2007 May - Lord Gonchar

Please allow me to introduce myself, I'm a man of wealth and taste.

My First Apartment

Just messing around with Google Maps ‘Street View’ feature after stopping by Tyler’s blog.

I was pleased to see Miami as one of the areas covered. When I moved out of my Parent’s house at the tender age of 18, my first apartment was on Miami Beach (that’s only like 1300 miles away). This was just when it was at the very beginning of transforming from ‘scuzzy, run down place’ to ‘glamorious hotspot’ – but it was still pretty cool living four blocks from the ocean…until Hurrican Andrew hit in 1992.

I haven’t been back since 1993, but was able to find my old place with Google’s Street View. (east up 20th street, 2nd building in, behind the big tree)

It’s changed quite a bit. I stood on that very corner 15 years ago and saw President Bush (the original) leaving the convention center in a limo in the big presidential motorcade. (rotate the picture 180 degrees – that’s the Miami Beach Convention Center)

The 2nd apartment I ever had was also in Miami Beach. Better than the first (and by better I mean, less roaches…ok, not less, but smaller ones) That was right down the end of this street and around the bend – right on the bay.

And just because I was nosing around – back then the building on the left was a Hollywood Video (used to rent a lot of porn there – this was before the interweb thingy) and when I left for good, I went down and rented a bunch of Super Nintendo and Genesis games and bailed with them. (I’m a dick) The store on the right side was a Wendy’s.

Bah. I could reminisce all day about things that don’t matter 15 years later.

Catching Up

So I finally have a chance to sit down and recap the last few days. What happened?

Friday evening we were to be heading off for the weekend. Jamie got stuck at work and didn’t get hme until almost 7pm and I need to run over and get a haircut. The girl cut my hair WAY too short, but I’ll live. We grabbed my daughter’s friend a little after 7:30 and made the drive to the Hampton Inn Solon. I stand by what I always say – the more touristy the area, the crummier the hotel. This place wasn’t horrible, but with Geauga Lake just a few miles down the road – they’ve seen their fair share of leisure guests.

The weather was overcast (not good at all for photography) with minor rain showers on and off. Geauga Lake was dead. We never waited more than one train for anything – not even for front or back seat. Nothing major to report. I find Geauga Lake to be such a ‘meh’ park – nothing bad about it, but not a whole lot to love either. The only other park I feel so indifferent about is Kings Island.

After one day with the tagalong friend – I’ve never appreciated just how mature and well-behaved my own kids are. My kids are not only fucking geniuses, but also polite, considerate, respectful, not the least bit whiny nor snotty and just a downright fucking pleasure to be around. Ahem…

We got up early on Sunday and made the drive to CP is pretty good time. We zipped around to the soak city lot where my daughter and I hopped out and rushed to the Magnum entrance. It was about 9:20am and the line at the gate was long and non-resort guests were being turned away until 10. The beauty of being a non-CP passholder at this entrance is the ability to skirt the entire line by having to ‘sign in’ to use your pass. In mere moments we were inside the park and heading right for Maverick.

We hit the line (which just barely spilled past the designated queue area) and prepared for the worst. It really wasn’t that bad. The sign says a 2 hour wait from the queue entrance, but even with a 15 minute bout of downtime we were on in 90 minutes give or take. Great ride. (and I now own a piece of Coaster apparel…that I’ll never wear…ebay in a few years I suppose)

What can I say about CP? We’re a bunch of fanboys (and girls). I swear they have something in the air that hypnotizes you. We just never want to leave. Our plans were to be on the road by 6pm at the latest (we promised to have annoying friend of daughter home by 9pm) – it turns out we didn’t even leave the park until almost 9pm. Her dad didn’t seem real pleased when we rolled into the driveway a hair past midnight.

We got home and the family crashed. I on the other hand satyed up until 5am getting my Maverick pics online – knowing full well I had to be up by 8 to get to Kings Island at a decent time and score the T-shirt double down bonus.

