Best day ever

Is anybody there? Does anybody still read this? I haven't updated in 6 weeks. That's pitiful. I apologize to all you who are at work and have nothing to read on my account. I apologize for all the breaks you have not been able to justify in order to read this. But, just like always, I have an excuse. I've been busy.

Stop rolling those eyes. I know what you're thinking, "Scott, that's bull. You work for the government and are still in training. There is nothing you could be doing that would prevent you from blogging." That's partially true. I have a backlog of things I want to blog about but this is time relevant. I promise in a more reasonable period of time you will read about mundane things like which blogs I read and funny things I notice in the 757.

Now you are thinking, "So what could possibly be your awful excuse?" I've been planning. If you know me at all, you know that I am not a planner. I'm awful at it. I'm never on time for anything, I'm not good at ironing out all of the details, and I only go over things once which causes me to miss stuff. I'm assuming by now you have rolled your eyes a few more times thinking, "What did Scott plan and how did it go wrong?" I decided awhile back that I wanted to ask my girlfriend, Hannah, to marry me. We have known each other for 2 years and dated for 7 months and she is the coolest girl on the planet. I will not blog any more about why I made this decision. You can simply ask me. Important life details such as this require a more personal conversation, not you reading a blog while drugged up on coffee at 9 am in front of your coworkers.*

After some pondering, I came up with a rough plan: hike and then go eat. Pure genius I know. So refining that plan meant hiking Tinker's Cliffs, a hike we had talked about, and eating at a restaurant nearby called The Homeplace. I asked a buddy of mine what he thought of that plan and he said, "Scott, that's an awesome plan, but you aren't marrying me. You're marrying Hannah." Mmmm, good point. So I thought some more, talked to her friends and made sure that my idea would be something that would honor her and make her feel loved.

So I used the smokescreen of her birthday and a belated Mother's Day celebration to convince her to go to Blacksburg. The "plan" was to go home and celebrate my sister and my mom (both moms) and then hike on Sunday on the way back to the 757. I had my sister call me on our way and say that she would be late to Blacksburg, which meant we had time to hike that day. After some tasty Bojangles, the hike commenced. It was perfect weather. The weatherman the whole week had predicted 70% chance of rain. Thank God (seriously)that the rain held off. About 1/4 mile from the top, I had my sherpa attach pictures of Hannah and I from different points in our relationship to trees. A letter towards the end and me asking a specific question at the top, and we were joyfully moving down the mountain and eating delicious family style food at The Homeplace. This is a brief synopsis and a better story can be read at Hannah's blog, one of the ones I read. Or you could ask me. Pictures will come later, I haven't gotten them yet.

*Also, I don't know who I'm supposed to tell about these things. If this is news to you, I'm sorry. The internet is such an impersonal place to learn of such great news. Thanks for reading.

Fast lane

I'm not real sure where April went. I can't believe it's halfway done. This has been an interesting week for sure. Mom was here this past weekend which was great. I always enjoy her coming down to visit. This trip she even got to see me play hockey, which I think is a good thing. My team isn't very good. We lost 7-0, but nowadays we look good when we lose. Our team captain decided we should get matching jerseys and despite their similarity to UVA colors, they look good. I wish our team looked that good actually playing. Back to the past week. Sorry about that. The government views me as non-essential, which might hurt alot of people's feelings. Not mine. I understand that while I'm in training I am of little value at work. I was looking forward to saving you, the taxpayer, a little bit of money and having a few days to myself. I understand that would have been hard for those with a family and those who live paycheck to paycheck, but sleeping in and getting stuff done at home is a fine idea. Well, Uncle Sam got his stuff together and I returned to work on Monday. I even got to do some actual work down on the sub this week. Giving the Navy guys training is required since once trained, that is one of my duties. After training, we performed the procedure that had been trained. Makes sense. My favorite part of the procedure was the fact that a shipyard worker was implemented to read a gage for us, so I had to train him as well. Now training is a fairly formal process and I was under some pressure not to screw up or look like a fool. There was a group of shipyard workers present and I wasn't sure who had been chosen as the gage reader, so I asked. A slightly husky, 55 year old gentleman with an awesome handlebar mustache raises his hand. I say, "Sir, what is your name?" His answer: "Jimbo." So for the rest of this formal meeting I had to address this man as Jimbo. That story reads alot less humorous than it was in my head. Sorry. In other news, the NHL playoffs have begun. I'm sure you know what that means. The playoff beard has sprung, although shouldn't hit full bloom until the end of the first round. I'm glad I work at a place that doesn't require professional looking haircuts. A quick walk around the waterfront reveals handlebar mustaches like Jimbo, mullets (straight, short, long, curly, reflective), ponytails, rattails, etc.

