Hike heaven
Todays hike was a test hike. About 5 miles all in up a hill to a lookout and then back around. I did the same one last year and felt completely bagged by the end of it. Not today!!!
I started my day with my Sunday morning hockey and yes the hockeyman bagged a couple of goals.
So this afternoon I decided I needed a test hike to see how I am feeling.. Better not perfect. The Weather was a beautiful 78 sunny a light breeze. My shirt was soaked through and I did stop a couple of times to sip water but truly I did the hike without a care in the world while last year I wondered if I would be able to make it back.. Progress..
There is something contemplative about wandering through the forest. You can see the peak in the distance and it looks so far away and unreachable and yet slowly but surely you arrive. I love that... I went alone today not because I was miserable but because I did not want to miss out on life...
Peace bridge......
started my week getting on the red eye destined for Toronto... 10 am meeting in Buffalo New York and I am reluctant to forfeit my weekend for sleep and peace.
The day starts at 12 30 am in the security line up in Calgary where I forfeited I can of shaving cream, one tube of toothpaste, one tube of hair gel and four deodorant bars.. I have mortal fear of body odor and so I stash then in my briefcase, my bag and obviously "I was carrying"
I had assumed that on the other side of security you could still buy a bottle of diet coke... nope... nada... even at the Air Canada lounge they are paying a woman to stand there and pour the sodas into your glass from a diet coke can...
I rent the car drive to buffalo and get ready for the border.. usually this is easy...today I am sure the ernest young American customs officer put extra tacks in his shoes so he could be more miserable all day.. Of course I was driving a rental car that says Avis... "who owns the car...Avis.. is it a rental yes..is this your car...? " I purposely show him my drivers license and birth certificate showing me to be a home grown Canadian boy and not have him rifle through my passport and see the brazillian (no jokes) and the mexican adventures.
Eventually he lets me go and gets the full grimace on for the next visitor...
on the return trip to Canada..I got the college student with the summer job and the winsome smile.... breezy baby... welcome back to Canada..big smile ..making me wish I was 22 again... ( yes I know at 22 I would have not had the guts to ask her out and ...really... she probably would have said... 'are you kidding?" ) but alas...
worked all week in the area... got home this morning at 130 am....this is corporate travel...
at security in Toronto they failed to find my last deodorant stick... got bumped up to snobby class....woman my age beside me had no interest in talking...
a wasted week... I need something fun
Friday Afternoon-Where has the Ritual Gone?
I am sitting here in my office --happy its Friday afternoon. Happy --but there is no one to go have a drink with and its a perfect day for it.. Its August,the work is done, no one is chewing on me ---perfect for that patio moment when stories are told, the worlds problems get raised and life is lived.
How many fridays do we all miss. Next Friday I will be on a plane coming back from somewhere, stuffed in the seat s, crowded as friday planes always are, no life to be lived, just life to be existed. Shouldn't we revitalize the Friday afternoon "lets go for a drink". Shouldn't someone be calling me say hey Hockeyman ...we are all at Shanks we will save you a seat. or hey Hockeyman we need wine -meet me at the Drink... nada... too old, too work driven... too many people rushing around trying to get stuff done. Not enough sitting around feeling like these are great days...
so that's my day... I wish I was at a patio but instead I will probably go home and do yard work. We need to revitalize the Friday afterwork ritual. Mandatory for August at least.
Peaceful...
There is way too much yelling , political infighting bad feelings and meanness in the world. I was feeling it too..swept up in who is right or wrong. that bad bad word hypocrite, commenting on what fair or not fair...
Here is the thing . I wrapped up all of this angst and simmering anger I took it with me on my weekend hike up the Elbow river. I like to go by myself as all miserable people should. Usually I like to hike up a semi mountain, get really tired, feel incredibly old and leave exhilarated at having tamed the beast. This was not to be. It was much farther than I thought to the side trail up the ridge and by then it was too late so the hike was incredible tame. This irked my already foul mood...
On the way back was a place to ford the river. I took my shoes off and started to go across the river... the water was cold and the thought of dumping my camera and my blackberry made me chicken out and go back.. ---might as well be dead
I walked on feeling old but not exhilarated....beating myself up for not crossing the stupid river leaving myself stuck in the same old same old trail. about 100 yards was another ford and another trail this time I did not hesitate... I grabbed a stick for balance kept my shoes on and strode across. It came to mid thigh and was cold but easily forded..
the trail on the other side was deserted -no sound but the river, no one to be found. one hour of no people or no people sounds . Somewhere in all of this my anger went away the problems of my little world evaporated and my exhilaration with life returned. The hike costs nothing but gas to get there but it was therapeutic worth thousands...
You have to wonder how all of this works.. how complicated yet simple our minds can be...
