Stumbling Through Adulthood

It was a great day, with one nasty spot.

First the hike. We got out early and made good time on the trail. The last 1/2 is where a good bit of the 1000ft elevation happens, it's done via stairs mostly. So stairs, then an up but less steep switchback series up with lots of roots and many many rocks. Then the falls. This is the 3rd of a series of four waterfalls, and the drop is about 100ft. With dh for scale.





It was really great to be out in the mountains, even if the weather wasn't perfect. I mean, I know I get to my wildland park, with trail and trees etc, but nothing is comparable to the painful scrambles of a real hiking trail!

The sour note. We were coming down the final bit of steep trail (before a trail intersection). At that point, the only place we could be coming from was the falls. We met two women, both thin and fit, and we moved aside to let them pass (uphill has priority!). One of them asked me "Did you get to see the falls?" Get. Get. I blurted something like, yes, they were great but OMG, the crash. If you are thin, maybe that comment sounds like a throw-away one, but as a fat woman, what she was asking implied that my failure to reach the end of the trail I was coming down was enough of a possibility that it merited asking about. That maybe I'd seen the stairs and decided to come back down with just a half mile to go? While wearing, I'd add, hiking boots that have seen many a mile of trail. It just fucking hurts, it's othering, because she'd never say that to a thin person, indeed the question was directed at me not dh. It's the same type of thing I constantly encountered while cycling, people would call out "good job!" when I was riding the goddamn same ride they were. Encourage the fatty, right? Anyhow, it left a sour sheen on an otherwise awesome hike.

In my dreams, I'd hike in an Escher world where the trails only go up and I never have to go fucking DOWN. I hate downhills with a passion. They hurt. Up is usually just a matter of setting my pace, but down is painful hips and knees, the fear of falling and the tension that creates. I've always hated downhills, and it's not gotten any better as I've aged, LOL.

After the hike, we headed home for a bit, then went into Seattle to meet Anne-Chloe and we went to a Kamelot concert. It was great! I love love love live music, and it's our first concert since probably 2019. We masked up, fingers crossed we don't catch Covid. The energy was great, the music wonderful and even my hike-weary knees couldn't stop me from some jumping, ugh. We didn't get there early enough to get up close, so we retreated to the elevated above the floor bar area. Didn't get seats, but Anne-Chloe and I managed to get to a spot where we could see. Why are most of the people who attend metal concerts 6ft plus tall burly men? (Usually with beards, but that's irrelevant to the fact that they aren't transparent!) We were standing behind a woman (seated) who clearly didn't want to be there, she spent most of the concert surfing Instagram and on her Band of America account, apparently checking out transactions. My one gripe? That the (three tall burly bearded drunk) guys to our right had chairs right up front of the bar wall and stood up most of the time anyhow, keeping the people behind them from seeing.

They played a few songs from their new album, but mostly older familiar ones, and people were clearly enjoying themselves, it was great.

😭😭😭 Aug 30 is going to be only day this summer we'd be able to get out hiking. And... the weather report shows heavy rain. 😭😭😭

We went hiking on my birthday, but it was a trail close in, not in the mountains. We've not been out hiking since April. We planned this hike as soon as my sister said she'd take my mom to Vancouver to visit (and bring back!) my aunt.

Sob!

OMG. My life from 28 Aug - 20 Sept is going to be HECTIC and all over the place. At a very minimum this is what it's going to look like:

Aug 28: Sis and BIL arrive at my place
Aug 29: Sil and BIL AND MY MOM head to Vancouver
Aug 30: HIKE!!!! First hike of the summer in the mountains!!! Have to plan a destination!!!!!
Aug 31: Maybe HIKE!!!
Sept 01: Nothing (for values of nothing that include prepping for weeks of chaos!)
Sept 02: Nothing (see above)
Sept 03: Sis, BIL, MOM, and Aunt back from Vancouver
Sept 04: Shopping/trip prep
Sept 05: Cooking/trip prep
Sept 06: Packing etc /trip prep. Bro, SIL, NIECE, AND NEPHEW arrive at SEA. They stay near airport.
Sept 07: Drive to Rockaway Beach on OR Coast to airbnb on the ocean
Sept 08: Oregon Coast. Railway! Tillamook Cheese Factory! Coast stuff! HIKING! NIECE AND NEPHEW!!!!
Sept 09: Oregon Coast. Railway! Tillamook Cheese Factory! Coast stuff! HIKING! NIECE AND NEPHEW!!!!
Sept 10: Oregon Coast. Railway! Tillamook Cheese Factory! Coast stuff! HIKING! NIECE AND NEPHEW!!!!
Sept 11: Oregon Coast. Railway! Tillamook Cheese Factory! Coast stuff! HIKING! NIECE AND NEPHEW!!!!
Sept 12: Leave OR Coast back to SEA
Sept 13: My place with full fam. OMG. Celebrate Anne-Chloe's bday.
Sept 14: Bro and family leave back to LA. Perry drives aunt back to Vancouver. Anne-Chloe actual bday!
Sept 15: Prep for camping trip
Sept 16: Drive to Bend, camp overnight near Bend
Sept 17: Drive to Crater Lake. Camping at Crater Lake.
Sept 18: Camping at Crater Lake
Sept 19: Crater Lake back to near Bend to camp.
Sept 20: Bend to home
Sept 21: COLL-FCUCKING-APSE

