Photos
Outside Pittsburgh
Pittsburgh
Bicycling
“Well, We might as well have a
United Nations meeting.”
How This This and This
led to a Five Nation Summit
in the cornfields of Western New York.
Rebecca is really a very attractive woman- I’m just a shit photographer. If she sees these, cameras will be banned from future
appearances.
One of the descendants of Hennrietta Lacks
Thursday Night Feb. 25, 2010– My Girlfriend and I went into Pittsburgh to see Rebecca Skloot at the Carnegie Science Center, talking about her book The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks. Currently #3 on the New York Times best seller list. Just keeping my finger on the pulse of current events...
We arrived around 6:30 after parking at the Rivers Casino and walking the short distance
to the science center. We looked at the menu choices and decided on splitting a smoked
Turkey and Cheddar sandwich and a Great Lakes Beer. We carried our dinner down to
the deserted cafeteria and had a very pleasant meal looking through the windows at
the Ohio river quietly making its way south. we wandered through some of the exhibits
stopping to look at a baby Triceratops before heading into the auditorium to hear
Rebecca‘s presentation. A thoroughly pleasant mid-week “date”! 
Saturday Evening 9:00P.M.
After arriving at the lake and having 3-4 cocktails, the GF and I joined Bob and his wife, his brother and brother-in-law, and headed out for a night snowmobile ride. The leisurely ride under a steady and heavy snowfall was uneventful for the first 6 miles. We were travelling up the last hill of the trail before reaching the road that would take us to Wilderness Lodge, a bed and breakfast Inn that catered to X-C skiers. Lights were shining down on us from the top of the hill. The lights, it turned out were from a Toyota Highlander buried up to its axles in the snow. The couple that the Highlander belonged to had been stuck for twenty minutes, and though they had a cell phone, they had no idea where they were.
They were a mid thirties couple from Taiwan and had recently moved to Pittsburgh back in June. The six of us dismounted and while the girls spoke to the wife and reassured her, the men collectively shook their heads and thought he’s F*cked. Pushing and rocking the car proved fruitless.Bob got back on his sled and rode to a nearby farmhouse whose lights were still burning (You knew there had to be a farmhouse in the story, right?). As we waited for Bob we got acquainted with the couple. Very sweet people and tiny! The woman was no more than 5’ 2” maybe 100 pounds and her husband was slightly, slightly bigger. I asked him why he turned down a clearly unplowed road that had two GIANT YELLOW ROAD CLOSED signs 50 feet behind his car. “Ah, GPS”. Well, I guess he’s got more faith in electronics than I do. I Later on I asked the couple, “What was said the exact moment that the car stopped moving and you realized it was not going to move again anytime soon....In English please.” This is classic. The wife ever so slightly, glances at her husband, looks back at me and says, “It was said in Cantonese.” Ouch!
We filled the quiet minutes with small talk, marvelling at the snow continuing to come down in giant flakes, as we waited for Bob to come back. Suddenly, there was the giant roar of a diesel engine starting up, scaring the crap out of every one as the sound echoed off the trees. Seconds later, giant flood lights came on from behind an enormous pile of trees. This was followed by creaking and rumbling and lights appeared from behind the wood. This thing came out with
Bob following on his snowmobile and looked like a small dog chasing a car!
Simultaneously, Another friend shows up on his snowmobile with Joseph.
Mark, a tall good looking, smooth talking salesman, and Joseph, apparently
had been drinking Vodka most of the afternoon and into the evening. Mark
is crushed, Joseph who is from the Ukraine and supplied the Vodka, is fine
Mark jumps off his snowmobile stumbles into the Chinese woman, and tells
her, “I’ll get you out of here.... What the Hell is this a Toyota? ....A
Toyota?” Meanwhile the woman leans towards My GF and say,”He a dlrunk,
light?” GF smiles and nods her head. Mark then speaks one of the funniest
lines of the evening.
A Father and son who live in the farmhouse are loggers.The
giant beast that started up a few minutes ago is a John Deere logger that
they use to haul out five or six logs at a time out of the woods. This
machine is now idling beside the Toyota and three men are trying to
figure out how to attach the cable, that is the size of your wrist, to the car
Mark now drapes his arm over the man’s shoulder and says, “Don’t worry I
work at an auto salvage yard.” Pointing at the rear of the Toyota where
the cable has yet to be attached, “We can destroy the bumper, the
fender, rear hatch and trailing arms and you’ll be fine because I know for
a FACT, that we have those parts in stock!”
Tomorrow: Story continues at the bar
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