The last bit of winter

After a balmy February here in the 757, it would make sense that March would be equally as nice and spring-esque. False. It has been in the 30s and rainy recently which is my least favorite kind of weather. You may be wondering why it's midday on a weekday and I'm blogging. Well, not only is the weather lame, I'm feeling under it. So here I am sitting on the couch, telling you about life.

Allow me to shrug off the sick day blues to tell you about a great weekend. Hannah's parents live in Colorado, one of my favorite states. They also live about an hour from some of the best skiing on the planet. They were kind enough to allow Hannah and I and a few friends to stay there for a few days in order to get a chance to shred that gnar. And who can complain about awesome people fixing breakfast every morning? Thanks Hannah's parents. Ok back to skiing. According to the locals, conditions were terrible. I thought they were amazing. Getting into the mountains and looking at God's creation always makes me speechless. Just the drive to the slopes was awesome. Head to the top lift at 12,500 feet and just look around. It wasn't the lack of oxygen that took my breath away. Sorry, that was cheesy, but it was gorgeous. If it weren't for the great slopes I could have stood up there all day. I've never skied so hard that my legs were sore, but after 3 days of trying not to fall down a mountain and being only mildy successful, they were. In addition to skiing, I was able to do other fun things. We went to a bluegrass concert, walked around Telluride taking in the crazy locals (I think drugs are pretty popular there), and even getting to taste some microbrews. I met a guy on the ski lift who, after offering me a taste of Rum, sat down with my group. While we were eating sandwiches, he just rolled up a fatty and went to town, right there in public. Maybe I'm sheltered, but that caught me off guard. Anyway, it was a "mountaintop" experience, haha. Ok puns are over, enjoy the pictures.

Life Goes By Too Fast

I should probably just quit blogging. February 20? Really? That was my last post. That's pathetic. I apologize to all you out there in cyber space. I'm sure you are all torn up. Ok. On to my vain attempts to catch up on life. I have a good friend named Tyler. He has been my roomate since the spring of 2009. We had a good run. Amy finally tied him up and they got married in Nashville a.k.a. Nashvegas. He is no longer my roomate as he has moved to New Mexico. I'll miss you Tyler. I was fortunate enough to be a groomsman. Thanks Tyler. The wedding weekend was great, I got to experience some great Nashville culture (food and music). I am using facebook pictures not taken by me because all of my pictures are blurry and lame. Tyler, the photobooth was a great idea.

It's rare that I conquer a new state, but even rarer when I do it twice in the same season. This past weekend, I went back to Texas with Hannah to yet another wedding, this time for a high school friend. It was in Houston, the 4th largest in the U.S. I say that not for trivia purposes, but to prove that a country boy can visit a huge city and not get lost and/or overwhelmed. The wedding was at some garden place, it was dark and I didn't ask any questions. Food included gourmet mac n' cheese as well as a beef carving station. I almost forgot to mention the 4 types of wedding cake. And I know what you're thinking and the answer is yes. I had 2 pieces of wedding cake. The wedding was just the start of a great weekend. I had great bbq, Mexican food, enjoyed the world's largest rodeo, caught up with old friends and even got to meet some of Hannah's friends. Good weekend. Now it is time to do laundry and pack for this. That's right. It's time to shred some gnar.

Born country

Ok quick update before I go back in time. I love cutting and chopping wood. I miss chopping wood every year in college to heat Willard. Whenever I become an adult and buy a house I want to heat it with wood. There is something satisfying about heating my home without the help of an energy company while at the same time swinging an axe. I control that process from start to finish. So today at sunset, I decided to cut down a tree in the yard that has been dead for awhile. Now you're probly thinking to yourself, "Didn't Scott have a roomate that worked for Stihl and had free, unlimited access to the best chainsaws available? Why didn't he cut down that tree with a chainsaw?" I should have cut it down when I had access to chainsaws. But I cut that tree down with a 10" handsaw. So satisfying. Now all I have to do is cut it up with said handsaw. I'm about halfway done. What a good President's day activity, in addition to hiking here:

Now I will veer into the past for something not quite as manly: weddings. Wedding season got a very early start this year. Wedding #1 was a friend of Hannah's and allowed me to cross another state off my list: Texas. It isn't my goal to visit all of the states in the US, but it is fun to go to a new one. My picture of Texas was what I've seen in No Country For Old Men. In fact, I was in eastern Texas which is more like the piedmont region of VA. It has gently rolling hills with large amounts of Loblolly Pine and a more mild climate. I enjoyed this wedding because before going, I new exactly 2 people: Hannah and the bride. That means I can do what I want and nobody will notice or care. That means I observed people the whole weekend. I learned alot about Texas.

