Radio,

They are banning smoking on the whole complex that I'm working on. Not just in the building, but the whole complex, you have to cross the street to smoke (actually cross the street, walk through a little park and cross another street). Construction worker smokers tend to be a little harder to change than other people, so to compensate for it the general is "laxing it's radio ban." This seems kind of funny to me; "Man I really need a smoke, turn up the radio... Ahhh."

The only thing that surprised me about the ban is that it didn't already exist. When I worked at a hospital down in Racine last year, they already had the ban in place. I when I drive by the hospital by me I see people standing across the street smoking, so I assume they have the ban. I would of thought the major complex I'm at now would be one of the first to put it in place instead of one of the last.

But anyway, a coworker was sent down to work by me. He had just brought a radio in. He says, "95.7 is already playing Christmas carols." I looked at him and said, "your not going to play Christmas carols are you?" Luckily the answer was no. However we did listen to channel the next day when they switched their programing back. They were also playing some of the negative calls they got and assured the audience they would hold off. They must of got a lot of calls. Personally Christmas carols are fine when I'm doing holiday stuff, but I really don't want to listen to them all day, that would be too much like working in the mall. Anyways it was kind of refreshing to see a company realize they made a mistake so quickly, make the change back right away and basically say sorry we fucked up.

To Far,

On Friday we found out that a couple of fitters got laid off. Or so it seemed. Later in the day I found out that the fitter who started the whole vicious circle thing made this up also. Apparently one fitter took off Friday to go up north and one left early Friday. This fitter thought it would be funny to convince an apprentice that they got laid off instead, most of the sheet metal workers were left out of his twisted little unfunny joke. This is going way too far. Joking about getting laid off in the trade is very taboo. Last year I watched a burley journeyman read a pre apprentice the riot act for making an off handed joke about lay offs. Even though this is an excepted, and unfortunate part of our line of work, getting laid off always sucks. And on this job we all know it's coming sooner rather than later. So here we all are with our necks on the chopping block and this asshole is making jokes of it.

Am I Crazy,

I had a dream last night that I ran into an old friend of mine and spent some time talking to him. After I stopped talking to him I remembered (still in the dream) that he killed himself. Then my dream became a debate whether this meant that I was crazy or not.

The dream ended shortly after that, so I'm still unsure.

Tickets,

There were a lot of post this week that went unwritten because of time and mostly lack of motivation. Oh well.

Parking at work is quite the issue. I get to work about twenty five minutes early and still have to walk about ten minutes to get there. This doesn't bother me as much as it bothers some other people. On Tuesday I was working by some electricians who parked in what was obviously temporary parking, but because there was no sign they thought they were in the right. They got ticketed, then threatened towing, but still refused to move their trucks, until they were finally told that if they still wanted to work on the job they would have to move the trucks. One still didn't want to do it, but gave in. The whole time they were talking about fighting the ticket in court and taking the general to small claims court to get pay for the work they would miss. I kept thinking it's just a twenty dollar ticket, why would you go to all that trouble and probably get nothing in return anyway. I seen one electrician taking pictures of the spot today, so I think they are really going ahead with the crazy scheme.

Anyways yesterday I seen a spot a lot closer than normal right behind a crosswalk (not so much a cross walk as a walking entrance thing on the sidewalk) I thought I was far enough back, not blocking it at all, but when I returned to my car at the end of the day there was a ticket. It said parked less than 15 feet from crosswalk. As a coworker of mine said as he looked at the ticket with me, "They're out of their mind." So a crosswalk needs thirty total feet of clearance, that is wider than the street. I know there is an obesity problem in this country, but it ain't that bad. Anyways, I'm no electrician. I already paid it.

Vicious Circles,

When I arrived at break sometime mid last week, two of the guys were talking to each other in low conspiratorial voices. I made a comment about them passing secrets and they told me, "someone else is getting laid off on Friday. We don't know who just someone." Although a week ago I wrote about how I didn't think I was going to get laid off soon, that had all disappeared last week. Because they were talking in low voices and obviously weren't telling me everything I wondered about my job, but I've been here before so I didn't worry.

Without getting into details some other stuff happened during the week that made me think it was my last and them some other stuff happened that made me think I would be staying awhile. When lay offs start it becomes easy to over read things.

