Ozzie Ausband

Eve.

Priorities. This Christmas eve, I thought I had it all in order. Dawn patrol.  I started with a 5am wakeup, including coffee & warm fleece.  Bundled up, I hit the dark dawn highway. The backseat was stuffed with a pool pump, hoses, extension cords, generator, brooms, buckets, turkey baster (for getting in the drain), and other assorted tools & towels. One day,(back in 03) in the San Fernando valley, Steve Olson called me the “Martha Stewart of pool skating.” He had seen the assortment of stuff I carry. None of which is my original idea. Salba has been doing this much longer than I! Anyway, By 7am, I was in the deep end of a bent square nearby. I slipped down the waterfall & fell in. OMG! It was so cold! Then, I laughed at my stupidity & drove back home to change. I returned to the pool & the generator wouldn’t start. So, I took it by a repair shop that opened at 9am. The worker told me it was “iffy”, that it would be repaired today. I drove back to another pool & ended up with a real estate agent & the police department visiting me, on this fine Christmas eve. The law enforcement officer just wanted to be sure that I was not involved in the misappropriation of anothers property. He told me to”scram”, which I did. I decided to drive home & end the day by running 5 miles & doing crunches until I thought I’d puke up my spleen! Nice. Masochism. I did end up getting the generator repaired & draining a few today. I saw the sunset, as I drove back to the ‘highlands’. Christmas eve. Keeping it real. Skate-Ozzie