It all feels very precarious!

Tomorrow I'm going to write up the first draft of a master task list.

I was too tired to write last night. But yesterday was my birthday and it was pretty awesome.

1. We went on a hike, to Cherry Creek Falls! We've managed to get out on regular walks since my mom's been here by dint of either my pouring myself out of bed at 6am to be on the trail at 6:20, and dh going after, or going together if one of the kids was home, but we hadn't managed to get out to anything a bit longer since I got back from Louisiana, so it was a major treat. We got out early, first on trail, which was great except for that also means 'first to hit the spider webs'. I was ahead but dh suggested he go ahead because being taller he'd clear them all, LOL. I told him we were married, I could do my part and get them on my face too, which he pointed out was useless. Anyhow. We were passed by a group of fast teenagers about 10 minutes from the falls sigh, there went our hope of being there solo for a few minutes. Still it was nice, the falls were pretty. The way back was... less than stellar. We'd gone in, apparently, on the 'social' trail but decided to go back on the 'official trail'. This was a mistake. The official trail is overgrown with blackberries and nettles, is longer, and while better graded, it was much slower. I was so happy to reach the trail junction and indeed left a trip report on WTA about taking the right junction for the last mile rather than the official left. Anyhow, it was officially 5 miles, my fitbit claimed 7, lots of ups and downs. It was wonderful. I loved hiking with my kids -heck still do if they'll slow down to go with us!- but it's so nice to know, after over 30 years together, dh is still a perfect hiking partner.

2. The scale has been kind, LOL. I'd not lost any weight since I got back from Louisiana... too much high calorie food around and I can only resist for so long! But I was down a lot -into a new lower decade even- on Sunday, and while up a bit on Monday, I was still in the new decade, and am again today. Fingers crossed it stays that way! Perry went to the Norwegian bakery to get me a slice of princess cake for my birthday. Nobody else likes it, so I wasn't going to do a whole cake. Anyhow, I had a bit of it this morning after my walk, it was delicious! I'll be having my official birthday dinner on Saturday. My sister and bil will be here, they leave on an Alaska cruise on Monday, and Anne-Chloe can make it. She could have, last night, when we had waffles and sausages, but she was officially needed to help derig boats are the weekend at the NW Masters regionals, where, btw, her boats got silver in each of their three events!

3. Cherry Creek Falls. They're about 25 ft high.


Where the hell is the "make me look 10 years younger" filter?

We listened to Mehdi Hasan's book, Win Every Argument on the drive up and down to Bend. It was excellent. In in, he talks about his rule of threes, so this post will have three parts. I supposed I could have called it Three Things for Mehdi Hasan, LOL. Anyhow, I gave the book 5 stars on goodreads, and wrote a short review over there:

Get this book. Read it... or rather, LISTEN TO IT. Read by the author, it's very close to non-fiction perfection. I suspect and yes, I know it's still April, that this will be my top non-fiction book of the year.

No need to describe the book, but a few words on the audio version. Hasan is an engaging a reader as he is a speaker and when describing an interview etc, was often able to segue straight to the actual audio, which really added to the experience.

Truly my highest recommendation. I can't remember the last time a book has made me laugh, think, cringe, and, once, cry.

Two things plant related: one of the people nearby appear to be taking down a stand of 100+ year old trees. It makes me sick to my stomach... and on top of everything else, because of their placement, their lack will probably be felt when the to-be gas station 😭😢😢😢😭😭😭 opens. Sigh. In better news, the trillium are going gangbuster this year at my wildland park. They bloomed very late, but omg, I've need seen to many, so many clumps of several, so many tall ones. It's been wonderful.

Perry. Well, he canceled the appointment with his PCP because he said things were really starting to feel better. Which is good. It's been a long ridic thing with everything shrugging and saying 'viral' because yeah, we get that, but my god, the kid's mouth and throat are covered in sores and all you suggest is a lidocaine mouthwash/rinse whatever they're called? The next question: did he cancel early enough to avoid cancelation fees? I expect not, alas, but we shall see.

