Friday, June 30, 2006

Day 3- Just chillaxin

Greetings from Hudson everybody!

We woke up today around 9:00. When I got out of the couch I was sleeping on I went over to the room dX had crashed at.

"Dude-" he said, "we have a problem."

The problem was his ankle. He had hurt it last night while flipping off of his bike, but it didn't look like it was going to be that big of a deal. When he woke up on it though, he could barely limp with it.

This, to say the least, complicated our plans- eventually we decided to get some ice on it, and he wanted to rap it in a bandage- but oh wait! The bandages we bought were in his backpack. Where was his backpack? In Jakes car. Well thats fine, but- wheres Jakes car? Not at his home. You see, dX had left his pack in the trunk of the car, which should have been fine- but as it turned out, the van one of the family members was using broke down, so they had to use his car. And that put us with out bandages.

So, after a little bit of griping and a lot of good strong coffee (they make the best coffee over there, seriously) I biked off to shaws, which was really just a stones throw away from the house I was at. I got an Ace bandage there for a ridiculous 5 dollars and 59 cents. Talk about a rip off...

Anyway, we got back and he applied it to his poor aching foot. By this time it was probably 11 or so. He could barely walk on it still, but I was trying to convice him that biking would be different. Renee said that she thought it wouldn't be good to work much on it. There was a slight back and forth, but we did in the end relent to chilling out there for a bit. dX could still work on computers, and thats what he did:

This picture very much sums up the tone of the day. We chilled, we watched some videos, we talked. And thanks be to Renee and their family for letting us- we don't know what we would have done otherwise. Thanks again guys for your generosity and everything, your flipping amazing!

About 3ish or so, dX was walking around on his foot LIGHTLY. I had convinced him to try riding his bike earlier to see what it was like, and he concluded that it was possible and as I suspected, it was actually better then walking. So at 3 or so in the afternoon, we decide to try and visit some of his friends in the area. We found out Renee had a bike, so she got to come too since it was so close. We headed up the road about a mile or 2 really fast since dX and I were not wearing those huge backpacks we were used to. Renee was actually keeping up pretty well. We got to the place where we suprised a few of dX's old friends and then we decided to move on for a good trip down memory lane. After catching her breath and downing some water, Renee went all hardcore and said she was down with it too. We biked over to dX's old house, all the way to amherst where we stopped at a cafe for food. It was really nice, and I played a pretty evenly matched game of checkers with Renee (but I won in the end). Then we biked back- About 20 miles in all.

When we got back, it was allready 5ish. We were trying to figure out what our next move was... we wanted to camp, but we didn't know what place we could camp at that was near enough. In the end, we decided to stay over at our lovely stop at Hudson- as it turned out, we were just 10 miles out anyway. We biked down through Nashua, only stopping once- there was a concert going on in some park for free. The musicans playing were all in their middle to late ages, but they were playing some funky music and they were good. dX and I stayed there for just as much as we could afford, then we got back riding. We arrived at our new destination at about 7.

This host home is awesome- They gave us cold cuts to go along with our ramen, they gave us icecream, and we've got to just talk with them and have a ball. They are into everything cool here... I don't know how specific I can get with names and things since it is 1:26 and they are all in bed. I got to watch The Lion the Witch and the Wardrobe with two people who haven't seen it yet. It was an interesting experience- they watched movies with captions on, and I actually got little bits of dialouge and background chatter that I never quite got before.

Well, thats about it for me- I am devilish sleepy and I must be off to bed. Today was pretty much just a chill, relaxing day. We, once again, don't really have tomarrow very much planned out but I'm sure it will be great.

Till next post- farewell.

Thursday, June 29, 2006

Day 2- Blowouts and bruises

Greetings friends and fiends, from lovely East merrimack!

We got up today at Mr. and Mrs. C's home welcomed by the smell of blueberry pancakses, ham and coffee. Thanks again, Mrs. C!


dX packing up at Mrs. C's house- beginning of day 1

I read more of "Out of the silent Planet" and ended up calling the bike shop in Derry to make sure they would be there- a good thing, as "the number you have dialed is not in service at this time". We talked it over very briefly, and Mrs. C gave us the number to a place she recomended on Kelly st- Jakes Bike shop, 25 miles away. We took off at about 9 o'clock.

