The highlight of this past week was a package I received from Joe. Being a kind and thoughtful brother, he mailed me this package on his birthday. Coincidentally, I was mailing him a package at nearly the same time. Of course, mine seems a bit more appropriate, but his was certainly appreciated. It contained a few CDs, one by Tres Femmes (on which he is the drummer), one by Duenow (Joe wrote, “And yes, it’s pronounced ‘Doonow,' not 'Dueño.'”), a website client of Joe’s with whom he played for a while, and, certainly the most entertaining, a mixed media disk. This included a wide assortment of comedic selections in the form of pictures, movies, and MP3s. Many of the choices are nothing short of hilarious. As a brief overview of the CD’s contents, he gave me various hits by Wesley Willis, music by “Beatallica” (a band that makes Metallica-esk versions of Beatles songs… with different lyrics… and other stuff, too), various G.I. Joe cartoons (the hysterical altered PSAs), a Norah Jones video, and, probably my favorite, a Nutri-Grain ad that is one of the funniest commercials I’ve ever seen. There was a lot more, too, but it’s far too much to list here. Even more exciting is that it’s merely volume one! Apparently there’s more to come sometime in the future.
The next big news from this past weekend (well, really the only news of any significance seeing that I slept far too much yesterday) was that I participated in a short adventure race. It was a race in Guam’s “GEAR Sprint” series, which seem to revolve mainly around mountain bikes. The race was supposed to be both biking and swimming, however, the swimming portion was cancelled due to rough conditions. So, it was mainly a long bike ride, but a fun one at that.
For some background, these races are done in teams of two. In order to successfully hold your place at the finish line, both you and your partner have to cross. If you make it there first, while your partner gets there dead last, your team is dead last. So, the basic idea is to stay with your partner, in which case you can help each other out (in both motivation and stitching limbs back on). The race involves biking over fairly rough territory (steep red clay hills with a lot of erosion for the most part) and there are some locations where carrying your bike is necessary. There wasn’t much of this (mainly one portion where we had to cross a steep little stream valley), but there was enough to make the experience more interesting.
My partner in the race was Brent, a brave lad who hasn’t really biked much in quite a long time. Brent is definitely in good shape and he did remarkably well for not having biked in so long. However, you’re not here to read about Brent’s muscular thighs. No, you’re here to read about how the race began with Brent forgetting his helmet, thus being forced to start the race with a hard hat duct-taped to his head. It may have been small, it may have been cock-eyed, it may have been digging into his throat since the duct tape was obviously too tight, but he started off the race protected. Albeit slightly delayed, we were off!
I unfortunately don’t have the time (due to an imminent hectic work schedule and need for sleep) to go into great detail about the race, but I’ll impart some highlights. I felt pretty good about the race: physically, I wasn’t too fatigued, although it was hotter than hell… per the usual. There were several portions of the race that were extremely muddy, giving my bike the appareance that it had been ridden by some really cool mountain bike pro, not an average biker who’s a pansy on downhills and can’t transition smoothly between changes in terrain. I think I once again broke my record for most amount sweat in an hour, but odds are the record will be broken again sometime soon.
There were no major injuries, but Brent had a close call at one of the gates we had to cross. It was a welcoming type of steel gate where the top is lined with sharp spikes. We had to cross this gate since it blocked off tne entire width of the trail. At this point, we were all dripping with mud (and therefore really slippery). I crossed over slowly and made it fine, but as Brent was lifting his bike over, the weight of the bike brought his torso down unexpectedly onto the gate, nearly piercing his chest. My back had been turned at the time, so at first I thought he had slipped while crossing over the gate, thus landing with all his weight on a spike. I half expected to see some massive impalement and blood gushing everywhere. Fortunately, that was not the case. In fact, it didn’t break the skin, although it obviously hurt a lot at first. It’s a good thing, too (not that it hurt, that it didn't break the skin)… even though I was prepared to carry him back to the road, all the while screaming, “Don’t you die on me Brent! STAY WITH ME, BUDDY!”
