So, I am thinking about putting some sort of journal here. I think it will describe some of the crazy shit that happens to me, on what seems like a daily basis. However, today wasn't the most unique day. I went to work, at the Westin Seattle, and did the thing I do there on Sundays. That, if you are wondering, is room service. It was a slow day, and there isn't much to talk about, other than my obsession with lemurs. I was running around the back of the house yelling about how all these lemurs needed to be removed, and post haste at that! I really think lemurs are an unconscious way for me to vent about the cheap people that are in the hotel. I mean they could know the business of room service, just a little better, but then I could be spoiled. Still, I made my quota, and that is the real deal.
It's the beginning of my weekend now, and I will continue to train for my marathon. I will (no matter what the nay sayers say) run the Portland Marathon on October 1st. You can bet cash with me on this, and I will take your money. Until then, I will continue to drink my Steinlager, and play with the ferrets.
If you have any ideas about what I should talk about here, then drop me a line. I am open to all matter of discourse.
Things are crazy in this mixed up world. I was just involved with a chat on Racism on MTV, but alas, everything disintegrated into a pile of babble. If that is a cross section of society, then, we may have problems. Living in Seattle has helped me a lot with my own issues about race. I think I have learned a lot, and am developing a more open mind towards other people and cultures. I think geographic location has a lot to do with things — if you never were around different races, then you might not understand completely these issues.
Anyways, that's my diatribe for the day.
Other than that, I have just had a sporty sort of day. I was able to run 8.54 miles, and skate on my longboard for a few more, plus I helped my buddy move to the Eastside. All in all a productive day, and I didn't even mention the meeting at work ... on my day off. Well, that's today.
What's up kids? I haven't really been up to much for the past week, or so. Mostly work, and the only cool person I met was Tommy Chong, of Cheech and Chong fame. If you must know, yes, his room did reek of the ganja, but that's cool. I guess security intercepted a package that his wife sent to him, and it didn't have the guest name. When opened, it of course contained all kinds of bongs, and what have you. They were unused, so nothing was done. As for my own fiscal affairs, let's just say, I was well rewarded for my work, need I say more?
In other news, on August 20th there will be something like 90,000 people in town to celebrate HEMP FEST — the largest rally for marijuana legalization in the world.
The marathon training is moving along well, and I see myself actually completing this task. I will go on a long 15 mile run on Tuesday. I have never run this far before, but I find that once I get started, my feet just keep on going, and my mind goes to all kinds of crazy places ... this runner's high is pretty good. More so for me, I think.
Napster rocks! I am just downloading some old school skate punk, from back in the day. I guess the local music museum, EMP (now MoPOP), will be having a skate punk exhibit this weekend. Looks like I will be having a busy few days coming up.
Not much to report today, as it was just another busy day at work, given that it was Saturday night. Didn't get home until 2 am, but at least it keeps the money in my pocket, and me out of trouble. Tomorrow, I will do the same, but after work, I have to drive all the way down to Mt. Adams, in order to help some Geophysicist carry a bunch of gear up to their base camp. This should prove interesting, as I am approaching this task as a job, seeing how I will be paid for it. I am curious to see how I respond to the task, when it isn't "Just for Fun."
Still, this will require some amount of energy on my part, and I am sure I will be exhausted by the time I get home on Tuesday night. Lucky for me, I will go right back to work at the hotel shortly thereafter. I do think climbing a mountain will qualify as training for the marathon. What do you think?
Ok, so I still haven't left for Mt. Adams yet. I have been at work all day, and now my shit is packed, and I am out of here!! Yes, it sounds just like that ... I will return some time Tuesday night.
I made it back in one piece! What I have just done must rate high on the old extreme meter. The drive down to the mountain took 4.5 hours, and I didn't get there until 6:30 am. I had to drive on all these old logging roads in the middle of the night. It was major Bigfoot country, to be sure.
However, I do want to have a special word for the animals that I came across on my late night journey. First, I want to say that I am sorry for hitting that rabbit on the highway. I really felt bad about that one. I hope he/she is in a better place now. Then there are the two deer that I thought I was going to hit. I was all prepared for the impact, but at the last 1/100th of a second, they moved, and I don't know how, but I missed them both. I guess my deer spirit was, and I hope still is, strong. And lastly, I want to say that I feel that skunk's loss. I mean, I came across a freshly killed one, and then I came across his/her buddy, who was looking to see what happened. It was a really sad thing to see.
Then there were the owls. I had never seen a group of owls before, but I guess at 4 am on some logging road, it is a good possibility. I think they had caught something, as when I approached they were guarding their prey. Really quite interesting.
Ok, so I am still a little loopy from the drive and climb. Stay tuned for the August 23rd update.
So, you may be wondering what my climb on Mt. Adams was like. Well, to say the least, it was a nice hike. Certainly not the hardest, but not really easy either, what with having to carry a bunch of scientific equipment (a portable point load rock crusher) and supplies up the damn mountain. Most of the snow has melted off the lower reaches, and the few glaciers are rather small and easy to negotiate. However, I had to hike on a lot of bare rocks, mostly made of andesite, and this was both hard and inefficient — I would often slide one foot down for every two I took up. As a result, it took me many hours to reach the scientific base camp, about 1,000 feet below the summit, as the summit is leaching sulphuric acid from the crater.
Apparently, back in the 1930s some miners built a stone cabin up there and mined sulphur from the crater. They brought giant stamping machines and a bunch of other equipment up on mules. I can just barely imagine it even being done in the first place.
The best part of my hike was camping at a place called Lunch Counter. I had nothing to do but watch the sunset, and quite a sunset it was. Off in the distance was Mt. St. Helens, and the sun went down right behind it, creating a surreal effect the likes of which I had never seen. It looked like some sort of solar explosion coming out of the mountain. Of course, I was a bum and didn't pack a camera.
After I dropped off the scientific supplies, I made good time back down. I just put my butt down in a glissade trail and shot down the mountain. It took me an hour to get down to my camp, as opposed to the 4.5 hours it took me to climb up. The drive back along the Columbia River Gorge was nice — I think it might be an area worthy of further investigation.
I just want to say that I love Vegemite! This stuff is great, and I think it may be addictive. I will tell you something that I don't like though, and that's the sports drink called All Sport. I drank some blue colour, and it turned my urine and faeces the same bright blue colour. How freaky is that? Nowhere on the label does it warn you about this. Upon closer inspection I see that there are all kinds of nasty chemical things in there. Yuck.
As for the work thing, I am a burned out puppy, due to the high volume of insurance agents that have arrived — something like 1,500. That is just too many for any place to deal with in a "nice" manner. I will sleep soon, as a result. That, my friends, is today's story, as I am sure you don't really want to hear about my laundry.