The Laundry List

I've compiled what I believe to be an accurate account of all the US States that I have done my laundry.  I have marked the approximate locations.  I one day hope to hit all 50.  Just a few more to go!

The Most Important Map of the United States for Thom Mooney

On the road again. Destination: Vermont.

Well, hello there.  I am writing to you live and direct from Vermont.  I have made my way back to the East Coast, and up.  After a short stint visiting family, weathering a hurricane, visiting my parents homes in North Carolina and Alabama, I have made my way up to the "Green Mountains." It is my goal to ride them when they turn white!

I moved back to Virginia in August in hopes of working for a friend's construction company.  Things didn't go quite according to plan and after a few weeks I knew that I had to be back in the mountains.  The only question at that point was, "which ones?" I called up my buddy, Gregory Brown, who I had met while we were both volunteering for Eco-friendly companies (Protect Our Winters and RAMP) at the Gorge for the Dave Matthew's Band Caravan, and asked him if he knew of any work opportunities in his area.  I knew that he was in the snow scene up here and figured he would be a good contact to touch base with to see about mountain living in the North East.  Having lived in the Pacific Northwest for the past six years it only made sense to try out the other side of the country for a seasonal comparison. Greg said come on up and check it out, so I made my way here this past Friday after my first Thanksgiving with my Mother in over 12 years.

Friday I traveled.  I actually missed my first flight due to a delay, complications figuring out when the new boarding time was, beers in the lounge, and a lack of attention to the overhead paging system. I guess they still have them, and apparently they will try to call you over it several times.  I didn't make the flight but I somehow managed to get booked for a later flight through a completely different connecting airport, and I was bumped up to first class.  Greg met me in Manchester and we drove the final hour and a half to the house. All-in-all a very long day of traveling and drinking on my way to a new state for the first time.

This Winter I will be living up here in the farmhouse with Senior Brown.  The first night was pretty chilly.  Second night got much colder.  Last night was REALLY cold and I could see my breath when I woke in my room, which is the upper floor of the house.  We decided that the current situation would not do once the snow starts to fall and heat is a big deal after being on the mountain all day.  This morning we embarked on a simple insulation replacement.  That was until the small scampering across the drywall the past couple nights went from an assumption of a few field mice to a gang of flying squirrels.  We were opening up the ceiling and from the amount of debris and animal shit there were a lot more than a couple.  What neither of us knew is that there were over 14 calling the roof area their home.  We had removed a decent amount of insulation, then packed it back with new insulation.  Just as we were putting up plastic on the hole we heard a lot of commotion from the new zone of pink. Greg pulled the plastic down and as he was pulling out some of the new stuffing one of the little dudes flew at him, bounced off his chest in my general direction, I screamed like a little girl and ran as the little sucker ran laps all over the room.  Freaked me out!

For the next few hours Greg battled the squirrels.  Initially the plan was to achieve a humane relocation for the little guys, eventually the plan was impossible and "The Great Flying Squirrel Massacre of 2012" ensued. We left the house at about quarter to nine with the ceiling open, windows open to air out the mess, the door to the room closed, and a much larger project to complete before the house is habitable again.  Tomorrow we will take the findings to the landlord and see what we can work out as far as a solution.  Not too bad for my first few days in the North East.  One thing I can say is that this has been anything but uneventful.  

Update: Landlord returns from hunting Friday. We finished cleaning out the baffles in the ceiling and removed all of the old insulation today. This evening we had a funeral for the Flying Squirrel Tribe.  May their souls rest in acorn and fiberglass heaven.

PS: Leave me a note to say "Hi" if you stopped by.  =D

Summer Trip to Vegas - Freehub and Voke Tab to Interbike

Riding shotgun in a large bus containing a couple dudes, some good tunes, and a mission.  The goal is to make it to Vegas for Interbike 2K11. This morning I woke up at 615 to Brandon Watts at my bedroom door.  Kalen Caughey was already outside with the Voke Bus and getting ready to go.  We loaded up the boxes of Freehub Magazine into the back of the bus and hopped on the road.  By noon we were entering Portland to pick up shirts and hats from Oregon Screen Impressions.  A few more stops to drop off tabs and meet with Mark, the owner of West End Bikes.  We grabbed some hot food to go and started our travel over to Hood River to store some cases of Voke for shipping.  We are on the road again headed as far as we can get towards Boise before calling it a long day. 

