phik

I just returned from an excellent trip to the edge of the Wapto ice field with Peter and his brother Branko. The hike from the road is about two and a half hours to the Bow hut, and takes roughly the same route that we took on skis last March. I enjoyed this hike substantially more than I enjoyed the trip up on skis, partly because I’m much better at walking than skiing, and partly because I’m in OK shape now. Next time, however, I am remembering to bring my earplugs and blindfold with me.

We though that it would be yet another weather-aborted trip, but we were lazy enough about eating breakfast and packing up that the weather broke in time for us to walk a couple of hours up the snow and onto the glacier. To give you an idea, in this picture, do you see the road down there past the lake? We started roughly there.

Our original goal was to try for Mount Olive or Mount Nicholas, but the approaching storm clouds looked pretty ominous, so we headed back. [note that going down the mountain through relatively fresh snow was very fun --ed] It snowed on us most of the way back, then turned to light rain when we got closer to the lake. After all of last night’s rain, there was a lot of pretty blue water rushing down the mountain.

I’m visiting my folks and apparently my schedule change caused me to miss the entire weather carnage of the last week. It’s a shame, really, even though my parents were without power for two days. We just don’t get storms like that in Boston, or in my experience, at all.

I spent an hour or so helping to chainsaw and load the branches into a truck to haul out to the pond tomorrow. Doing yardwork is remarkably relaxing, in very small doses. As soon as I have to do that shit every week, I know what I’m paying the kid next door to do.

Home for a few days and it is gorgeous, at least for this particular instant. I’m waiting for the other shoe to drop. Simon is pretty excited to see me, and not at all surly, which is surprising.

We played hockey today and Jacob hit Joey in his business. Also my new pads are too big. Further bulletins as events warrant.

The 4th Family Guy DVD is, hands down, the best of those released so far. I think we watched it three times last night.

Light a tree on fire then pee it out…

I gave my talk today, and it was excellent, the best talk I’ve given in years. Of course, perfectly in sync with my kind of luck, this is the first year that they’re not recording them.

Of course, I did get to use Jacob’s quote about the Matrix.

I don’t know what Jacob’s talking about: M.C. Hammer has been stalking me for months.