fractured reality

The weather!

Sunday it was all Autumn-like and cool and I wore a sweatshirt to go to the grocery! It was lovely and the only part I’m not looking forward to is the falling of the leaves and the slide into Winter.

Sigh.
E

Ha ha, post!
Um yeah.

Anyhow, this weekend was really low key. Apparently we shouldn’t have weekends where two nights in a row are spent staying up till 2-ish, because Becca was really out of sorts yesterday. We finally saw Watchmen, and although it was very pretty and well done visually, I am uncertain that it would’ve made complete theatrical sense without having read the book to begin with. I would very much like to hear the opinion of someone who hadn’t read it. I thought it was decent, but I tend to agree with John Hodgman’s assessment: “The movie can be good as long as it appreciates that it has no reason to exist.” This story already exists in a very visual medium, the film followed along well, and did what it could do well, but it naturally pales in many respects to the source. Any license taken will naturally feel like too much (seriously, there was no reason for me to grimace when Rorshach retrieved his primary face, not his backup face, but I did nonetheless).

I also got to play some PAIN with the brother Saturday night, and that was a lot of fun. Gotta remember to get some sort of headset hookup for the PS3 sometime.

Okay, nothing huge to report, just enjoying life. Back to work!
E

Friday I completely took the day off and mowed the lawn, watched silly shows, played games, and smiled a lot. I also attached a wire to the painting I made for Mom, and wrapped it up for Saturday. That evening, Chris came over and we rocked out and played some Catan, which I won. We wrapped up with some Street Fighter (I had a ridiculously lucky streak).

Saturday morning we packed up some stuff and headed down to Columbus for the Derr family gathering. It was a beautiful day and we spent too much of it sitting in the sun getting our faces burnt while chatting. It had been so long since I had just been sitting in the sun talking that I completely didn’t think about the fact that I would get horribly burnt. Ah well. We then hit Tensuke Market and Adriatico’s, which was stupidly good. On the drive up to Toledo we managed to catch up to the rents in the Element, so we slowed our pace a bit.

The evening was more Catan and good cheer. Dad won the first game and Becca the second (she had a one-two punch of both the largest army and the longest road, which pretty much sealed it).

Sunday was amaretto french toast and PAIN, which was good. I spent most of breakfast berating the Toledo Blade reporters, which was a bit like picking on a developmentally challenged kid.

And then last night, I dreamed this crazy epic dream about aliens with whom we sort of coexisted, although they were constantly raiding the earth for supplies. The weird bit was that the entire time I was discussing things with and teaching my nine year old son. It was very surreal but good, and the entire thing, while occasionally marked with anxiety, contained no tragedy.

Back to work!
+E

It’s Summer. I’m doing fine, despite the sudden increase in heat/humidity. The trees are full; I’ve been enjoying various entertainments (read: media); more paintings are happening; this weekend will be fun and games in Akron, Columbus, Toledo.

In short: things are really good.

Let the times fitting this description continue to roll.

++E

This weekend was the annual camping trip to Pennsylvania. Chris came by around 1800 on Thursday and we loaded my gear and struck out for the border. By 2100 we were at the camp, which Tramp and Carl D had already set up. We got our gear stowed and had a pretty relaxing evening of sitting ’round the fire. Big Mike finally showed up around 0300, and I was the only one around to greet him. We stayed up for an hour or so and then we hit the hay.

Friday morning we played around with the kayak a bit, and Tramp fell into the creek trying to climb across on a low hanging tree limb. After a bit more horsing around, we set out to do a bit of swimming out by Frog Rock and some geocache hiding. The water was impossibly cold for August. Last year it was warm enough that we spent a couple hours out on the river getting sunburned, but this year after a few minutes in the water, I couldn’t feel my shins anymore. So we mostly spent a lot of time screaming about water temperature and jumping off inordinately large rocks into questionable pools of water. Simple pleasures.

Around 1600 we gave Neil a call while picking up provisions and he gave an ETA of 1930, which we all found frankly impossible given a) his lack of enthusiasm on the phone and b) the fact that he’s Neil. We had doubts that he’d even make it at all. I decided to make chili, and I had brought all my fixin’s (I had premixed the spices), and the rest of the gang had various grilled foods as we sat around the fire and took idle bets on if/when Neil would show up. About the time we were finishing up dinner (1915 or so), Neil’s car rolls up the road! We were elated. We all buddied around and then Carl got out a skeet launcher. Evidently I was meant to shoot clay pigeons, as I was by far the best shot with either shotgun (we had a pump action and an old double barrel Remington). We did a bit more fire-gazing and then we set up for some poker in the kitchen (Chris won handily, in part due to my utter lack of enthusiasm– I had wanted to play Catan).

The next day, it was time to get to some serious hiking. From our camp there was a 6-10 miles hike on easy paths that would lead us across the river and up the mountain to a geocache. This seemed a little too simple, so we took the rather more direct 3 mile hike DIRECTLY UP THE MOUNTAIN. We set up a heading on the compass, crossed the river (leaving out water shoes there for later retrieval), and struck out up the gentle slope of the forest. After several hundred yards of forest, the slope dramatically increased, and before long we were basically climbing roots and rocks to the overlook. It was pretty grueling. We finally made it to the top and took a well-earned breather while casting about for the geocache. Unfortunately, the directions lead to a cache that had been stolen by muggles, and we could not find the replacement cache anywhere. We rested a bit longer and then took a (considerably easier) horse trail back down the mountain.

As we strolled along the river, we found a wire bridge which we used to cross, and then a log/driftwood dam for the second bit. This seemed too easy for Tramp, who decided to cross on a much long single-wire crossing, which he crossed with the aid of a carabiner and rope. Once we finally got back to camp, it was time to get cleaned up in the (still impossibly cold) river, and get some dinner in us. I had some chili dogs and random equally healthy stuff, I’m sure. We played around with some more firearms for a bit and made a quick trip into town and had a drink at Ray’s Hot Spot. Ray is evidently some crazy hunter guy, as there were pictures of him with a dead bear in his SUV, and another with a couple dead bucks. It was vaguely uncomfortable. That night was spent drinking and playing two games of Catan, while outside it was pouring rain. I am still convinced that Chris won the second game only because he maxxed out his road, therefore making it impossible to take the Longest Road card from him.

Sunday it was time to strike camp, and we got out around 1230 or so, stopping at the Sawmill Diner in Leeper for lunch (mmm, chocolate malt). After an unbearably hot drive back (curse you, failed AC!) Chris dropped me off at my house and I got to the process of trying to clean myself and my belongings up while the cats meowed at and attacked me for smelling of camp fire smoke.

Now I’m back at work, and my legs are starting to remind me that I do not typically climb mountains in my daily encounters. Huzzah!

++E