1. Started the bunch of cooking for my aunt's birthday party next week. Today, I dealt with phyllo dough to make 6 doz filled triangles (mushroom, potato, and spinach-feta fillings), and make three batches of lemon curd-like filling for the three lemon cakes I'll be making (two is not enough, sigh). I'll bake the cakes tomorrow. I think I've got my to-do list for the event at least mostly filled in and so far, things are under control. We shall see how long that lasts.

2. I am surprisingly not sore after yesterday's hike, which was longer and with more ups and downs than any I've done recently. Dh, OTOH... :(

3. Just finished a book that I've been slogging through for over three months. There are very few books that have taken me more than a month to read... I think the longest because I could only handle bits and pieces was Aleksandr Solzhenitsyn's _The Gulag Archipelago_ which took me about a year. This was not that. This was a dreadful book that should have been at least 1/3 shorter and where the author seemed to want to play 'both sides' for narrative tension, and it didn't work out. Here's the review I left on goodreads.

I hope that somewhere I can find a synopsis of the following books with the rest of the story, because there is no way in hell I am reading any more of this series. I didn't give the book a star rating because it would be low and the book wasn't that bad.

This book, all 660 or so pages of it, took me over three months to finish. Yeah, I read other books, but I've been slogging through it. 3 months for 660 pages is not typical for me.

It is waaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaay too long and needed some serious editing.

Part of the issue: the author seems to want us to identify with both "sides" and it's never 100% clear who is the antagonist and who the protagonist. This created stressful situations, since I found one "side" repugnant, and yet there were some indications I was supposed to like them too. NSM.

There is no satisfying ending, either. Leaving some of the threads of a story unfinished is how authors get you into a series. Leaving ALL of the threads of a story unfinished is how you annoy readers -or at least me- and leave them wondering if the author knows where the story is going.

I highly do NOT recommend.

We went on a hike yesterday. A real ankle killing, root and rock filled hike, with many ups and downs, stairs, slippery bridge, and mud. And three waterfalls (yes, it's called TWIN Falls and there are three waterfalls.).

It was great.

The downs were a bit hard, because of both nerves -I'm afraid of hurting my knee- and just because I hate downhills. Uphill is just a matter of managing cardio to the slope, down always feels more precarious and has for a long time.

Funny thing about my knee: the one that hurts is also the one that feels the most solid, and the one I use preferentially to climb. The other one doesn't hurt, but also doesn't feel stable, because of old injuries. Ah well.

It took a while to get a parking spot at the trailhead, sigh. I think we'll use the flexibility of 'unlimited vacation' to schedule hikes for the middle of the week as we can.

A few photos.

The viewpoint, one can see the Falls and the bridge we eventually hiked to in the background.


The upper falls.


Bridge selfie.


The only sour note were the three women who had to tell me what a great job I was doing. It's like... fuck off bitch, I'll point out that I'm on my way down, and you haven't gotten there yet. Yes, I know, they're just trying to encourage the fattie for being a good fattie and exercising, but really, fuck off and mind your own business. The only people you encourage on the trail are kids, because often, they need it.

After my knee went to hell during our Yurp trip this fall, I pretty much didn't move a lot from Oct-Dec. It freaking hurt. Still don't know what happened, tbh, but I do know I was easily able to hike 5+ miles at the start of the trip (I mean, that's as far as we went, but I would have been fine going further) and barely hobbling a mile at the end.

Pain slowly got a lot better in December, so I started cautiously walking again, keeping is very slow and very low steps, to make sure I don't overexert and end up in pain.

So far so good.

I try to get in about 6000 steps five days a week, one longer day, and a day of complete rest, just in case. It's been working. I'll start upping that by about 500 steps a week, wanting to get back to my prevous 10-12k.

Because of hectic and rowing and house projects and and and we haven't gotten out hiking much these past few years, so dh and I are making a point of trying to get out at least once a week. Right now, because knee and weather, they're lowland walks and hikes, but they are outdoors and that's good.

Today, I planned for this weekend and since I'll have houseguests next week, for a short hike not far from here for next Friday.

My goal is to get out a majority of weekends in a month. If dh can't make it, there are plenty of places I can go myself, but he needs to get out too, if only for his mental health.

In a few weeks, I'm planning on getting back to my beloved woodland park. I haven't been since right before we left for Scotland. I could probably do it now, but I want to be more sure of the knee.

