Monday, November 18, 2013

Hilarious Hiking Moments

Well, the epic housecleaning didn't exactly happen this weekend. I got sidetracked by books, knitting, TV and the Internet, and that's okay. Watching old Doctor Who episodes actually counts as work this week. I may tackle the housework in stages during the week.

I did manage the hiking trip and experienced a Hilarious Hiking Moment. There's this spot on the lake near a park that's kind of a cliff-like point. We went out there to watch one of the summer firework shows because it's directly across the lake from where they set off the fireworks. It was kind of an ordeal to get there, involving walking along the shore, climbing some rocks and then making it down a pretty faint trail. Once we got there, we were surprised that there were other people there with a lot of gear or with baby strollers, so we figured there had to be an easier way. We did find another trail, and it was a little easier, but it still involved some rock climbing. When I went out there for lunch a few weeks ago, I started out trying to get to that spot, but decided it wasn't the smartest thing to do when I was by myself without my hiking boots on because if I turned an ankle, I'd be in trouble. We headed out there on Friday, properly equipped for some serious, strenuous hiking. As we parked, we noticed a trail heading into the woods and decided to give that a try. After about two minutes of easy walking down a very gentle trail, we ended up at the point that had required all that difficult rock climbing to get to. I thought I was going to need CPR from laughing so hard. It was so anticlimactic.

There were some hilly trails leading away from that point, so there was still some decent hiking around the lake, but I still crack up at the thought of how difficult getting there seemed and how I'd decided not to try to do it alone because it was too risky, and yet it was such an easy walk that we ran into some ladies who seemed to be taking a lunchtime stroll during their break at the office, in their work clothes with sneakers, while we were there in hiking gear.

I have a few spots in the book to check, and then I'll be able to send it back to the editor. Then I really do need to do some housework. I also have some shopping I need to do. I've decided that since I had income this year (yay!) that there are a couple of purchases I've been putting off that I need to make. One is a new pair of glasses. The other is a new winter dress coat. I bought the one I have now in 1990, and it looks it. It's got the big, puffy shoulders. It's also getting threadbare in a few places. I've been doing some shopping around online to see who might have what I want, and it doesn't seem like Nordstrom sells anything in stores in my area. Everything I like or want there, when I check to find it in a store, they say it's not available and offer to let me buy it online. So I guess I won't be shopping there. A coat is something I want to try on. Sizing gets really tricky because you have to plan for wearing bulky things underneath. Sometimes they account for this in the sizing, but sometimes you have to go up a size or two. I have a vivid mental image of what I want. The challenge will be finding it in a store in my size. This is one reason why I'm still using a threadbare coat from 1990.

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