I don’t fall in (or off…)
My fav-o-rite North Country Trail bridge has taken a turn for the worse. Actually I think “we” are in the process of replacing it. I say “we” but the truth is that I am a fringe member of the powerhouse bunch of folks who maintain this section of trail and the uncountable number of bridges, boardwalks, and elevated walkways. I have yet to wield a hammer or haul a bunch of lumber into the woods ON FOOT or even clip a wayward branch. I contribute lasagne once in a while and I confuse people about the number of miles we’ve hiked by insisting that my fitbit is counting miles accurately (not). I [try to] stay patient and upbeat during the cat-herding that happens prior to group hikes and I tolerate the GG’s absence at times when I can’t get north because of work responsibilities. Oh yeah, I LOVE to man the booth over at the Quiet Water Symposium at MooU in March.
I *think* that both of the pics today show the same bridge. There is some dissent about that around here tonight. But. The bridge was always fine in nice dry summer conditions. It was almost my nemesis during a loverly April snow hike in 2013. The folks in the pic walked over this rickety old bridge with aplomb. I *think* they are older than me but not sure. I was TERRIFIED! I hung on to the railing with a death grip as I inched my way across. I was feeling like I was my mother, even though I think the last time she wore snowshoes was in her 20s. Hmmm. Maybe this kind of situation was why… To be fair, I was wearing old-skool wooden snowshoes with no kind of grippy-type-thingies of any sort. Slippery? Yes. I now own “modern” snowshoes.
Hmmm, what else is there? I know there is something else. Is it that 3 (or 4?) of the 5 women’s terlets are currently disfunctional over at Cubelandia? The CRD did not want to hear about the one that “spurted”. TMI, he said in his distinctive accent. Plumbers have been called but this might mean that I will have to bail tomorrow and work from home. If that happens, I hope the GG will be able to vamoose in some way, shape, or form. I married him for better or worse but not for lunch or working from home. Most people didn’t and couldn’t work from home until well after we married.
We don’t normally talk polly-ticks at Cubelandia but during this campaign season a few little tweet-type thingies slip out occasionally. I complained about a certain sticker that has since been removed from the Lyme Lounge and it was a group convo but I didn’t realize that one of the group supports that person. This woman is one of the sweetest people on earth and I regret making even the barest negative reference to that sticker now.
Tomorrow morning, instead of doing my usual beautiful 0-skunk-30 walk, I will be circling the polling place in my backyard, waiting to see when the first people show up. I know that it’ll be well before 7:00 AM when the polls open. I don’t care if I am the first voter. I long ago conceded that “race” to Mr. Mxyzptlk. I don’t know who y’all are voting for but please please please VOTE. And then consider that whoever you vote for can’t necessarily change your own particular world as soon as they get elected or anytime thereafter. Each one of us has a responsibility to try our best to make our country a good place to live. I don’t exactly know what that means but I think one of the things it means is not sharing every single bit of click-bait face-book crapola just because the headline matches your world view. READ the article. Check out its sources. Does the headline match the content? Do you *really* agree with whatever points are made in the article. If you can even decipher all of those points because I cannot always do that and I am a systems analyst so I get paid to so that sort of thing. Another thing is to try to pay it forward if you can possibly do so. That can happen no matter who is president of our beautiful but sometimes difficult country.
Love you all, no matter who you vote for. -KW