All the news that fits......................

So........................I've moved. The house I've occupied for the past couple of years went on the auction block on the 18th of Nov. and now I'm camped out at my daughter's.
So far it's working out well for both of us..........................I have all the comforts and she doesn't have to worry about (or pay for) after or before school care or round someone up to be with Cheyenne during her school break.
The house didn't sell. Which is not to say that there were no bidders..................just no reasonable bids. I don't mind someone getting a deal or making a profit..................but the idea of professional speculators hovering around seeking to cash in on someone else's misfortune or hardship in the hopes of making a killing disturbs my sense of propriety. If someone wanted an exceptional deal on a solid house to live in or use as an income producing rental, I'd be willing to give them a hell of a bargain..................................no reasonable offer refused. The key word in all this is reasonable. It was bad enough watching items go for sometimes as low as 1% of their real worth, I had to draw the line at the house.
All of which puts a bit of a crimp in my options for the near future and could well stand to derail some of my most fondly held plans for next year...................but in the meantime I have the rare pleasure of spending time with my adult offspring and my sweetie-pie granddaughter. Things could be a ton worse.
Winter's here.....................and with it the opportunity to test out some of my hiking techniques and theories. My daughter lives a bit over a mile from a nice forested park riddled with hiking trails. I'm not used to hills though. I don't have any worries or troubles with the negotiation of hills......................my legs are strong enough and my lungs can take it but walking hills causes one to step differently with more emphasis on the front of the foot and the toes. Last Saturday came the weather I was waiting for.........................temperatures hovering near or below freezing and rain and sleet and what the weather people now refer to euphemistically as "wintery mix".........................fucking slush.
I spent about two hours walking around outside and when I got back I had Cass come to the back door to snap this picture......................

You can see better if you "embiggen" it (thank you J where ever you are.................sometimes language needs a kick in the ass to keep it pertinent to reality) and yes, that is a skin of ice and those are icicles on the brim of my trusty ol' fedora. Henry Jones Jr. eat your heart out.
My feet were cold enough to be a bit numb so I didn't notice that I had ground through to raw meat in a couple of unlikely places .................so for the past week I've hobbled about waiting to heal enough to head back out again. You don't really expect to blister when barefoot because there is no shoe to rub up against. That being the most common cause of blisters. It makes sense though........a couple of hours of hammering or raking can bring up a blister on your hand, eh? After 4 months of walking unshod over pavement and gravel I thought the soles of my feet were pretty tough................but, as I mentioned above, walking hills is a whole different story.............. It's good to find these things out now and not later. I've got three months to adapt...................(If you don't already know, aren't you just dying to find out what I've got up my sleeve?........buahhahahahahha)
We've had some snow and can expect some more sleet and rain and slush this weekend and I'd like to test trail food and bedding and shelter on an all nighter northward through the woods along the river bluff. I'm short a couple of pieces of gear for a true test, but somehow I think the winter to come is going to render plenty of opportunity once everything is aquired or manufactured. The important thing is to simply leave the coziness and do it. Ya reckon?

There is a point to all this, but at present that is for the cognoscenti.

More to come later........................I had to post something for the benefit of those faithful enough to check in here often and concerned enough to wonder if perhaps I'd died or something worse.........(gotten married maybe? *grins*)
I told my brother I'd post something when I could make a clear distinction between writing and whining. The thin lines of distinction you often hear people refer to when comparing someone else's condemnable behavior to their own proper comportment are in reality only indicators of degree upfield from the big thick motherfucker of a line that both parties crossed yards back.

So Merry Christmas to all if I don't get back here before that occasion

Thus endeth the entry.............................