Skateparks are boring but they're best when all cement

i went to a skatepark. It had the uninteresting things as every skate park on earth, but it was better than most. Primarily, this is because it has a  long metal ledge at the ideal height for lazy fat 35 year olds, and not too many cracks. I'm well out of practice from not skating for a month or two, and from the new shoes/ new complete perfect storm, but I still did more things and better things than when I skated there last year. I met some indigenous skaters and they were friendly and happy people. I like Americans much better this year than when I came here last year.

eclipse

I didn't skate for many days, because in the mythology of your people, it is an unclean activity to do when an eclipse is foretold. An eclipse was foretold, so I packed up some camping gear and went on walkabout for a couple of weeks. I saw a rattlesnake. I saw some mountains. I walked a lot, and shit in the ground. I met some hippies. I went up to a place called cheoah bald and saw the eclipse. First the light got dimmer and weird, like the onset of a psychedelic experience. Then I watched through my glasses as the black disc spread across the red circle of the sun. About five minutes before the totality, it was pretty clear something extraordinary was happening. The red sliver of sun shrank and shrank, shaped like a fingernail clipping. The glasses are so black that you can't see anything through them unless it's the sun. When the totality happened, a gasp collectively rose up from the dirty hippies on the mountainside, myself included. The astonishment I felt was like nothing I have experienced in my life. People around me wept, cursed and shouted and clapped. It is impossible to photograph what the sky looked like. In every direction, the clouds were in shadow, like a 360 degree sunset. It got cold, and the animals stopped making noise. A few stars came out. The suns corona, endlessly brilliant, divinely perfect, did something we don't have a word for in English. When I took my glasses off and looked directly into the sun, I saw this perfection of light, a ring of sun around the blackest, mist perfect circle I could ever imagine. The hue of the sky around was beyond words. Like peaking, I lost track of time, and the memory of totality seems like an eternity. In reality, it was about two minutes. The edge of the moon started bleeding red, and suddenly the sun as I know blasted back into being and we all simultaneously ducked and shielded our eyes. If you ever get to see a totality, do it. Lie, cheat , steal, kill, save up money for a trip, do whatever it takes to get there. Nothing in all my life compares to it.

Return of Old Yeller

I left my wax block at the curb, so I went back for it and rolled away with everything else I left behind last time. It's not about tricks, except when it is. It was another hot but not Taiwan hot, blue sky day with floaty white clouds. I skated the manny pad there for a while, but didn't get what I wanted. It's an american asphalt parking lot, so you can get pretty cheese grated if you have even the smallest fall. There are big cracks across the pavement and an asphalt lip on the egress that doesn't look like much, but will send you tumbling if you have any weight on the front truck when you land. I  carved down the hill towards the lake and decided I was so tired I couldn't keep going, so I went up the hill. My mother, bless her heart, was driving by and picked me up, with a twelve pack of local beer already in the car. Adulthood is better than adolescence.

Into the wilderness

After several weeks of not skating, I painted up a deck and slapped on some grip tape and banged the bearings place and screwed it all together got going. Skating in America, or at least in this place, is difficult. The roads are full of potholes and cracks, and littered with gravel and trash. The cars are much scarier to ride near, because Americans aren't very good drivers. There aren't many sidewalks, but there are lots of hills.This means bombing them and hoping there aren't any satanic pebbles or potholes in the way at the bottom, or carrying it the rest of the time. I skated (carried) my way out to a local park. It was a beautiful day, not hot, and blue sky. It's the kind of weather that only happens when I have dreams about America. There wasn't much to skate there, but I bombed some little hills, and tried out flat ground with the new set up and new shoes. I got frustrated, but I skated (carried) over to Old Yeller, which is a curb where many people learned to **-** some time ago. I didn't show much use since I was there last year, but it grinded alright. I spent the better part of an hour trying to get a ******, which was discouraging, even after  I landed one. A vandweller rolled up and asked me if I though she'd get in trouble for sleeping back there (back of a public pool parking lot). Then I rediscovered the manny pad there. It's great, for america, but it's got huge cracks, and it's downhill. Taipei's roads and sidewalks are so perfect. I honestly don't know how people skate street around here. It must take a special breed.