Dear Reader,
This post was written several days ago, and for that, I apologize. Both for the delay and for the ongoing shit content. I know there are roughly 1 to 3 people who wake up each day anxious to read about the ongoing exploits of a one-time crap endurance cycling junkie turned unfunny, chubby 51-year-old middle-class slacker white guy.
The migration of this site to a new host did not go according to plan because I did the exact opposite of what the Tech-Heads were telling me to do at nearly every turn. I’m not very bright, but you know that. Hopefully, things will be back to normal in a day or six.
— Management
With that housekeeping out of the way, five days into the 2023 Soil The Woods Tour, five hikes are done. Praise the dogs!
The light, wet snow that we woke up to on New Year’s Day was gone by late that afternoon and has since been replaced by “warmer” 32-40˚ temperatures, lights on in the mid-day dark skies, fog, mud, wintry mix, and rain. And while I am in NO way complaining about the lack of snow and ice, I could really use some sunshine! Everything looks like what stepping in rain-soaked dog shit in bare feet feels like. Actually, it sort of feels like it as well.
Despite the grey1 skies and rain, it’s been nice to be in the woods stomping about, getting muddy, and taking photos, even if those photos are getting rather redundant and screaming out for me to start getting miles in at a new location. Sadly, there are few places nearby besides Deerfield where I can get in more than a couple miles of hiking without repeating a loop or spending too much time driving to trailheads on weekdays. You know this is my busy time!
The idea of longer hikes on singletrack is very appealing, but as with working up to multiple 5-mile hikes a week, I need to ease into it or end up a gimp. I also need to figure out some small equipment issues and loop options before incorporating hikes in the 6 to 10-mile range on the singletrack trails near our semi-local community college (MMCC). I’ll get there at some point.
As mentioned in the intro, this week, I am in the midst of migrating the blog to another host, and to say I am out of my element is an understatement! Tech-Heads talking to me in Tech-Speak might be the most humbling and emasculating thing ever. It takes everything I have not to have a meltdown and scream, “LISTEN, POINDEXTER! THE INTERNET DIDN’T EVEN EXIST FOR THE FIRST 20 YEARS OF MY LIFE! THROW ME A FUCKING BONE!!”
But then I realize how dreadful that would sound, so I assure myself that the worst thing that can happen is 10 years of photos and ill-written blatherings go into the nether regions of space (where dead websites go), and I start a new blog from scratch, or better yet, not at all. I also question my decision to keep writing on a stand-alone WordPress site2. I mean, why am I paying for roughly 10 people worldwide to read this shit about my boring-ass life? I make no money from this; it’s a hobby/habit, and a poor one at that. I could easily move back to Blogger and be done with it; it would just look like shit.
Shit will work out eventually, or not.
Later.
THE SOILED SOUNDS TRACK OF THE POST
Dark Thoughts is another “new to me band” that has been making my ears ring over the past week or so.
Some have described this band as having strong Ramones-like influences, but at the risk of offending Ramones fans, I dig Dark Thoughts songs way more! Sorry, I dig the Ramones, but I never felt the need to actually own any. And while there are some influences, in that they both write hook-laden infectious, short punk songs, I also pick up some similarities between legendary punk bands like Peg Boy.
Almost every track in their discography comes in at under 2 minutes, but almost every track cooks.
- Another New Year’s resolution is to stop forcing myself to spell grey G-R-A-Y. It just looks stupid.
- I started this version of The Soiled Chamois with credit through my old host account after XXC Magazine shit the bed, then they offered a sweet deal on extending it. Now, realizing that I currently have no desire to sell anything to anyone or monetize in any way, the host won’t let me downgrade my account from the “Deluxe” package due to “security reasons,” and I’m trying to migrate to another host with the help of their IT Department.