RIP John Hedley

Steven's Dad, John Hedley passed away. I won't get into the details but it was kind of sudden and it wasn't Covid but it was because of the situation of the pandemic. Our pal Steven has had a super bad pandemic. He and his partner of many yrs split and now this. Jonathan and I went on a hike with him to Mt Wittenberg one last time to spread his dad's ashes in a meaningful spot. Steven watched the Ken Burns civil war docuseries with his dad who loved the theme song Ashokan farewell. The summit overlooks the Ashokan reservoir and requires an 11 mile grueling hike to reach, followed by an 11 mile gruelling hike back. It is no small feat and is the hardest hike that we've ever done (2x for bartlett, 3x for me, 4x for steven) and the process of punishing ourselves is always somehow therapeutic and revelatory but this time around we had a purpose, and it made the trip that much sweeter and rewarding and it brings a tear to my eye when I see the photo of our dear boy standing, looking out across the Ashokan reservoir, thinking of his father.

high quality cookin' meat from our farmer's market farm Stony Mountain farm

it feels like when you get to this overlook you're 50% of the way there but that next 50% is GRUELLING

Started raining, i think one of them was gonna bring a poncho for me but forgot so i had no respite from the rain, luckily it was sweaty and hot and tough going so it didnt' really matter

When you reach this sign you think you are almost there but cruelly you've still got like another hour ahead of you.

This is the photo. We hiked 11 miles, made a huge elevation gain, were dog tired, Ashokan Farewell was playing from his phone, he's saying something to his dad, and then he scatters his ashes as Bartlett and I stand behind him, not knowing what this feels like and only able to imagine. Thank you Steven for letting us be on this journey with you. RIP John Hedley.

Dinner is served. SPAM and rice and alcohol of course

sun sets beyond the Ashokan reservoir

morning coffee in the small fire thing steven has

last thoughts in the morning before we leave. Steven and all of us know this is the last time we will do this grueling hike and the last time he will be in this meaningful spot

11 miles down a mountain is arguably worse than going up. it punishes your knees and your spine. Back in civilization beer and bar food is heaven sent.

we did a second night at this campsite

using steven's cast iron pot to cook bread. They had their doubts but it worked!

next up making stew

sentimental talks by the fire. Lots of laughs too

Phoenicia diner before we leave of course

 

Vaccine Scramble

Now its Jen's turn to get vaccinated which means 2 more trips, 4x driving 6+ hrs each way. But if it saves Jen it could be 6000 miles. Here's dog gift baskets that my crazy dog training mom has for some reason.

We stopped in Corning to eat and stuff and saw The Corning Glass offices.

this ancient dish has been on the roof forever and no one knows who's it is so we hack sawed it off. Or rather bob and steven did

thanks chaps

gettin plants at the J&L Garden Center

We were gonna get a split unit AC rooftop thing installed but then the pandemic hit. So now a yr into the pandemic and facing another brutal summer we have to get it installed. It ended up being cheaper actually than a year ago because there's a big gov't rebate if you get the heating AND cooling hyper heat units cuz its moving us over to electricity to heat our apt instead of gas. This was the first time as a homeowner and adult having contractors do stuff. We had to have a separate contractor come and patch up the holes and remove the old in-wall and even in-brick AC units that didn't work anymore. Drywall and stuff I coulda done but needed a pro to do the other stuff. Let's just say we had an unpleasant experience all around so did our neighbors and we'll leave it at that on this here blog. It is awesome though to finally have AC in each room and they're silent and the heat works as well. It used to get over 95 degrees in the apt in the summer!

its unsettling that behind the sheetrock is this space and then wooden boards and then the roof.....

experimenting with outdoor bars/restaurants that also allow dogs

a Jenny udon bowl

2 shapes of dogwoods

Jen's fully vaxxed. We went to DC to visit her sisters and went to the Air and space museum that either now is in virginia or part of it is in virginia i can't remember

they had an x wing in the hangar. All I know is this is not the one from A new hope because I have intimate x-wing knowledge now from working on star wars posters, the IP strictness is intense

what a spread

in Brambleton, VA. America is now signaling all over the place. The Black lives matter flag as been redirected by many groups adding a different color stripe to it to signal various virtues/causes. It feels like more and more people need to show what side they're on. Maybe they realize this or they're doing it without knowing why. peeps are getting more and more entrenched in their side and more than ever feel the need to belong to a side. The rise in gun violence and racism in this country makes a car/house like this scary to me. It's to the point where someone flying the american flag can be scary to me