Here is a quick list of things I find interesting about Texas:

1. In every men's bathroom, there are signs telling you not to drink if you are pregnant so your fetus doesn't have Fetal Alcohol Syndrome at birth. I'm not making light of that condition, it's serious. But in the men's bathroom? That seems odd.


2. Everywhere you look, there are taco joints. If you are in need of a taco, throw a stone and you are likely to find a taco place.


3. Being a redneck seems to take a little more effort than I'm used to. I wear my flannel, enjoy country music, hunt, want to live in the woods and have a dog, etc. Every Texas redneck seems to wear expensive cowboy boots, real tight jeans, a cowboy hat, and of course, a beltbuckle. Now I like all those things, I just don't want to spend lots of dough on pants that make me uncomfortable. I'm not sure my frugal nature would survive there.


4. Many farmers have horses. I know a little about farming and I don't know how raising horses works. Let me explain. Raise cattle, sell cattle for beef or milk cows for milk. Raise hogs, make awesome things like bacon, sausage, or ham and profit. Plant corn, sell corn. So with horses, you raise them and ...? After some thought I figured it out. Horses are like boats. A big money pit that are fun to ride around on.


5. Texas has a higher percentage of dudes with awesome facial hair.


6. There is road construction everywhere, like PA.


7. There was some dude who literally videotaped the entire weekend. I'm pretty sure that he videotaped his trips to the bathroom as well as his sleeping time. It was weird.

It was a great weekend. As for the wedding itself, a great ceremony and homemade 24 hour smoked pork and the best brisket I've ever had at the reception. Scott approved.

This is a long post. I will save Nashville for next time.

To the hills, part 2

A different set of hills this time. The shipyard shuts down for the week between Christmas and New Years, so I am forced to take time off. I have decided each year that I will hike for a few days over the shutdown. This year I made my first journey (but hopefully not my last) to Shenendoah National Park. I left my camera in Blacksburg like an idiot so all of the beauty that I witnessed is contained in my brain.

The first day was Whiteoak Canyon followed by a campout on the Cedar Run Trail. Fortunately the majority of the trail was not snowed over except for the 3 miles of fire road. Uphill in 3 inches of snow. I know I sound like an old man and I felt like one hiking through that. The cool part was how quiet the woods are when there is a blanket of snow. It might be the quietest environment i've ever been in, including those hearing booths in 4th grade. I'm getting ahead of myself. The first part of the hike takes you up through the canyon along a mountain stream. Most of the stream was frozen over, including part of the waterfalls. It was truly gorgeous. Words can't describe. I spent way too much time standing in awe of that. When you are hiking alone, you can stare at stuff as long as you want. The canyon is steep and offered many other frozen waterfalls that were not part of the main stream. This is where I stumbled upon a dream of mine: ice climbing. 3 guys from DC were decked out in crampons and icepicks climbing a 40 ft ice wall. Put that on my bucket list. After finishing the fireroad up along Skyline Drive, I literally ran down the backside of the mountain. I know what you're thinking, "Scott you're dumb. All alone on an icy trail and you're running?" Yes. It was a little warmer that day and the trail was slushy which allowed me a sort of Nordic Track type of stride: very long and sliding every step. I think I covered that last mile and a half in about 25 minutes. It was fun. I found myself in another canyon which meant the sun was setting fast. I set up camp and, since there are no open fires allowed in the park, went to sleep about 5:30 pm. I woke up at 8, ate dinner (granola, clementines, wasabi peas and trail mix), and read a little. Other than some mild foot coldness, I slept like a hibernating bear until 7 am. I opened my tent and stared at the most beautiful sunrise I've ever seen. It spanned the entire canyon in a blaze of orange and pink. Awesome.

The second day I joined my friend Josh at the bottom of the mountain. I had a grand plan to traverse the last mile and a half down quickly until I realized all that slush froze during the night. After falling 8 times and stepping knee-deep into a stream, I reached the bottom. Josh watched as I dried out my boot and we proceded to climb Old Rag. I'm sure you've heard of this magnificent mountain. It is a hard climb from one side, but the Whiteoak Canyon side is only 2.5 miles. A nice hike with Josh allowed some great catching up as well as some breathtaking views. Thank goodness he had a camera to capture that. Following the hike we went to another college friend's farmhouse to shower before the New Year's Eve party at the Glass House Winery. I bet you didn't know I was proper enough for a winery right? It was great. Lots of friends from college and fireworks. I love catching up with people face to face. With great friends it's like you never left off. You still make similar jokes and share new and old stories alike. I wish I could do that more often.

