The Post-Mortem

Caleb and I had a few changes to get used to. My beard. His scruff/racing stripe. Clean clothes all the time. Showers every day. The first time I got into a shower, after having been in one only the day before, I thought: ‘why am I doing this? I’m not dirty…’ Caleb must have gotten a touch of something sad on his insides, because he wasn’t doing so hot for a few days after we got back. Which was a total bummer, because he was eating the BRAT diet (Bananas, Rice, Applesause, and Toast), when he should have been gorging on all manner of good tastiness. It took us a few days of solid eating to feel full again. I think that Caleb had lost something like 15 lbs (he was working out a lot, so some of that was upper body muscle mass), and I had lost maybe 7-8. There’s a picture of us somewhere without our shirts on at the campsite where M and D had set up, and we look a little gaunt. But we're really defined...
Anyway, we had made a list of things we wanted to accomplish, and I'm still plugging away at some of those. One, to go through everything in this Williams/Sonoma cookbook I have, is rather delightful. If anyone wants a tasty meal, let me know, and I'll cook you something from that. It's not often that it disappoints.
Life back in real life is very fast. The trail lets the day unfold, it guides you gently, and lets you amble at your own pace. This 'real life' thing, it happens, time is no longer based on hunger, or sleepiness, or achy feet. Time is based on deadlines, appointments, and schedules that are, that must be, adhered to with a fanatical following. Sometimes I enjoy that order. Sometimes it's nice to know that things will occur at a certain time, and that I must take the responsibility of meeting that time. Other times, I'd rather meander. There's a wide world out there. In (semi) closing (I'll probably have to brag and post pictures about the road bike I just bought...), I'll say that a quote from Wind in the Willows came to mind. When Mole is first discovering the world outside of his hole, Ratty shows him a map of their section of the woods. It goes something like.
'These are the Wild Woods. Not many creatures of the right sort live there, other than Badger. Badger is the Lord of the Wood.'
'What's that beyond the wood?'
'That? That is the Wide World, and it's events do not concern us.'
So now I sit here, a drizzly day outside, and I wonder what my Wide World will contain. It is hard to see now that I am insulated.
This day, this gray day outside, this rainy and somber spring day, it tells me that there's a Wide World for me somewhere, but that I should not heed Ratty's advice. While there is something left to explore, when there is still someplace to go, another sight to see, than I shall go. 'Roads go ever on and on.' I'm going to go exploring.