Where I've been
OK, so I wrote this nearly a month ago and forgot to post it. My home 'puter has been dead since sometime in Sept., I just got a replacement, I think I'll be back online more regularly from here out, but here's part 1 of what I've been doing in the meantime...
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I'm back from vacation, feeling refreshed and invigorated. Or something like that. Any road I was NOT AT WORK for a week, and that is a Good Thing.
As you may or may not know, for something like 10 years my sister and I have done a 3-5 day fall getaway each year, usually somewhere in-state but occasionally venturing out to a neighboring state if we can't come up with something to do here. This year we went to the Hocking Hills (the first time I think we've repeated a location) and stayed in a cabin at Lake Hope and hiked around, nosed around in shops and basically relaxed. Things started on Sunday the 30th with the New Albany Classic, which is an annual equestrian jumping competition that benefits a local coalition working on family violence - spousal abuse, child abuse, etc. Good people, good work. Anyway, this is the 5th year we've gone - we go for the jumping, but they frame the event as a "family day" with carnival rides, those inflatable things for the kids to jump around in, and some sort of on-stage entertainment - this year it was some teenybopper group that had all the little girls screeching their hearts out. We were excited about the border collie herding demonstration, which featured one dog herding a group of about 8 ducks around a fenced-in area, through and around and over various obstacles, including a tunnel, a bridge, and a Fisher Price baby slide into one of those plastic turtle sandboxes, only this one was filled with water. The dog was obviously having a great time and when the ducks bailed out of the slide (they went up and over the side) she rounded them up and made them do it again, this time finishing it correctly. The jumping was good this year - ended up with 9 clear rounds (pretty amazing considering that there were 8- and 12- and 16-fault rounds before we got a single clear one) and the jump-off was really exciting, including last year's winner (not only the same rider, but the same horse) refusing the first two jumps! (almost never seen at this level of competition) and a later horse actually crashing chest-first THROUGH the fence that was directly in front of us - scary and shocking but everyone was OK. "My" horse won, which was really all that counted.
Monday a.m. I took Murphy to the doggie boarding place, where I think he'll be going from now on - they spoiled him with extra time out and Frosty Paws (doggy ice cream) and he got a bath and nail trim and it still cost me less than it would have just to have him stay at my vet's office for four days. When I got back from dropping him off we finished packing the car and took off for Steubenville - it's been 20 years since my dad died and it had been a while since either Kat or I had been to his grave, so we made that a part of the trip, in addition to dropping off some donations (crocheted hats and mittens from Mom and Kat for the winter clothing drive at Urban Mission, plus household goods for Hutton House, the homeless shelter/transitional living program they run.) We had lunch at Hunan's, the place where I first fell in love with Chinese food 25 years or more ago. Alice Wong still runs the dining room with an iron fist - as usual, she was the only staff in the whole front of the house except for a young kid she allowed to fill water glasses and deliver the pot of tea. Even when the phone rang for a carry-out order, he answered it but immediately put it on hold so she could take the order. In between she staffed the cash register, took orders (only writing things down when she put a ticket together so we could pay), and brought our food. Bowls of soup appeared on the table without our asking for it, and on a return trip she said, "Chicken mushroom soup. Is good." (Not "is it good?" or "do you like it?" One does not question Alice.) Kat murmured, "I'm a little afraid of her." I told her that was only natural. The food was excellent as always. I had kun bo chicken -- the one place I don't have to ask what they put in it. The town is pretty sad, which I expected, but it still depressed me a little.
After Steub we wandered down through the hills, mostly via state routes, to Lake Hope. The cabin was sweet -- not someplace I'd want to be cooped up in, say, with a hand-full of unhappy children in wet weather, or more than one other person if we weren't close - that is to say, pretty cramped. The main room is a combination kitchen/dining room/living room and all of about 15' square, and then there are two small bedrooms and a bathroom off to one side. The interior's all rustic pine paneling, but they've updated the kitchen and we had pretty much everything we needed (except coffee filters, which I should have remembered from past stays at state parks, but I didn't so I made do with paper towels.) Surprisingly enough there was also a TV, a DVD/VCR combo, and a satellite hookup, which allowed me to watch Heroes on Monday and Kat to see Criminal Minds on Weds. The evening nature activity was hanging out on our "patio" (picnic table and lawn chairs under the trees in front of the cabin) while Kat called screech owls. She had a tape of owl calls that she played until they started to answer her; finally Wednesday evening they actually came in where we could see them. Very cool stuff. I had no idea screech owls were so teeny - they're only about 8" tall!