It was tough going with the wheel- even though I had unlatched the rear brakes, it was still lightly touching the side once every revolution. We were on our way to route 28, but we only got about 4 miles out:


I was riding down a slight hill when suddenly there was a loud bang- for a split second I wondered what it was, then for a split second I thought I blew out the tire and should try to slowdown, and the last few second I felt myself riding increasingly on the rim. But suprisingly, I didn't loose control. I yelled up ahead at dX "BLOWOUT, MAN BLOOWOUT!!!" It took him a little while to get the idea and slow down, but in the end I pulled over and we took a look. On the plus side, I didn't have to use my bike kit to to take the tire off or the innertube out- I don't know how it stayed on the wheel at all. When I pulled over, they were off.


We ponder our prediciment. The verdict is unanamouse: cRaZy!

We discussed shortly putting on my spare and inflating it, but we decided rather quickly that it was crazy-talk. The wheel was in BAD shape- I knew that, and putting another one would be tirecide (you know like homocide...). So we went up to a nearby house and bummed a phone to call Mrs. C with. Thankfully, she had offered to pick us up in the case of an emergency. We sat around and wait for a while. I read more of my book.

Eventually Mrs. C came to the rescue and after taking the wheels off our vehicles, we put it into her minivan. She took us to the Jakes shop, which is now one of my favorite bike places- the guy there was really nice and knew what he was talking about.



It was in bad shape- spokes that were stripped, spokes that were broken- it was a bloody mess. In the end I had to replace the wheel, the innertube AND the tire- for the tire had a gash in it from the blow out as well. All in all I dropped $75 on it- alot of money, yes- but actually a VERY good deal.

From there, we biked to our first real destination of the day: Barns and nobooks.

I would tell you how many miles it was, but I sort of broke my bike computer- I sent it back into configure mode and I don't have the instructions that tell the computer what wheel size I have. Anyway, we got to the store early so I read the rest (more or less) and met up with my group. It was great to see the people again, though of course Brad and Kiaya were missing, which was too bad. :(

After the book meeting was over, me and dX were pretty much playing it by ear. We had the vauge notion of entering Merrimack because we knew several people there- we just couldn't get ahold of any of them. But we headed out anyway, having to back track a couple miles to hit the right rode, and the storm started coming up. We put on our ponchos this time, but the wind was much worse then the rain- and pedalling against it wasn't as bad, probably, as the stupid flapping sound it made right in your ear. Also, dX almost got ran over by an absent minded moterist. But at least we were mostly dry.

Eventually we got on route 3. dX wanted to pull over at a dunkin d. You see, he's been away so long in Kansas (Where allegedly there is only 1 dunkin donuts and its an 1 hr 45 minutes away at that) that whenever he sees a Dunkin Donuts, he gets impullsive. We pulled in, I situated my backpack differently (the straps are killing me) and we went inside for a second. dX goes up to the counter and comes back a minute later. Dramatically, he throws a box of a dozen donuts down upon the table with a loud thud. I look up at him-

"Dude..."

"I hope you don't have anything against maple or choclate."

With this he flips open the lid- the box is split evenlyh between the two flavours, six each.

All I can think is that there is no way we can eat this many donuts quickly and not get cramps while riding. I had maybe 3, I think he had 5. We gave one to a person I knew from co-op that happend to walk in and we squished the rest into my backpack while dX made some calls on a payphone. When I had got my backpack back on (a difficult and painful ordeal) I went out to meet him again. He was smiling "Dude, I talked to Jake and Renee- they can meet us at the library in about half an hour. Lets get going!"

We started back up. It was tiring work- the weight of the packpack was heavy and it seemed to bounce up and down more then usual, which really irritated me because it made the pain in my arms more noticable. We climbed two large hills- they were murder. Finally we came upon the library, and for some reasons we had beat our companions there, which gave me a chance to get online and work on the blog a bit. It was really open there and nice- just give the receptionist your first name and BAM!! full xp box with adminstrative rights- even a USB port! Very nice indeed.

Jake and Renee made it but we we were talking too loud for the library, so they took us down to this place called King Cone. We each got a small, which was huge- more then I could eat before it melted and made a mess of me.


