Altered States

Well, we were going to wake up early this morning and go for a drive to the mountains. However, one of the maternity wards where Carole works called her at 11:00 pm and asked her to come in and work. So she didn't get home until about 7:00 am. No drive to the mountains for us.

Ate breakfast alone. Took Lilly outside in the cold air and let her romp around in the yard. Drank some coffee. When Carole finally wakes up we're going to visit her mom since we haven't seen her in two weeks and she's getting lonely.

Some day, I hope, we can retire and travel about as we wish. Of course this is the USA, where retirement is largely a pipe dream.

Cholla cactus in Joshua Tree National Park. Pretty to look at, but don't you dare get stuck by one. Takes pliers to get the needles out!

The World Often Sucks

Yesterday I was supposed to attend a Halloween party at the home of my friend Budd Root. Been planning this for weeks.

The world did not cooperate.

First thing that happened was that when I got in to work I was forced to work overtime. This sucks, since I'm not on the overtime desired list, but as I can be forced to do this, well, I didn't have a choice if I want to keep my job.

So I get off work two hours later than usual.

Get home to find Carole sick. I volunteer to stay home but she sends me on to Budd's telling me that she can call if she needs me.

Finally get washed up and head to the local grocery for beer and munchies. Had to wait in line for five minutes while someone went to find two pennies for the customer in front of me. Get my purchase and head to the truck and get on the road to Budd's.

After two miles of driving I notice traffic is slowing. Then it stops completely.

Ahead, there are sirens and flashing lights and all of the signs of a really bad accident. Weirdly, the way to Budd's is along a main artery and to get there via any other route is long and circuitous. At any rate, I'm stuck in a line of chrome that won't move, so I don't have any options.

Finally, after twenty minutes I'm able to creep up to an intersection where traffic is also jammed, but I'm able to make a right turn. By this time I'm three hours late to the party and realize that getting there will require at least 45 minutes of driving.

Fuck it. I call Budd to cancel and go home to take care of Carole.

Some days it doesn't pay to try to make any plans at all.

Sorry, Budd!

On the upside, I surprised myself by knocking out 2,000 words on my young adult project. Now I need to send it on to my agent so that he can tell me if I'm on the right track as far as style.

You Want Plans? We Got Plans.

“Life is what happens to you while you're busy making other plans”.--John Lennon

Pilot Mountain, North Carolina.

This has been one of the worst years for me in the past few as far as traveling to wilderness areas and parks is concerned. We've had some good trips, but nowhere near as many as in a normal year. Part of it was the very minor damage I did to my travel trailer. It was just a stuck door (now repaired), but it kept us from feeling comfortable in taking it for a trip. Just the idea of struggling with the door every time we wanted to go in or out seemed more than we wanted to deal with. So we sat on our vacation time until we could spend it the way we wanted.

Now, our planned trip to Acadia National Park in Maine had to be canceled. Carole is having surgery which finally got scheduled (surprise!) on the very week we were planning to be in Maine. Alas! Acadia is one of the most beautiful places Carole and I have ever been, and we dearly wanted to return there. Perhaps we'll make a winter trip. She'll be recovered well enough from the surgery for us to make a more modest trip in mid-September, so we'll go somewhere then.

Me, in Acadia, overlooking Jordan Pond from South Bubble.

We've been reviewing possibilities for our next jaunt with the trailer. We love using it as a base camp. It's perfect for me as I can often hike right out of our campsite on a nearby trailhead that will take me to some mountaintop or down to a waterfall or over a ridge into a virgin forest. So we've been looking at our options within the North Carolina/Tennessee/Virginia/West Virginia areas. We'll find a great place where we've never been and have a chance to get out of the city for a while. It's what keeps us going.