1. Managed to get out on a walk by a river. It was not a great spot, sounded better on paper than it was, and it was raining the whole time. But! We got out and that was the most important part! I'm slowly getting back to it after a few months with an iffy knee post really hurting it while I was in the UK. It's still stiff, and something is up and I should see a doctor, but eh, I'm at least moving for now.

2. Got schedules kinda in place: I'm throwing a party for my aunt's 80th birthday in Vancouver in March. I just need to get her to tell me how many people and then I'll start planning. Cocktails and hors d'oeuvres in the afternoon. I'm looking forward to it. I'll do as much of the cooking as I can... that way I get to stay in the kitchen and I don't have to talk to people.

3. My sister is travelling for her 25th anniversary in April. She said they were thinking about St Johns. Me, immediately: "Newfoundland of course", which made everyone laugh... no, St John's Virgin Islands or some thing like that. Of course, if it were dh and I, Newfoundland would be the much more probably answer!

We are in the middle of nowhere, Isle of Skye edition.

Remote doesn't even begin to describe it, LOL. There are pastures (commons) with sheeps outside the window. The BnB owner keeps chickens. Linnea is planning on stealing a sheep and smuggling it to Bellingham with her.

So yes, we're on the Isle of Skye. Took the ferry over this morning, after last night's adventure.

For those who don't know, at about 12:30 AM last night, Perry woke dh and me up to tell us there were people inside the house. People who were not us. And that they were smoking weed and talking loudly. This was not good. We panicked a bit, called 999 -kudos to dh for remembering that 999 is the 911 of the UK!- and had the hardest time conveying to the Scotland Dispatch person in Glasgow where we were. Even with the postal code, it was not evident to them. Finally she asked for the place's "what3words" locator and we did have those and they got police dispatched.

We were terrified. Retrospect and a bit but not enough at the time, it's that it's Scotland and they're probably not armed so eh. Still, it's middle of the night and there are unknown people in our Airbnb, ya know?

In the meanwhile, the dudes downstairs start to leave and I'm like no, nope, not happening, you are not stealing my camera with my Harry Potter train photos (only semi-uploaded) and worse, our PASSPORTS. We had an early ferry so we packed early and, well, passports were mostly in bags downstairs. Last thing I want to have to do right now is travel to London to get to a US Consulate, oh, I mean, did I mention the Queen of freaking England DIED two days ago? I start down the stairs, realize that with my knee I'm not fast enough, and dh heads down and we confront these two (stoned) 20-somethings who.....

... fall over themselves apologizing. They were going to crash on the floor of a friend's Airbnb two doors down and came in the wrong one. It was so freaking funny, once the adrenaline started to wear off. They heard an American woman upstairs calling the police and slowly the realization dawned that they might not be where they were supposed to be and probably thought we were going to come down guns-ablaze, Rambo-style, LOL. As it is, dh was pissed as hell.

Why didn't we lock the door, you ask? Well, we thought we had. Like most Euro doors, and many patio doors in the US like ours, the instructions says lift up to lock, we did that. Turns out, you have to have the key in the lock for it to, well, actually dead-bolt lock. Since that goes against pretty much BASIC firecode, this would never have occurred to us.

The police eventually showed up, everything was sorted, and we sat around processing until we thought we could get back to sleep.

We did.

Early up to catch the ferry to Skye. We did so well, they let us on the earlier ferry, which did hadn't expected to be able to catch. The crossing was beautiful, the weather has turned a shade of perfect. Blue skies, cool, just enough breeze to chase away the #$%%^%%!!!!! midges.

The goal was to head to a place called the Fairy Pools. The landscape was breathtaking , a valley in the Black Cuillins Mountain Range, walking by the side of a large stream. If you are all lucky, Anne-Chloe will send me some a few photos that I can upload. If you are super EXTRA lucky, Linnea will send a photo of Poppy (*). It was a nice hike. Took a few hours, it was one of those hikes that heads straight down and then up up up. Up is dangerous. I can get up. And up and up and up. It's getting back down that's the PITA. Up is just managing pace. Down is managing pain. When we got back, we had a picnic. (*) Story later.

We finished late enough that we missed the distillery tour we wanted to do this afternoon, we'll try to that tomorrow.

We did see one -well, there was a group of a few- "hairy coo" (Scottish accent, people!) aka highland cows who have bangs falling over their eyes, so cute. Hopefully we will see more.

Then we headed northwards. Stopped to grab some fixings for dinner in Portree, which appears to be a major tourist trap, albeit a cute one, and headed out to our Airbnb, where were are surrounded not by stoners but by... sheep. And chickens. And not a lot -or a little- of anything else.