Anyways Wednesday I came down with a very weak cold. By Friday I was worn out and told my boss that I was going to leave at noon. I would've just called in sick, but because I thought I might be getting laid off that day I didn't want to have to come in on Monday and do the walk of shame to pick up my tools. I also figured that this would force his hand, if he was going to lay me off he would have to either do it then or at least say something like, "make sure you see me before you go." Neither thing happened and if fact he told me about some work I would be doing next week.

Later on a fitter walked up to me. I think because he thought I was talking to myself because I was in a small room and the guy I was working with was laying under the duct. Once it was established that I wasn't insane the subject quickly went to lay offs and he told me that one of the fitters jokingly told someone that four tinners and two fitters were going to get laid off. The fitter we were talking to was present and assured us that he said it in a very joking way. Anyways this story went all the way around the job and back to the fitter that originally started the story. So I'm pretty sure I was in the middle of that twisted game of telephone. To my defense the guys that told me were morbidly serious (I would be too if I owned houses as expensive as them).

So in the end I don't really know if anyone got laid off because I was home sleeping when it would've happened.

The Character of Cars,

As I walk down Wisconsin to work every morning I walk past all my coworkers cars. Some tell me interesting stories.

The fitter boss has all these sports type cars. I think he could drive a different car to work every day of the week. But each one is a pile of shit; bondoed, bolted and rusted together. I don't know why he doesn't just concentrate on one and make it a decent car.

There is a nice trunk if you like that kind of thing. It has a camouflage wind thing on the hood and camouflage runner along the side. And not just any camouflage, I'm sure it has a name like north forest camouflage. It strikes me that whoever owns this truck's favorite color is camouflage. How twisted.

In the same vane is the guy who has a arrow shaft for his antenna.

Usually on my walk home I notice a beat little car with a moose and international crane foundation sticker on the back. I look in the window and see an iron worker book. An iron worker conservationist, wow! As different I am from you an iron worker is from me. Pretty impressive. He gets there before me and leaves after so I've never seen the guy, but would love to put a face to the car.

Also where I park in the morning is where the nursing college students park and I realize this world is getting noticeably younger.

Gun to the Head,

I forgot to write about this in the last post.

So I was talking to a guy I work with about the layoffs he said he thought his would be coming soon because he takes a lot of days off. Then he told me how he called in sick the other day because one of his girlfriends (not the one he lives with one of the other two that supposedly know he has multiple girlfriends) had a gun to his head until three the night before. There are some guys at work I know are full of shit (well one less now), but he is not one of them. He told me, "I knew the gun was loaded and could see the safety was off. I thought I was dead." When he first told me about his three girlfriends a few weeks ago all I could think was that doesn't even sound like fun, not to mention pretty sleazy. Maybe the gun to the head will change his ways, but I doubt it.

Well Cheers again.

It's Started,

For a couple weeks my coworkers have been speculating about lay offs. One guy said they would start in two weeks (I was leaning towards a month) and I'm sure he wished he was wrong because he got it today. That sucked because this was the guy that I talked to at lunch. Now I'm stuck with the conspirators. Ugh. They also laid off a guy that the only thing that was surprising about was why it took them this long. Supposedly another guy got it, but it isn't quite clear on who that was; a useless preapprentice or the other foreman. There was a weird story about the other foreman hurting his knee while playing football last night that sounds very suspicious to me, anyways he is not suppose to be back, but it's not clear to me if he was the third guy or not.

Working for an out of town contractor like I am it is pretty much a given that a lay off is inevitable. I'm not to worried now because I'm usually worried when I get laid off so because I'm not worried makes me more not worried. I feel like I'll make it to sometime in December if not later, but that is just a guess. Right now I'm thinking it will be a steady drip of layoffs for the next couple of months, so we shall see how this all plays out. I thought there was a lot of work out there, but I heard one of the guys that got laid off say he was fifty something on the list. That's a lot more guys off than I thought. Well they say a lot of work is coming up, but I've heard that before.

Anyways the guy I was working with took off at noon to get hammered. God Bless him. Pizza, whiskey sours and PBS for me tonight.
Cheers!

