PA

On Friday I was scheduled to drive to Northwestern Pennsylvania. I was also scheduled to take some Dutchmen into the Shenandoah mountains for a hike. I decided to live up to both commitments. This meant that my day consisted of 11 hours in the car and 5 climbing a mountain.
There is something good about doing something miserably difficult. The pain and the focus drive out the other voices of memory, and excuse the ghosts and demons to the next room. I think that this is why I need to climb, bike, run, lift.
I arrived at Eve's B&B at 0200 on Saturday morning. It's an old Victorian mansion on the town's main street, and the inside of the home is becoming slowly but surely lovely and
In the hours since, I've participated in small town and family rituals, adopting (for a few moments) the identity of someone who lives here and is part of the world.
We picked blueberries at a local farm and made blueberry jam. I discussed global warming with a neighbor. We traveled to yard sales to find bicycles for the Inn, and I test-rode and inspected bikes until we found a good one to purchase. I spent hours doing bicycle maintenance and repair for the family bikes, and went for a ride today along the course I plan to race in two weeks.
It's been a check-out of the brain that I needed.