The big ride

 So I did something crazy today.

When I first learned about the Adirondack Rail Trail, I thought it was another hiking trail, but one that crossed roads and towns. I dismissed it until I learned you could bike it. So I biked it.

 

The only thing that surprised me was seeing people I knew.  

 

Lonely dentist

Storytime:

Many years ago, when my company was very small, so many employees would take off the week of the New York State Fair that we didn't have anyone left to open the doors for. This happened until we just decided to shut down that week. Now the fair starts half a week earlier, and we have more than twice as many employees, but we still close down for the week before Labor Day. There's no fancy title for this, we just call it 'shutdown'. 

Honestly, it's the only way the boss can take a vacation. Even when he's on vacation, he's worried about what's happening here. When nothing is happening here, he has nothing to worry about.

Six months ago, my wife scheduled our next dentist appointment on her way out. Not that I can't do it, but I'm always the last one in the chair so she's doing it before I get the chance. On *my* way out, I find that she scheduled it for the last week in August. No way was I going to the dentist during free time, oh no sir, so I rescheduled my own appointment for a week sooner.

The week before Labor Day is typically the last week in August, except when it's not. August 31 is a Monday this year, meaning Labor Day is a full week into September on the 7th. I did not realize this at the time. So I had my dentist appointment a few days ago, the wife is taking the kids in a few days, and I have work this week. Mandatory Fun is next week.

In my defense, it's happening pretty late in the year.

Twenty years

I am a very... different kind of person. I can't find any other way of putting it without sounding either degrading or self-serving. Either way, I'm certain my wife didn't know what she was getting into when she agreed to marry me.

Four kids later, she's stuck with me.

Quiet weekish

This week my boys are at camp, all three of them. My twentieth wedding anniversary is next week, but we figured this was the week for it. My sister agreed to host our daughter for the duration while the boys are at camp, so this was the week the wife and I decided to skip town.

She wanted to go to the Adirondacks. I found us a nice hotel on Lake Flower that has kayaks and canoes the guests can use whenever they like. She found three easy hikes, and we filled the rest of the time with, well, whatever we wanted. 

I joked that I would wake up to find her already out on the lake. She didn't believe me, but one morning I woke up to find her missing. The lake had this thick fog over it, and I saw her kayak slipping into the mist, disappearing for a good long while. Later, she quietly admitted I knew her better than she thought.

Well, it has been twenty years.

The hikes were, like I said, easy. Easy for me, anyway. I've been working my way through the 46 high peaks, and those bottom out at 4 hours or 5 miles. These took around an hour and were maybe a mile. Of course, going out onto the water isn't my thing either. We have a lot of separate interests, more than we have together. But you learn to work with it over the years. 

Maybe that's how we've managed this long. 

The busiest month

As I've ranted about more than once, schools in New York run through the end of June, while the rest of the country is finished somewhere around Memorial Day. The flipside to this is our schools don't start until after Labor Day, while the rest of the country picks up sometime in August.

Which makes July the busiest month of the year for vacation spots. This is precisely why I don't go on any big vacation in July, at least any that involve going out of state. If you recall I planned THE BIG TRIP during August with this in mind. 

The vacation in 2018 to Arizona over Christmas included a trip to the Grand Canyon, and apparently that's one of their busiest times. I love outdoorsy stuff, but outdoorsy stuff with TEN THOUSAND PEOPLE had better be a concert.

It was not a concert. It was just crowded.

So now that July is over, there's more stuff going on and it's all creeping up on me I have so much planning to do.