Up until now, all of my investments in Polar Bear have been rather small. I painted the grill, got a spare, got a steering wheel cover, and a number of other odds and ends.
On Tuesday, I picked the Polar Bear up from Maaco where I dropped over $1500 having a pile of body work done and a fresh coat of their cheapest paint.
Overall, I got what I expected. There were a few pleasant surprises. Maaco did a particularly good job grinding out an unsightly weld and some pile of I-have-no-idea-what stuck to van. They plugged some holes in the body and ground down some rivets.
Unfortunately, there were a few disappointments such as more over-spray than I expected. Rather than futz with them on it, I’ll just do a little cleaning up and touch up myself. They got some white on the grill I just painted black, but I wanted to put another coat of black on it anyway.
For the most part, I’m satisfied. Even though it was relatively dark, when I first saw the van I immediately noticed the difference. It’s nice to have a bit of shine to the paint. I hope that lasts a couple of years. I wonder when I should put on the first coat of wax?
What am I doing for New Years? I don’t know. What am I doing for Christmas? I don’t know. Christmas decorations? Never got them up. Family? Celebrating without me this year. Friends? I forgot, yet again, to collect addresses and send out cards. Today? One of just a few at the office, everyone else has already left for vacation.
This year feels like it was a waste of life. I got a job and paid off some debts. Actually, right now I’m debt free. My most significant commitment is the 2 year Sprint contract that came from my phone this summer. One would think with this kind of financial freedom that I would feel liberated, but I don’t.
The photo shown is from a recent attempt to test the articulation of my suspension. In my first attempt, I tried to pull up on a big pile of snow. Instead of pulling up onto it, I plowed right through it. Then I found this retaining pond built in the middle of a parking lot. I was able to get a pretty good twist going, but I was no where near getting a tire to lift off the ground.
I’ve made a few minor improvements. In a couple of trips to the junk yard, I picked up a spare tire swing ($25), worn out front grill ($15), rubber sliding door mat ($5?), and a 16″ black rim with a 30″ tire that seems to hold air well ($10). I also picked up a can of spray paint, tire iron, and 6 ton hydraulic jack. For the first time since I bought the van, I’m prepared for a flat tire.
Maybe it happened when I watched Rambo as a kid. Maybe it was Damnation Alley. It could have even been good old Mad Max. I’m not really sure, but somewhere along the way, I got very interested in the whole idea of survival. I was even more encouraged when my uncle Bobby gave me a survival knife for Christmas one year. I couldn’t have been more than 7 or 8.
Strangely enough, I didn’t start going on real backpacking trips until recently in life. While I’ve done a bit of camping, I never went so far as to carry everything I would need for several days attached one way or another to my own body. The experience was everything I had hoped it would be. Read more…
The attached image is a photoshop Nino did that includes a lot of the cosmetic changes I want to make to Polar Bear. The cargo box and solar panel were not in my plans, but Nino just happened to find that particular Sportsmobile Penthouse pop-top at the right angle to do the photoshop.
Polar Bear turned out to be more of a … bear … than I originally expected. Nino and I have been tracking a spreadsheet of changes, both planned and completed. It’s not balancing out like I had hoped.
Last week, Nino, 3 skiers, and I headed up just northwest of Black Hawk city for what would be my first (and Nino’s) backcountry trip. I had some of the gear I needed, but still dropped nearly $700 for 2 beacons, another set of snowshoes, 2 shovels, and 2 probes. Nino and I also attended a 1 hour avalanche awareness course. We learned enough to know we need to take a real class.
The snow conditions were nearly as bad as you could imagine. Several days of sun had the top cursted over in the open areas. I would find myself over knee deep in snow not 20 meters from a patch of exposed grass. That’s what you get for heading out after the very first snow of the season.
Skiers definitely have a backcountry advantage when it comes to traversing. Uphill, I could keep up. However, downhill, the skiers get to slide along and rest at the bottom while the snowboaders hike it all the way through. You definitely need stamina.
My favorite moment was sitting back in a snow-made lounge chair and looking off at an amazing view down the valley. I want to spend my next day of turns somewhere with a lift, no doubt. However, I expect to do this backcountry experience several more times this season. It’s good stuff.
On October 24th, I purchased a van from a fella in South Lake Tahoe. Nino and I named her “Polar Bear”. The idea is to turn this van into a camper. To be honest, I’m not 100% confident that this is the van I want to build from. I want to have a mechanic look her over and get a better idea of what I’m working with. Here’s what I know so far:
The Van
1987 Ford e250 3rd generation Econoline van, regular body
33″ x 12.5″ inch tires, 8 lug 16″ rims
What looks like a 6 to 8 inch suspension lift (maybe more?)
Since 2004, I’ve maintained a snowboarding blog at my old Shobek domain. Last night I moved all of those hundreds of posts to this blog and replaced the old site with a redirect. I also once maintained a blog on building virtual communities on blogger. I imported those posts as well. Unfortunately, blogger doesn’t allow an easy method to redirect traffic. Eventually, I’ll pull that blog down entirely I think.
A respected friend of mine (who happens to be a feminist) sent me a link to “Schrödinger’s Rapist: or a guy’s guide to approaching strange women without being maced.” I wouldn’t have read the article at all, had it not been for the recommendation from my friend. After reading it and stewing on it, I’m going to respond. I’m responding not only to the author, but more so to the women who identify with the post itself.
In this blog post, I want to do what I feel Phaedra Starling failed to do. I’m going to attempt to talk about this topic across the gender line. It took me 4 different sessions to read her blog post from start to finish. The first few times, indignation overtook me. I suspect I’m not alone as the comments appear to have been heavily moderated before being closed.
If you haven’t followed the media noise over Lily Allen and filesharing lately… it’s a lot to catch up on. The highlight came, for me, when Lily started an anti-filesharing blog, reposted another author’s content without citing the source (irony much?), and then took the whole blog down when she was getting too much “abuse”… I can’t speak enough about how brilliant and accurate Dan Bull’s response is. Go get the MP3 and share it!!!!
Up until now, all of my investments in Polar Bear have been rather small. I painted the grill, got a spare, got a steering wheel cover, and a number of other odds and ends.
Since 2004, I’ve maintained a snowboarding blog at my old Shobek domain. Last night I moved all of those hundreds of posts to this blog and replaced the old site with a redirect. I also once maintained a blog on building virtual communities on blogger. I imported those posts as well. Unfortunately, blogger doesn’t allow an easy method to redirect traffic. Eventually, I’ll pull that blog down entirely I think.