Eseme's Den

Wow, I've been busy.

So, just after my last post about walking, on Saturday April 16, I did a LOT of walking! I walked into Gardiner for lunch. It's a long walk, about 5.5 miles each way, plus the walking in Gardiner itself. People look at you funny when you reveal how far you have walked for lunch...

But what a lunch! I went to my favorite place to eat, and they had totally amazing food. It was a bit of a chilly day, and rained that evening. So I arrived a bit cold, and was happy to learn that I could order half a panini and a cup of soup. Mmmmmmm, hot cheddar, onion, and tomato panini, and cheddar-beer soup, served with a simple salad of greens and a vinaigrette. So good! I had two cups of hot tea, the second one with their rum chocolate bread pudding. Yum! And you totally don't need to worry about calories when you are walking over ten miles that day.

I did a bit of shopping, and walked back.

Now, this weekend was both productive, and fun. Though with less walking. First, I found out that one of my neighbors is moving, and is selling a couple of storage cabinets. I happen to need a couple, and was planning on buying some this summer. While it did require a bit of last minute juggling of the budget, I will be able to get them on Friday. So I spent yesterday (Sunday) making room for the cabinets in my second bedroom. The craft room is taking shape! Now I just have to get all the stuff on the floor in cabinets!

Saturday was fun (other than the two hour trip into work wherein I fought with Linux and lost). I went to the fundraiser and beginning of the season for the local "extreme roleplaying" group. AKA, boffer LARP. Which I have never done before. But they are much closer than the Cam is, and the costuming should be fun. Fantasy costumes! Also, I won a higher level character in a raffle. There is a new game being playtested this summer, and they want people to play a variety of levels - I won the chance to play a 10th level character (instead of 5th level) by putting most o my raffle tickets in one bag. Yay! The only downside will be if I really like it, next year I have to go back down to 5th level.


Walking Totals

I started at 72.85 miles to Rivendell.

So I walked to Gardiner, which is a little over 5.5 miles each way (I start my walk a bit before the 1.0 mile mark, and the 6.5 mile marker is at the end of the trail). I also walked around Gardiner a bit. So I'm calling that trip 12 miles.

Then last Sunday I walked about 1 mile to AC Moore. This Sunday (yesterday) I walked 2.15 miles, and another 2.15 miles today.

For a new total of... 89.15 miles!

So when we last checked in, I had made it to the Buckleberry Ferry, and across the river. But we saw one of those annoying cloaked riders! Darn.

So now : We take the main road north from the Ferry, Buck Hill is on the left and Buckleberry on the right. We take a lane to the right, and climb up and down into the country, ending up at Crickhollow, where we spend the night. And a Conspiracy is Unmasked! I believe this is where we meet Strider? Not sure.

The next morning we leave Crickhollow soon after 6:00 a.m. It is foggy and we ride the ponies slowly. We enter tunnel under Hedge to reach The Old Forest. The path disappears (ca. 7:15 a.m.). We keep on trying, and eventually reach the Bonfire Glade, which has a clear path beyond. It is now sunny, but we are not yet in a second clearing.

We get a lot done before lunch!

Once again, I am in Maine.

Arrived Friday evening. I'll be leaving Tuesday night, and staying with a friend on the way back to New York.

Vacation is good. I've already read one book. For reference, I have not had the opportunity to read a single novel since getting my new job and moving. I've been that busy.

Small Favor is a great novel, very well written. Then ending is a real downer- I can see that Jim is setting up for the more depressing middle bits of the long war.

I have another two books with me, as well as a crochet and a knitting project. Life is good.

The beach at Fort Popham is still lovely, and Spinny's still makes great onion rings and amazing blueberry shortcake. Got in to L.L. Bean today, and we had dinner at the Mediterranean Grill (Pastito! Red Lentil Soup! Turkish Tea! Baklava!)

Life is good indeed. Tomorrow, random adventures with M. We never know where we'll end up.

I'll be back home with regular internet access on Wednesday.

It is very loud here today, as a bunch of people showed up at 7:00 Am to put in a new floor. And as I cam oddly not working today (my schedule has gone rather weird) I thought I would answer the questions about the trip to Pennsylvania.

I may one day have to be able to spell that state's name correctly, as this was for a job interview. The same thing goes for Massachusetts (where I interviewed just before Thanksgiving). I drove to Northern PA Institution Of Higher Learning (it and the town hereafter listed as Northern PA). No, I'm not going to use the real name of the place, as I don't want to jinx any job chances I have.

The trip from Maine to Albany was fairly uneventful. Albany more than made up for that. I was driving along in the far left lane to allow oncoming traffic to enter from an on-ramp. Ahead of me I saw something very odd. It looked, in silhouette, like a very large Segway. A tall stick-like shape about 6-8 feet high, coming down the on-ramp ahead of a dump truck. As my brain attempted to process this and came up blank, the front end dropped to the pavement.

And I realized this was a motorcycle. Doing a wheelie. On the highway. At speed.

The nutcase then pulled in front of me (I was going 75, so this guy with a death wish was as well).

Nutcase then decided the far left lane wasn't quite right and darted into the 8 foot space between two semis.

And then popped another wheelie while holding pace with me or going a bit faster.

When I stopped yelping "Oh shit, he's gonna die and I'm going to be seeing his entrails!" I grabbed my phone and made my first ever 911 call. Sadly there were no cops running speed traps when you need them.

( The rest of the two day drive )