Are we there yet?

Its just around the corner.
We’re almost at the summit.

Just ten more minutes of hiking.
We’re almost there.
Its just around the next corner.
This is what hiking with Alicia is like. But you know what? Its okay. I like it. She’s my drill Sergent and lets face it, my ass isn’t getting any smaller.
Which is why I got up at 4 A.M. this morning to summit Grey’s Peak with Alicia. Well I intended on sleeping until six but there must be a nest of cute little LOUD stellar’s Jay’s outside my window. Every morning as soon as the sun starts to rise over the horizon the birds are chirp, chirping away. Don’t they know I work nights?

It was worth it getting up with the sun, as I stood in my backyard, watching the birds the bees, and Ow! Smack! The bugs enjoying this perfect spring time morning, as I watered my garden and then pulled some weeds. Annette says she pulls weeds instead of meditating like her husband because she can’t sit still, and you know what? I find the same kind of peace and balance when I’m pulling weeds in the morning sun. It really lets me relax for a minute, breath, clear my head and think for a moment or two.

Down below in the valley the weather has been nauseating. There is a fire to the North, Apple Valley, and the valley below is a dark curtain of fog, smoke and genuine crap. In California we call this June Gloom. Its just gross, even without the added crap in the air from the fire’s flames. I lost my voice four days ago, the air quality is so bad. I sound like a man. Its really fun when I sing. I can now sing the woman’s and the men’s parts of Moulin Rouge.
So Alicia picked me up at 7 A.M. and proceeded to drag me up a mountain. Thank god for friends like this that make me get out there and work off those donuts I ate last night. It was a six mile round trip, and you know what? I feel really good right now, tired yes. Yet in a good way. Can’t wait for tomorrow’s hike to Lodgepole Pine, after a morning of watching British horse racing from Ascot with a good friend. (Go Goldikova!)