Date: 2008-08-03
From: North Woodstock, NH

To: North Woodstock, NH
Miles today: 0.0

Man is the weather crappy in NH this time of year. Flash flood warning lastnite, crazy storms with flickering electricity again. I love storms when I'minside, but it is a reminder of what we're going to have to plan for when wehead back out soon.My body is slowly starting to calm down, so I was able to sleep in till 8 a.m.today. Last nite one of the owners of this motel came by our room with a new,hot off the press children's book that he had written. It's a story about his2 dogs going up to Canon Mtn., all based on his real dogs and a real mountainaround here. A little weird to have someone solicit (and I found a typo!oops!)..he was asking $12.95 for the book. I would probably have been suckeredinto buying the thing for the sake of trying to support a person's goals, eventhough I know no children that the book would be age appropriate for, butluckily Karen just said, "Sorry, we don't have kids," in her very polite way,and then he freakin GAVE us a copy anyways! (We think he had a few under thebelt). All part of the plethera of trail stories I have collected. It shouldnot make anyone NOT want to stay here though, the place has been an awesomeplace to stay.Today was a nothing day again. I am getting antsy to get back on the mountains,so I called A.M. and left her a message. The weather reports have changeddrastically every day, so who the heck knows what we should plan for. I'mgetting to the point of it just being tiresome to plan around it all. I thinkwe just need to be at our destination for the day by 2 or 3, and be prepared todeal with rain/storms in a safe elevation. Not sure what else you can dohonestly.Today I am trying to figure out our next sort of basecamp location. Karen needsa place to work out of with internet or a place closeby with internet and I'massuming A.M. and V8 and I might try to do a few more day hikes with shuttlinginvolved, so we'll need a location that is sort of half way in between CrawfordNotch and Gorham. I have to look a few places up on the internet though, hopingto find maybe a 2 bdr cabin we can all 4 rent, and hopefully it will be a bitcheaper.We went for lunch...ok ok...AFTER Karen beat my ass in cards...to this bagelplace in Lincoln..pretty good. They have wifi here, so we're sitting out onthe deck in a light rainstorm, under an umbrella.Karen and I have been talking some about my next step for jobs. I hate thistopic, because it's nothing but frustrating and is one of the few areas in mylife that I feel somewhat negatively about. I've done everything andspecialized in nothing....well...sort of, I do have a common theme of educationin 3 of my 3.5 degrees. So what are Certain's careers? These were the 3 "main"things:Marine Corps: Musician in a Marine Band and marksmanship instructor teachingMarines how to shoot the M16 and 9mm pistolAutomotive Technician: Fixed cars for a living while going to school andgetting a Master's Degree in Adult Ed.University Teacher: Co-created and taught an automotive education program atOklahoma State University, the program, still very successful is calledPro-TechI suppose those were my most "real"/culturally respected jobs and then the nextlist is all of the crap I've done between real jobs or as second jobs alongwith my real jobs because I needed the money:bookkeeper, server at a restaurant, pooper scooper at a dog show, grocery storechecker, pizza delivery driver, music librarian, music store clerk, ice creamscooper, temp employee in an accounting dept., admin. assistant in a school ofnursing, exotic animal caretaker (tigers, cougars, lions, python, alligatorlemur...animals like this), adult store clerk (desperate times meant takingdesperate measures LOL), barista, babysitter, editorial assistant for scholarlyjournals, life organizer, property manager, niteclub musician (at age 7 with myfather), and now....the BEST career of all...HIKER!!Most people say, well crap, why didn't you stay in music or automotive? Well,because they weren't fulfilling, didn't make a bit of difference to helpingshape our society to become a more positive place for ALL people to live, andnow I know enough to know I want to be involved at the community level withpeople...face to face, being real, talking, learning, teaching, empowering,exchanging ideas, problem solving, and it doesn't have to make me rich...I justneed to be able to pay my bills and maybe try to put a little back. Oh, and I'dreally like to have a homelife and not have to live out in the woods for 5 daysat a time too, which sort of makes some of the Outward Bound programs not mything.So seriously...when I think about what's next, I roll my eyes and say, "Here wego again." I was really hoping I'd have it all figured out by the time Ifinished this hike, and not completing it last year got me off the hook foranother year in some ways, but there's no avoiding this thing now.So what do you all think would be a good career? Looking foranswers...sometimes you're too close to see what it obvious to some...and let'sface it, I've never even met 99% of you, so this should be interesting if anyone has an actual suggestion. I'm pretty sure I'm tired of being in schoolthough..I'd like to think after I finish this 12 hrs and get a (second)Master's in Social Justice Education w/a concentration in Women's Studies, thatI'll have the credentials I need.On this zero day, that's what I'm pondering. I think I need icecream now. Italways helps me focus and feel better. I'm hoping to connect with A.M. today,and if not, Karen and I are tentatively planning on going kayaking tomorrow.It will be nice to be out on the water, which we both love so much. It hasbeen indescribably wonderful having Karen here and knowing there's no more longterm separation. Gosh does it give the remainder of my hike such a differentenergy and dynamic.~Certain