No, this isn’t some strange perversion of “Disney on Ice,” it’s truly Outlanding… on ice! Yesterday I called up Tom and we went Outlanding together… found some fun, fun trails, and even discovered a deep-space radar & radio tracking facility run by the MIT labs! I’ll post some pictures of it later; they had some huge antennas there! We saw them from a distance while Outlanding, and we decided to “find” them. What a crazy drive!
The best part, though, was when we went up to New Hampshire and drove around on this huge frozen lake. Now, in Massachusetts it’s illegal to do that, but in New Hampshire – well, “live free or die” kinda sums up a lot about New Hampshire, huh? It was SO cool!!! There were big, BIG trucks parked out on the ice where people were ice fishing; I mean like F-250’s… and there were about 10 snowmobiles racing across the ice on this “road” that someone had literally plowed across the ice! Tom had gone there the night before, and drilled down with a 24″ drill bit, and he didn’t strike water, so the ice was AT LEAST that thick… and you only need 12″ for it to be safe to drive on. Needless to say, I wasn’t worried that my measly 3800 lb Outlander would break ice that was supporting 5000+ lb trucks! We had a BLAST… doing donuts, trying to do an axial spin (came close, might have even done it at one point, it’s harder to do than you might think), and racing across the ice at 50 MPH… which FEELS a hell of a lot faster! Whee! The Keithmobile held up wonderfully, and with my crappy (for winter, anyway) All-Season radials, we were slippin’ & slidin’ every which way. It was TOTALLY coooool.
Of course, all of this fun was slightly hampered by the fact that I DO have a cold at the moment; which sucks, I must say. It’s mostly a cough … but it’s got that “tickle” in the back of your throat that makes you want to cough, even though it doesn’t do any good. It’s awful. And my head is a bit stuffed up too, which makes me a little groggy, but with some Dayquil and plenty of water, I’m OK enough. Still, I try to take it easy.
I did get a chance to try some skid tactics on the ice – the perfect place, since there’s nothing to run into, and it’s plenty slippery! Man, you REALLY have to move your hands FAST on the wheel to recover from a skid! But, at least now that I’ve done it a few times, I feel more confident about handling it. The hardest thing to do is not over-steer, but AWD makes it a little easier. The car just “wants” to go in a straight line!
After that adventure, Tom & I stopped at the IHOP up off of 495, past Lowell, which I had wanted to find for some time. I wasn’t feeling well at this point (it had been several hours since I took my Dayquil, and I was due to take some more), but a couple of glasses of cranberry juice and some food helped give me the energy I needed to get home. I gotta give Tom mad props for coming out with me yesterday; getting out of the house and doing some wild & crazy things was exactly what I needed. Aren’t friends great?
After getting home, I swallowed some pills, grabbed my Finding Nemo DVD and headed down to my mom’s house, where I was expected for dinner. After I got there, who should show up but PJ! So we watched Finding Nemo with my mom, and eventually just got some subs from Harry’s Pizza in Northbridge for dinner. We’re so lazy! It was fun, and I ended up staying there pretty late, but I got home and felt OK, took some Nyquil, watched a little TV (to let it get to work) and then went to bed.
This morning I discovered (after waking up at 9am – early for a weekend) that my friend Jim had called yesterday while I was out. Oops! Sorry Jim!
Today is going to be a quiet day; I’ve got to do the grocery shopping for the week, and get my car washed while it’s still “relatively” warm out. After that, I’ve gotta come home and do the bills which have been piling up all week – can’t get behind in them! Ah well…
On a side note, while I was out yesterday, I got 6 voice mails from work, 2 tickets, and a couple of LiveHelp messages. WTF?? Do people think we’re open on Saturdays or something? Do they need to file their court papers on Sunday before the superbowl or something? I just don’t get it. I’ll deal with THEM later…
Well, that’s all for now. As I said, I’ll post some of the pictures I took later on, but for now, I’ve gotta get down to the car wash. My poor car!! It’s so dirty!!
Adios,
-Keithius