Nothing Happening,

As I was drinking talking politics in a bar (ironically named White House) last weekend my friend said something I've been thinking for some time. Nothing is really happening, it seems like everyone is just waiting for the next election. A few things have come up for renewal, but besides that it's just boring. I kind of understand it, the president has dug his heals in, so for anything to go through the Democrats would need a super majority and republicans just don't do that. So everyone is waiting for the next election when the democrats will gain seats in the senate and probably get the white house. I'd guess congress would stay blue or slightly shift shades one way or the other, but I'm just not a big enough wanker to make a prediction on 435 seats (wow I guessed at that number and got it right). Although this stagnate period will probably be over shortly since primaries will be starting right after the new year.

I think the only thing for me that has changed is instead of favoring Edwards with an eye on Obama. I've decided that since my state has a late primary and probably won't matter that I can just vote for whoever is the strongest against Hilary candidate.

But anyways with a lack of politics to write about and trying to put up at least a couple of posts a week, I'm going to start what I've wanted to do for a while write reviews books that I read. I've always meant to do this, but for some reason never got around to it. I don't read very fast so it will probably be around one a month depending on length and interest. Usually I rotate between fiction and nonfiction. It won't be so much a traditional review of the book more of my thoughts and impressions of the book. I got only about twenty pages left in my current book so look for a review this weekend.

The Fix is in,

The guys I work with are convinced that the Packer game was fixed. Although I would agree there were some pretty shitty calls, I would hardly call it a fix. One guy went so far out of the bounds of reality to claim that the reffs have buzzers on their belts that tell them when to call penalties. He, "has a friend with an inside source." I sure hope if I have bat shit crazy ideas like that I'm smart enough to keep my mouth shut.

And they also believe the government blew up the buildings during 9-11.

Scary people,

Today I hustled out of work because I had a dentist appointment and time was a bit tight. Just before I got to my car a guy stopped me and said, "Excuse me sir, where is the mental health facility?" Yikes! It reminded me of the time I had to do a job in Milwaukee county jail, right in a pod with all the prisoners walking around me. It stuck me how scary someone becomes just by putting an orange jumpsuit on.

Anyways for the news that all Johntown readers are waiting for no cavities!!!

The Forgotten,

These are some stories that I didn't write about at the time for one reason or another;

I do this online thing were I get two audio books a month. Mostly I listen to them on my to and from work. A few years back I got War and Peace. Clocking in at over sixty hours this was going to take awhile. I started once, got bored and gave up. I then made a second attempt to finish it, but finally realized I wasn't really listening to it I just had it on while my mind wandered else where. So with about a quarter left I turned it off for the last time. I was a little bummed about this and sort of felt like I was cheating myself. However a few months later while watching Jeopardy there was a category about War and Peace and I got every answer right, plus all the contestants on TV didn't even ring in for any question. I felt a little redeemed by this.

On a side note; I hear the book can vary quite a bit depending on translation.

* * *

Two weekends before I went on my vacation I thought I was coming down with a cold. My immune system sucks and I get sick regularly. Getting sick right before a vacation seemed like something my stupid body would do. Usually I take it easy with a cold; go to bed early, don't drink stuff like that. However since I always get sick anyways I've decided to adopt a new policy of treating the illness with a heavy dose of alcohol. So that Monday I got really drunk. The next Monday I was trying to figure out if I was still getting sick or was just feeling like shit because I've been drinking for a week.

* * *

After spending a week deep in the woods, I got stung by a hornet in the head while mowing my lawn. Once night came vengeance was mine.

The week after,

It was amazing how different everything seemed when I got back from vacation. It was like summer turned to fall in the week while I was gone. The sun was no longer up when I woke up in the morning and I had to turn lights on. School had started, so traffic was much busier and parking at work was a lot worse. I now have to walk about an extra block to work every morning. While we were on our trip leaves were turning colors and already falling, my expert said this was a sign of stress from drought, but either way it put me in a autumn mood. When I got home it really felt like fall. Except for the heat, that felt like midsummer. This week feels like fall in that regard.

It's weird early on this summer, actually before this summer began, I had a feeling that the season was almost over and once again I didn't do anything. For the most part I didn't really get out all that much, just like my premonition. However it feels like I got a lot accomplished over the season. I got a lot of work done on my house or at least the major work. It will be a lot easier to come home and do the little touch ups around my house this winter, than it was coming home and sanding drywall, above my head while sweating like a fiend. And I got that eye surgery, which sure made this summer something.

