#8 Boston - No View Whatsoever July 30 2006
I know, I know, I promised to send this Friday night!! What is my excuse, you ask? Well, I did what the whole lot of you constantly tells me to do. I sat on my couch, watched a movie, and forgot about the rest of the world. At 9:30 PM I was ready to hit the sack, and focus on some rapid eye movements. I finally have a minute during this as usual jam-packed weekend to make good on my promise to write. Oscar is chirping in the kitchen, talking up a storm (he likes the hum of the dishwasher and considers it his God-given right to make a lot of noise when it is running), and the Dixie Chicks provide entertainment via the DVD player. It is a bit cooler out there today, meaning 85 and I know, I know, we are not nearly suffering as much as my poor friends in California who are trying to survive in triple-digit weather, but if you have to run 15 miles for marathon training, 85 is serious enough.
So, last weekend, it seems like ages away - gosh! You saw the pictures, did I look happy to you?? As you may have guessed, that was not my happy face, and I was not the little ray of sunshine I usually am. But who can blame me?? After a busy week at work, I was expecting the mountains of New Hampshire to be a bit more hospitable. My tolerance for rain after months and months of crappy weather has shrunk to almost zero and every drop of rain triggers the aforementioned fits. It started during the drive up to New Hampshire. I had taken Friday off in order to get my 10-mile marathon requirement done with before heading up north, and I was not even quite at Rick's house in Windham, NH, when the first deluge hit. And so it went all day on Friday, it was like Baskin Robbin's 31 flavors - a new weather pattern every few minutes, from "the-world-is-going-down-I-can't-see-shit" to "oooh, look how pretty, the sun is out to "where the bloody h... are the White Mountains? They were there last week!". It was entertaining at least.
We did summit a 4000-footer on Saturday, Mt Galehead (4024 ft) - my 10th for this year, and 15th overall. With this little achievement, one of my New Year's resolutions is fulfilled, and I could sit on my lazy butt for the rest of the year if I chose to do so (just kidding). The hike up Mt Galehead (http://www.hikethewhites.com/galehead.html) was enjoyable and moderate in its approach, and about half a mile before you hit the summit, the AMC's Galehead Hut invites for coffee, tea, and cake, and caters to the needs of weary hikers. (http://www.hikethewhites.com/galehead_hut.html). This is where you have somewhat of a view, because the amazingly unspectacular summit of Mt Galehead affords none. No view whatsoever. There is just the comforting thought that you bagged yet another mountain off the long list and you lived to tell about it. So far, so good, but then the trouble started, rain, rain and rain. Relentless, for the whole five miles of the downhill hike. Petra was not happy, to say the least. Despite the fact that I did have a waterproof windbreaker and boots, it was just yucky. The relentless pounding one experiences hiking down granite boulders started to hurt my back, I had PMS, and the world was just out to get me!!! My hiking boots now look like I did a little trip to a pig sty and I probably will have to make use of a hammer to get the dirt off once it is all dried up. Fun!!
The rain never stopped so we did opt for an early departure on Sunday and headed home. The viewing of Johnny Depp and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel helped to right all the weekend wrongs that afternoon, and a lovely dinner at "Joe's American Bar and Grill", a Boston institution located on fashionable Newbury Street, made the tummy happy. Life was good after all.
Week days: work, work ,work and marathon training (just finished up week 10 out of 18); a nice social diversion was created by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company who every year delights Will's friends with free performances at the Boston Common. On Tuesday, Patrick, Ellen, Waleed, Paula and I attended "The Taming of the Shrew" - definitely a more enjoyable evening than last year's Hamlet (there was just too much screaming going on) and very nicely acted. The play was staged in "Bostonia", some scenes took place on Revere Beach; the actors featured heavy-duty New Jersey and Boston accents, and to be honest, the whole hoopla was a little raunchy, if you know what I mean. At some point, every sentence spoken became a double entendre. When one of Bianca's suitors said "before you touch my instrument" and mumbled something about his "fingering", the audience was pretty clear on the concept.