I was miserable by Monday morning. Just fried, but sucked it up and we were at Kings Island by a little after 10am. We beelined for Firehawk and found a line stretching WAY down the midway. We kind of mulled the options and once we realized they were sending one train every 5 or 6 minutes and stopping every time the slightest bit of rain started to fall, it just wasn’t worth it for a stupid ass shirt that I’d never wear.

And just for the record, let’s work out the miserable capacity at this point:

6 cars per train. 4 riders per car. 1 train every five minutes. (6×4)x(60/5)= 288 riders per hour!?

To put it quite bluntly – Fuck you! The coaster is kinda lame anyway. I felt bad for all the suckers lined-up waiting to ride technology that wasn’t that interesting 5 years ago.

We didn’t stick around long.

We got home and I pretty much slept the afternoon away. I stayed up all night again, putting the Maverick video together. I’ve pretty pleased with the results. I just wish the weather had co-operated. Overcast skies suck for photography – especially photography where you generally point your camera skyward. Considering the conditions, I was quite pleased with the pics I got and merely tolerated the video footage quality. I still like the end result.

That’s pretty much that. Sorry it’s so unexciting, I’m forcing it. Sometimes I still feel like I have to add stuff to the blog every once in a while. Truth is I’m in no mood to talk amusement parks or roller coaster and am welcoming the 3 week break before we head out again.

May 29th, 2007 - fun - insight - the kids - travel

Coaster Dork Weekend

Here’s my plans for the weekend:

Tonight we swing by and pick up one of my daughter’s friends and head to the lovely Hampton Inn in Solon.

We’re spending Saturday at Geauga Lake (opening day) and going back to the hotel.

On Sunday we’re leaving the hotel and heading over to Cedar Point to check out Maverick. With a little luck, we’ll be among the first 3000 riders of the day and score a free T-shirt. (and I’ll finally own a piece of coaster-related apparel)

We’re heading back home Sunday Night.

On Monday morning we’re off to Kings Island to check the opening of Firehawk (which before this season was at Geauga Lake). With a little more luck, we’ll be among the first 2500 riders and score another free T-shirt. (and I’ll potentially own two pieces of coaster-related apparel)

So basically, we’re spending the holiday weekend hitting the Cedar Fair Ohio Park Trifecta. I’m milking this Maxx Pass for all it’s worth.

…and no, gas prices aren’t affecting our plans one bit, so please quit telling me they are every time I turn on the news.

May 25th, 2007 - holidays - travel

Goosey Evening

This evening was just fucking beautiful. I was sitting out back on the patio just before 8pm and noticed one of the local geese heading my way, so I grabbed my camera real quick-like:

Goosey Goose

A few more appeared:

Goose Heads, Goose Heads, Eat 'Em Up, Yum

A few moments later all of the little goslings showed up and started picking around for stuff to eat. They’ve grown a bit since their last appearance:

It's a herd of geese!

A little while later this couple tried to cross the street with some smaller babies and when traffic would come by the momma goose would give the car absolute hell:

Goose yelling at an approaching car

The funny thing is everybody in town is pretty cool about the geese that live around here. I’ve literally seen 6 lanes of traffic just sitting and waiting for a row of geese to strut their way across the road. They run this town and they know it.

Then just for fun I took stupid pictures like only I can. Such gems as this:

Dr. Hydrant (oh yeah, he holds a PhD)

I couldn’t believe how much the zoom lens compressed that shot. The intersection in the background is about a quarter mile beyond the hydrant (and I used Streets & Trips to measure). I’ll have to remember that for future use…somewhere.

The worst part is that until about a month ago you couldn’t even see that intersection through all the trees that lined the pond there. They cleared it out and I suspect office-type buildings to go in to match the ones they put in on the other side of the main road. It’s amazing how much that whole little area at the entrance to our little ‘community’ has changed just since we moved in – and that was less than a year ago. Meh, whatever – Little Man has a great view of all the excavation and construction vehicles from his bedroom window and I’ve caught him just hanging out watching them work a few times.

It was just a really nice evening out. :)

May 23rd, 2007 - cute - photos - random

<< Older Entries