Anyway, I was kind of bummed about the summer ending. Which was kind of weird because fall has always been my favorite season. This situation puzzled me last week. This week with the temperature drop those old feelings of fall returned.

Anyway seasons change, vacation is over, work sucks blah blah blah... Boring blog post.

The Vacation,

Part 6; Going Home,

We woke up the next morning with a little more time than I had anticipated. The boat was suppose to pick us up at twelve thirty, but I didn't take into account that even though we were west of Milwaukee we were in the eastern time zone. So we hung around camp for awhile waiting for the dew to dry off our tents. I came back from being somewhere else (don't remember where) and some Gray Jays or there much cooler name Whiskey Jacks came into our camp. My expert told us they were very curious birds and it being a camp ground we all got pictures of them taking peanuts from our hands.

Shortly after that we went down to the dock to wait for the boat. We had a couple of hours yet and went on an unimpressive interpretive walk and had sandwiches and $1.37 cokes at the little store. I read some more Kerouac and went out on the dock to look around. I gazed deep into old Gitche Gumee admiring the crystal clear waters, knowing this was all about to end too soon. I worked my way around the pier, looking into the waters and eavesdropping on the conversations taking place, when a bit of action prompted me to look to my left. A moose was walking right out into the lake. He was walking along the edge of the deposit left in the lake from Washington Creek, which let him walk a good distance into the lake without getting his knees wet. The boat arrived no more than five minutes later, while the moose was still in the lake, making a perfect ending for the trip.

I tried to ride back sitting on the bow of the boat, but it got too windy. So I set on the side for a bit and ended up trying to sleep inside the boat. We landed on the dock and I rounded up my pack with an empty flask and forty pages left of Lonesome Traveler, got in the car and drove south along MN-61 towards Duluth. 61 was is a very scenic, pleasant drive, hugging the shore of Superior most of the way. Great country if you like scenery.

A couple of hours later we arrived in Duluth were we were staying for the night. We took turns showering for the first time in six days. Then I picked a pizza place to go to. It was a very college town pizza place, binders for menus, vegetarian options for meals and a young crowd. At first it seemed like great choice. The waitress came and took our orders. She didn't write anything down. I've seen this done before and don't understand what they are trying to prove. I think I even made a comment about how that makes me nervous. My pizza finally arrived with one of three toppings right, she really should have written it down. I just didn't have any luck with waitresses on this trip. However she got a good tip for three reasons; she was cute, she gave the check to the guys who got what they ordered and the most important reason she kept the beer coming.

After that we went to an Irish bar where we watched a band play one song before calling it a night. We went out and sat on cushy chairs and drank for awhile. There were a bunch of board games on the wall and Aaron pulled out some questions from a trivial pursuit game and quizzed me and Adrian. I really enjoyed this. I like trivia, but the only chance I get to play any games like this is when I talk to my TV when Jeopardy is on. That was short lived do to the amount of beers consumed and we went back to the hotel bar were we had 2for1 drink coupons. Calling were we went a bar was pretty generous. It was just some old lady serving beer and telling weird bestiality stories. We quickly finished our beers and I went up to our room while Adrian and Aaron went somewhere else for ten minutes (?). I turned on the TV and this is when I learned about the Larry Craig scandal! Seriously I was gone for a week and two major White House officials resign and a antigay republican plead guilty to soliciting gay sex in a men's bathroom. I think it's safe to say some Jontown post got missed.

The next morning we got in the car and made the cross state trip from the very northwest corner of Wisconsin to almost the very southeast corner. Along the way it all started to hit me. The return to work, the big empty house, bills, cleaning... Oh how I longed for the island. I still had the holiday weekend ahead of me, but I knew that would mostly be me just sitting around drinking hoping Monday never comes. There was a party and other opportunities to do something, but I knew I would pass them all up and I was right.

The vacation was over.

