Recapitulation of the Ends of Recent Weeks

` It seems like each time I've tried to write about my weekend, my computer acts up before I can save it and it gets erased. (I keep getting weird viruses and whatnot.) So here's a hopefully interesting recap;

` So, what did I do two weekends ago? EdgeWalker, Phil and I hiked up Mount Pilchuck! In my original attempt at a post about it, I described how I can see the little kiosk at the top from the apartment: At sunset, it gleams like Jupiter, so at first I thought it was something made of shiny metal.
` Two Saturdays ago, I scrambled over a bunch of boulders and climbed up the ladder to the platform - which had holes cut out for the tops of boulders - and discovered that this kiosk has huge windows on every side!
` Many other shiny things could be seen through the haze - ravens, rivers, the sound, etc. Also, lots of gunshots could be heard in clusters so close together I thought it was a landslide at first. Apparently, a shoot was going on somewhere off to the north.
` There were some people on EdgeWalker's favorite boulder perch, who weren't moving... in fact, the whole way up was covered in people and their dogs, so we went to a less windy area and set up the stove and the copper kettle.
` The water boiled in about thirty seconds, which was perfect for the white tea. I don't remember that much by now, really, other than looking down at farms and stuff.

` However, I do remember a bizarre story where this red-haired guy on the boulder perch was saying his friend got lost with his pet squirrel. He had lived, apparently, but the squirrel - which should have ditched him and sniffed out some food and shelter - had died! Yes, a squirrel died from being lost in the woods... but the human didn't!
` After tea, and some stuff to eat that I can't recall now, we started down - seeing yet more people with dogs and even a cat - which took about 1 1/2 hours - same as it had been on the way up.
` Unfortunately, that wasn't long enough for me... I almost wet myself because the tea was leaching out all that water I'd taken care to continually put in my system! I was getting quite dehydrated but I couldn't drink more because it would just go right through without being absorbed.
` That's especially not good because this time, I had neither the privacy nor the toilet paper (or receipts, dry pine needles, chipmunks, etc.) to get off the trail, take my pants completely off, pee downhill on a suitably non-splattery surface, and then attempt to soak up whatever's dripping off from the fronts of my legs to my backside.
` Why not make an attempt to aim? That usually involves me falling over. Not good when you're on a 70-degree slope.

` On another note - when Phil's cousin Matt was up here, he refused to bring any water, saying that it was for wimps. (!!!!!) Needless to say, he was taught a very big lesson when he became extremely dehydrated - in low barometric pressure - and Phil didn't have enough water for both of them.
` Hee.

` What else? Also, at some point, Mr. Gene Pool John and his sister came over for the same kind of tea we'd had on the mountain. They both really love the song about my lunatic dad that I wrote. I shall have to get that played on Dr. Demento. Shouldn't be too damn difficult, considering most crazy music tends to get played there. Even The Swill Man has already done so in 2003, I think it was - I admire that!

` Now, last weekend, I spent the night at Jason and Andie's house. They have such a nice baby. And I'm making her such a nice book. You see; Andie was telling me that one day, she set Cosie Mo's wild and crazy dreadlock-looking hat on the mother jiggy-raffe (giraffe) statue. (There's also a baby one.) Later, she came into the room and saw that the mother jiggy-raffe looked as if it had an afro!
` Their friends from other rooms were over - one was helping them make origami for Cosie's mobile, the other one made me some of the best toast ever - and we were talking about stuff and jiggy-raffes, which eventually led to me inventing the word 'jiggy-rafro'.
` Both neighbors also really liked my crazy dad song - I had to sing it a capella, though at least I finally had a chance to show off my 'air piano' techniques.
` After Andie and Cosie had gone to bed, the crazy-haired Jason was still up, looking like some kind of evil genius, mod-podging a table. I helped him pick out the word 'oinking' in a headline for putting between The and Times.
` I used my camera I've been letting them borrow to take some shots of the apartment. Jason went into the hall, turned on a light, and then I photographed his silhouette walking across the big misted window by their front door.

