Dream Job

Backpacker Magazine is looking for a new reader test panel.  Enjoy the video and wish me luck.

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Thawing out

   

The Osprey is not to be reckoned with.  It has been known to pick up unsuspecting would be hikers, carry them for miles, and drop them, flailing feet and all to a not so soft landing, sometimes (most the time) very far from home. 

The weather is clearing.  Snow has turned to water, making mud, and creating ideal break-in-new pack conditions.  Lame that I've packed up all my gear for a short hike right by my house?  Maybe, but the Osprey is convincing and persistent.  It will not be fooled by balled up sweatshirts, and or aerobic weights.  It must sense the gear inside is real.  Plus I've been dying to look at my old camping stuff for months now.  Nichole watched me, silent and somewhat grim I thought.  So what if I walk through the neighborhood to the trail? She was disappointed that I declined the mask she offered me that would protect us from possible neighborhood shame.  Maybe, but a guy with a full loaded pack is suspicious enough.  Add a mask to that scenerio and the SWAT team would probably tackle me ten steps out the door (possibly damaging gear/pack).  She watched me go, contemplating this, and sending up a silent prayer that neighbors would be sleeping in.  After a three mile stroll, with no injuries, and the overwhelming feeling of joy that follows from doing something you love, I stumbled in door and contemplated the amazing joy that Spring brings. 

Living in the Past

Mrs. Haslam was my English teacher senior year of High School. She was funny and cool. As an assignment, she had us write a book of "poems", which I found this weekend. Partly due to her greatness as a teacher I was inspired to pursue English as a college major. Thanks Mrs. Haslam!

SCHOOL

SCHOOL

Learning , boring

Writing, notetaking, reading

Books teachers, girls, beaches

Running jumping, yelling

Laughing, tanning

SUMMER

LOVE

Love looks like two old couples holding hands

Love smells like pefume and cologne in the master bedroom.

Love feels like you can conquer the world.

Love tastes like an Alpine White.

Love Sounds like a freight train.

Love is as sweet as you choose to make it.

Music

Music is the hand that reaches

Under your

Skin and gets

Inside your soul

Constantly

Varieties of Crazy

The Crazy of brutally stabbing your wife because of your overcooked dinner.

The Crazy of looking through the cross hairs of a sniper rifle and pulling the trigger.

The Crazy of being fired from a job you've had for 50 years.

The Crazy of catching your neighbor in bed with your wife.

The Crazy of loving someone you know will never love you.

The Crazy you feel trapped under tons of debris waiting for rescue teams to find you.

I AM

The Great Salt Lake, nice to look at but salty beneath the surface.

A volcano, lible to erupt at any moment.

Square, easy to understand.

Cactus, pricks people when they get too close.

Apple, crisp on some days and mushy on others.

Panther, stalks his prey in the night.

Bee, stings when angered.

Oak, constantly strong and reliable.

84' GMC Jimmy, never breaks down.

Snickers, many layers and most of them good.

Cinnamon Toast Crunch, rarely get soggy.

Reluctantly crouched at the starting line...

I guess what puzzled me most was the fun I had. Nichole wanted me to run a 5K race for her birthday, so I grudgingly obliged. I often tell people I only run when being chased, which usually provokes a guffaw or courtesy laugh, but the truth is I really don't like running, its no joke at all. This race was our first, and we stuck out like sore thumbs. Both of us wore the free T-shirt thinking it was mandatory racing apparel, only to find everyone else in Nike racing gear, and wearing Ipods, which we also weren't sure would be allowed. Why wouldn't they be ??? So the Goughs were tourists in a strange land. Upon exiting the vehicle, I hit the ground like a jumpy war Vet and starting stretching in a vain attempt to fit in. There was a speaker system set up which was pumping some dope tunes, and everyone was swinging arms and kicking legs and there was a general feeling of nervousness and excitement in the air which was very contagious. We all lined up and the DJ counted down... 3...2...1.. GO ! Nichole promptly became a speck in the distance. What happened to sticking together? I thought as she disappeared. My thoughts wandered as I ran. How did Forest Gump do it? Simply amazing. I had a fat person pass me and was shaken back to reality. 27 minutes later I bolted across the finish line with lots of people cheering and the speakers bumping Zeppelin. Nichole was there as well. Fully dressed and showered.

The Joys of Reading

I was sucked into the world of literature in the 5 th Grade, where I have stayed comfortably ever since. During my reading of Where the Red Fern Grows I could feel myself chasing coons, with Ol'Dan and Li'l Ann at my side. I was moved for the first time to tears and laughter, by another world. I found that my daily mood was contingent upon what was happening in the novel, and it was exhilerating beyond anything I had ever felt before. The experience was deep enough to impact me forever. My good friend Les asked me the other night if I'd ever made a list of every book I've ever read and it made me think about the significant impact that books have had in my life. As I compiled the list below I thumbed through some pages and read marked passages, wishing my memory could store them permantly. For people who say they don't like to read, I say you haven't found the right book; Keep looking:)


Where the Red Fern Grows Rawls


I am the Cheese Cormier

1984 Orwell

Animal Farm Orwell

Lord of the Flies Golding

Lord of the Rings Tolkien

The Hobbit Tolkien

Death watch White


Seize the Day Bellow

Lost in the Barrens Mowat

DragonLance (100 books)

Hatchet Paulsen

The River Paulsen

Motherless Brooklyn Lethem

Our Search for Happiness Ballard

Jesus the Christ Talmage

Articles of Faith Talmage

Beleiving Christ Robinson

The Book of Mormon

The Bible

Handcarts to Zion Hafen

Heart of Darkness Conrad

The Adventures of Tom Sawyer Twain

The Adventures of Huckleberry Finn Twain

The Great Santini Conroy

The Prince of Tides Conroy

Nine Stories Salinger

The Catcher in the Rye Salinger

Franny and Zooey Salinger

Sister Carrie Dreiser

Into Thin Air Krakauer

Into the Wild Krakauer

Dispatches Herr

We Were Soldiers Once and Young Moore

The Things they Carried O'brien

The Call of the Wild London

Night Wiesel

Just one look Coben

Tell No One Coben

Hiroshima Hersey

The Autobigraphy of Malcolm X Haley

1776 McCullough

Gilead Robinson

Extremely Loud and Incredibly Close Foer

Five Chimneys Lengyel

Ironweed Kennedy

Desert Solotaire Abbey

Ceremony Silko

Civilization and its Discontents Freud

The Cunning of History Rubenstein

Darkness Visible: A memoir of madness Styron

The Road McCarthy

Child of God McCarthy

Blood Meridian McCarthy

Close Range Proulx

For Whom the Bell Tolls Hemmingway

A Farewell to Arms Hemmingway

Endurance Lansing

Zorba the Greek Kazantzakis

The Dead Joyce

The Gulag Archipelago Solzhenitsyn

In Cold Blood Capote

A River Runs Through It Maclain

Touching the Void Simpson

Mawsons Will Bickel

Myths to Live By Campbell

Siddhartha Hesse

The Fall Camus

The Plague Camus

The Gift Mauss

The Red Badge of Courage Crane

The Future of Life Wilson

On Writing King

Minus 148 Davidson

The Land of Little Rain Austin

The Country of the Pointed Firs Jewett

Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance Pirsig

The French Lieutenants Woman Fowels

Grizzley Years Peacock

A Cockwork Orange Burgess

The Life of Pi Martel

The Art of Drowning Collins

The Apple that Astonished Paris Collins

The Trouble With Poetry Collins