So, my friends, I have to go now. There are some errands to be done, and I have to get started on my citizenship application, which amazingly enough seems very straightforward and is giving me nowhere near the trouble the German government gave me for just changing my name back to my maiden name (I think I signed less paperwork for my mortgage). They topped it off last week, by charging me an additional incoming wire fee for the insane amount of money they wanted to officially "recognize" my American divorce and then complained that I had not wired enough money. Unbelievable!!
Have a nice rest of your weekend, and talk to you soon.
pet:)
So, last weekend, it seems like ages away - gosh! You saw the pictures, did I look happy to you?? As you may have guessed, that was not my happy face, and I was not the little ray of sunshine I usually am. But who can blame me?? After a busy week at work, I was expecting the mountains of New Hampshire to be a bit more hospitable. My tolerance for rain after months and months of crappy weather has shrunk to almost zero and every drop of rain triggers the aforementioned fits. It started during the drive up to New Hampshire. I had taken Friday off in order to get my 10-mile marathon requirement done with before heading up north, and I was not even quite at Rick's house in Windham, NH, when the first deluge hit. And so it went all day on Friday, it was like Baskin Robbin's 31 flavors - a new weather pattern every few minutes, from "the-world-is-going-down-I-can't-see-shit" to "oooh, look how pretty, the sun is out to "where the bloody h... are the White Mountains? They were there last week!". It was entertaining at least.
We did summit a 4000-footer on Saturday, Mt Galehead (4024 ft) - my 10th for this year, and 15th overall. With this little achievement, one of my New Year's resolutions is fulfilled, and I could sit on my lazy butt for the rest of the year if I chose to do so (just kidding). The hike up Mt Galehead (http://www.hikethewhites.com/galehead.html) was enjoyable and moderate in its approach, and about half a mile before you hit the summit, the AMC's Galehead Hut invites for coffee, tea, and cake, and caters to the needs of weary hikers. (http://www.hikethewhites.com/galehead_hut.html). This is where you have somewhat of a view, because the amazingly unspectacular summit of Mt Galehead affords none. No view whatsoever. There is just the comforting thought that you bagged yet another mountain off the long list and you lived to tell about it. So far, so good, but then the trouble started, rain, rain and rain. Relentless, for the whole five miles of the downhill hike. Petra was not happy, to say the least. Despite the fact that I did have a waterproof windbreaker and boots, it was just yucky. The relentless pounding one experiences hiking down granite boulders started to hurt my back, I had PMS, and the world was just out to get me!!! My hiking boots now look like I did a little trip to a pig sty and I probably will have to make use of a hammer to get the dirt off once it is all dried up. Fun!!
The rain never stopped so we did opt for an early departure on Sunday and headed home. The viewing of Johnny Depp and the Pirates of the Caribbean sequel helped to right all the weekend wrongs that afternoon, and a lovely dinner at "Joe's American Bar and Grill", a Boston institution located on fashionable Newbury Street, made the tummy happy. Life was good after all.
Week days: work, work ,work and marathon training (just finished up week 10 out of 18); a nice social diversion was created by the Commonwealth Shakespeare Company who every year delights Will's friends with free performances at the Boston Common. On Tuesday, Patrick, Ellen, Waleed, Paula and I attended "The Taming of the Shrew" - definitely a more enjoyable evening than last year's Hamlet (there was just too much screaming going on) and very nicely acted. The play was staged in "Bostonia", some scenes took place on Revere Beach; the actors featured heavy-duty New Jersey and Boston accents, and to be honest, the whole hoopla was a little raunchy, if you know what I mean. At some point, every sentence spoken became a double entendre. When one of Bianca's suitors said "before you touch my instrument" and mumbled something about his "fingering", the audience was pretty clear on the concept.
So, my friends, I have to go now. There are some errands to be done, and I have to get started on my citizenship application, which amazingly enough seems very straightforward and is giving me nowhere near the trouble the German government gave me for just changing my name back to my maiden name (I think I signed less paperwork for my mortgage). They topped it off last week, by charging me an additional incoming wire fee for the insane amount of money they wanted to officially "recognize" my American divorce and then complained that I had not wired enough money. Unbelievable!!
Have a nice rest of your weekend, and talk to you soon.
pet:)
posted by My Boston at
11:10 AM
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