The First (Real) Post

The hike is two and a half months away, but I've realized that sometimes I'm just not going to have much that's interesting to say about it.

Take today for instance...actually I did do one thing worthwhile regarding the hike, so my intro is useless. I set up a donations page through COSAC so you can make credit and debit donations online (http://njcosac.kintera.org/aamonth2008/hike4autism). I'm quite tech savvy.

So today was not one of the days that I described initially. Anyway, that intro was just a ploy to make a smooth transition into talking about something non-hike related, and as evidenced by that segue, there's more than one way to skin a cat.

I figure if you're going to be nice enough to spend the next seven or so months following along, we should get to know each other. And at the very least I should try to be somewhat entertaining, otherwise this would just become an embarrassment to be paraded around at family dinners and by my friends at the bar.

The keyboard to this computer is annoyingly loud for some reason. Normally I wouldn't think anything of it, but my brother is home from school tonight. He's going for his physical fitness test for the police academy tomorrow morning and he went to sleep since he's got to wake up early for it.

He left the door to his room open and I could hear him snoring, but these firecracker keys must have woken him up because he got up a while ago to close it. I kept insisting earlier today that he was going to fail, but after that the thought of it drifted out of my head and only came back when I heard him shut the door.

I felt bad and have sort of been trying to keep quiet, but I can't help Gateway's crap-ass keyboard construction methods. Anyway, the point is I wouldn't normally think of the loudness of the keyboard because no one's usually here to wake up with it. So now that he's here, there's just no more walking around naked.

The beauty of living close to work is that I'm the last one to leave the house in the morning. I wake up to an empty house, exercise, eat breakfast and get ready for work in an unfettered environment, and for me the term unfettered almost invariably means no clothing.

When nobody's home, there's no carrying a wet towel around and forgetting it on your bed leaving a big wet spot. If I want to watch highlights on ESPN, but don't feel like going upstairs to get changed first, I'm free to do that too. YAHTZEE!! All your clean underwear down in the basement? No need to throw on a pair of shorts just to walk through the dining room and kitchen without offending someone.

Now my routine has been messed with. If my brother's home possibly lurking around a corner trying to scare me, then I'm not so keen on it. Plus being naked is more of a solitary thing for me anyway.

Luckily, it's not a winter or summer break situation. Then all bets are off. I could go weeks at a time without having an opportunity. Not to mention he eats all the damn Chips Ahoy in about two days. So few cookies, no nakedness. It's not a fun situation.

I've read that you can go entire days at a stretch without seeing anyone on the PCT, so it got me thinking...But then I realized the sun's a factor and I wouldn't want any issues there. You've got spiders and scorpions too (don't want to think about that). But the one thing I'd be afraid of is tripping and falling. Doing it in clothes is one thing, but it can't feel good when you're au naturale. Then if you hurt yourself, you're going to be sprawled out waiting (could be a while) for someone to come around the bend... and then what do you say when they find you?

I don't know, but it would certainly make for a good entry.