Saturday, September 22, 2012

A Bit of Everything This Week

This past week was not terribly interesting, but was a lot of fun regardless. After a few months of playing with a MusclePower, I finally (upon receipt of my paycheck) purchased a used Yonex ArcSaber 900, which is without a doubt the best racket I've ever used. And the difference between the two is night and day. I can finally lay a bird down on the line on command. It's a nice feeling for once.

Working at the homeless shelter has been demanding of late, with most of my shifts being the overnight shift, and having no desire to sleep during the day. Another day, another dollar, I guess. There was a lady who urinated and defecated all over the bathroom stall the other day. This, of course was following the night before where a lady without anything on from the waist down walked to her mat while peeing. Of course there are repercussions, but at what point do these depressing acts become acceptable? In my mind they seem to have become the status quo and cease to surprise me. Maybe I'm just jaded.

On Wednesday, the winds in Waukegan WENT OFF! A steady 25mph wind with 35mph gusts was blowing SW and the jumps were insane. Every single jump was at least 30ft high if not higher. I got trashed enough times jumping over the five hours I spent on the water and by the time it was over, I was shivering horribly and decided to call it a day. I was completely overpowered on my Best Bularoo 7m, and with the winds as strong as they were, the quite was TOO quick in the air. I'm not going to say that there is such a thing as too much power on the water, but my kite was definitely too small and squirrely to have any stability while I was up in the air. Tomorrow, Saturday,  is looking to be quite windy, so I'm hoping to do some landkiting, but we'll see how that goes with rain in the forecast.

I'm looking forward to doing some repairs on the Vespa soon with my buddy Jeff. I have to change the oil, rollers, belt, oil filter and tire. I don't have a ton of mechanical experience, but I'm hoping that together we have enough to make it work. Just rolled over 7400 miles, so the big tune-up needs to come very soon, plus I want to have it done before the weather gets too cold to really enjoy it.

I'm still combating the bite from that "wanderlust bug", and it seems that a road trip will be happening within the next few weeks. New York is, as of now, the intended destination. I'm very much looking forward to getting to know my road-mates, whoever they happen to be!

Fall is here, so the kiting should hopefully be intense as the wind comes with the weather changes. Also as the weather changes, I'm looking forward to testing some new inks and fountain pens as I'm forced more and more inside.

May the wind always blow in your favor.

Wednesday, September 12, 2012

On Being Too Focused...

As you may notice now, the pennedhouse domain is done. It is gone for good. This was of course for one good reason. My interests are far too many and varied to just be restricted to writing utensils alone. While fun, my life is so much more than just that. I suppose I just want to be able to write about some of the other things that I do, and the mere name of the old blog seemed inhibitive to the writing process.

So, I present to you, "Unconventional Ramosities"!

Here I'm hoping to cover the hobbies that occupy my time and the people that I meet as a result.

Potential Topics: Kiteboarding, fountain pens, pipe tobacco, cycling, and languages. We'll just have to see where it goes from here.