Friday, July 03, 2009

Can't Hold Camera Steady...Too Funny



Story behind vid (taken from prior post):

I've been to the High Roller several times in the last few years, most notably with Shanon in 2005. He hadn't been skating in years and was excited to get back on the horse. We went there in the early evening on a Saturday and put our skates on. I brought my camcorder so that I would have a permanent record of the place. I waited for Shanon to get out there, so I could tape his first few steps. There were mostly kids skating. The song playing was, "Save a Horse, Ride a Cowboy". Shanon was tentative at first, going quite slowly. He fell down almost immediately, but got right back up. He went a few more yards, then fell again.

Now, I've always prided myself on being steady with the camera. You know how sometimes when you're watching "America's Stupidest Home Videos", you watch something funny happen and the person with the camera taping it starts shaking the camera uncontrollably after he sees something funny that he has just taped? I wasn't like that. If an explosion happened in front of me, I would keep the camera perfectly steady so that future viewers of my tape would admire my skills. But when Shanon fell for the 3rd time in 45 seconds and his cell phone fell out of his pocket, I was laughing so hard that the camera shook a bit.

An employee came out and asked if he was alright. He stopped and told him that he hadn't skated in quite a while. A minute later, he exited the rink. He had some blood on his hand from one of the falls he took and went into the bathroom to wash it off. He didn't have the balls to return to the rink. He called his brother and changed back into his tennis shoes. I skated for a good hour while he watched and had a bite to eat. On the ride home, Shanon said that he wished we had gone bowling instead.

7 comments:

Maggie Moo said...

Am I allowed to say that I think it's hysterical that 2 grown men went roller skating on a Saturday night? :)

Maggie Moo said...

(And still have you love me!?)

Thomas said...

No need to worry, Mags. My love for you is unconditional, though if one day you become a fan of Sarah Palin, I MIGHT have to reconsider. :P

Rocketstar said...

I recently went with my 5 year old to a birthday party, I did quite well although i thik my ice skating experience really helped me out.

I do find it kind of scary when I see the seedy older males in their early twenties at these places, like wolves at the slaughter waiting for some unsuspecting young lass. I would not allow my daughter to 'hang out' at these places.

Timothy Smith said...

Tom, that brings back some old memories for sure. I did this charity thing for few years where I went door to door and signed up sponsors. The agreed to donate a certain amount per mile I managed at the rink, like 1 cent, or a nickel etc.

Then we went skated all day for the event, you went for 50 minutes and hour. They calculated how long it too to skate a mile etc. Then I went back and collected the donations.

I skated for the whole 6-8 hours, I was so sore after.

I actually collected a good amount for charity.

The real reason I did it was they had a "Star Castle" machine at the place and I loved feeding it quarters.

Do they let roller blades there now?

Thomas said...

Rocket, when I was a youngun, people of all ages went to the roller rink. It was somewhat disheartening to see that this is apparently no longer the case.

Tim, my muscles were fairly sore after skating an hour on that Saturday night in 2005. I think it was because there were certain parts I was working that didn't typically get utilized.

I can only imagine what it was like after going more than 6 hours. You sure did some good deeds as a youngster. Kudos.

I also loved playing arcade games at the rink which reminds me, a movie based on the old-school videogame "Asteroids" is in the works. Choice quote from one of my favorite movie websites:

"As long as it has a triangle-shaped ship blow up big asteroid chunks into little asteroid chunks and an occasional UFO that sounds like a discotheque, we're all good."

A remake of TRON is also coming.

As far as roller blades, I'd say more than half of the kids that night were on them. They are a good deal lighter than the skates that High Roller rents out.

Jo said...

I had no idea that High Roller was still open! I might have to take the kids.