Renee and Jake in waiting in line at the King Cone

After hanging out there for a good 45 minutes, they drove us back to our bikes and took our packs with them to their house. With all that weight off of us, we flew down to their home in double time- it felt really really great. And thats where we are now.

Tim and I are having a blast over here- and to pay to pay for it we've been trying to work on their PCs and cook them Ramen. I got one of there boxes in substantially better shape then when I found it, and I unloaded 4 packs of the ramen here for part of our meal. I'm excited because that means my backpack will be that much less bulky. Rock rock on!!

Tomarrow, we don't have totally planned out. We are basically a day or two ahead of schedule and a little bit off of the planned route. We will probably bum around Milford for tomarrow, visiting a bunch of dX's old friends and hang outs. Should be a nice easy going day I think maybe. Then perhaps tomarrow we can find a place to actually "camp out" at and use some of this ramen and alcholioc fire starter!

Thanks to everyone for your prayers and comments they really are apprecited.

Mrs. C: Thank you so much for the emergency services and hospitality. dX was really blown away by the pampering we got there; it made his day.
Lyndsi: Oi, it is looking like possibly saturday for your place. Hopefully I can call you tomarrow to let you know for sure- it might change. Don't know how much time we will take with Milford, and Hudson is a large journey and we have two days left.
Mum: Thanks for the ponchos, they work pretty good when applied to the body. Who would have thunk it?
To ladyofnarnia: Thanks so much for letting me take the book so I could read it. You rock.
Jake and Rennee- dude you people are awesome. Thanks for everything! And Renee, sorry about not getting all of your face in that picture.
Bander: Dude, sorry I didn't come over today. It just didn't work out- our plans were shifting all over the place and it would have meant backtracking and loosing preacious time. Sorry though!
Kiaya: Thank you for trying to solve our weather problem. Actually, it might be working. Today didn't rain much at all, and when it did, it only rained breifly. Whatever you did over there seemed to mess with the forcast, so keep it up next time you see rain in our future.

More tomarrow, guys! Thanks for reading.


Update: dX flipped/flew/jumped off of his bike last night (end of day 2), and hurt his ankle. Apparently worse then I thought- he sort of limps with it now and its in to much pain to walk on much. We've got ice on it but dX's backpack is in a car that got taken to work unexpectedly since another vehicle died.... so the bandages aren't here. I'll be biking down to shaws for some emergency supplies. We'll try to fix him up here and see what he can do. Okay, that will be all- as you were.




Wednesday, June 28, 2006

Day 1

Update: Library found, pictures fixed. :)

More at eleven.
"It would rain, wouldn't it?"

Hello, it is I and dX here- reporting live from Fremont at host home 1. To get a few things out of the way: Yes, were not dead and yes we are dry (it took a while though). Also, for those of you trying to get ahold of us via dX's cell- don't. We'll call you, somehow. The phone situation is that we don't have one, basically- only for fire or medical emrgencies. Which is nice. And lastly- ignore the dates on the pictures below. The camera has amnesia.

Okay- I think a picture is in order to start this post off proper: here is us, just heading out from the Kittery Trading post:

You know, looking at this picture, it looks like its a nice day in Maine. That goes to show you just how crummy my camera is. Or perhaps, it means that this was taken during a break in the storm- we had a few of those that gave us false hope our journey would be a boring one. But don't worry; it wasn't.

Shortly after this was taken, we began on route 1 heading south. This was really fun- we were going about 16 to 18 miles an hour over a road that was just shy of an interstate, with water spraying up in our face and everywhere else. We were totally soaked within 5 minutes, and I mean TOTALLY soaked. But we weren't bummed- we were almost giddy even-we finally had left. We made great speed to Portsmouth and went on to fnd the next turn we needed to make. I was happy; we hadn't become lost yet.

Somewhere along route 33, we were going up a hill and we one of those awesome red bull trucks went past us. Just as dX started to mutter a "sweet" it started slowing down and pulling over in front of us.

"What?"

"Dude" we both said at the same time. The vehicle stopped and the doors opened. Out of them came bounding some young woman.

"Where you guys headed?" one of them asked.

"Towards newfields- trying to hit some trails up there"

"You guys camping or something?"

"Nah, were doing this bike thing- four days, starting today in Kittery, going around the state.

"Dude, you guys are ANIMALS!"