Some highlights of the day:

• I forgot the Flag Pole and the American Flag for when we are camped out at the RV lots.  (Not really)
• Eating a gyro at the food carts in Portland. 
• Watching a 14 color screen printing press.
• Hairpiece or Herpes
• Sitting and watching the sunset on a deck overlooking Hood River in White Salmon, OR.

I've been doing a whole lot of thinking these past couple weeks.  My life has become busy again and I have been behind the wheel.  I picked up more work, went to the Gorge for the Dave Matthews Band Caravan to table for Protect Our Winters.  The purpose of the tabling was to introduce Coal Kills Snow to the people of Washington and her surrounding areas.  Also, to raise awareness for the organization.  We were able to score over 200 names to support the opposition of a 1.5 mile coal train bringing 48 million metric tons of coal from Wyoming to Western Washington's proposed export terminal at Cherry Point, with the help of some great ladies at the Sierra Club.  I have also been busy with the construction of the Freehub HQ.  I will be in Vegas for the next week, and once I get back to Bellingham I am sure that we will have lots to do.  Interbike follow-ups and the finishing touches on the HQ before Volume 2.2 of the magazine will be coming in from the presses.  Then shipping begins!

I Suck at Mountain Biking

For now, that is.

Last week I took a day off from snowboarding and ended up going on a bike ride instead.  My homey has a Transition Bottlerocket in his possession that another friend won and put together last year and is cool with loaning it out.  I haven't had too many opportunities to rally around the awesome trails that have been built here in Bellingham.  For the longest time I was so busy with school that I had to make serious choices about which fun activities I would allow to consume my time.  The majority of my free-time was used snowboarding.  When the weather got better I would ride road bikes.  The other major limiting factor was my fear of becoming injured.  If I were to become seriously injured while taking classes my life would have been hell.  Now that school is complete I have found that my snowboarding has improved and I have been increasing my skill level.  The other reason that I wasn't too big into the biking scene is that it is an expensive habit.  Bikes aren't cheap and to use a friend's bike and wreck it would have put me in a bind.  Once again, I have a lot more time on my hands to take care of such issues.  Here is the first of my soon to be many biking videos.  In this video you can see my buddy take-off and leave me in the mud.  The snow had only been gone for about a day or two and the trails were really sloppy.  Towards the end of this video you will be pleasantly greeted by a tree.

A word of advice: trees are stronger than you.  Go around them.

Seneca Reis Mooney

Welcome to the Universe little Sister.

Born 2:16 AM March 7, 2011.  

We are going to have some fun together!

Can't wait to see you!

Congratulations, Kathryn and Dad!

Warren Miller Photo Contest

http://www.skinet.com/warrenmiller/photo-contest/heli-contest/photos/all/18470

Check out this shot of me dropping the line on Mt. Herman Monday March 7, 2011. Please go to the linked page and click on the 'like' button to vote for us by May 1, 2011.  We could win a trip to Alaska to go heli-snowboarding if our photo gets the most votes!

Thanks!

Big Monday Cliff Dropping

Monday I went up to the mountain with a couple homeys to get some morning runs in. We found a couple of hits that we wanted to go for and did some major work on them. Carl and I hiked up to the drop spots and had our way with Mt. Herman. The first spot that we hit was pretty close to the ski area. Check out this video. I stomped the drop to the pillow, then it felt like my board grew a pair of wings.



After the first hit we went out and looked for some other things to ride. There wasn't much to get down on where we were at and the Sun was disappearing behind the storm clouds that were coming in. As we were searching for something fun to hit I saw a cliff band that looked pretty sweet. I decided on a line and went on a 45 minute hike up the mountain. The snow was getting pretty warm and setting the boot-pack was not very easy. At one point I thought that I was going to slip down the mountain backwards. The worst part about if that were to happen is that it would have been quite a ride, but a really bad spot to get pulled out of. I made my way up to the cliff band that I had wanted to ride and the guys mentioned that it didn't look as fun from where we had initially seen. They were able to guide me over to another spot to drop. The drop through the chute looked like it was about a 10-15 footer, but could have been rolled through without leaving the snow. As I started my turn down the chute I decided that I was going to pop an ollie. The jump ended up being about 30-40 feet from the point of my ollie to the landing. Check it out:



After that the clouds really came in and we headed back to town. It's beginning to look and feel a lot more like spring around here. Carl and I took a good walk through one of my favorite spots in town, Boulevard Park. The Sunset was pretty chill and made for decent conversation. Still a couple more weeks before the Ski Area at Baker goes to Weekends only. Then it will be time for hitting up the lakes and the bike trails on the regular!