Monday, October 30, 2006

shit pea suit


d-man crapped his costume shortly after this picture.....trick or treat!! happy halloween to all and to all a good shite.

Tuesday, October 24, 2006

toejob


i have a request for everyone.. a task at hand, a journey into thought... so the last blog, the hiking failure, the toe incident. well per a blog comment, the ordeal may have been a metaphor or a window (that is my paraphrase) into another journey i will have or am having concurrently.. im interested in this idea and would like some input?? the toe of the broken nature is the soul brother to the bird finger?? does that help? what possibly could the toe represent, or the hike.. and the breaking of or the the failure to conclude?? thanks:)

Sunday, October 22, 2006

puss in boots



so im back from my appalachian trail "adventure".... an if you know me that word always seems to have a twist:). i got to the trail head (not marked) right on time 1:00 pm. (virgo) the parking was not what i envisioned, a pull off on a little road at sams gap. the weather was cloudy but i had expected that, as weather.com posted rain for tuesday. while gearing up a photographer cat came up and wanted to take my picture, is agreed. he said he was and has been documenting the changes to that area for the last 20 years... he warned me both of my car and the weather but i moved on. 7.8 miles, 2.5 hours later and at the big bald shelter, it was pouring rain. that weekend i had to make a shoe decision i hated to make, but when i went out in my new alico hiking boots, that friday, i got a small blister after 5 miles (all my hand breaking in work, failed me). andrew had a 10 year old pair of good hiking boots that were my size so i committed to those. well at the top of the bald, thinking i was going to wait out the rain, i took of my boots to access my feet and found 4 nice blisters... both heals and a couple of toes... so i began to ponder the words of old boy down the hill. after an hour, i got nervous about the weather, my truck and my feet... only to retreat 7.8 mile to the car, getting there by 6:30. i tried to find a place to camp, hoping the rain would let up, but ended up driving 30 miles back to asheville to get a room in the "mountaineer inn":) and the cardinal game kept me company quiet awsomely:) it rained for the next 2 days, with temps in the 30-50's and needless to say i ended up in andrews apartment in banner elk, nc early and by truck (20 miles west of boone, where he teaches at lee's mccrea college). i had a blast there, learning about the ski culture of sugar mountain (the south east biggest and best resort) i met the town drink and lot of the locals, wed night at the corner bar. i scouted out the best places to hike and was ready for the good weather to come.. thursday morning i took tex down to the river just outside of his apartment door, to rock hop for a bit, which ended up with a broken toe, after slipping on a wet rock and mixed feelings of defeat and youth (i havent broken a toe in 20 years;) andrew, vic and dante arrived in banner elk thursday evening to rescue my feelings and we continued to have a blast and explore the area... by car and truck:) tex seemed to handle his gear well for the 15+ miles but later that week i noticed his under side was rubbed raw by the pack straps, and i think i felt worse about that than all the other... we have both recovered wonderfully and have been smiling ever since:)

queens of harmony


last weekend in las vegas my sister and her chorus from dallas, texas, the richtones, won the international sweet adelines competition and are the 2006 chorus champions... the coolest thing about this, other than most of the family was with her in vegas to capture and celebrate the occasion, is that my mother, also a international chorus champion circa 1984, won her medal with the scottsdale chapter also in vegas. i listened to the winning performance on webcast and was very moved and proud of my oldest sister, i know my mother was beside herself. jenifer has been singing with the sweet adelines for many many years and finally got a chance to win big this year after moving to tyler and joining the dallas (richardson) chapter...congrats big sis:)

Sunday, October 15, 2006

hillbilly


headed out in the morning for a five day hike in the mountains of north carolina.. taking the tex man and pushing the body a bit. the weather looks good except for one day i may get some rain, plenty of shelters on the appalacian trail, so ill be good that way, but this city boy will learn some things for sure:)

Wednesday, October 11, 2006

do you see what i see...


its crazy the intensity a little child can have...but every thing they do is fairly intense... eat, cry, play, stare, laugh, wiggle, pee and poop.... even the way the chill out is deep:)

Tuesday, October 10, 2006

training camp


so i was planning on hiking the 75 miles section of the AT (appalachian trail) next week... but you have no idea how difficult it is to get back to your car:) so i have changed the plans, to a 75 mile portion of the AT on the tennessee, north carolina border. ill pick the trail up north of asheville and hit it hard for 5 days trying to get to elk park, which is 8 miles west of boone, where andrew and vic will pick me up. (they will be in boone for the weekend) so the "bird" dog and the "city" boy are going to go sniff out a part of the trail that was used heavily by the cherokee indians, before they got kicked over to oklahoma. i dont have anything specific im trying to find in nature or inside myself on this trip, but secretly im hoping i will find something i wasn't expecting:)

Tuesday, October 03, 2006

enough said



and they think this country is going to go to "hell in a hand basket" because of same sex marriages??? wow....