Extreme Sport

A long time ago in a neighborhood far, far away, a couple of high school kids decided to take skateboarding to the next level...
The events I will describe transpired in the late 1970's and it should be pointed-out there were very few kids who skateboarded in Athens at the time.
My cousin Stefanos and I, having mastered the basics of skateboarding were getting to the point where we were experimenting to see if we could push the boundaries of what could be done on a skateboard.

We would go down the steep sidewalks and roadways of the foothills of Mt. Hymettus sitting, kneeling, or finding other ways to use our skateboards in ways they were not originally designed to be used. We invariably went too fast and ended-up performing various experiments which tested the "coefficient of friction" between asphalt and various materials: polyurethane skateboard wheels, athletic shoe soles, jeans, copper rivets (if the aforementioned jeans happened to be riveted), leather (skateboarding gloves), even human skin (not by design, I should point out).
These feats, while resulting in various bumps, abrasions and bruises, did not end-up inflicting any permanent bodily injury.

Since this was before the time video became mainstream and well before the advent of "Reality TV" our feats were not captured on video, nor broadcast to any network.

Fast-forward about 30 years, where every kid can now capture video on their cell phone and broadcast it to various channels on the internet for almost instantaneous consumption.

A friend forwarded the attached link to a video of what was christened "Asphalt Sledding" in Switzerland.

While we did not go that far in our younger years, I feel the need to salute this guy because he's exhibiting the same passion for speed and uses a definitely wacky conveyance to satisfy it.

Sports Psychology

The Pittsburgh Steelers football team won Superbowl XLIII (played on Feb. 1, 2009).
This was the sixth Superbowl victory for the Pittsburgh Steelers, the most of any team, and the Steelers were proclaimed the best team in football.

(the picture at left was taken outside of Heinz Field, the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers)

A type of euphoria suffused through Pittsburgh, such that despite the cold winter and the economic meltdown, had people here in a relatively jovial mood.

Then the Pittsburgh Penguins hockey team started playing better toward the end of their season and ended-up winning the Stanley Cup on June 21, 2009. The Penguins were thus crowned the best hockey team in the US and Canada - and all through the summer Pittsburgh took on a new "glow".

(the picture at left is from a game we attended when they played the Florida Panthers on Oct. 23, 2009)

Most towns would be ecstatic at winning the championship of one of the four main spectator sports in America: football, baseball, basketball, or hockey. Pittsburgh teams won two of those titles in the same year - and it felt good!

This Fall, Steelers football started again, but the champions from a few months back haven't looked quite as tough as last year. Last Sunday they lost a heartbreaker to the Cincinnati Bengals and today they lost in overtime to the Kansas City Chiefs. Their record this year is 6 wins and 4 losses and they will have to fight hard to get into the playoffs.

It will be a tough week of practice ahead as they will play the Baltimore Ravens next Sunday (the fact they will play in Baltimore will make it an even tougher game). My guess is that the mood in the city might be a bit subdued this week.

Thanksgiving will be here in a few days and maybe that will lift the spirits of this town.
Pittsburgh has a lot to be thankful for this year, and maybe the Steelers will also win a few more games.

Walking for our Heart

The American Heart Association's annual Heart Walk was a great opportunity to get out and stretch those legs on October 17. I don't happen to think of a 5-k walk as anything major, but to people who are used to driving everywhere, it may be a bit more of a challenge.

The starting point for the walk in Pittsburgh was Heinz Field, the home of the Pittsburgh Steelers football team. This is the team that won the Superbowl last year (in February 2009), though they are not playing quite so well this year. The temperature was 36F (2C) that day, with overcast skies and drizzle.

There were plenty of people from Bayer participating in the Heart Walk (including "yours truly"), all wearing red T-shirts over our coats, including the flag-bearer for the Bayer team, Mr. Sergio Kyriakis.

After waiting for around two hours as various VIPs gave speeches, we finally got started and it really felt good to walk and get a chance to warm-up.

Great scenery accompanied us on our walk, since the route followed the bank of the river for the second half of the walk, as we returned to the stadium. Here is a view at Point state park (aka The Point). This is where the Allegheny and Monongahella rivers meet (coming from the left in this picture) and join to form the Ohio river (going to the right).
The fountain at The Point sometimes has the water dyed in different colors - on this occasion it was dyed pink to promote breast cancer awareness.
You can also see the yellow Fort Pitt bridge and the tunnel by the same name behind it - this is one of the main thoroughfares into downtown Pittsburgh. The steep hill that rises on the far side of the river is called Mt. Washington, as it is said this was where Gen. George Washington, early in his career, scoped-out the British-occupied Fort Pitt (which was located where The Point now is located). There are some great restaurants on Mt. Washington, which in addition to outstanding food, also offer an amazing view.

Great views, good times and we also managed to raise some money for the American Heart Association - I call that a "win".

It's Good for You

One of the small pleasures I enjoy every day is a lunchtime walk through the woods in the rolling hills that surround the place where I work. This routine started about a year-and-a-half ago, as a means of helping me get some exercise during my mostly sedentary day. A program at work encourages employees to get-up and walk, get the blood pumping so to speak - and I took advantage of it. I even bought a pedometer, so I can count how many steps I take every day - setting goals for myself and seeing if I can meet (or even sometimes exceed) them.


There are also some other advantages to being outside on a daily basis though.
You get to see nature up-close and sometimes, if you are lucky, you also catch some glimpses of the wildlife that makes its home in the woods.



The pictures above were taken a week apart, mid-to-late October.
The groundhog was eyeballing me warily and skittered off into the woods as soon as I took the picture, while the particularly tame pair of deer (you can only see the tail end of the second), nonchalantly walked deeper into the forest when they noticed me stopping to take their picture.

What I also find enjoyable is seeing the forest change with the seasons. When I took the picture at the very top of this post in mid-October, the leaves of the Burning Bushes had just changed from their regular deep green color to the bright red you see - those leaves are now gone, the bushes standing bare.

All the pictures in this post show the colors of Fall, which will soon give way to the drab browns and even the whites of winter.
When I took the picture at left on October 30, my footsteps crunching through a thick layer of leaves with every step, the yellows and reds of the leaves were starting to turn to brown, signifying that the present act of nature's amazing color show was being completed.

That is OK by me, I have enjoyed the Fall color show and I am looking forward to the upcoming Winter show.

I have also come to the end of this post with a simple conclusion. Walking in the woods is good for me - for my body and my mind. It grants me a brief period of exertion and a chance to clear my head. It is a feast for my eyes (which I try to capture with my camera) and a chance to marshal and re-prioritize all the various thoughts, tasks and ideas running through my head.
It gives me a chance to escape into nature, while still being able to return to my office to resume my work in a timely manner - a blessing I am not too sure many of my colleagues grasp.