` Now, yesterday, Phil, Jason and I went to Lord Hill. They were carrying backpacks loaded with all kinds of random stuff. I don't think there were any iron skillets this time, but there was a saucepan, a box of rigatoni and a jar of spaghetti sauce among other things.
` Of course, we saw a lot of leaves - mostly changing to yellow or orange and many were falling into our paths. That's the first time I've ever seen that in Washington, as you actually have to go looking for very many deciduous trees around here. (Most of the trees seem to be evergreens, many of which die, though the moss and ferns coating them ensure that their corpses stay green for a while.)
` More excitingly, for the first time we finally made it to 'the river' that many people we meet at Lord Hill keep talking about. There were so many salmon! (Or were they trout?) When a motorboat came charging through, the wake apparently disturbed a whole bunch of them and I saw several leap about a foot out of the water in the opposite direction of the boat (downstream).
` I've always wondered - why do fish jump up like that? Is it because they're trying to get away from things?

` Later on, we ate at the bar in the basement of the Everett Community Market building next door. What did we see? Good fettuccini! Fake multicolored torches! Good licorice-water! Good 'purple'! (It had cranberry juice!) Touchscreen games! Mostly mediocre music, from all genres! (Elvis, some kind of rap, what sounded like a drunk blues guy, etc...) It was really funny how I was making fun of the music and singing 'Respect' and that Aritha Franklin song came on just after that!
` Not many people there at the time, though.
` We came back later when it was full of people (mostly lesbians) and much louder mediocre music, though we didn't have to pay a cover because we got our wrists stamped with Betty Boop in a stemmed glass. I was like; "Hey, looks like one o' them Dancing Cocktails the sign out there advertises!"
` Eh... heh. Kinda. Anyway, we hung out at the bar. I got smoke stuck to my hair, just like in old times with my insane dad - though most of it was coming from a smoke machine. There was CNN on the television, of all things, and I was amused at one of the lottery ticket bins because a sticker partly covered up what probably said 'Filthy Rich' so that it looked like 'Filth'.
` EdgeWalker was really enjoying himself, acting all goofy. (No, he wasn't really drunk, we were just joking around like usual.) He kept wanting to get up and dance, but the dance floor kept not being full enough. And then... the bartender cut him off! Apparently, he was too goofy for the bartender. We were all very shocked at this - especially him, because he's never been cut off before!
` Oh well... we left after that, and by that time, Star Wreck; A New Pirkinning had downloaded onto my computer. It looks really good! It's a Finnish Star Trek/Babylon 5 spoof! (With Emporer Pirk and Captain Sherrypie.) We didn't watch it, though.

` Today, Phil climbed to the base of the boulder scramble of Mount Pilchuck - his fourth trip in three weeks - and promptly turned around and came home. He was gone for about five hours. I could have watched Star Wreck while he was gone, but instead I made myself the rigatoni and sauce that had been in his backpack yesterday, read some, and took a long nap. EdgeWalker did roughly the same.
` Now they've gone to a store of some sort while I was on the phone with Phil's mom. I felt kinda left out until I realized how hungry I was. Four days ago, I'd gone to Fred Meyer with Phil and EdgeWalker and for some reason had failed to eat anything at all that day even though I'd fixed myself a sandwich!! (It was so bad I had to throw it away.)
` They were there for such a long time, browsing on kitchen supplies, that I just went and grabbed a jar of pickles and ate almost the entire thing!! But my stomach still hurt, so I ate an Almond Joy. Then I paid for the jar and the wrapper on the way out.
` In the parking lot, I really paid for trying to get the last pickle - I was sitting in the passenger seat of my car and EdgeWalker (who's practicing for his driving test) changed speeds suddenly and I sloshed pickle brine all over my crotch!
` Really should have used our receipts...
` Anyway, because I'm home, I took this opportunity to cook myself a vegan Gardenburger chicken pattie and put some more tomato sauce on it. I feel better now.

` Hey, they're back now! Ah, they'd walked to QFC. Well, that's about all that's possibly interesting about life recently.
` Well, that and my brain's really starting to function properly. Like... when people talk, they really make sense to me, even though this hasn't been so very much my whole life. I can think without trying! I can feel and perceive more than one thing at a time, as I'm not blocking out almost everything! That's the way our brains are supposed to work! I'm starting to feel like I did when I was four, just before I first started wanting to kill myself!
` Aw, hell. That means my novel is gonna need some rewriting, now that I can 'visualize' what I'm writing in it. I don't care how good they say it is...

` Well, there you are. Be back with some sciencey or skepticy-type stuff next time, as long as nothing else even mildly interesting happens before then. Hee.