Here we go!

 

It is the middle of September and it's time for the fourth(?) fifth(?) whatever! annual NaBloWriMo! All it is is simply blogging each day for the entire month. No pressure if you blow it a couple of times or even a bunch of times- just give it a go. I've met plenty of wonderful friends this way because as is customary on blogfests (even though this isn't technically CALLED a blogfest, it is really... a blogfest, that is) you try to get around to the other participant's blogs. If you want to sign up, just pop on over to the official NaBloWriMo site and send the organizer an email. She'll put your blog on the blogroll for the others to see when they check out who's posting. Then the only other thing to do is to wait around until the first of October and start blogging like mad!

Now this also coincides with my fourth anniversary blogging so I am going to spend the month in a special way...( not giving out prizes since I don't have any prizes to give out and I think I blew that last year anyway) which you will just have to wait to see. 

Even if you don't participate, I hope you all enjoy the month! (geez, where did September go? or the summer for that matter? I must be getting old...)  

Oh and here is my favorite sign which I share with you so that you can have a laugh on this coolish (at least it is here) September morning at the beginning of a new week...

 Cheers!!!

I scratch my head...

when I see signs like this...

Along the path at Flatirons Vista- a fave of Mo and I

Sounds sensible, I suppose. But how is this...

Different than this...

Perhaps it is the hairpin curves.  

I walked the entire path vaguely curious but had I pondered it too much

I might have missed this... 

'The Flatirons' named by pioneer women who thought they looked like... flat irons 

There is only so much time to worry about human LOLs.

Last week was the first week of school

and I'm already beat! When will the summer come?

Oh that's right, it hasn't left yet! 

 

BTW: I am really hating on Piknik/Picasa/Google- whoever it is that decided not to keep Piknik going. I loved being able to add my name to my pics so easily. Now it's a PAIN IN THE Ass (yes, I said it). 

It's just a little hike then a nice climb...

yeah, right!

 The goal was to climb a Thirteener... one of the many peaks in our state that are 13,000+ feet high (thus, the name Thirteener). Oh I know, some of you hard core hikers, bikers, or climbers will scoff and say our goal was ridiculously attainable- simple even. But for me, a person who at 16 or so went on a hike with friends and camping pals up Horn's Peak (13,450) but cried in despair before reaching...well, anywhere near the top. On the upside I did hike up Pike's Peak (a slightly higher peak but also a slightly easier climb) a few years later. But I am loosing ground here...

 So in the beautiful blue of early morning's sky, we headed off with walking stick, lunch and plenty of water to aid our trek.

 I felt a little like Bilbo or Frodo may have felt... adventure and challenge lay in front of me. I was ready for the day! Or so I thought...

 It was beautiful as you can see. We jaunted along jauntily until we read the sign that said it was 3 miles to the lake that was well below the peak and then, well let's just say, I was slightly less jaunty. (I had thought the 3 miles hike started a mile earlier in our day!) 

 Nevertheless, we had planned to make it up that hill and make it we would (although to be honest, when I saw a lone woman traveling downwards, her traveling companion somewhere UP THERE, I began to think I would let Mo make a successful climb to the top without my labored step to slow him down). We finally made it above timberline (below) and I was pooped.

There is video of my giving my final thoughts and bequeathments, what to do with the body, etc. at this point but that is obviously not going to make it onto this blog. But I didn't actually die here fortunately and did keep going up the final leg...

to Gibson Lake. Alas, I could go no further and Mo gallantly would go no further. I sat for a while (not as long as I wished) to get my strength back and then we headed down. The weather (Mo said) would not allow us to make it to the top. The real truth was that there was no way I was going to make it up to the peak that day after that long of a hike so we went to the stopping point of many of those before us and then turned around to leave the Thirteener to another day.

I'll make Whale Peak another day... perhaps by helicopter