The Golden Age Continues

we went home for the holidays. It's in the mid 20's down here, and the air is filthy with pollution. Although there are no clouds, the sun is a blotchy dingy golden brown area in the sky, and at night, you can see a pale ghostly triangles  hanging under the street lights, like the angel of death from 10 commandements movie. Everything appears sad and darker than normal, not unlike how things look under a partial eclipse. Colors and more subdued, and everyone coughs grey phlegm out of their lungs. No one wonder people down here are protesting the coal plant.

It was so unlike the good weather in Taipei that I didn't expect any good skateboarding. Add that to breaking in a new pair of shoes, and I expected the worst. I woke up to the stench of smoke that doesn't seem to come from anywhere, like being in a smokers' house. I went up the hill to the grey curbs and was astonished that I could not only do every curb variation I could think of, but also faster long and better than ever before.

I forgot my wax, so I was playing with Fire, and eventually, I got burned. The curbs arety painted and coped with a round price of plastic, so they slide well in most places of their 100 yard length. I vaught one of the crumbled places going as I've ever tried the trick, and feel onto the rough sidewalk above. I hadn't drawn blood ina awhile, so I didn't really mind.

It's a weird intensely urban but also intensely redneckery town, and I get all kinds of weird attention here. Apparently someone's been teaching the locals to say "hey man, what's up dude?" Because atleast a dozen people said that to me as they passed, but none of them would speak to me in English or Chinese after that. A tattooed man, maybe drunk or mentally ill or both, stumbled up and smoked cigarettes and ate binlang and growled Uuuuuuu-sssssssssssss-aaaaaaaaaaaaaa" at me every time I skated past him. He was trying to be an ass, and he saw I was trying ** ***** on the curb, so he sat there to try and make a confrontation. I just went around him; after all, I've got nearly a quarter mile of curb to work with. He kept growling the name of what he assumed is my country at me, and I slammed again, exactly on the same spot. I kept going a bit more, but ran out of water and got tired of the the sensation of skating next to a large dumpster fire. This place is absolutely disgusting with air pollution.

The local crew never showed up at the meet up spot, so I bombed the hill back home. It's a 20 minute roll that can be done without touching the ground, if traffic permits. This time it mostly did, but I can't wait to get rid of these shitty soft wheels.