Unfortunately, I don't have lots of crazy stories yet. Sorry to disappoint. I did go on a pretty crazy hike with my brother-in-law Arthur though... About 10 miles down my peninsula, there's a hidden trail along Strawberry Creek that leads up to 100' cliffs commanding an awesome view of the town of Brunswick and the surrounding islands. Normally, I'd rappel down the cliffs and then climb up (it's a pretty long, tough climb... usually takes about 20 minutes!), but given that it was about 4 degrees, we refrained from jumping off any cliffs. Instead we slid down what I'd call a 4.7 route... probably a bad idea considering we had neither crampons nor ice-axes. or helmets for that matter. But we're both pretty coordinated, so we traipsed down through the 2+ feet of crusted powder to the water's edge. I knew that the area we were at turned into mud flats at low tide, and we could see it was low tide, so we walked on the ice a little bit, but soon we could hear the tide coming in... the popping and cracking of the ice told us. Sometimes the ice violently buckles and you actually have to watch out for flying ice chunks. We didn't catch any of that though.... Arthur was a bit alarmed when he realized that a puddle he had walked past had about doubled in size though...
Back at home, I built a snow-cave for the little bros. Not as cool as the igloo I saw at
bowdoin college this week, but pretty cool still (I heard they had a rave in the igloo?? Is that possible?)
Still no job, but the 100,000 or so people losing their jobs this week makes me feel a little less lame about that. Damn economy...
New Plan of the week (I told you it changes every week... I've come to accept my own
mercuriality)
-Get a new car
-W-EMT in North Conway, NH. Live at the Chalet during the duration of classes
-Work as EMT in local area
-Volunteer in Brazil w/a
WEMT group that visits remote villages along rivers bringing modern medicine to them, treating and medicating the sick and injured
-Fight fires as
WEMT in Western US
-Go back to
CGA next January
-Get Paramedic cert
-Graduate from
CGA, apply for
SEALs
-either go
SEALs,
TACLET, or suck up driving a ship for 5 yrs
-Get some land with ocean, mountain, river, meadow, build a sweet house
-Get Masters Degree in Forest Ecology and Parks/Recreation
Mgmt
-WORK IN THE WILD!
Woah! Yeah.... that's pretty radically different than before. I'm spending quite a bit of time lost in thought lately, and I've realized a few things that are pretty new for me
1. I want to have a house and land... might not sound that odd, but I've never wanted anything except to be greeted with a new horizon and new experiences every morning. Staying in one place for a long time is
un-natural for me.
2. I want to get married and have kids (some day). I guess I've never had any actionable thoughts on the subject till now... I've always thought of myself as a kid... not mature enough to have a family of my own. But I was
thinkin... a man used to be considered fully grown by the time he was 16. Although I guess that's cause 40 used to be considered old age. Hm...
3. I AM afraid of commitment. I never knew that. or at least admitted that. Darn it...
4. I look like I'm in shape whether or not I work out. I wish I had to keep up with working out and eat healthy to stay in shape (or at least look like it), but I really don't. Therefore, I dont' have that extra motivation of being able to actually see a real difference. Sure, losing a little bit of muscle tone that nobody besides me would notice is not something I want to do, but I wish somebody else could tell...
On cold weather and snow:
"A word from him drives on the south wind,
the angry north wind,
the hurricane and the storm.
He sprinkles the snow like fluttering birds;
it comes to settle like swarms of locusts.
Its shining whiteness blinds the eyes,
the mind is baffled by its steady fall.
He scatters frost like so much salt;
it shines like blossoms on the
thornbush.
Cold northern blasts he sends
that turn the ponds to lumps of ice.
He freezes over every body of water,
and clothes each pool with a coat of mail."
Salaamu aleykum
