Ok, ok, ok.
Update!
So, I had a pretty good vacation. Backpacking/climbing trip in Colorado. Same place as last time (2004)
A little background on the location:
Back in the stone age, when I was 12 years old, my two older brothers and I took a backpacking trip to a beautiful wildernes area in CO. The three of us, and two weeks worth of gear, packed into a 1969 Opel GT. Road trip from Dayton, OH to Crystal, CO (roughly midway between and slightly west of Crested Butte and Aspen) where we set up base camp. Then hiked and climbed the surrounding mountains in the White River and Gunnison National Forests, and Snowmass/Maroon Bells Wilderness.
I learned technical climbing on that trip, and nearly died on an icefield during a weather-related retreat from an attempt to ascend the prosaically named Treasure Mountain. Two years ago, my oldest brother and I successfully returned to that summit. My second attempt, his fourth. And I revisited the icefield that nearly killed me, and "cast my defiance upon the mountain."
Well that year, my oldest brother, his wife and two kids, his daughter's boyfriend, and I were the only ones to go. This year, we were joined by his son's girlfriend and our middle brother and his family. That's the original three brothers with their respective families, etc. I was the only single adult present.
That's 12 people, 5 of whom had never done anything remotely similar, and a 6th whose experience was limited to the previous trip in 2004. But between us, the oldest and youngest brothers equipped the entire troop (gear junkies, I know). Don't have room to post all the pix here, but this was the view from our latrine:
Now that was better than any magazine!
Since then, the only really interesting stuff to happen was my birthday visit to the Boston stop on the SG Burlesque Tour. Oh yeah, and my company lost the contract with Caritas Christi (Boston-area Catholic hospital system). The contract expired Oct. 31, but only the managers got the boot. Everybody else, myself included, stays where we are for at least another year.
So I'm still here, baby!
Update!
So, I had a pretty good vacation. Backpacking/climbing trip in Colorado. Same place as last time (2004)
A little background on the location:
Back in the stone age, when I was 12 years old, my two older brothers and I took a backpacking trip to a beautiful wildernes area in CO. The three of us, and two weeks worth of gear, packed into a 1969 Opel GT. Road trip from Dayton, OH to Crystal, CO (roughly midway between and slightly west of Crested Butte and Aspen) where we set up base camp. Then hiked and climbed the surrounding mountains in the White River and Gunnison National Forests, and Snowmass/Maroon Bells Wilderness.
I learned technical climbing on that trip, and nearly died on an icefield during a weather-related retreat from an attempt to ascend the prosaically named Treasure Mountain. Two years ago, my oldest brother and I successfully returned to that summit. My second attempt, his fourth. And I revisited the icefield that nearly killed me, and "cast my defiance upon the mountain."
Well that year, my oldest brother, his wife and two kids, his daughter's boyfriend, and I were the only ones to go. This year, we were joined by his son's girlfriend and our middle brother and his family. That's the original three brothers with their respective families, etc. I was the only single adult present.
That's 12 people, 5 of whom had never done anything remotely similar, and a 6th whose experience was limited to the previous trip in 2004. But between us, the oldest and youngest brothers equipped the entire troop (gear junkies, I know). Don't have room to post all the pix here, but this was the view from our latrine:
Now that was better than any magazine!
Since then, the only really interesting stuff to happen was my birthday visit to the Boston stop on the SG Burlesque Tour. Oh yeah, and my company lost the contract with Caritas Christi (Boston-area Catholic hospital system). The contract expired Oct. 31, but only the managers got the boot. Everybody else, myself included, stays where we are for at least another year.
So I'm still here, baby!
VIEW 6 of 6 COMMENTS
So yes, I wimped out completely.