#22 Boston - Gusty - November 3, 2006

Try 70 mph (112.65 kmh) winds on top of a mountain and snow flakes!! How is that for a weather?? Gusty, is all I can say. I loved it - It was fabulous! Here we were this past Sunday on top of Mount Kearsarge in Southern New Hampshire, the wind was howling, yowling, wailing, whimpering, and for a minute there I thought I was hallucinating because I kept hearing helicopters overhead. Snow flakes started dancing around my head and this was yet another proof of how quickly the weather can change in New England. When we had left Boston it was a cool, but sunny Fall/early Winter day - not so up there! Climbing up the fire tower proofed a bit challenging, the wind had serious intentions of slapping us around a bit, but with a little coaxing I made it up there and lived to tell about it.

The hike up Mount Kearsarge is short and steep - you climb 1000 feet in about one mile - but it felt so good to move the legs after the marathon-induced hiking abstinence, even though some of our fellow outdoor enthusiasts were apparently not challenged enough, and added rocks to their backpacks..... Kearsarge is 2937 feet high and apparently the "oldest" mountain in the state (I am not quite sure how that was determined - maybe the next mountain that showed up wrote it down somewhere....). On a clear day (which Sunday certainly wasn't) you can enjoy quite spectacular views - Mt Sunapee, Mt Cardigan, Mt Monadnock and Mt Ascutney, and on an even clearer day - the White Mountains of New Hampshire, the Green Mountains of Vermont, Boston and event the Atlantic Ocean. The summit is bare (hence the view) since a forest fire did some serious damage in 1796.

Kearsarge is a so-called monadnock [I just learned that!] which Wikipedia says means "an isolated hill, knob, ridge, or small mountain that rises abruptly from a gently sloping or virtually level surrounding plain". Its Native American name, Carasarga, means notch-pointed mountain of pines, which in our experience seems a fitting description.

The hike in New Hampshire on Sunday was followed by the always scrumptious homemade ice cream at Christina's at Inman Square in Cambridge (a MUST-GOTTA-DO) and a fabulous dinner at the East Coast Grill and Raw Bar (http://eastcoastgrill.net/) - it all added up to a very lovely day to celebrate my birthday.

Saturday was quite the opposite - don't get me wrong, my birthday was still celebrated in style, however the weather gods were not quite with us there. The weather sucked, man! As I peeled myself out of bed Saturday morning and decided to go and attend the Halloween Hustle road race after all, it did not seem that bad, but after about 11 AM the rain was pretty much relentless and showed no intention of letting up for the remainder of the day . Of course you know what happened at the road race - despite my promises not to run, I did it anyway - just as my friend Joo said "there is no hope for a junkie". The weather deterred quite a few of the runners from coming in Halloween costumes, but a big round of applause should go to my running buddy Anne-Marie who came and ran dressed up as Candy Corn (even though my uneducated European transplant self asked her if she was a piece of toast..... yep, embarrassing! Good one Petra!).

After braving the deluge and getting warmed up, it was open house for the rest of the afternoon, friends stopped by with tons of cake and cookies (some of which found their way to my hips, I am sure), and a nice cup of tea. Kudos go to Ginna's son Sean, who dazzled the audience with somersaults on my bed! Well done! Dinner with my friends Linda and Roger was held at the East Side Bar and Grille, which is just a few doors from my house, and with its generous and yummy portions certainly deserves a bigger dinner audience.

The week has gone by in a jiffy, it is unbelievable - just to give you an idea:

Monday night, 5 PM Yoga followed by a train ride out to Somerville to attend the production of "Tomes of Terror" (this is Halloween season, after all) - a staged radio "thrillogy". My friend Renee, who was one of the producers, had lured me to this performance of the "Post Meridian Radio Players" and it was worth every minute of it. Tomes of terror featured three stories, one giddy halloweenish and two scary ones: Fibber McGee and Molly - Giddy's Halloween Party - an American classic from the Golden Days of Radio (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fibber_McGee_and_Molly). The original Fibber McGee show ran for 25 years and operated on a winning formula - Fibber always got in trouble, most often with his neighbor Throckmorton Gildersleeve (Gildy) and all hell broke loose for a while until matters calmed down. Story #2 was an Edith Wharton Adaptation of "The Maids' Bell" which was delightfully creepy and not to forget "The Monkey's Paw", third in the thrillogy - be careful what you wish for, is all I can say!!! What a most maaahvelous evening!

Tuesday, I headed out to Watertown to Patrick and Ellen's - yes, I lied again! I wimped out of waiting with candy for OPCs (other people's children) as I had promised - which in hindsight turned out to be not a bad decision as my neighbors reported there was only one adolescent that came by pretty late in the evening, and his costume was doubtful. Instead we all hung around on the Cooley's very comfy living room furniture and enjoyed the 1968 version of "The Night of the Living Dead". You gotta love a bad horror movie that takes place in rural Pennsylvania!

Wednesday night running group with no major injuries, followed by 3 hours of Battlestar Galactica.....

Thursday, after attending a very moving memorial service for the wife of a colleague who this week lost her struggle with cancer http://www.teamjean.org/, I hopped in the car and drove that little yellow bird of mine up to Salem, where he is vacationing for two weeks with the power team of Cooper and Cooper.

May I go now and be tired?

The weekend is upon me and you, and this Sunday I will hop on a plane and first attend a week-long conference in Prague and then visit the family in Germany for a hopefully very low-key reunion. Be well my friends, and feel free to send embarrassing photos of you in your Halloween costumes. I promise, I won't post it on my blog (but then again, do you think you can trust me?)

pet:)

A litte PS: Wind speeds at Mount Washington of course that day showed gusts of up to 158 mph (= 254.27 kmh).