Snow skiing on July 4th? Believe it as several western ski resorts will be open

A summer that looks a whole lot more like winter has travelers across the West scrambling to revise their Fourth of July itineraries — or at least their packing lists.

Ski poles are replacing fishing poles at popular hiking and camping spots where late-winter snowstorms blanketed Western mountains from the Rockies to the Sierra Nevada.

"A lot of people are calling it the trifecta day, where they're going to ski in the morning, mountain bike in the afternoon, maybe do something on the lake in the evening," said Julie Mauer, a spokeswoman at Sierra ski resort Squaw Valley, which saw record-breaking snowfall this season. The resort plans to open four ski lifts on the upper mountain and promises free commemorative July 4 t-shirts to the first 5,000 guests who show up on Monday.

In preparation of Independence Day skiing, a snow cat grooms one of the trails at Alpine Meadows Ski Resort 

At Crystal Mountain, south of Seattle, spokeswoman Justus Harris said she expected to see "a lot of bikini tops" out on the slopes. The National Weather Service is predicting mostly sunny skies on the mountain on July 4, with a high near 59 degrees. The mountain hasn't been open this late in the year since 1999.

California's Alpine Meadows will be open Independence Day weekend for the first time since 1995, and for just the second time in its 50-year history, said spokeswoman Rachael Woods.

At Snowbird in Utah, where upper runs have remained open every weekend, resort operators are even considering trying to extend the season through July 24 for Pioneer Day, a Utah state holiday that generally sees a lot of travel, said spokeswoman Emily Moench.

"I keep telling people how good the skiing still is, which they find unbelievable until they actually get up here," she said.

Kitten Survives Long Trip In Car Air Filter

SPRINGFIELD, Vt. -- A girl has a new pet and a mechanic has a novel story after finding a kitten trapped inside a car's air filter in Springfield, Vt.

"I brought in a car for service, opened up the hood, went to check the air filter, and saw a big ball of fur in the air filter. And it was breathing," said mechanic Jim Perry.

Perry said he's found some strange things in car air filters, but the kitten was the strangest.

"I've found mice in there. That's pretty common. But finding a little kitten? That's nothing I ever expected to find," said Perry.

The fur turned out to be a kitten, one that had taken a 200 mile trip up from Connecticut wedged in air filter.

The kitten was scared and a bit stinky, but the mechanics cleaned it up and got it something to eat.

"It was pretty nervous. After a while of being out in the box, we got it some food, and now it kind of cries whenever somebody goes near it," said Perry.

The animal soon found a new family with one of the autoworkers.

"I can only walk by him and hear him meow a couple times. I've got a big heart for him," said Josh Webster. "I have a daughter. She's in first grade, and her birthday's coming up. So this is what she's going to get."

Webster's daughter, Jayna, said she was ecstatic at the new friend -- named Yukon after the car in which he was stuck.

"I'm really excited. I love it," said Jayna.

The First Car to 3 Million Miles?

Modern cars can do over 100,000 miles without pausing for breath. If you really pile on the miles, you might have 200,000 or even 300,000 miles on the clock. If the car Gods are really shining on you, you might have managed more than half a million.

Prepare to feel insignificant. Irv Gordon from East Patchogue, New York, and his 1966 Volvo P1800, have completed over 2.9 million miles together. If you're after an arbitrary comparison to offer some perspective, that's around six round-trips to the moon, or over 116 circumnavigations of Earth.

It also equates to an average of a staggering 64,444 miles per year since Irv took delivery of the car, five years after its launch in 1961. The beautiful P1800 is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year.

Irv hasn't gone easy on the car. Upon taking delivery back in '66 he drove it 1,500 miles in the first two days and had already amassed half a million miles in the first decade - far more than most cars do in a lifetime. Of course, though the car has proved itself time and time again, Irv is religious with maintenance and the car receives all the attention you'd expect it to.

By 1998 Gordon and his Volvo had made it into the Guinness Book of World Records at 1.69 million miles, more than anyone else in a single-owner non-commercial vehicle, and by 2002 they'd reached 2 million miles. It also means Irv is in the enviable position of breaking records with every mile he drives.

Three million miles is easily within reach, and Gordon expects to hit that target in the next couple of years. "In honor of the P1800's 50th anniversary, I'd like to reaffirm my goal of reaching three million miles within the next two years" explains Gordon.

It's not only Irv's record we envy, though. Very few people can claim to have owned the same vehicle for so long - never tiring of it, always giving it the attention it requires and enjoying so many journeys.

Whilst undoubtedly a testament to the quality and reliability of the Volvo, it's also a testament to the excellence of the automobile and what can be achieved.

