On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 10:36:06 +0100, Therion Ware
<autodelete@city-of-dis.com> in news message
<0evvh191kggvurnjovjb21gkdadnmfsujg@4ax.com> wrote:

On Thu, 08 Sep 2005 00:25:01 GMT in alt.atheism, Liz (Liz
<ehuth1@donotspam.com>) said, directing the reply to alt.atheism

On Wed, 07 Sep 2005 13:26:44 GMT, Therion Ware
<autodelete@city-of-dis.com> in news message
<3cpth11p6tuih5337n42qvo8rhjn4pfdjm@4ax.com> wrote:

[-----]

The wet weather didn't stop us from
enjoying ourselves. The first day of rain, my daughter and I decided
to go shopping. Neither of us can really stand to shop so after 2
hours,

This is a woman's perspective, eh? My tolerance is about 8 minutes.

we stamped done to that activity changed into our hiking
clothes and were out on the trails despite the rain and fog.

Compass, maps, MRE (French variety for preference), space-blankets,
flares, mobile phone, emergency medical kit, ice axe, St. Bernard,
Siberian Tiger...

I feel rather undergeared. I took a couple of bottles of water and a
rain proof hat. Excellent hiking shoes though.

Found a
fun new (for us) trail that one must ascend vertically through cracks
in the granite. This involved a lot of pushing (on my part) and
pulling (on my daughter's part). Not a particularly pretty ascent,
but we still felt a sense of accomplishment when we reached the top.

Brilliant. So how was coming down?

Coming down was great. We walked down the sloping side instead of
trying to make it back down the face.

Here's a picture of the precipice trail.
http://www.nps.gov/acad/photos/hikeprec.htm

While we didn't do this climbing trail this year because the weather
was too dicey, it is usually on our dance card. However, the terrain
is typical of the granite faces in the park. The ridge trail is much
more gradual.
http://www.nps.gov/acad/

Unfortunately, we went a mountain too far. We naively chose a trail
which was a stream bed -- usually dry. With three days of rain,
conditions had changed. I lost count of the number of times we needed
to ford the rushing mountain stream. Has anyone ever told you that
mountain streams can be quite cold?

Anyway by the time we summited
and made it back to the trailhead five hours later, both of us were
bloodied, bruised, limping, soaking wet, and dead tired. What fun!

Tremendous! That's what's holidays are all about. Generally speaking,
I sometimes feel I need time off to recover from my holiday....

I'm still in recovery mode. The best thing was that I committing so
much exercise that I could eat really wonderful evening meals and
still come home even in weight. Maine specialties are lobster "are
you using that extra butter, dear?" and blueberry pie.

The next day we decided on a sail instead of another hike.

What kind of boat?

Schooner - here is a picture:
http://www.downeastsail.com/

[---]

And no, it's not waterproof. And has a battery capacity of about 3
seconds, on a good day, but I refuse to pay over 100 GBP for a new
battery for this poor Sony Vaio PCG-F409. But I keep it in the car as
well. Combined with the Gamin GPS, the combination got me out of a big
problem in Milan once when a lorry that was a bit taller than the
bridge it was trying to go under blocked the motorway we needed to
take in order to get to Lake Garda and the police directed us through
central Milan at rush hour.

When I was at Lake Garda, a nice Italian gentleman informed me that it
was "a very fishy lake".

Well, English tourists do keep drowning in it, largely because they
think that a drivers licence means you know how to drive a high
powered speed boat and that life jackets are for wimps, particularly
during bad weather.

The expression "mad as an Englishman" leaps to mind.

If you go there again, tip me the wink, and I'll give you the address
of an excellent place to stay. Cats and everything. And a 29 year-old
blonde daughter of the house who thinks I'm absolutely amazing, not
least for my ironic turn of a ironic Latin phrase. Alas we're not
allowed to go back there again because my wife noticed, and alas I am
a bit of a flirt.

LOL I will do that.

The place is run by a family. The first time we went there was because
the some idiot had got the days wrong on the booking for our hotel,
but the hotel manager said she could fix us up. So we went to Amelia's
place. Despite approximately zero words in common we got on incredibly
well. Amelia is about 60 something, and by day 3 got breakfast in the
family house, Loads of meat and two bottles of Rose ( made by the
family - the husband owns a vineyard).

Set me up for the day, I can tell you!

Fond memories, I can tell.

[-----]

I very much suspect that can of beer I spilt over it a month or so ago
has finally taken its toll.

Was that while you were in the bathroom?

While I am a great believer in efficiency, I think that would be a
little *too* efficient even for me! Except possibly with respect to
IPA which runs through me like a sluice.

One must do what one can to increase the productivity ratio.


[-----]

Which leads me to suspect a motherboard problem.

Oedipus complex, I presume.

Oh I dunno. I just concluded a 3 month silence with regards to my
mother and she broke first, and I assume that was because the local
computer shops couldn't fix the problem. Hah. Took me 15 minutes,
largely because I can read.

Amazing. I used to wonder where the illiterate worked. Now we know.