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On Saturday, as I was packing the car to leave Ossipee, I got a call from the organizer of my Geek Club.
"Hey. Burson. Where are you?"
"Umm, New Hampshire... $#!7, was I supposed to be somewhere??
"...You went to New Hampshire all by yourself???"
I'll leave out the next couple minutes of conversation. Eventually, I got it across to him that I'd been in NH for a week at my aunt's cabin; he reminded ME that I'd signed up for a hiking trip, back when it was still a theoretical possibility without a set date or, indeed, a set hike. It had now, of course, been set as Today, at Arathusa Falls.
I weighed a possibly-sprained knee and a carful of perishable leftovers and laundry, again missing yet ANOTHER meetup (and presumably doing some cool stuff).
"...Ah, what the heck. When are we meeting?"
And so, when I got on the road, it was in a very different direction than expected. One that would ultimately take me over Bear Notch Road, because (a) I'd been by it a million times but never been over it before, and (b) when the traffic on Conway is backed up all the way to the Kanc., you avoid the HECK out of that town.
Once we finally all got there, I had the unusual experience of being the slow one that everyone has to wait for while hiking. But my knee failed to turn sideways and kill me, and eventually we got to the falls.
One of these years, I will go to Arethusa Falls when there's actually a decent amount of water going over it. I mean, it's impressive even after a couple of weeks of drought, but...
I made better time on the way down - the hike seemed to have loosened up my knee, rather than making it worse - and so I got to participate in the conversations about [resident Brony]'s epic trip to Ireland, and his unexpectedly drug-addled past.
[North] Conway traffic also accounted for why we wound up stopping at a barbecue place on the way back, rather than getting Thai food as planned. (Self-destructive impulses presumably account for why I joined 'em all in this, rather than the much cheaper and more sensible option of just heading back to Portland and eating some of my leftovers. Ditto for why I opted in when we all ordered the 'epic piles of meat that provide a week's RDA of protein all at once".) But hey, delicious food. Also awesome conversations: the bits I remember mostly involved ragging on ex- or absent members of the groups, and a pleasant arguement about the ontological basis of morality, because that's just how we roll.
Aand thanks again to insane traffic (and somebody's suggestion), I wound up taking another road over a mountain to get home, except this one was one-lane and insane. I got lost in Fryeburg; but on the other hand, there's some insanely pretty countryside over that way.
******
The week since then...has mostly involved a less-painful-than-it-could-have been staff meeting (ok), the Development Office unloading all their alcohol onto us afterward (epic), and finding out that Book Company has laid me off (sucky). Back to the ole-job application process, I guess.
"Hey. Burson. Where are you?"
"Umm, New Hampshire... $#!7, was I supposed to be somewhere??
"...You went to New Hampshire all by yourself???"
I'll leave out the next couple minutes of conversation. Eventually, I got it across to him that I'd been in NH for a week at my aunt's cabin; he reminded ME that I'd signed up for a hiking trip, back when it was still a theoretical possibility without a set date or, indeed, a set hike. It had now, of course, been set as Today, at Arathusa Falls.
I weighed a possibly-sprained knee and a carful of perishable leftovers and laundry, again missing yet ANOTHER meetup (and presumably doing some cool stuff).
"...Ah, what the heck. When are we meeting?"
And so, when I got on the road, it was in a very different direction than expected. One that would ultimately take me over Bear Notch Road, because (a) I'd been by it a million times but never been over it before, and (b) when the traffic on Conway is backed up all the way to the Kanc., you avoid the HECK out of that town.
Once we finally all got there, I had the unusual experience of being the slow one that everyone has to wait for while hiking. But my knee failed to turn sideways and kill me, and eventually we got to the falls.
One of these years, I will go to Arethusa Falls when there's actually a decent amount of water going over it. I mean, it's impressive even after a couple of weeks of drought, but...
I made better time on the way down - the hike seemed to have loosened up my knee, rather than making it worse - and so I got to participate in the conversations about [resident Brony]'s epic trip to Ireland, and his unexpectedly drug-addled past.
[North] Conway traffic also accounted for why we wound up stopping at a barbecue place on the way back, rather than getting Thai food as planned. (Self-destructive impulses presumably account for why I joined 'em all in this, rather than the much cheaper and more sensible option of just heading back to Portland and eating some of my leftovers. Ditto for why I opted in when we all ordered the 'epic piles of meat that provide a week's RDA of protein all at once".) But hey, delicious food. Also awesome conversations: the bits I remember mostly involved ragging on ex- or absent members of the groups, and a pleasant arguement about the ontological basis of morality, because that's just how we roll.
Aand thanks again to insane traffic (and somebody's suggestion), I wound up taking another road over a mountain to get home, except this one was one-lane and insane. I got lost in Fryeburg; but on the other hand, there's some insanely pretty countryside over that way.
******
The week since then...has mostly involved a less-painful-than-it-could-have been staff meeting (ok), the Development Office unloading all their alcohol onto us afterward (epic), and finding out that Book Company has laid me off (sucky). Back to the ole-job application process, I guess.
