7/18/00 Go Climb a Mountain.

Depending upon where you live, and how athletic you are, this may either sound outrageously impressive, or it may make you sigh, and say "big deal". Trust me, it's not an easy climb - Ten miles round-trip, a 4,500' elevation gain to a final elevation of 8,300'.
All in all, a ten hour day outdoors.

For me, it's not the exercise, or the view, or even the camaraderie that attracts me to physically torture myself for an entire day, it's the rare opportunity to be somebody other than "Dad, or Husband" - For one day, in the middle of July, Ken gets to be Ken. 

Monica has attempted the climb twice before, both days were miserable failures. On one occasion, we didn't make it back to the tree line until after dark, and we had to navigate the final 2 miles of dense, pitch black forest, alone... armed with a tiny flashlight, and a ski pole... my backpack full of "bear-bait".

I kinda like the idea of having at least one day per year, that nobody gets to encroach upon, unless invited. I wish it was more than one day, I really wish it was a couple of hours peer week.

It was really nice to talk to Carla about things that bother me, and things in my life that just don't feel like they are going the right way. Nothing got resolved, things were just brought out and viewed from another angle.

Monica's Dr. Wouldn't refill her perscription for a week... so you can imagine (or maybe you can't) how that affected the family. Monica's mother is starting to tell Monica that what she feels are withdrawl symptoms, not the flu. Her pain is caused by the absence of pain pills. Monica refuses to aknowledge.

I want to chart good-days vs. refill days... graph pill consuption and mood swings. I want to scream, "DON'T YOU SEE THE PATTERN?"
But I never have... which is where I guess I'm screwed-up.
Instead I harbor it all, and scream it to nobody from the top of St. Helens.

"RI-CO-LA"