Tues. and Weds. we hiked Old Man's Cave and Ash Cave and Cedar Falls, all of which I've done before but we also took trails I've never done, which was cool. In particular we did the shorter, steeper exit from Cedar Falls, which requires you to snake your way through some narrow passages and climb over some tricky spots, none of which fortunately are too difficult, because I'm large and not terribly graceful. The other sort-of fortunate thing is that they're having weather just as dry as much of the rest of the state, so places that would usually be mossy and greasy-slippery underfoot (especially at Old Man's Cave) were just barely damp. The downside of the dryness is that there was nary a fall to be seen, not at the upper or lower falls at Old Man's, nor at Cedar Falls. OK, I take that back, there was a little trickle/drip at Cedar Falls. Kat asked who to write to about getting her money back (/jk). I've seen things low before, but never completely dry. I got to walk to the far side of the "pool" at Ash Cave, and we could also get to the small cavern under the cliff at Cedar Falls, neither of which I've ever gotten to do before because there's always been water in the way. I had splurged on a new pair of Keens trail shoes before the trip, and I think it might have been the best $100 I ever spent.
In addition to the hiking we went down to the "historic square" in Nelsonville, where there are cool shops, which were unfortunately mostly closed on Tues. (only open Wed.-Sat., dammit) and then on Weds. we tried going to some of the artist studios/shops that are scattered around in the surrounding area and it turns out many of them are traditionally closed on WEDS. Again, DAMMIT! I did get a small amount of gifty shopping done, but not as much as I would have liked. On Thurs. Mary drove my car down to Logan and picked me up, because Kat had plans to go further south and east to meet up with a birding pal. Picked the Murphmeister up in the afternoon, he was a complete spaz (and boyohboy didn't he want to play with the chihuahua in the waiting room! poor critter, he would have accidentally smooshed it) and evidentally didn't miss me much at all (not true. He was actually pretty clingy for the rest of the week. Glad I still had Fri-Sat-Sun to spend with him before I had to go back to work.)
****************************************************************
I'm back from vacation, feeling refreshed and invigorated. Or something like that. Any road I was NOT AT WORK for a week, and that is a Good Thing.
As you may or may not know, for something like 10 years my sister and I have done a 3-5 day fall getaway each year, usually somewhere in-state but occasionally venturing out to a neighboring state if we can't come up with something to do here. This year we went to the Hocking Hills (the first time I think we've repeated a location) and stayed in a cabin at Lake Hope and hiked around, nosed around in shops and basically relaxed. Things started on Sunday the 30th with the New Albany Classic, which is an annual equestrian jumping competition that benefits a local coalition working on family violence - spousal abuse, child abuse, etc. Good people, good work. Anyway, this is the 5th year we've gone - we go for the jumping, but they frame the event as a "family day" with carnival rides, those inflatable things for the kids to jump around in, and some sort of on-stage entertainment - this year it was some teenybopper group that had all the little girls screeching their hearts out. We were excited about the border collie herding demonstration, which featured one dog herding a group of about 8 ducks around a fenced-in area, through and around and over various obstacles, including a tunnel, a bridge, and a Fisher Price baby slide into one of those plastic turtle sandboxes, only this one was filled with water. The dog was obviously having a great time and when the ducks bailed out of the slide (they went up and over the side) she rounded them up and made them do it again, this time finishing it correctly. The jumping was good this year - ended up with 9 clear rounds (pretty amazing considering that there were 8- and 12- and 16-fault rounds before we got a single clear one) and the jump-off was really exciting, including last year's winner (not only the same rider, but the same horse) refusing the first two jumps! (almost never seen at this level of competition) and a later horse actually crashing chest-first THROUGH the fence that was directly in front of us - scary and shocking but everyone was OK. "My" horse won, which was really all that counted.
