T-minus 24 days.

It’s been quite the last few weeks! I’ve been a bit overwhelmed trying (and failing) to get everything wrapped up before setting off for the trail. Anyways I wanted to both get a post up, but more importantly do so from a device I’ll be taking with me - instead of the laptop, which will definitely be staying home!

For many reasons, the mobile interface for site editing is really clunky and nearly impossible to use with my phone, so I’ve spur of the moment decided to get a tablet for use on the trip. Not sure I’m in love it yet, but I’m hoping it’ll grow on me. This post is being made from the tablet, so at the very least I am indeed able to edit the site from the thing. I’ll putz around with alternate portals for site editing in the future, cause I’m sure doing it this way is going to grate on my nerves.

Anyway for a status update: much of the packing and moving has been accomplished. Ive also managed to make much of the arrangements. Still have about a dozen things to check off, but I’m moving in the right direction. Going to try and get those wrapped up by the end of next week.

In my last post I mentioned I was using Craigslist to get rid of my old stuff. Turns out it just reminded me of how much people suck! Arranged to sell 4 items and here’s what happened:

Desk (listed at $25) - guy showed up liked it and only had $20. Close enough, sold.

Bottles for home brewing ($10) - guy shows up 30 minutes late and “doesn’t have his wallet”. Fuck it, take the damned things. You wasted more than $10 worth of my time already.

Chair ($15) - lady postpones at last minute, then wants it for $10 when she does show up. Fine whatever.

Old UK/US power converter ($10) - guy again shows up with “no wallet”. Again I give the damned thing away because it ain’t worth my time arranging another deal.


The lesson learned? I’m going to just give all my other re-sellable stuff away to the secondhand store down the street. Let them deal with the Masshats!

T-minus 49 days. Yes, I've decided to go with the T-minus system for counting down until I embark in the AT. I'm planning on switching to AT-# for tracking the days when on the trail. We'll see if I come up with something better or not.

So, yesterday I was in a MOOD. The day started with me making a trip to the post office and I had a bizarre encounter with another driver. When I was in the shared turn lane to the shopping plaza this dude popped into the turn lane immediately in front of me. This annoyed me to no end, but hey it's Massachusetts I'm kinda used to asshat drivers. The thing that set me off was this: as he popped into the turn lane he proceeds to make eye contact with me, takes both hands off the wheel to do jazz hands or something, and pursed his lips up and stuck out his tongue. In that instant I had the urge to gun the gas and have a head-on collision with him – all in hopes of having him bite his tongue off.

Anywho, that bizarreness left me really annoyed until after noon, and in that time I decided that I would do a night hike to stomp some of the aggression out of my body. It worked!

Went with the old standby of hiking up Pumpelly trail on Mt. Monadnock. It's about a 9 mile round-trip hike that I've done numerous times in a variety of weather conditions – including at night. 

 
​All that said, this was my first winter night hike, so I decided to just go with the flow and turn around if things got too spicy. The trail conditions weren't as treacherous as anticipated, so I was able to nearly summit. I made it to the second most prominent point of this trail – about 3/4 mile from the actual summit – before calling the hike because of a dense fog at the top of the mountain. (As an aside, should it be called fog if I think it was actually the clouds that were blowing in?)

I'm pleased to report that the hike went very smoothly! It was easy to get in the hiking rhythm and just let the stress and anxiety wash away. The only problem I really had was with a particular section of the trail, which for all intents and purposes is a staircase that gets incredibly icy during the winter. No problems making it up, but I went ass over teakettle twice on the way down – once at the beginning of that section, and once just before the end. No harm done beyond a bruised elbow though, so no worries.

 The "trail" at the staircase section.

I made it home safely a bit after 2 AM and am dragging a bit this morning, but it was definitely worth the trip! I'm feeling much better this AM.

I'm hoping that continues today, but I'm meeting a guy today from Craigslist to sell some furniture. I'm anxious about meeting some rando from the internet, and really hope there's no dumbass-ery in the transaction!