The Vacation,

Part 5; Washington Creek,

Now somewhere I read that although this was the longest hike, 12.6 miles (the other hikes were about half that) it was suppose to be an easy, gradual downhill hike. I'm not sure where I read this, but another hiker that we meet towards the end of the hike said he read the same thing. There was nothing gradually downhill about this hike. After we did the first part relatively quickly, we were all feeling pretty good about ourselves and the amount of distance we covered. "I think were a third of the way", at one point someone said. "I think we went over the last ridge." "I think there is only three miles left." "I think we are already on the boat." None of this ended up being true. After we got through the first section at a relatively fast clip, with me in the lead for reasons I will go into later, we sat down, took our packs off and ate beef jerky and trail mix. We noticed three contour lines on the map signaling ridges we had to go over and knew they were coming up. We went over a couple of small hills and I looked back and said to Adrian, "I think that was the third one." He agreed.
Over the next couple of hours as we forced ourselves up ridge after fucking ridge we realized how wrong we were. My calves felt like they were going to blow right out the back of my legs. Luckily that didn't happen. However I was very happy that I mostly use the stairs at work and don't run to the elevator like most guys I work with. Also the frequent walks I took this summer made the long, challenging hike much more bearable. One person in our group didn't spend his summer preparing for the hike.

So to go back a bit, Isle Royale is known for it's moose population. Last time we went if memory serves me it seems we saw a moose almost every day. Here we were on our fifth day on the island, our last hike and we haven't seen a single moose. This last hike being long and our last day, I decided that moose sightings were just not in the cards and since I had already seen them the last time we were at the island, I didn't care so much. So I took the lead, not caring if someone was walking right on me heels. However I offered my companions some hope by telling them that last time we saw a big bull moose just outside of a campsite on our way to the boat. I didn't believe we would see one however. During a mix up following rock cairns Adrian took the lead and I was in the middle. As we were making one of our ridge climbs, this is long after we thought we were done with them, I was almost at the top when I looked off into the woods and noticed a distinct shape that can best be describe as "no tree". Right there maybe fifteen feet into the woods was a moose. Right from first sight I knew there was trouble. I could tell she didn't like the looks of me and I can't say I cared to much for the look on her face. She lowered her ears and stamped her hooves while I braced myself for what would be a colossal impact. She charged and the collision could of killed a lesser man. As we tumbled back down the ridge I threw heavyweight blows into her skull as she worked my gut. I was vomiting blood by the time I felt her skull cave-in from a final deadly blow, just as we reached the bottom of the ridge. Or she just sat there eating grass watching us take pictures of her. I can't remember, it was over a week ago. I should have taken notes. We finally made it to the campground thoroughly worn out. A short walk away was a ranger station were I bought Cheetos, snickers and a can of soda for the odd price of $1.37. Included $.10 MI Deposit!!! How generous, but $.37 how do you come up with that. Of course the price was high, but not compared to the $8 pack of cigarettes someone else bought. I sat and ate the junk food and smoked what became community cigarettes with a deep guilt that I was ruining in ten minutes what I had accomplished over the last five days. Especially the cigarettes. I very rarely smoke and didn't enjoy these at all. Every drag was full of guilt, but yet I kept taking more until they were all gone the next morning. I extinguished mine with a, "Yuck, that is the last of that for a long time."

And so we went to sleep for the last time on Isle Royale soil, knowing our little escape was almost at an end.

The Vacation,

Part 4; Lake Desor,

We woke the next morning and the rain had past, but of course everything was wet and a fog had settled on the island. We packed up, pumped water and headed out for Lake Desor, the only inland lake we would be staying at on our trip.

The reason I wanted to hike the Minong Ridge trail was mostly because it got a lot of praising write ups in Backpacker magazine, which I one time subscribed to. It was suppose to be a very scenic, have the best opportunity to see wildlife and seldom traveled. The reason for it being seldom traveled was the high difficulty level. From what I had read in some books about the trail the really hard hike was the one ahead of us that day.

We put our packs on and into the woods we went. Most of the trail was on ridges that would have given us spectacular views, except for the overcastness and fog. Others in the group praised these conditions because of tender, freshly sunburned skin. I was hoping the sun would burn the clouds away. At the ranger station they warned us that it was suppose to rain this day and if it did the rocks would be slippery. It wasn't raining while we were hiking, but everything was still wet from the night before and was very slippery. I liked walking in back so I can go at my own pace, look around and enjoy my hike, something I have a hard time doing with footsteps right on my heels. So no one saw when I stepped on a rock, felt my feet kick out, leaned back and fell on my ass. No one will ever know that happened.

