I'm Still Not Old

You can't help getting older, but you don't have to get old.

--George Burns

The past few days have been a little break in the adventures and journeys.  I spent the time in Bellvue, Wasington, with Vince, an old friend from high school grade school (he reminded me that we’ve known each other for close to 40 years now—man, how did that happen??), and his family.  I spent a few nights in a real bed, and his wife, Darcie, cooked a fantastic lasagna on the night I arrived.  The visit was a nice break from the spinach, peppers, carrots, tuna, and quinoa that were the bulk of my diet for the past few weeks.  Also, Vince and I went to a great steak house on Thursday night and I had a grilled New York steak (medium rare), which tasted ever so much better than I ever remember steaks tasting.  Vince and I spent the time aggrandizing our time in school and college, and reminiscing how cool we were back then. That is part of what you do as you start coasting through middle age, I suppose.  I also took the opportunity to properly tease his 7-year old daughter, Kaitlin, and his 9-year old son, James.  Kaitlin would have none of it, though.  “I see where you’re going with this,” she curtly stated to me and folded her arms in front of her as I insisted that she had something invisible in her hair.  It only took her about 20 minutes to figure out that 99% of what I say likely is not quite entirely true.  (I have the kids in my group on the swim team convinced that I don’t get paid anything for the job other than the pure opportunity to tease children).  I also told James about how his dad and I used to torment our teachers in high school by removing the chalk board from the wall in the middle of class, and how we spent one afternoon driving around with "the leg" (a fake leg we hung out of the door of the car).  I planted a few seeds in his young mind.  I suppose I have the growing older part down, but I'm not giving in to the getting more mature part of it.  I also took the advantage of being in a “real” house and pilfered some use of Vince and Darcie’s laundry machine, and now I have a fresh stock of clean clothes.  Washing machines are so much more effective than the sinks in the campgrounds at getting clothes clean and dry!

Since I’ve been in Washington, I’ve seen more rain than I have in California in probably the last 2 years.  At Kalaloch, there were some cool looking trails that I wished I had explored, but the muddy patches didn’t seem to go to well with my jogging shoes.  So this morning I ventured out to a little mall in Issaquah.  Kassie at REI helped me go through at least a dozen pairs of boots and trail shoes before finding one that seemed like it would work.  Glacier National Park in Montana and Yellowstone in Wyoming are my next two big destinations, and I figured a good pair of waterproof trail shoes would be put to good use.

Later on today I’ll be heading to Sammamish, Washington, which is a long 20 minutes away, to visit Kevin, another friend from high school (really from high school), and mooch off of him for a few days before heading off to Glacier.  I'm also looking forward to stirring up the memories we've had and being reminded of the fun things I forgot to remember.  But for now, I’m parked in a (guess where) having a Jade Citrus Mint tea and watching the people dart through the rain.  People in Washington know how to handle the rain. There are a lot of hats and waterproof jackets, and not a single umbrella.  It’s a bit different than in California where you always have to have one hand occupied with the umbrella handle while juggling everything else in your free hand.  Also, I’ve not once yet worried about getting my eye poked out by the pointy things that stick out from the edges of umbrellas, right at my eye level. But with my vision the way it has gotten the last few years, I suppose it wouldn't make much of a difference if I did get poked in the eye.  Plus it would give me the chance to wear an eye patch like a pirate and tell a cool story about it.