The only redeeming thing abt being in ABQ, other than being with MDC (day after tomorrow is her birthday!!), is streaming music over the wifi.
Oh yeah....and there's stuff to buy. I think I may have found a tent. I DID get my Camptrails Freighter backpack out of storage. I'd forgotten it's ORANGE!
It was a thrift-store find priced at $15.00. Lucky Herrmann happened in on half off day. The dangling rope looks pretty sophisticated; anyone speculate on its use?
Orange, my favorite color when i was around 6, i was allowed to paint my room orange, my dad helped. Orange is good.
ReplyDeleteWow! What a lucky girl!
DeleteInterestingly your song could be from 1966 when i was 6
ReplyDeleteI think you are the youngest - in terms of age difference - of them all. Most, as you know, have been older than I.
DeleteI do like the external frame backpacks. I still have the my Camptrails Wilderness pack (khaki) from my A.T. hike.
ReplyDeleteMe too. My back doesn't sweat as much as with the internals.
DeleteWhere did you go on the A.T.?
Just (Dec 6, 2018) looked up the Wilderness. It looks identical to the Freighter. I wonder if the name-change was a marketing ploy? I bought the Freighter in '69. At the time, age 17, it was a HUGE expense.
DeleteVintage. The rope is to hang the pack.
ReplyDeleteAh. Thank you, Art.
ReplyDeleteI'll hang it from a nail in the living room and designate it post-modern sculpture.
South to North.
ReplyDeleteGA>ME '96 If you come across a book called "A Season on the Appalachian Trail", by Lynn Setzer, you could see a picture of me crossing the Kennebec River in Maine. The second edition of that book adds what happened to the thru-hikers of that year 10 years later. Definitely a life changing experience for me.
Will you say more about what changed?
DeleteThere wasn't just one thing. But before I left, I was a "successful" insurance defense (asshole) lawyer who had been offered partnership in a large firm. After the thru-hike, my priorities changed. I never practiced law ever again. Having lived on just a few thousand dollars over a six month hike, I realized that working long hours for more money in a job that made me cold and callous wasn't satisfying. I made significantly less money from that point forward but was much happier.
ReplyDeleteGood lord! Have you written about the "shift?" Did you keep a journal?
DeleteI too made a similar decision. When I left the 20M Credit Union where I was Marketing Dir, Bank of America called and invited me to head up the Albuq office. I declined, telling them I was opening a gallery. (Two weeks earlier I'd contracted for 1,000 square-foot space on Central Ave a block west of the University.) I've never regretted the decision.
Am interested to hear more about your process. (see my first blogpost) Will you tell us more?
I ordered the book by Lynn Setzer. Thanks!
DeleteI wrote a long detailed addition to this which evaporated when I clicked preview. I think that's destiny telling me something :-)
ReplyDeleteThe short version is that I am very much a goal-oriented person who has used "gut feelings" as the process for most of my major life decisions. That process has worked out really well for me, even when the cost/benefit analysis would have sent me in the opposite direction.
The journal of my thru-hike was a plodding description of foods I ate, fantasies of food and beer that I would prefer to be consuming, miles hiked and weather endured. The most interesting part of the journal is the leather binding created by a customer of the coffee shop that I owned later. He asked to read the journal and created the leather work before returning the journal I'll put a picture of that up in my blog sometime soon and maybe address more of the shift.
Darn it!! I've had that happen too....write and it disappears. It's almost enuf tuh make yuh cuss.
DeleteThanks for the teaser. I -- and dare I speak for others -- but I'd venture MANY others would be interested to hear details; I would, anyway.
I bought an ultralite expedition tent today (I'm DETERMINED to do some overnights) from a guy about to retire from the military. When I asked what he was gonna do he told of being fed up with the culture (noise, materialism) and moving to Alaska...where he can enjoy nature. He'd bought the tent for a hike to Everest Basecamp, but a knee injury kept him from going. He said his hiking days were behind him, but he was looking forward to enjoying the beauty...and the quiet. He's 47.