Finally less rain and more riding!

12/03/2018 - 12/09/2018



Monday (5.6) - Much peppier than Friday's run, that was nice.    I had a couple extra walks.  Feh whatever.   

He's melting

Tuesday (5.8) - Hills with Ro, we flip-flopped because she was hiking Lantern Hill with some of her retiree friends on Wednesday morning.  She opened up the option to me.  The gales of November are still strong, but it's December, everything seems to be a month off.  I put on an extra layer and didn't spend the rest of the day cold.  I need to dig out my lobster gloves.

Kicked my butt as Rachel promised it would

Wednesday (2.5) - Dave's Friday trip to Boston got rescheduled to Wednesday.  He was taking a Christopher DBG (bass) and an amp to a studio musician for him to record a demo. My morning full of meetings disappeared, so I went with the retirees to hike Lantern Hill.  That was fun!

Sue, Ro, Dar, Me

Thursday (2) + Ass and Abs - Night hike with Jax on the trails I hiked with Gizzy so many years ago.  We got a little turned around in the campground in the dark,  Jax didn't care and didn't know, he was happy to run on asphalt un-oppressed (no leash).

Staring contest

Friday (3.6) - Well, with layoffs come reassigning work.  I ended up with a new assignment, managing the departments budget.  I won't get full responsibility till the guy leaves in June, but there are things I need to know for year-end budget/accruals.  It has been a while since I've managed a department budget and the financial systems have changed in that time period.  From what I can tell it has improved, well, for the most part.  I had 30 minutes scheduled for this conversation and the guy leaving isn't exactly thrilled with this change in his status, he was planning on retiring in 2020, this pulls that up by 18 months.   After 45 minutes it became clear he wanted to talk and to teach and I wasn't going to cut him off because it was time for me to go run.  We talked nearly 2 hours and I think he feels a bit better about relinquishing this responsibility to me, and we had a plan going forward for him to slowly let go and work himself out of that part of his job. Having had to relinquish job responsibilities when I was on a layoff wave, I know how much it sucks and how married I got to my own processes. He needed the time to talk and to vent and to process and to show me what he has been doing and has built.  Hopefully, it was therapeutic for him and he feels confident what he has built will be appreciated and used.

Hopping down the bunny trail

We took Jax on a night hike in Arcadia.  Sunset was 4:17 p.m. and we started just before that.  Hiked for nearly an hour, so weird hiking in the dark, cool but weird. 



Saturday (5 + 3) - Went for a short mountain bike ride between Haley Farms and Bluff Point.  Explored some new to me trails.  I can really build a good ride in there once I learn a few more trails.  Plus it is on the way home from work for me.  An hour is a good ride time.  I rode up on a deer.  We stared at each other for a bit and I rode on, ended up riding in a circle and happened upon the same deer again.  S/he was cute, probably used to bikers or humans, s/he watched me and romped along for a bit and then I was off in a different direction.  That was really cool.  Such peaceful animals, also destructive and rather tasty!

Goofy

Jax was a little ticked he was alone, I hadn't been on the Hopkinton side of Grills in a while so I took him over there.  I've never parked on that side, I've always gone from the Westerly side.  It was totally different and very cool.  Jax was totally NOT into the Tomaquag Brook Bridge.  He willingly went on the board walk and as I walked up the stairs to the bridge he gave me his "oh hell no" look and did a 180 looked like he was contemplating jumping in the brook to avoid going over the bridge.  I quickly got back on the board walk so he didn't execute his not very well thought through plan.  Guess it's nice he likes me well enough to want to follow me?

Contemplating going off the board walk to avoid the bridge
The bridge is behind me.

We had plenty of trails to wander around on and some water to wade through and sticks to break and leaves to jump on, he was pretty thrilled and in a really good mood.  I know, weird, how dogs have moods.  I think he was thrilled to be out in the daylight on the trails.  After a week of night hikes he was happy to see the sun.  Guess we are all happy to see the sun during this time of year.


Sunday (9 + 1) - Decided I'd explore the new Mountain Bike trails at Woody Hill but first I'd ride down to the end and ride some trails I knew and were already comfortable with.  Parts of that area give me the heebiejeebies and parts seem ok.  I think the area, once populated, was reclaimed by the government and what ever the original plan was went belly up and the land was deserted and un-maintained.  Don't quote me on that.  In any event there are lots of stone walls, quite plentiful in New England, a couple foundations, one really creepy looking shack/house, an old well, at least one pond, an old quarry, miles of dirt bike trails, and I'm really not sure what else.  I've heard there is a monument, this is on the list of things to find.

I got very turned around, I know, no surprise there.  I was a little freaked out, which rarely happens, I'm chalking it up to me being tired, I'd been on the bike over an hour at that point.  The new mountain bike trails, all named at some point, but not marked through the length of the trail, some times marked at intersections, sometimes not, loop around each other like a bowl of spaghetti. At one point I jumped on to a different trail because walking 10 feet through the brush seemed like a "new" trail might send me in the correct direction.  Although in hind sight I wasn't even sure what the correct direction was!  I managed to back track to an intersection that sort of looked familiar another biker was there, one of the nice kind who say "Hi How's it going?" instead of pedaling along, I wonder if that is more of a roadie thing, ignoring other bikers.  Or maybe it's a chick on a bike in the woods that's the difference?  Wait, can I say chick?  Am I going to get my woman card suspended again?  He pointed me in the correct direction, I'll fully admit I was planning to go in the wrong direction and I couldn't remember if the sun needed to be in my face or at my back to get back to the car!

Took Jax on a very abbreviated hike in Riverwood, that too was fraught with disaster, erh, um, ADVENTURE!  :)  I think he didn't really care one way or the other about getting outside, when I got home he was curled up in his chair barely lifting his head to greet me, and went right back there after the hike and stayed there till Dog Dinner time, clearly he was more content sleeping the day away.  Good on ya old boy!




Knitting:



The new sweater was as warm as I thought it was going to be!  Yeah!  The weather has cooperated and gotten cold.



The sweater on the needles is progressing along.  I had to frog out a few inches when I realized I forgot to do something.  I managed to get it all back on the needles and sally forth.  I had to make a decision on the color change.  I ran out of the darkest bison fiber and switched to the lightest figuring the arms would be better in the medium.  I'm still suspecting I'll frog the whole thing but who knows maybe it will look ok as a tri colored sweater.  It will be thin however very warm, bison is great fiber for retaining heat, much like alpaca.



Reading:



"Washington"
by Ron Chernow



Status:  In Progress



I'm enjoying this one more than Hamilton and far more than "The Warburgs".  Washington was rather a dandy with his desire for fashionable clothes and carriages.  I found that interesting.



All in all a pretty good week, a bit of this and that.



Sincerely,


Beth, waiting impatiently for snow and has no idea why the spacing is so off on this post...  gremlins, it must be gremlins.