We got to Lake Desor and I felt a bit disappointed in the difficulty of the trail. It was hard, but not as hard as I was expecting. Here's to high standards. We set up our tents and the sun finally started elbowing its way into the day. We went swimming in the dark, algae filled warm waters of Lake Desor. Although the temperature was much more tolerable, I longed for the crystal clear waters of the big lake.

As I was sitting on the shore a red squirrel came in with absolutely no fear of humans. I yelled at him, "You're suppose to be afraid of us. We kill everything!"

He looked at me and said, "Thanks for eating like a slob, fat ass. This Reese's Pieces is mine," and off into the woods he went with my escaped piece of candy.

The rest of the afternoon was pretty typical; Aaron slept, Adrian and I walked the shore and read, we all bickered. There seemed to be a lot more birds on the inland lake and bringing an expert with us was a big plus. I suggest everyone befriend such a person. As the day was coming to a close Adrian and I read our books and Aaron was writing in a notebook. When finally asked what he was writing he informed us it was a list of what he should/shouldn't bring next time he went backpacking. This was very odd because up to this point Aaron made it very clear this would be his last backpacking trip. At least this would seem odd, but I've known Aaron for a long time.

Once again I had a tent to myself and stayed up reading Kerouac by headlamp. I finally laid my head down on my pillow rolled up fleece. Just as I was in that magical land between sleep and wake I notice a peculiar noise and curiosity aroused me to full awakeness to realize it was starting to rain. Then Aaron got up and took a piss which sounded awfully close to my tent.

Then we woke up,

The Vacation,

Part 4; Little Todd Harbor,

I reminisce with an extra sense of nostalgia since this was my first day back at work. Time seemed odd during my vacation. It seemed like I was away, first from my home then from work, for a long time. But the actual vacation seemed short. How odd, anyways work sucks so more about my vacation.

After Todd Harbor came Little Todd Harbor. The experience was much like the names Todd Harbor was fun and besides all the whingeing I did about my pack, a good hike. Little Todd Harbor was a little less fun, both the campsite and the hike. Once again we went swimming in old Gitche Gumee, Aaron took a nap and I went hiking with Adrian on the rocks. This time however it was a boatless boozeless cruise, when backpacking sacrifices need to be made.

After we ate Aaron and Adrian went down to the water to throw rocks at the other rocks in the water. This was a favorite past time started at Todd Harbor, I think we had three different games created by now. My arm was sore from hiking and throwing rocks the day before, so I stayed up by the tents and read. I thought we were pretty lucky so far. After the first night we seemed to avoid any real annoying people. While reading, listening to the smack of rocks bouncing of rocks I realized the other people in our campsites weren't so lucky. I told my friends this and that ended the rock throwing, probably more because of lack of opportunity than good backpacking edict, but you can't prove that.

That night I was awoke by bright flashes and loud rumbling that could only of been two things; Canada was invading the U.S. or there was a thunderstorm. I won't leave you in suspense it was a thunderstorm.

The Vacation,

Part 3; Todd Harbor,

The next morning we put our packs on for the first real time. Moans all around. I was reminded that when I bought my pack, some years ago now, the salesman didn't really care and never sized me up for the right size pack. I should of walked away, but I tend to be a bit of a one stop shopper. I should of bought a new pack for this trip, but should of's are a waste of breath in the middle of Lake Superior. Anyways we trudged on to Todd Harbor as I tugged and pulled straps trying to get my pack to sit a little more comfortable than it was. The trail was nice and scenic, but the straps grinding into my shoulders made me anxious to get to the next campsite.

We arrived at Todd Harbor campsite in the afternoon and set up our tents to dry them out from the dew they got packed away with in the morning. Then it was on with the swim trunks and right into Superior. Well maybe not right in. I walked out pretty bravely until that point that every man knows takes a little more courage than the rest of the body. A lady who was eating lunch with some guy on shore advised me to just jump in. I told her she was pretty brave for someone sitting on the shore. I finally did take the dive and after the initial second of every inch of my body yelling "what the fuck are you doing?" It felt good. The cold water revived my sore, hot, stinkin' body. Although I must admit I didn't linger long in the amazingly clear waters of the ice cold lake.


