It's The Final Countdown

If I were more tech savvy, this blog would be playing the shitty Swedish band Europe's song The Final Countdown right now. In my mind, G.O.B. is failing miserably at a magic trick, nay, an illusion, at this very moment. Ahh, Arrested Development, how I miss you.

Anyway, it's the final countdown because I leave Berkeley in four days (April 30), and I start hiking the Continental Divide Trail two days after that (May 2). Because I am stupid, I'm running a 50-miler with 14,000 feet of climbing on Sunday, April 29.

So what's been going on with me lately? Kurt Vonnegut, one of my favorite authors (along with Mark Twain, John Krakauer, and Ambrose Bierce) died, so I read his and A Man Without A Country and God Bless You, Mr. Rosewater. Favorite quote:
Hello, babies. Welcome to Earth. It's hot in the summer and cold in the winter. It's round and wet and crowded. At the outside, babies, you've got about a hundred years here. There's only one rule that I know of, babies--: "God damn it, you've got to be kind."
A kid from the county I grew up in killed a bunch of students at the school my sister and about a fifth of my high school went to, my buddy Schnapp came through town and we explored the port of Oakland on a cool bike ride, I've occasionally been training for the 50-miler but not really, I've been watching a bunch of Ingmar Bergman films which I love for the same reason I love Vonnegut, the Wizards backed into the playoffs and are totally getting killed by Cleveland, I've prepared 14 packages of maps and guidebooks to mail to myself along the trail, I spent over $1300 on gear last month, I turned in the form to re-enroll in school in January and they cashed my check, I've handed off everything I've worked on for the last two straight years to others, and I'm just about ready to take a long hike. It's a good day for a 5K, and it's a good year for a 10,000K.

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