Summary For iMike

I am home again. The camping trip went well though the weather tried not to co-operate.

For Fridays hike it, we had temperatures in the low 60s. Almost perfect. The hike in was uneventful, except for a broken bottle of pepper sauce at the parking lot.

Friday evenings meal was the traditional ribeye. That was 5 pounds we were definitely willing to hike in.

Saturday we had a thunderstorm. At one point I heard a thunder clap that lasted no less than 30 continous seconds.

A couple guys (David and Alan) went for a hike Saturday morning. They were out when the bottom fell out. Even with parkas, they were totally drenched. The rest of us (myself, Billy, and Chad) hung around camp and kept the fire burning. This was a bit of a challenge at times.

Saturday during the rain storm I had a drip in the tent and a small puddle accumlated. This was resolved by simply tensioning up the rain fly. This is a rookie mistake, so I had no excuse. Chad had a drip problem also. His sleeping bag ended up getting wet. I think he came pretty close to burning the tent instead of packing it out.

Sunday mornings was cold. How cold? Don't know. But it warmed up some before the snow started to fall. The snow changed to sleet and then back to a very heavy wet snow. The view over the gorge was pretty awesome with the heavy snow.

Sunday morning we heard a wild Turkey call. Didn't see it though. Actually other than a few ants, we didn't see any creatures.

We saw one other group of campers. They were hiking in Saturday afternoon during the rain. They were headed for one of the other primitive camp sites. Their destination had been undersireable to us. It did not allow campfires. What is camping without a campfire?

The oven got put to good use. We baked bread, muffins, CC cookies, and brownies. Saturday night we had Jambo and red beans and rice.

The cold weather from this morning stuck with me all day. This evening I was still chilled when we went out for dinner, even though it was a warmer 55 degrees outside.

I had a good weekend and I am glad to be home. I enjoyed a warm shower and a nice nap this afternoon. I bet I will sleep good tonight also.

The Peanut Gallery Has Spoken
On Friday I went to the store to buy a couple of calculator batteries. The calcuator is a TI-83+. The required battery is a CR1616 or a CR2016. Either will do.

A friend, let's call him David, has the same calculator and needed to replace his battery also so I volunteered to pick up a spare.

Before going to the store, I wrote down the battery number so that I would not have to be concerned with forgetting it. Actually I wrote down both numbers. At the store, Wal-Mart, I looked over the battery selection and found the CR1620. Wait a minute, I thought it was a CR2016. Did I transpose those two numbers when I wrote it down?

I decided to call David and have him verify the battery number for me. No answer at this office. No answer on his cell phone.

I went ahead and bought the batteries which I discovered upon arriving home were definitely the wrong ones. I had not transposed the digits. Doh! "Oh well, I thought, I guess I will return them and get the right ones tomorrow."

As is the usual case, tomorrow rolled around the next day and while I was out I swung by Wal-Mart to get the correct battery. Only I forgot to bring the wrong batteries with me.

One this trip I did get the correct batteries. Why did I not spot these the first time? On the first trip I went to electronics (where the calculators live). On the second trip, an associate recommended I check in the jewelry department (where the calculators don't live).

What was the point of this story? Nothing, but iMike complained about there being no new posts in a while so I had to come up with some filler. Hope you liked it.

And the top was up on the Miata. I am still waiting on a warm breeze to blow through.

And I did my taxes last Saturday so that is one less thing. What are you waiting for?

And for the record, the whole elbow kissing thing was not my idea. Some other creative soul created that mischief. I simply got blamed 30 years later.

And the snow. I didn't even mention the snow last week.

I think I am all caught up now.