well, life here on this site has gone quiet…just seemed to have lost the gumption for it….
so, I MOVED!
if you are so persistently stubborn that you are still coming back to see if i actually exist, head over to the new and pretty much the same mindless drivel over at blogger.
laterdays
-b
another great thing that happened on our trip was that we were able to see the mountain (Mt McKinley) for just about 48 hours, which is really one of the most amazing things you can see. second to seeing an unobstructed view of the mountain, is watching the face of someone who is seeing it for the first time.
on our first day of hiking the sky was partly cloudy, but the clouds were positioned just perfectly to block out any view of the mountain, but i had my suspicions that it was going to come out; the weather just seemed to be going in that direction. i kept asking brenda to point up in the sky to where she thought the top of the mountain was, and then i would point where i thought it was (which was usually about twice as high as she was pointing). i always got the same reaction from her, "no way. its not way up there."
the next morning we woke up to another partly cloudy day, but i could see that within an hour or so, we would have one of the best views of the mountain that ive had. and out it came. and down dropped brenda’s chin. McKinley has the highest vertical rise of any mountain in the world…you can see it rise 18,000 vertical feet. but its not just how it towers over everything else, its that its just so damn massive…more than Everest.
this pic is from our second night camping while the sun was setting. 
hiking with the mountain out is pretty interesting/challenging. its tough keeping your eye on your path long enough to keep from tripping over things, including your feet.
it was a long time coming, but i finally made it up to Alaska with the girl. back in 1996 i had three goals. 1) get a truck, 2) get a girl, 3) go to Alaska with both. i took care of #1 pretty quick and #2 came together a few times, but i never got the girl up to Alaska…until now…and it was well worth the wait to get the right one up there.
brenda and i spent 5 days backpacking in Denali National Park and another 3 exploring anchorage and the kenai peninsula. tons of wildlife and adventures. more pics and stories to come…
this is us at the end of our trip standing in front of Exit Glacier near Seward.
-b
we went backpacking this past weekend. both brenda and i were really excited for our trip to the flat tops wilderness, but in the end we cut the trip short. we had planned on staying out three days and two nights, but the ‘wildlife’ cut it short for us.
on the hike up the river valley we notice there were quite a few mosquitos and biting flies, but if we kept moving they werent too bad, and we both thought that as we got up on top of the plateau they would be much better. usually the colder air and limited water makes for a better buggy situation. well, the flies did disappear pretty quickly as we climbed, but the mosquitos got worse and worse.
by the time we reached the top where we set up camp, we werent even able to stand still without thousands of the buggers flying around and landing on us. in the end, we set up the tent and spent almost 14 consecutive hours inside while the constant whine of the bloodsuckers continued just outside the mesh. we got up at 630 the next morning hoping to catch them still sluggish and sleeping, but somehow they must have caught wind of our plans. its amazing we didnt leave anything behind; that was the most frantic breaking of camp ive ever done.
brenda’s bites number somewhere in the triple digits and mine are about half that. we do plan on going back, but not until it dries out a bit there and cools down, hopefully killing some of them.
ill post some pictures on a future post.
-b
during my drive home from work this morning, i was stopped at a light behind a guy driving a convertible. the weather has been really warm, so of course, hes got his top down. next thing i know, he opens up his door, leans out, and dumps out what was left in his cup of coffee.
maybe im just really tired, but i thought it was one of the dumbest things ive ever seen. i mean come on…youve got a friggin convertible!
-b
bonus pic:
working the graveyard shift you are constantly searching for things to keep you alert during your shift. staying awake really isnt much of a problem, but when you are working on heavy machinery its fairly important to be as alert as you possibly can, unless you really dont mind going home with one fewer digit than you arrived with.
the past 4 months or so, ive been dabbling in the realm of the energy drink. its amazing how many have appeared on the shelves of the convenience store in the last couple of years. some taste better than others, but ive found that people’s tastes really seem to vary when it comes to these drinks.
brenda came home with a new one the other day and gave it to me to sample that night when i went to work. im sure youve seen the commercial: Vault, "Drinks like a soda, kicks like an energy drink." well, it does drink like a soda, yes, but a rather weak one frankly. it ranks right up there with Sierra Mist, in terms of flavor: think of a very weak Sprite, and you are on the way. in terms of an energy drink, it just flat out sucks. its clearly got a lot of caffeine, but that just doesnt cut it when it comes to an energy drink. caffeine wakes you up, but it doesnt really keep you alert, and frankly, Mountain Dew keeps me more alert than this stuff.
"Vault, drinks like a weak soda, and doesn’t kick like an energy drink."
-b
just finished watching the u.s. lose another game, and our last game in this world cup. blame is already being thrown everywhere (coach, players, refs), but in the end it doesnt really matter. we didnt get it done, and better teams outplayed us. period. yeah, it would have been nice if donovan had shown up to any of the games, and if beasley had played a little more consistently, and if arena would have been more aggressive with his substitutions, and if the refs had pretended to have a clue, but none of that happened, and we are the better for it, cause frankly, our games really havent been all that exciting. after settling down from my initial frustration, i think that i would rather watch ghana vs brazil than the u.s. vs brazil.
-b
just finished reading through some of my last posts…who the hell was writing those? bitter bastard, thats for sure. dont know how he got on here…
so, im back. no promises for regularity, but maybe at least there will be the occasional funny or informative. just enough to keep both of my loyal readers checking in from time to time. heres a pic to keep you coming back for more.
from our (kinda) recent trip to tulum, mexico. this is a canal (about 1/4 mile long if i recall correctly) built by the mayans to connect two lagoons, so that they would have access to the ocean. we were taking a boat tour and in a canal further down the way were able to swim and float along with the current.
been busy so far this summer (and it isnt even summer yet). kayaking, backpacking, moving (ok that happened in march, clearly not the summer), camping, and of course, the girlfriend. she may take up a lot of my time, but shes worth every second.
we went car camping this weekeend while we attended FIBArk, which is a big white water festival in the town of salida. much fun. anyway, i had our big plastic jug for water with us in the back of the truck, and when brenda made the first pour of water into her hands, she notice that there were little swimmers in the water that looked like larvae of some sort…actually, they didnt look like larvae, they were. i came to realize that when i "topped off jug" that morning, i hadnt considered how long the "old" water had been in there. lets just say that it had been a few months.
theres two levels of grossness to deal with here. 1) we almost washed ourselves with and drank some manky water that had larvae of who knows what kind of insect (im betting on mosquitos). 2) how did they get in there? that jug had been sealed the entire time it was hiding in the basement. were they in there before i sealed it up (which means we were consuming some form of buggy the last time we used it), or while the jug was being stored, did they somehow penetrate the plastic without leaving any obvious leaks? ugh. yuck. big yuck.
my advice…empty your water jug and dry it immediately after each use!
-b
on the way home this morning i saw one of the funnier bumperstickers…
‘Is it 2008 yet?"
-b
just a really quick post to vent a bit…
be very careful about who you try to throw under the bus; especially when theres a job opening to become your boss, and i might be applying for it.
im not just some simple-minded dumb-shit, and ive been know to stoop to low vindictive levels.
-b
