I'm here. We had a surprisingly good weekend, and I'm actually feeling rejuvinated. I usually go into the weekends dreading the tantrums, arguments, and negotiating. This weekend we had little of that- probably because we did very little scheduled activities the entire weekend. I took the lentil to the museum to look at quilts, we fixed our kitchen light (oooh, track lighting!) and we went for a hike, but none of these things were terribly time sensitive so it worked out.
Except for the hike.
Do you remember those stupid buttons we all used to wear in the 1980s that had little slogans and crap on them? They were funny and grating and now they are used as bits of charm on suspenders. About halfway through the hike I started thinking to myself, "are we having fun yet?" and then I felt stupid and tschocky-full and generally cliche. But I couldn't stop saying it. Then I started looking for someone to blame because i wasn't having fun and then I really wasn't having fun because it was basically all my fault.
So it's April in New Mexico. One week we have weather in the '70s and then it's in the '50s. Flowers blooming like crazy, then freak snowstorm. It happens every year, which is why they tell us not to plant anything in the ground until May 15th. Even if we have a heat wave in March, you still gotta wait until May to plant because it can get really cold. Living at 7000 feet will do that to you. Last night it was 28 degrees and today it's supposed to get up to 73 degrees. It's a little confusing sometimes, and hard to get used to. So it snowed on Friday night- almost 2 inches. By midday on Saturday the snow was all melted and we were all back in t-shirts, so when we decided to go for a hike on Sunday I wasn't even thinking snow boots and parkas. We went to a nice trail that is only partway up the mountain, probably only at around 8000 feet.
Sweets was clearly thinking ahead because he had packed snowboots and hats for himself and the lentil. I wasn't thinking at all and was lucky to scrounge a warm hat from the depths of my filthy car. See? This is why I never clean out my car. You never know when something will come in handy. We got to the trailhead and started hiking but everything was frozen over and it was damn cold and none of us had gloves and the lentil was tracking dragons so we could only go about five feet at a time. It was impossible to walk enough to stay warm because we were constantly hunched over, staring at small patches of dirt through a magnifying glass. It was that cute-infuriating that really gets my goat. And the dog was going nuts.
So we let the dog off leash, we hiked up the mountain, and we finally made it to the turn-around spot. But the whole time it was about negotiating- negotiating with the lentil about how many frozen rocks we were going to carry, negotiating with other people and their dogs so our dog didn't bite someone, negotiating with each other over who would hold the lentil's hand, where we'd stop, etc. And then we made it to the top and it was sunny and warm and the peanut was happy and we had a nice snack. Then it was time to complete the loop and return to the car and we went the wrong way and we were on the north side of the damn mountain and it was all snow and ice, perilous trails where the lentil was just a step away from careening down the mountain. It wasn't fun, it wasn't relaxing, and it was made worse by grumpy sweets and obnoxious lentil and dog that wouldn't stop menacing passers-by.
We're so not dog people. Other people on the trail thought it was great fun when the dog would meet up with them and play with their puppies. We just waited for the dog to bite someone. Other people thought she was cute and happy, we were just waiting for her to run off so we'd never see her again.
We never had a lot of fun. The dog had a blast. We were cold and miserable and totally unprepared for the ice and snow. It was stupid. I ended up carrying the lentil the last quarter mile. Sweets was sulking for much of the hike. All of a sudden I understood that stupid pin. Because we were out there, desperatly trying to have a good time. We had all that we needed to have a good time- a healthy family, a happy dog, a nice trail of reasonable distance and a beautiful morning. But try as we did, we just never had a good time. I kept waiting for it to happen and it never did.
So next time, not so much on the icy trail. Stay warm. Focus more on dragon tracking and less on making it to the turn-around spot. Try to enjoy self more. breathe. bring donuts.