I promise after the next post about my trips to Texas and Tennessee, I will blog about current events and the mindless stuff you've come to appreciate on ye' old blog.

To the hills, part 1

Unlike other blogs you may read, I am unable to keep up with time. I am slowly catching up on my own life since Thanksgiving. So here we go.

The weekend after shooting stuff was man weekend #2. A buddy of mine from college has a family house on the river in the Northern Neck of VA. So from time to time we have reunions up there. This was one of those weekends. It was the first of a few snowy weekends in the 757 and the river was frozen over. I'm dumb and didn't take any pictures. Sorry. We did what men do: ate too much, watched The Other Guys, and caught up on life. I don't get to see those guys very often, so this was a treat.

Next was Christmas. Again, Hannah decided to join me for another trip to Blacksburg, which was great. She learned about how my family does Christmas presents in a nice, orderly fashion as opposed to the normal free-for-all and how awesome Blacksburg is when it snows. Well, almost. Dad called me up a few days before break and told me the starter on Big Red was busted and that I would replace that over break. I tried and failed and therefore missed out on doing donuts in every snowy parking lot in Blacksburg. But what I did do was skate on natural pond (one of my favorite activites), ate some of Mom's best home-cookin, kicked everyone's butt in a snowball fight, played with my niece and nephew, and caught up with some friends I don't see enough, as shown above.

So I remember Christmas being amazing, but since I've waited so long to talk with you about it, I've forgotten things. If I saw you over Christmas and we did something cool together, please comment about it instead of being angry with me. That would remind me of why it was great instead of laying a large guilt trip.

Enjoy the video. I hope you like meat:
http://thedailywh.at/post/2403467852/epic-meal-of-the-day-the-epic-meal-time-gourmands

retroactive

So I'm behind on informing you of things. So this post is about what happened mid December. I took my exam and although I don't get the results until late January, but I feel pretty confident about my chances. I am glad to be over the preparation period for that test. I am now preparing for the next phase of my job, which is an oral exam. That is more relaxed and doesn't require extra hours for quite awhile so I am enjoying work. The best part is I shaved my mustache off. I grew one for the upcoming test.

My roomate Tyler is getting married next weekend, which is nuts. We've been great friends for over 2 years and roomates for almost that long. He is getting married and moving to New Mexico to pursue his career with Stihl and his wife. Not necessarilly in that order. So to mourn, rather celebrate, his upcoming nuptuals, Tyler, myself, and our other roomate, Weber, went to my farm to hunt. Man stuff. We camped out, burned things, tried to find deer, and then shot cans.

The next post is about Christmas. Get excited. Time for me to go to Texas. It's wedding season!

Thanksgiving

Sidenote: These were my thoughts 2 weeks ago. I wanted to add photos, but got lazy I have much more to tell you, but I don't want to deprive you of my past thoughts, so here they are.

Now that I have passed my first test, it is time to cram even harder to pass my next exam. It is another 7.5 hour test with even more material shoved in. I will be spending long hours at work over the next week and a half in an attempt to become qualified for the job I am being paid for.

I hope your Thanksgiving was great. I must say that mine was awesome. The aforementioned girlfriend made the trip with me up to Blacksburg. I introduced her to things that make southwest Virginia awesome such as hiking, Carol Lee donuts, my family, Big Red, Willard, and of course, the Hokies. I was even lucky enough to spend some time hunting with Dad on Thanksgiving day and by myself the following day. I am definately an extrovert, but I love being alone in the woods. I have absolutely no obligations to anyone (other than to myself to provide some fresh meat). I can sit and ponder important things in life, take a nap, get some exercise, breathe in that fresh mountain air, and observe the beauty of God's creation the way without obstruction.


Now Thanksgiving is one of my favorite holidays. It lacks the materialistic nature of Christmas while still requiring me to realize how mercifully blessed I am. It is also the only day of the year I am expected to overeat and nap. I am reading a book called, "God is the Gospel" by John Piper and I am learning that out of all the things God has provided me, access to God himself is the most important. That was good to carry into Thanksgiving this year.




I'm also thankful for the spanking that the Hokies gave the Wahoos from UVA over break. Some people like a close game, but I take great satisfaction in beating UVA as soundly as possible in anything. After sitting in the old people's section over homecoming and feeling guilty about standing up, I decided to sit with the few VT students I still know this time. I stood the whole game, made stupid amounts of noise and loved every minute of it.