Santa and Skating to Work up Pleasant Hill

eebee's picture
Submitted by eebee on Fri Jan 26 2007 12:11pm
0

Yesterday Santa Claus came into the office where I work, to buy some German products. No kidding. A  man with silky long white hair and beard walked in, said he was Santa and that he'd ambled 2.5 miles from the Waffle House up on Pleasant Hill Road. And no, not in the snow. It was on the tip of my tongue to ask "What, no reindeer?".

 

This jolly fella has legally changed his name to Santa Claus and has shunned most modern conveniences. When I came back to my desk, there was his business card. His address? Why, the North Pole, of course. Visitors from South Africa couldn't believe their eyes, and sputtered "Only in America!". 

 

Imagining Santa trudging up Pleasant Hill Road in Duluth sent me off on a recurring daydream-thread of if and how I could safely skate to work. As my legs hang uselessly off my car seat on my morning commute, the lack of physical activity grieves me to the extent that I can practically hear my muscles atrophying. Scouting for sidestreets and footpaths the best I can without rear-ending a truck, I have noticed a resemblance of a sidewalk on the westbound carriageway of Pleasant Hill, which stretches almost the whole way, uninterrupted, from the end of Ronald Reagan Pkwy, up to Old Norcross Rd (about 4 miles). For those who're familiar with the A2A 87 mile course, you may have noticed the sidewalk on the eastbound side on that terrifying stretch before the turn onto Burns Road. Well that part of the sidewalk has been obliterated in the name of a new condo development next to the Lowes.

 

Initially I had hoped to post about this skating-to-work venture of mine once I had actually tried it. However, after much brain-wracking, map-searching, scouting and ensuing hopelessness, I have found that my twisty commute through friendly subdivisions between Grayson, GA and Duluth, GA doesn't exist! Come to think of it, I'm not sure 'friendly' and 'subdivision' even belong in the same sentence around here! I guess one option is for me to drive about 10 miles to work, park my car and skate the remaining 7 miles on a partially jack-hammered sidewalk, but that's not really all-or-nothing enough for me :-)

 

Well Santa made it in tact up Pleasant Hill Rd., at least once, but then - who's gonna have the heart to knock over Santa where the sidewalk's lacking?

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roadskater's picture

Skip Santa and Buy from the Skating Elf

Submitted by roadskater on Fri Jan 26 2007 8:56pm.

Skating Elf here, with shameless promotion of Roadskater.net website fund here. Santa's good and all that but if he's in Georgia well he must have given up on the North Pole! Let me say that if even Santa's farming out work, you might as well make your purchases from a Skating Elf instead...me! (No eebee didn't write this note as a setup, 'cause I'd never have her promote another guy no matter how silver-bearded or crafty!)

You can buy Santa's European and South African products via RSN and have all the profit aimed at supporting Roadskater.net if you wish...just put that wish in the note field of your payment.

I've updated the main Shop & Support RSN (Roadskater.net) page to reflect this information, but to take a look at over 300 other ways to help by just shopping, check it out. Let me know if I can help.

So, for those the least bit interested, a variety of German, Polish, South African and other mostly European products is available from these (my) sites that help support Roadskater.net...put a message in the note and all the profits will go to supporting the site:

  • BlakeLambert.com has a variety of items below.
  • KosenUSA.com and KoesenUSA.com offer handmade realistic plush stuffed animals by Kösen (as they say in Germany: Kösener Spielzeug Manufaktur, Plüschtiere und Stoffpuppen, Kuscheltiere aus Bad Kösen für Sammler, Kinder und Kleinkinder. In the USA, known as Kosen or by the slightly more astute, Koesen).
  • BritaPitcherFilters.com and AnnaWaterFilters.com offer universal replacement water filter pitcher filters by Brita (not Britta) and PUR (not pure) filter pitchers.
  • Discobeds.com offers sturdy bunkable Disc-O-Bed (discobed) army cots that set up quickly and stow away even more quickly.
  • CDDVDCases.com and EjectorCases.com offer unique side-trigger soft plastic Ejector kick-out CD/DVD cases.
  • EmergencyScissors.com and RobinSafetyBoy.com offer the Robin Safety Boy EMT Safety Scissors...Yes Ma, you can run with scissors.
  • GermanScissors.com and KretzerScissors.com offer a full line of German-made, Kretzer Solingen steel scissors, which are the best I've ever used. There really is a difference between these and Chinese made items with brands you know stamped on.
  • IkebanaShears.com offers the perfect tool from Kretzer of Germany for the Japanese flower art.
  • KevlarScissors.com offers the scissors NASA and others have used to cut Kevlar, the Kretzer Finny Alpha 73020/1 Kevlar industrial shears.
  • BergerSeidle.com offers Berger-Seidle America's select polyurethane finishes and other environmentally sensitive flooring products from one of the leaders in the world for immaculate floor finishes. The products include waterborne fillers and sealers like AquaChoice GelFill, TrowelFiller, FlexSealer, Omnigold satin and semi-gloss, plus 2KPU satin and semi-gloss finish, BSA L93 non-slip floor care maintenance and BSA L94 water-based floor care cleaner. Also popular is ToughSeal matching caulking for filling natural floors before refinishing and repairs.
  • BosseFlowerPouches.com offers rugged Bosse flower pouches for vertical gardening applications.
  • MovieTechABC.com offers MovieTech and ABC Products inertial stabilization, dollies and cranes for handheld, DV, television and film production.

Just for fun, for testing, for hope, to help, or other silly or not reasons:

  • HungryAngryLonelyTired.com points to useful addiction recovery resources (I hope to improve this as it's very basic now).
  • Skatebay.com is an optimized search for speed skating and other inline skate products, plus cycling clothing, helmets, GPS, HRM and more.
  • Spokebay.com is an optimized cycling search (still much like skate bay).
  • Skygasm.com is a search for Saturn Sky and Pontiac Solstice items on eBay.
  • Some more names to play with, hopefully subject to change:
    • RSNshop.com amazon test oddly names RSN2shop
    • RSN2shop.com shop in support of Roadskater.net.
    • Buygasm.com eBay Pulse gateway to support Roadskater.net.
    • Shopasm.com eBay Keywords gateway to support Roadskater.net.
    • AcquireMoreDebt.com for future expansion, perhaps for advice to stay out of debt with offers to get into more!

Roadskater.net is always free of course, but if you'd like to help, jump in! If you make a purchase via one of the other companies shown on Roadskater.net in graphic ads, send me a note if you feel like it so I'll know to track it to make sure the donation goes to the site.

Above all, no worries. Skateylove, sorry for the trouble, and thanks for the help.

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