My major faux pas of the race, and something I seem to do often in these damn things where there is a somewhat marked trail, was veering off course. Towards the end of the race, we were doing well. I was a little ahead of Brent when I came to a steep hill. I decided to ride up the hill and wait for Brent at the top. At the summit, at which there was an intersection with a paved road, I sat for at least five minutes and Brent didn’t show. I knew he would’ve been there by then, but I didn’t know where else the trail would have gone. I mean, I just kept going straight on the road we had been riding on. Well, after biking down the paved road for at least a mile, I turned around and, feeling like an idiot, went back down the huge hill looking for where I lost the trail. Lo and behold, there was a very sharp turn to the right I hadn’t seen in my concentration on making it up the hill. Shitballs. I was mainly annoyed for not having seen the turn, rather than losing a lot of time in the race.
By this point, Brent had made it to the finish line. Despite the numerous times I had zipped ahead and later waited for him, I was the fool who lost us the big 6th place finish (or somewhere thereabouts) by getting lost. Grrr. Anyway, I soon crossed the finish line, sealing our commanding finish of 10th place out of 12 teams. It was a good race and definitely something I’d like to do again, minus the whole biking off course for 20 minutes part.
“What other excitement has happened in Guam since you last entry, old friend?” This question may be on your mind. Well, not all that much. I’ve done some snorkeling over the past couple weeks, once last weekend with Claudine and her friend Anne and again yesterday on Tumon Bay. The plan last weekend had been to go snorkeling at Spanish Steps, supposedly the best spot on island for snorkeling. It’s off of military land, so few people have access to it. The location is also an area where large battleships and cargo vessels are loaded with munitions. Because of this, the area is generally closed to the public. Last weekend was supposedly one of the few times it was scheduled to be open. Upon arriving there and seeing the gigantic boat docked at our dive spot, we knew such was not the case. We did get to do some snorkeling in an area nearby, which proved to be a cool spot even if it wasn’t Spanish Steps.
The snorkeling yesterday occurred just off the balcony of a place where Haldre and Brent are currently staying. Haldre is house-sitting for a helicopter pilot who goes by the nickname “Trigger.” She doesn’t know Trigger all that well, but apparently some of his friends recommended her as a good person to watch over the place (ha!). Haldre actually knew the people who lived there previously, so she has some history with the place. A significant event in that history was when she was staying there during the last typhoon, which ended up becoming a super typhoon.
Guam is frequently bombarded by typhoons, but since this beast of a storm, things have been pretty quiet. Too quiet. I personally think we’re due for another one, but for the sake of our closed population study (and the incredibly expensive fence that goes along with it), let’s hope I’m wrong. Anyway, Haldre and some other folks were staying at this place as the typhoon hit. Now, this is a nice place. It’s well built, but it’s also directly on the water. There are also large windows that essentially make up the entire wall facing the ocean. A great place to be most of the time, but basically the last place you would want to be during a typhoon. However, they didn’t think the storm would be that bad (apparently the forecasters had seriously downplayed the severity and miscalculated its trajectory), so they stayed. This proved a bad decision, when they found themselves huddled in a closet at the back of the apartment with a mattress over the door. This is where they sought refuge as the windows blew in, along with some of the walls, and giant waves crashed over the balcony.
I need to close this entry, but I have two last things to say, one for information sake and the other as big news. First the information: tomorrow is the official start of another rapid response team training. Karen and I will be running this one with very little assistance from Haldre, so it should be interesting. I think it will go well, but we are going to be incredibly busy. So, it’s likely I won’t be posting here again until at least early June. It’s possible I’ll throw in a couple brief entries, but I just thought I’d give some of you a heads up (seeing that a few folks were worried during the last training when I hadn’t posted for a month).
Now the big news: In less than three weeks, one of my closest friends (no irony intended, there), Mr. Brian “Keystone” Keyes, is getting married. Obviously this is a major event and one I am seriously regretting having to miss. If the damn tickets back home didn’t cost such a ridiculous amount of money, I would be there in a heartbeat. I’ve been working on a poem that I’ll be sending another great friend, Chris Moore (“C-Moore” to his fellow ruffians) to read at the wedding. It has been kind of slow going, but I know the inspiration will hit more the further I get. The big day is June 5th, the day after the rapid response training ends. If I swim really fast, I might just make it (given the time change and all).
Posted by Isaac at May 18, 2004 12:48 AM