I didn't really disappear this time, honestly. I've just been on the move. A lot.
I just hit 43, which still comes as a surprise, but lots of things have surprised me in this last rotation. On that day I found myself of the top of a peak, thanks, in part, to a chairlift assist, sitting next to a nervous pika who thought all the tourists had gone. The Thunderbirds roared by as if on cue. We looked down on the tiny cows below us.
And this year I wanted some ice cream from The Third Bowl on my birthday, so Jesse and I split a flite of six flavors (yeah, they do that), which we polished off before dinner, because that's how birthdays are done. It was worth the twelve month wait.
I've often spent my birthday off in the woods by myself. Birthdays aren't really a big deal, but it's an easy excuse to take a few vacation days and leave town. Waking up to this view is pretty common:
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| Good morning from the floor of an unzipped tent. |
Now I wake up to this view, too, and I like it very much:
I'm still silly and goofy, like always, but now I have someone to be silly and goofy with, or at least near, and that's pretty great.
I go for longer and higher walks now. I still stop for flowers and bugs and whatever was making that rustling noise in the bushes, but I think my photos are getting better thanks to the constant reminder of what an stop is.
