressively deaf for the next 9 years, spent thousands of dollars on hearing aids, dropped out of my social activities and avoiding friendships because I couldn't participate in a 2 way conversation anymore. I became pretty much of a loner. I was at my audiologist, getting yet another pair of more powerful hearing aids and was really bummed, I was functionally deaf by this time, when my audiologist - a fairly young girl from out of Alaska, full of the latest technology and teaching- told me "off the record" that I didn't need to go deaf and could actually have my hearing restored. She told me there is surgery to fix my condition and gave me the website of the House Ear Clinic in East L.A. Went down deaf, came back hearing. I also met some pretty amazing people while I was in L.A. for the surgeries; A brother and sister in their 40's who were born totally deaf, both got cochlear implants at the same time and were learning how to hear, a man who had fatal tumors in his hearing organs so they were all removed, he then had a brain stem implant at the House Ear Clinic and was also learning how to hear, his brain interpreting the sounds that were being directly sent to a part of his brain...additional amazing people and situations and the House Ear Clinic does amazing things. Life changing stuff.

4) I love rocks, always have. Where I grew up, there was lots of undeveloped land. I would get a kitchen spoon and go across the street and start digging holes, looking for the prettiest rock. I would spit on the rocks to see the colors, if it was pretty, in my pocket it went. When I ran out of spit, I would lick the rocks. When my pockets were full, I was stagger home with my treasures, go into the downstairs bathroom, fill the sink with water, then lovingly wash each of my rocks. I would line them up on top of the clothes dryer while they dried. I was always soo disappointed that they turned into dull, gray looking rocks again when they dried, so I started leaving them in the sink of water so they would say pretty. My mom would get mad at me sometimes for making such a mess: I didn't realize my clothing was totally coated with dirt, my shoes full of dirt, my face streaked with dirt, mud and spit, my hair (long and usually in braids), all dirty, in my mouth half the time and pretty ratty. Muddy hand prints everywhere, dirt from the front door to the bathroom, the bathroom floor covered with mud from the dirt and water. My mom tells me sometimes I had so many rocks in my pockets my pants would be falling off and I would constantly pulling them up. Then I would gather my rocks, get a hammer and proceed to smash them looking for geodes or whatever was inside. I remember getting a rock chip in my eye once. It hurt for days. I didn't tell my mom. She still doesn't know. Now I use clear coat instead of spit to keep my rocks pretty!

5) I don't really like chocolate. I will eat it if it has nuts or caramel, but not plain.

6) I don't really like the color red. Some reds are ok, but am not drawn to red.

7) My favorite perfume is Be Delicious by Donna Karan, it smells fruity, like sweet apples. I like fruity smells, my favorite shampoo is call Fruit Cocktail, it really smells GOOD!

8) I love to sing, but no one else loves for me to sing - HA! So now I only sing when I'm riding my bike or driving in my truck alone. Capt'n Balance thinks I'm in trouble sometimes when we are riding out bikes and I'm singing. He can't tell if I'm complaining or groaning or whatever. That is not a complement.

That was a lot of work. Whom should I tag??? I don't know. If you want to be tagged, let me know in the comments or I might just tag you randomly!!! I want to tag Ned Overend and Floyd Landis but I don't think they will play.

It's raining and Saturday night. I need to change the cables, brake shoes and add the front fender on my commuter bike. It's ghost shifting lately, the rear shoes are really worn and it's pretty wet out lately. I also need to put the new 50/50 pedals, replace the brake pads and maybe bleed the brakes on my Santa Cruz. My wheels are moving about 1/4 inch when I have the brakes squeezed tight. That wasn't happening before.

I have a little bottle of Patron tequila that I bought myself for my 40th birthday that I haven't opened yet. I think tonight will be a good night to open it. Just me and my dog, tequila with lime, the rain, the music, working on my bikes. Not a bad way to spend a Saturday night!

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

Well, I'll just say ... nice to meet you. We all talk about superficial or moment to moment things on our blah blah blahgs. Thanks for the share of a piece of 'you'.

The Donut Guy said...

It's hard to imagine that there'd be a Datsun roadster not consumed by rust in Alaska...those things were rare to begin with.

Are you and Captain Balance gonna restore it?

Dano said...

Ive been tagged twice but really dont have a lot to say as I say that shit anyway without a tag.

But its cool (not as cool as that car tho) to hear some random stuff about people you read!

Tim said...

OK, you know how to do Saturday night right, but not liking chocolate ... well, that's just freaky.

Snakebite said...

So, how was the tequila?

Jett said...

Great stories. My little brother did the same thing with the rocks. I kept telling him the inside was going to be the same as the outside, but he still held out hope that the next rock was going to be different.

I noticed you borrowed the "8 items" part from Karen and the "don't bother with the rules" from Midnight Rider. I'd probably go with the five random facts and post the rules.

Michelle said...

Fat Tire, now you know more about me than you EVER wanted to know...scary

Hi George, we are going to get it safely running and then enjoy it, also do some minor body work. It's pretty much original, except for the racing stripe and the seats were upholstered. This part of AK is dry and no salt-air so the only thing that really rusts vehicles is the salt dumped on the roads during the winter. I doubt this car has EVER touched snow. It has only 57000 miles!

Dano, I tend to ramble along in my blog and thats ok because it's my blog and I can ramble on if I feel like rambling :)

Tim, what can I say, I'm an ENIGMA

Snakebite: Patron. It's a GOOD THING!

Jett, I'm just chocolate-hating, tequila drinking, rock collecting, rambeling rule-breaker :)