JOKE: Party Problem

At a big cocktail party, an obstetrician' s wife noticed another guest, a big, over sexed blonde, was making overtures at her husband. It was a large, informal gathering, so she tried to laugh it off until she saw them disappear into a bedroom together. At once she rushed into the room, pulled the two apart and screamed, "Look lady! My husband just delivers babies, he doesn't INSTALL them!"

GOT CAPTION? 7/1 v.2.0

GOT CAPTION? 7/1

Stunning photos and video capture 221 MPH drag race crash

Two weeks ago, photographer Mark J. Rebilas set up to shoot drag races in Bristol, Tenn. What he got was a front-row seat to a fiery crash that nearly took out both cars. Here is his stunning gallery.

The crash came during a Pro Modified run of the NHRA Thunder Valley Nationals between driver Roger Burgess in his 1967 Firebird and Kenny Ross. Burgess crossed the finish line traveling 221 mph when he lost control and veered across the track, barely clipping Ross' parachute before smashing into the retaining wall in a ball of flame.

Burgess' only injury was a bruised heel. Check out the rest of Rebilas' impressive photos from the race, and a video of the crash in jarringly quick real time.

VA pays $925,000 in exploding eyeball suit

The U.S. Department of Veterans Affairs agreed Monday to pay $925,000 to a man whose eyeball exploded during a routine outpatient cataract operation at the West Haven, Connecticut Veterans Affairs hospital.

The settlement, on behalf of 60-year-old Jose Goncalves, of Hartford, was reached as the case was being prepared for trial in U.S. District Court here.

"Jose suffered excruciating pain after that botched surgery and continued to have severe pain for months afterward," said Christopher Bernard, Goncalves' lawyer. "The damage to the eye is obvious because his iris is missing and his eyelid droops. If anything should ever happen to the undamaged left eye, he could face total blindness."

Veterans Affairs did not immediately return calls for comment.

According to the lawsuit, Goncalves was blinded in his right eye when a third-year resident at the VA hospital incorrectly administered an anesthetic during the Nov. 1, 2007, procedure.

Bernard said Dr. Yue Michelle Wang, the resident, incorrectly placed a needle with a local anesthetic "directly into Jose's eye instead of behind the eye as was proper. Then, failing to recognize her error, she proceeded to inject so much anesthetic, so quickly, that Jose's eye literally exploded."

Goncalves, who had worked as a roofer prior to the injury, now suffers from a significant lack of depth perception, making him completely unable to resume his previous occupation, Bernard said.

http://www.ctpost.com/local/article/VA-pays-925-000-in-Bridgeport-exploding-eyeball-1441938.php

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VIDEO: Watch the Exciting Pike's Peak Record Breaking Run..You're Right There!

I will freely admit that I am infatuated with this event. For sheer thrills and terror, nothing comes close. The very idea of hurtling up a 14,000 foot mountain sideways with 1000+ foot drop-offs at nearly every turn really gets the adrenaline pumping. The king of the hill in recent years is Nobuhiro "Monster" Tajima. Take a ride on the roof with Monster Tajima in the GoPro sponsored Suzuki Sx4 as he breaks his own personal record at Pikes Peak with a time of 9:51 and becomes the first person to break the 10 minute barrier over the 12.2 mile course, reaching speeds of nearly 150 miles per hour in a 1000 horsepower twin turbo charged all wheel drive specially built Suzuki.

The Pikes Peak International Hill Climb (PPIHC), also known as The Race to the Clouds, is an annual automobile and motorcycle hillclimb to the summit of Pikes Peak in Colorado, a distance of 19.99 km (12.42 miles) over 156 turns, climbing 1,439 meters (4,721 ft) from the start at Mile 7 on Pikes Peak Highway at 2,862 meters (9,390 ft) on grades averaging 7% over both gravel and paved sections.

It has taken place since 1916 and is currently contested by a variety of classes of Cars, Trucks, Motorcycles and Quads. There are often numerous new classes tried and discarded year-to-year.

On average there are 150 competitors. The oldest current class is the Open Wheel division which has been run since 1916 and has been won by such names as Mario Andretti, Al Unser, Bobby Unser, and Robby Unser (the current class record holder, achieving 10:05.85 min in 1994).

There was also one driver who had less than a "Monster" run up the mountain. Bobby Regester raced his modified Pontiac Sunfire to victory at Pikes Peak in the past, but this time he made a small miscalculation and literally drove off the mountain. It is one of the scariest crashes you'll ever see.

Pikes Peak rewards fearless driving and punishes it in dramatic fashion.

Climbing a narrow path at speeds exceeding 100 mph along the edge of the mountain tests the limits of both car and driver. Regester, despite having a lot of experience driving the mountain, reached the limit of one or both and suffered by crashing down Pikes Peak.

In an example of just how dangerous this can be he lucked out enough to hit a rock, which stopped him from flying over the next crest. Somehow, he walked away from the crash.