I am outta here like Vladmir

Dear Mom,

I will not be blogging, probably, for the next week or so.  Please don't fret.  I may put up entries at Trailjournals.com, if I have signal.  In any event, Happy Mothers Day!  Probably I will be in a no cell zone that day so have some virtual hugs now.

Dear everybody else,

Piss off.

Okay, I didn't really mean that.  But if the world would go away, or even just back off for a while, that would be nice.  It has been really freaking busy out and I need to go somewhere quiet and lonesome with a good friend and just chill the hell out. 

Unfortunately, I think the trail will probably be pretty crowded.  Trail Days time around Damascus is prime time for current thruhikers actually hiking through, and also old thruhikers reliving their glory days.  As I will be doing.  Although I don't know about the glory, seeing as my hike turned into a very extended section hike as opposed to a thruhike.  But I plan to enjoy it anyway.

My POINT is that I am going hiking and will not be partaking, so much, of the wonders of civilization for a few days.  First I have to get through tomorrow at the office, which promises to be super busy.  But then.. Mwahaha!  It is just me and the wilds and DeLee and some Kahlua and approximately seven thousand other hikers!

Honestly at the moment I'm only hoping for two things.  1) My spine doesn't fall out.  2) I can find a flat place to put my tent at night, probably wedged up next to a man nicknamed Chainsaw.  (All hikers nicknamed Chainsaw are very loud snorers, FYI.)

Then, once we are thoroughly exercised and sunburnt and covered in poison ivy, and possibly triumphant, DeLee and I will merge with the stinky masses of hikers in Damascus and we will be with My People.  People with names like Little Aspen and Leapfrog and Slowride, and Toothpick and G Hippie and Cody.  And many, many others I hope.  If I can remember I will take many pictures. 

PS It was really nice here today.

I love it when that big tree behind the house leafs out

If this picture had smell-o-vision, you would be sighing in happiness right now, like I was.

Blue sky.  Not grey.  Blue.

I don't have a catchy title

Today was pretty stressful.  I was fine until I got the dog to the hospital and then had to leave her there.  It brought back bad memories of leaving Paige for surgery and never seeing her again.  (However Beauty is now home safe and sound.)  Poochie had an ultrasound today.  The results were, of course, inconclusive.  She has thickening of intestinal walls but they don't know why.  So next week she gets to go back for endoscopy and biopsies.  If that is also inconclusive I am going to have a small but vigorous hissy fit.

Those hours when I was home and there was no dog in the house were not happy hours. 

Also, Mom is still in the hospital.  She is having unexpected complications.  Today's was hallucinations caused by Percoset.  Note to self:  no Percoset for Mom.  So now she's on a different drug but until she's basically stable she stays at the hospital.  Dad went out to get her something worth eating, as the hospital food is predictably horrible.  I must say that she sounded a ton better on the phone today, though.  It was good to hear her sound like herself.

So anyway JD and I are both looking forward to the weekend very much. Sleeping in sounds good, for one thing.  And maybe a non-vomiting doggie (we think today was her bad day so we should have a couple of good ones ahead of us.)  Of course, this is also "try to get neighbors to sign the speed hump petition" weekend.  But a couple of hours should take care of covering the block.  I hope.  I've never tried getting someone to sign a petition before.  Does it take long?

After that there's hiking near Harper's Ferry, and finally the afterwards:  Fondue Hut!  Or the Melting Pot, as some people call it.  I can really only justify a visit to that place after an activity like hiking.  There's no really good way to go low calorie at a fondue place.  :)

If the weather isn't too horrible I might even get to ride my horse.  Make that "if the weather and the horse aren't too horrible".  He may still be punishing me for not paying enough attention to him over the winter.  He does that.  He has too much character, especially in the jerk department.  So wish me luck.  Think forgiving horse thoughts for me.

I hate you, world. Better give me a coke.

I kind of hated everything today.  I overdid it yesterday and it shows.  I was tired and hungry.  So, I slacked on the exercise and I ate. 

This could have one of three effects.  1) No effect.  Tomorrow same as every day.  2) I will gain a pound as my body objects to the abuse.  3) I will lose a pound as my body unclenches from its famished state.

I should find out tomorrow.  :)

I was craving a cold coke so I got one with lunch.  This is kind of a huge deal.  I don't really do caffeine, nor do I normally do real sugar.  And the soda tasted like syrup.  I don't remember it tasting that way!  I drank it but it didn't really hit the spot like I hoped it would.  The caffeine helped though.  I could feel its effects throughout the afternoon.  Also?  The Reuben I had for lunch was just what I needed.  Morally, anyway.

Then I came home and had half a pizza for dinner.  Yay diet.


So.  Things learned today.  A)  Cokes really only taste good when I'm hiking.  B) It is tough to beat a Reuben.  Actually I knew the second one already.

Dad put Mom on the phone for a few minutes this evening.  She is pretty fuzzy with all the pain killers, but she knows she's hurting.  I feel bad for her, but she says today is better than yesterday so I figure tomorrow will be better than today.  Prior to the surgery she wasn't worrying about the pain (which is good, worry solves nothing) but I figured she would be in intense pain afterward.  And indeed she is.  Throwing out your lower back sucks because everything but your eyelids is attached to it.  And she effectively had the worst back sprain in the world inflicted on her.

With luck, therapy, and good drugs, she'll be feeling much better in a week or two.

Community enforced humping

We had a community meeting tonight regarding speed humps.  Somebody on our street requested them.  The county will put them in, but only if 60% of the residents on our street agree to sign a petition in favor of speed humps.  JD and I volunteered to petition one of the blocks, so I'm going to be meeting some neighbors soon. We won't be petitioning on our block, unfortunately.  Other neighbors on our block also volunteered, so our block is taken care of. 

I doubt I've ever met most of the people on the next block, because a busy thoroughfare divides our blocks.  I hope people come to the door when I knock.  At least they probably won't think I'm proselytizing.  I don't dress that nicely.

I would be really happy if traffic on our street were less.  And if it obeyed the speed limit.  And if trucks obeyed the "no trucks" sign.  Speed humps will likely accomplish all of that, to a great extent.  And if not I might start requesting occasional enforcement of the "no trucks" signage.  Many many of them go down the street every day, and I've never seen a ticket given.  Not for that, or for the speeding.  The vast majority of cars are going at about 40 mph on a 25 mph street.  The two days when they came out to see what conditions were like, the road management guys found cars going over 60 mph!  And that's on a narrow street with no shoulders, no curbs, no sidewalks, but WITH ditches so you can't even step off the road easily.  So dangerous.  Sigh.

Ah well.  If I wanted to be safe I could have moved somewhere with sidewalks.  But I had to have my dang Victorian with the prettiness and the character and the no uniform anything.  Because who wants life to be easy?

PS Mom's surgery went well.  Thanks for the positive thoughts.

PPS Meeting neighbors wasn't all good.. one of them got right up my nose.  What a dillhole.  Fortunately he doesn't live on my block.