The Aldrich Ave Daily

Someone once told me “ya know Andy, people change.” That was just 4 years ago, and at the time I really was too young and naive to comprehend what that really meant. At the time, I thought my life was pretty well set. Even though I wasn’t in college, was working retail, and was renting. I thought I would be married by the age I am now. I figured, things would work themselves out over time. Change? No. I’m 21 years old, I’ve already become the person I would be for the rest of my life.
Boy was I gravely wrong. I have changed more in the past 4 years, then I did the 21 years leading up to it. I’m not married, in fact I’m single. And I’m fine with that. Its almost as if my mind really started to turn itself on. Wake up moron. Get you’re act together. Indeed something inside of me did click. I think dealing with losing a very special person in my life had something to do with that. I had a lot of time to sit back and ponder. At the time, I thought I would never get out of my rut. I never thought I would want to, or even need to go to college. Part of that had to do with the success my dad accomplished in his lifetime. The other part of me had no idea what I wanted to do. As I began to “wake up” I started thinking very hard what I would, if I decided to to so, go to school for. My first thoughts lead me to Business. I could start my own Business. That is sort of what I ended up going to Anoka Ramsey for in the first place. Intro to Business with Jonathan Gallop. A local Attorney who was teaching this course. A hilarious, crazy bastard, who really let us know just how hard starting up a business is. After his class, I realized its not what I want to be, and quit school alltogether. Working at the bike shop became my priority.
I started thinking about writing. What about journalism? I always had good grades back in the day for English, Language Arts, and classes of that nature. Math, Science, Geography? Fuggetaboutit. Writing was the only thing in High School I enjoyed. I started to indulge myself in the writing of Hunter S. Thompson. Most people relate to him and his drug crazed “failed” experiement of Gonzo Journalism known as Fear and Loathing in Las Vegas. This new form of journalism he started to try out really got me thinking. Journalism with a twist? Sort of. He has also been linked to being one of the first persons to use New Journalism, which is much more popular in today’s world. I could do that. I love writing. Thats why I started a blog. Get my thoughts out there. So there it is. Hopefully within the next year or so, I am going back to school for Journalism, and English. I never in a million years thought of doing this 4 years ago.
Books? Talk Radio? These two terms didn’t exist in my mind or vocabulary 4 years ago. Honestly, I loathed books. Couldn’t stand the things. Nowadays, I can’t get enought of them. I think the mind takes in more information when that person reads it, not watching it. I love sitting out on my front porch, with a glass of SoCo, a nice chair, and tons of daylight. Talk radio is the same. I hated it whan I had to listen to that stuff at work. I brought in a separate radio on my bench so I could faze out that non-stop banter. Yet, here I am, right now as I write this, listening to Garage Logic, taking in all the info, and banter I can get.
I would be nice to have known back then what I know now, but then again, thats what makes life so unpredicable, surprising, and exciting. Not only do people change, I think people change througout our lifetimes. So yes, “people do change”, and ya know what? Change is good.

Before I start, I would like to point out that this is my first entry on the new host site. I would like to thank Ms. Kocha for introducing me to this wonderful website(you can find her blog on my blogroll). I’ve been wanting to switch my blog page for a long time now, and this one caught my eye. So far I have no complaints.

Do any of you ride a snowboard? If so, you should be aware, that we at Erik’s Bike Shop DO snowboard service. I think a lot of shredders out there don’t realize that we do snowboard service. I’ve got to be honest. I come from a nordic ski background and when I first started at Erik’s the snowboard service was mediocre at best. Granted, nordic skiers are more anal about wax, and care of their product then snowboarders will ever be, but I’ve tried to raise the bar. We as a company have as well. When I first started all that we offered was a hot wax, edge sharpen, and some p-tex service, and Grindrite.  We since gone through some changes within the company and have a much better department to service snowboards. Two seasons ago all the service managers were professionally trained out at Afton Alps for a ski/snowboard service clinic. We’ve added more wax options. Before it was just an all purpose, all temp wax. I pushed this that we need options for wax. Different temperature’s and different types of snow require different types of wax. More edge tuning tools are now available. We can do any type of bevel adjustment the customer wants. We now offer Diamond Stone Edge polishing. A final smooth, and professional finish to and edge sharpen. All shops have capabilities of doing base patches, de-lam fixes, and now base welds for those deep gashes down to the core. Two Tune-Up options for you’re board as well.  The bottom line is, we’re going to take care of you’re board just as well, if not better then the more well known snowboard service shops in the Twin Cities.

I learned a lot from my 4 years on a nordic ski team in high school. I also helped coach for 3 years after that. Nordic skiers take care of their ski’s in an almost cult like fashion. Did you know that some waxes need to be applied wearing a mask? Just breathing in the dust can be toxic. I try to take some of that knowledge, and commitment from one aspect and use it on another. I’ve tried to tell the kids that buy these boards the importance of keeping it in good shape. The idea in snowboarding is to shred the gnar with no regard, and replace the board in a couple years. And lets face facts. We here in Minnesnowta usually ride on shitty snow. Its man-made, usually icy, and very corny. By corny I mean is not very solid. Its broken up and rough on equipment. Thats why I try to emphasize servicing boards even more. Why not ride that board for a few years more? As long as the board still suits you’re size, and riding style, keep it maintained, whats the point? You just might enjoy it a bit more. Start to develop that connection with you’re equipment. Speaking of finding that connection with equipment, I think its time to pull the ski’s from the basement. Ciao.
P.S. Don’t believe the sticker on the board that says “pre-waxed”. FALSE. That shit is more designed for shipping purposes. You must get you’re board professionally waxed before riding.