SO many hiking stories, so little time. The Christmas after I turned 18 my parents gave me a winter sleeping bag as a gift so that I could go on a back country ski trip later that winter with Dad and his friend, Randy, who at that time had lived in a teepee for several years. Our trip, in February, took us up the Tonquin Valley in Jasper National Park, and we ended up digging a snow trench and then pitching a tent instead of digging a full cave mostly due to the snow conditions. We skied and skied and skied and had a great time, more fun than I thought was possible to have with Dad (in those callow, youthful days).
The highlight, though, was meal time that first night. We had each brought only a mug and a spoon, and the first dish was a tuna and macaroni salad. We followed that with hot chocolate, which caused gales of laughter, seeing how we hadn't properly washed out the mugs, and hot chocolate tainted with tuna and macaroni flavour is not something to be enjoyed except in a maniacal, I-can't-believe-I've-done-this fashion. Scared te hell out of the chickadees and the weasel that had been coming by, I imagine.
Dad's been unwell for years, and he had the lower half of his right leg amputated early last year. He still rides his bike, and he swims, but those days are lost to me now, and so I cherish memories such as this one. Thanks for the opportunity to bring it back to the fore.
D
Frustrating to think that there's no one I could contact who would be willing to listen, being a foreigner and all. With Aidan's peanut allergy, visits to the US would look that much less appealing.
D
Condolences. I blogged about the loss of our own hamster almost two years ago:
http://coldground.typepad.com/cold_ground/pets/
Brennan, bless his heart, asks about once every three or four months if we can dig her up and see what shape the corpse is in. I always reply that there's an ant colony next door, so the shape is likely digested.
D
In addition to the writing, I'm a casual letter carrier (casual as in on-call, not full time). The Worker's Comp here in BC doesn't allow outdoor employees to work when it drops to minus 40 (which is the same in F and C). Last year we came close, and this year it's been cool (-12 or so today), but so far not nasty.
For today I wore: wool socks, regular street hikers (what snow is left is thin and crusty, so I don't need ankle coverage), long undies, pants, light sweater, button-up tshirt, work jacket, touque, and thin gloves. Fireman's mitts were in my bag for the second half of the day, when I was no longer dashing in and out of overheated businesses and apartment buildings. If it drops to -20, with or without windchill, I wear a turtleneck. -30, I lose the touque and wear a balaclava, but the problem with that is it gets so hot I roll is up, and then the moisture from my breath freezes it in place, so a scarf always comes with me on those days.
Visits to apartment buildings are the most dangerous. We stand in steaming hot lobbies while we drop mail in slots and sweat like mad, then walk back out into the cold again. Those are the days I've come closest to hypothermia.
D
I of course pulled the attributions from what people fessed up to at SFF Net. I'll soon do a correction, but I just drove for 8 hours and think I'll go walk the dog and then put my feet up.
Derryl
In Iceland he's 13 trolls (which would make a great name for a band):
"The seventh to arrive is door Slammer, he gets his kicks from slamming doors and making noise, using every chance he gets to disturb peoples sleep Then the nimber eight is curd Glutton (Skyr Gobbler), dairy products are his favorite and if stored in closed containers he simply breaks through the lid with his fist."
D
Amazing how many people knew it was Earth From Above. I had just pulled out the book to tell you, then read the comments. When I was in London in the summer of 03 these pix were on display outside the Natural History Museum, a maze of photos that were the size of small billboards. The book and the website are something to look at, but you could just fall into those pictures and live there forever.
D
Kellie, if you staple sticky notes to your forehead (which indicates you don't trust the "sticky" part of the equation), then you have to remember to write everything backwards, for when you need to read it in the mirror.
D
A certain Mr. Card has very strong opinions on this very matter. Who'da thunk he was a Democrat?
D
The Mounties: they always get their woman. Not just Wordfest goes on down there, so the pickings were ripe, what with everything the Banff Centre hosts. Editing workshops, writing workshops, readings...
As an aside, word has it that if they pull off Westercon in Calgary in 05, the same folks are going to try and get WFC for Banff.
D
I'll add The Maple Leaf Legacy Project to the list, too. Canadian war graves overseas, photographed for those who can't visit them. We took a picture of one while in Scotland and will be submitting it shortly. There are also links at the bottom of the page to similar projects elsewhere.
D
The Globe and Mail has, partway down the page, something called the "Memory Project," where Canadians sent artifacts from the Great War. There are some amazing stories here.
D
It has been a long-time goal of mine to go to the Punkin Chunkin competition. Every year the boys and I go to the website to view the latest winners, and I think they've pretty much decided they have to be there as well.
We are talking about a country where there were very vocal protests when Utah Republicans were told they would have to check their guns at the door before they came to hear Cheney speak (shortly after the election, IIRC). The State AG had to rent lockers on his own dime to quell the uprising.
Here in Canada, the worst to happen in recent memory was when Chretien and his wife were confronted by an intruder at 24 Sussex Drive (the official residence of the PM) in the middle of the night, and good ol' Jean bopped him on the head with an Inuit soapstone carving. Chretien also throttled a supposed protester who dared get in his way (the guy broke a denture, whatever that means).
As he is about to step off into retirement, perhaps his next job can be replacing the Secret Service detail for GW.
D
That fits in well with the analysis of the Left Behind series that Fred Clarke is doing over at Slacktivist. First entry at:
http://slacktivist.typepad.com/slacktivist/2003/10/left_behind_is_.html
D
I gotta get me to NYC some day. Everything you listed is just so damned interesting.
D
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