Monday a.m. I took Murphy to the doggie boarding place, where I think he'll be going from now on - they spoiled him with extra time out and Frosty Paws (doggy ice cream) and he got a bath and nail trim and it still cost me less than it would have just to have him stay at my vet's office for four days. When I got back from dropping him off we finished packing the car and took off for Steubenville - it's been 20 years since my dad died and it had been a while since either Kat or I had been to his grave, so we made that a part of the trip, in addition to dropping off some donations (crocheted hats and mittens from Mom and Kat for the winter clothing drive at Urban Mission, plus household goods for Hutton House, the homeless shelter/transitional living program they run.) We had lunch at Hunan's, the place where I first fell in love with Chinese food 25 years or more ago. Alice Wong still runs the dining room with an iron fist - as usual, she was the only staff in the whole front of the house except for a young kid she allowed to fill water glasses and deliver the pot of tea. Even when the phone rang for a carry-out order, he answered it but immediately put it on hold so she could take the order. In between she staffed the cash register, took orders (only writing things down when she put a ticket together so we could pay), and brought our food. Bowls of soup appeared on the table without our asking for it, and on a return trip she said, "Chicken mushroom soup. Is good." (Not "is it good?" or "do you like it?" One does not question Alice.) Kat murmured, "I'm a little afraid of her." I told her that was only natural. The food was excellent as always. I had kun bo chicken -- the one place I don't have to ask what they put in it. The town is pretty sad, which I expected, but it still depressed me a little.
After Steub we wandered down through the hills, mostly via state routes, to Lake Hope. The cabin was sweet -- not someplace I'd want to be cooped up in, say, with a hand-full of unhappy children in wet weather, or more than one other person if we weren't close - that is to say, pretty cramped. The main room is a combination kitchen/dining room/living room and all of about 15' square, and then there are two small bedrooms and a bathroom off to one side. The interior's all rustic pine paneling, but they've updated the kitchen and we had pretty much everything we needed (except coffee filters, which I should have remembered from past stays at state parks, but I didn't so I made do with paper towels.) Surprisingly enough there was also a TV, a DVD/VCR combo, and a satellite hookup, which allowed me to watch Heroes on Monday and Kat to see Criminal Minds on Weds. The evening nature activity was hanging out on our "patio" (picnic table and lawn chairs under the trees in front of the cabin) while Kat called screech owls. She had a tape of owl calls that she played until they started to answer her; finally Wednesday evening they actually came in where we could see them. Very cool stuff. I had no idea screech owls were so teeny - they're only about 8" tall!
Tues. and Weds. we hiked Old Man's Cave and Ash Cave and Cedar Falls, all of which I've done before but we also took trails I've never done, which was cool. In particular we did the shorter, steeper exit from Cedar Falls, which requires you to snake your way through some narrow passages and climb over some tricky spots, none of which fortunately are too difficult, because I'm large and not terribly graceful. The other sort-of fortunate thing is that they're having weather just as dry as much of the rest of the state, so places that would usually be mossy and greasy-slippery underfoot (especially at Old Man's Cave) were just barely damp. The downside of the dryness is that there was nary a fall to be seen, not at the upper or lower falls at Old Man's, nor at Cedar Falls. OK, I take that back, there was a little trickle/drip at Cedar Falls. Kat asked who to write to about getting her money back (/jk). I've seen things low before, but never completely dry. I got to walk to the far side of the "pool" at Ash Cave, and we could also get to the small cavern under the cliff at Cedar Falls, neither of which I've ever gotten to do before because there's always been water in the way. I had splurged on a new pair of Keens trail shoes before the trip, and I think it might have been the best $100 I ever spent.
In addition to the hiking we went down to the "historic square" in Nelsonville, where there are cool shops, which were unfortunately mostly closed on Tues. (only open Wed.-Sat., dammit) and then on Weds. we tried going to some of the artist studios/shops that are scattered around in the surrounding area and it turns out many of them are traditionally closed on WEDS. Again, DAMMIT! I did get a small amount of gifty shopping done, but not as much as I would have liked. On Thurs. Mary drove my car down to Logan and picked me up, because Kat had plans to go further south and east to meet up with a birding pal. Picked the Murphmeister up in the afternoon, he was a complete spaz (and boyohboy didn't he want to play with the chihuahua in the waiting room! poor critter, he would have accidentally smooshed it) and evidentally didn't miss me much at all (not true. He was actually pretty clingy for the rest of the week. Glad I still had Fri-Sat-Sun to spend with him before I had to go back to work.)