After sitting on shore, reading Kerouac and drinking Drambuie, I suggested taking a walk on the rocky shore with my friend Adrian. Aaron was sleeping, he slept a lot and wondered why he couldn't sleep at night. Anyways Adrian and I went on what would be known as "the boatless booze cruise" (stolen from a Lawrence Arms song). It's great fun to walk on the rocks while drinking. However I was a little tired from the walk during the day, lost my footing and fell. The only mistake I made was handing off my camera seconds before to an asshole that thought it would be funny to take a picture. I meant to punch him while he was sleeping, but I fell asleep to quickly. The fall for the most part was pretty harmless. I scraped my ankle, which worked out pretty good for the flies the next night when they discovered this was an easy way to get at my inner juices and got a pretty good bruise on my leg, but no Drambuie was spilt.

We returned and made dinner. Some lady came over to tell us her radio told her thundershowers were expected that night and all next day. We thanked her for the heads up, although it all ended up being a big lie.

We watched the sun set as Adrian made a rock cairn just off the shore. Although it made for good pictures I'm sure this will be the cause of many hikers to march out into the lake never to be seen again. The mystery will baffle experts for years until waves knock the rocks down, leaving only a Bermuda Triangle type legend behind.

The Vacation,

Part 2; McCargoe Cove,

So there I am, in McCargoe Cove with four days and 28 miles ahead of me. I was well prepared with a flask of Drambuie and "Lonesome Traveler" by Kerouac in my pack. Much thought went into these two items. I was going to fill my flask with Jameson, but didn't think I wanted the harshness that comes with straight whiskey. My last backpacking trip I took some Drambuie with me and it didn't go over so good, so I was a bit hesitant with the choice, but made it anyways. On this trip however it worked just fine, but I will get to that later. The next book on my "to read" bookshelf was "The Time Traveler's Wife" clocking in at 546 pages, weigh well over a pound. To much book for the trip, so I had to take a book out of order. Although that sounds like a big deal, I assure you it isn't. I thought of taking Jack London's "Iron Heel", a futuristic sci-fi novel with radical socialism in it. However I just read a history of the IWW and have been taking heat from my far rightwing friend who thinks I'm a red, so I thought I would go another way. I went with the Kerouac book with some hesitation also since I had just listened to "On the Road" a week before. But a decision had to be made, so I made one (14 ounces lighter than TTTW).

It seemed pretty apparent to me right away that my hiking companions were not as excited about the trip as I was. One seemed to be suffering from a little backwoods burn out from spending all summer in the woods and the other seemed to be much more interested in his email inbox than the wild beautiful seclusion ahead of us. Oh well, nuts to them, I got Drambuie and Kerouac.

As we were sitting on the pier in the evening, I noticed a red fox across the cove from us. The beautiful animal with it's big bushy tail and narrow tapered legs colored black like it's wearing boots, seemed to shine extra red in the low rays of a setting sun. At the same time we were sharing the dock with a much more common animal the North American red neck. They were on a fishing trip and not wanting to deal with the annoying noise these animals make we retreated to our campsite.

Although I was tired from not getting a good nights sleep in two nights, I decided to stay up and read by headlamp for awhile. It was my turn to sleep in a tent alone and I figured I should enjoy it since the next two nights I would be in the dreaded shared tent. Also there was a loud game of cribbage going on in the next campsite that would of been hard to sleep through.

Finally the moon rose and I closed my eyes.

The Vacation,

Part 1; Getting there.

Due to years of layoffs and general job uncertainty I haven't taken a vacation in years. More specifically I haven't taken a backpacking trip to Isle Royale doing the Minong Ridge trail that I've wanted to do for some time. This winter, even though I was laid off at the time, I said fuck it this is the year and made plans for this long over due vacation.

And thank god I did. I went to work in early spring and have been working ever since, plus I've been doing a lot of work around the house, so I really needed this trip. I planned if for the end of summer August 24 thru the 31 which would work out good for hiking conditions, but bad for wishing my summer away. Finally the day came and I was free from the shackles of routine life for a week into the woods for some good old away from civilization recuperation.

However getting there had it's problems like getting stuck in a downpour while doing some last minute shopping, piss poor dishwasher edict, disputed hotel fair and a meal from the worst waitress on the face of the planet causing me for the first time in my life to leave a restaurant without leaving a tip.

But Saturday morning arrived and I was on the dock with my pack all ready to go to the island...