24Ahead

Little green man, should I go to New England?
I need more information.
I need some information too. Weren't you on one of those cartoon shows from the 60s? You know, one of the ones where they made it into a movie. You weren't in the movie, but, in the show, only the protagonist could see and hear you.
That wasn't me, that was my brother. I'm not anyone's intellectual property except my own, and I hereby grant to you full and unrestricted rights to use my voice and image in perpetuity for any use whatsoever excluding animal porn.
That's a relief. Back to New England, I'll feel like a schmuck if I don't go. I need to do something, right? I realize now that, except for summitting Mt. Hollywood a few times, I haven't really done anything since July. I haven't even done anything of note before then. I need a big, named summit that's not that difficult, like Mt. Hood. But, I blew that chance back in May. The last time I tried even something as simple as Mt. Baldy, I didn't summit. I was going to go on a two-day backpacking trip in the Sierras last weekend with a group, but I had to cancel because the doc told me to lay off the sweating because of the stitches in my head. I feel like I squandered the summer. All I wanted to do was to be like Philip Greenspun. I'm beginning to feel like a failure.
But, you've done plenty of interesting things. And, that Mt. Baldy trip was a first time that way. Remember, you mountain biked up the ski lodge access road. That's 1600' of gain, followed by a hike of around 1200'. You were only 1000' or so from Baldy, it's just that you didn't have so much mtb experience, so it was tiring. Plus, you took the more steep route past the ski lodge. In retrospect, taking the other one would have been easier. And, while I realize it was last year when you did it, even something as prosaic as Strawberry Peak was fairly difficult because you did it with no one else around, and with ice not on the rocks, but definitely in your boot cleats. And, remember those 8 California county summits you got in just 6 days earlier this year?
But, those were all easy ones. It only worked out to about 5000' of gain for all of them. Hans Florine here I come.
Yeah, but there was lots of driving, and some navigation involved. It wasn't that easy, and you were alone for all but one of the summits. San Benito county was quite an adventure, and you haven't even written that up yet!
Maybe I should skip New England for now. Part of it is I don't want to spend the money, and part is I don't want to go alone. It's not fun anymore. Maybe I should wait and try to get with a group to do a snowy ascent of Marcy or Mansfield, maybe even Mt. Washington later in the year. I could concentrate on rock climbing and improving my aerobic conditioning in the meantime, maybe do a fairly easy alpine ascent with a guided party, or go to Texas and do Guadalupe Peak. That's only 8 miles and 3200', and it's only up to 8000'. Plus, it's in the middle of a nice hot desert.
That's reasonable. Well, look, I'm glad we had this chat, but I need to go now. Let's see, our next session could be Thursday at 10am, is that OK with you?
OK, ciao.