Me and dX smiled. It was a compliment of the obsucure variety- but we enjoyed it.

"Well how about we give you guys some red bulls for the ride out?"

We responded with exclamations that of "sure", "thank you", "sweet", "heck yes!" or some such. They sped off and our morale was boosted. Now dX doesn't have a water bottle mount, but I do. It was being used though, and I hadn't enough room in my backpack to take it out. So we started off chugging half the red bull cans at first, then we got back on our way down 33 driving with one hand and drinking with the other. Hmm... maybe I should have brought the tiki mug, Brad.

The trip went on pretty well and uneventful for a while. I have so far been pleasently suprised with my navigation skills- I am not geographically inclined like my father, and when traveling at high way speeds or in a moter vehicle for that matter, I tend to have to turn around and miss roads twice and some such nonsence. But I didn't lead us wrong at all today, for which I am stupidly proud. Because, eventually, it wasn't easy.

You see, I had a map of my estimated route that I printed off. I put it in my pocket for safekeeping and quicktaking. Dad wanted me to spray it with some waterproofing material or something like that- but COME ON dad, it will be in my pocket- how could it get wet there?

Well I'll tell you how it can get wet there- very very easily when its raining and the tires are spitting up water into your face, lap and everywhere else. So the map slowly became unusable- I took it out a few times on the way to and in portsmouth, but each time I realized that it was getting in worse condition. By the time we really started to need it, I could tell it was falling apart. Eventually, the papers resembled a large wad of cheap gum that has been chewed for 5 hours to long. From there, I had to go by memory of what I knew while planning out the trip and by verification of passers-by. It actually worked out very well. Everyone was really nice.

Okay, back to the main story. We got on a bike trail that goes all the way from newfields to Manchester. Its pretty impressive- mostly well packed dirty gravel- almost like a highway for bikes, I commented. We rode that thing at about 16 miles an hour sometimes, just about the same as we would a road.


These pictures are of us stopping for a little jerky and water break. Good stuff.

So this road was impressive, but we had to get to fremont, and my plan was to follow another trail that goes down a good ten miles or so from this one into the general area of fremont.

Thats where stuff started getting interesting:

Again, the camera is really not doing reality justice here. Everythings over exposed- let me fill in for you what the camera can't. You see those puddles of muddy water? Thats all there is for several miles- I'd say probably 4 at least, but I was to busy swatting flies and trying not to fall in to count them. This was easily the worst part of this day- we started off by riding through them but I stopped trying that when I sank almost up to the top of my wheels and almost fell in head first. It was like quick-sand mud in some places. We had to get off our bikes and walk around 4 our of 5 of the holes. There was also some rough terrain around here; when I got back on the road I eventually noticed my wheel was out of true- in other words, it was bent up.

Not much else to report of the trip that would be too exciting to you: we stopped at a school for another breather:

I got a rock out of my shoe there. That was good.

And then we finally made it to our host home! Mr and Mrs. C are so cool; they gave us an awesome homeade meal that filled us up much better then beef jerky, they let us have showers and they let us exist in an air conditioned house, all while making us laugh. Thank you!

Tomarrow we go for manchester, but we make a little detour through Derry to get my wheel taken care of. You see, I tried to true it but I made it worse- as usual. And its bent up bad- keeps hitting the breaks, and you can even see visibly where the wheel is bent just by looking at it. Soo... how am I going to get there? Well, on my bike of course. The work around I finally settled on was to unhook my rear brakes. Now before you all freak out, don't worry don't worry- I stop mostly with my front brakes anyway- my rears had some trouble to begin with. And actually not having rear brakes is no where as dangerous as my rear wheel anyway, so don't worry. But if you do want to pray for our saftey, as I know there are alot of awesome people who are reading this that do, pray specifically that my wheel does not collapse and that it does not cause me to break my axle. I'll be babying it the whole way to the shop, so I don't see why it should but its still a kind of big deal. I've never seen what its like to drive a wheel to destruction; on the one hand I'm curious what it would look like and on the other hand I'm really not wanting to find out just yet.

Now if you will excuse me, I have a book to read for tomarrow's lit class- if all goes as planned, I should still show up via bike.

Till the next entry,

---Us

The journey begins

Chances are, by the time you read this dX and I will have left for the beginning of our trip. Yes, that's right- for the few of you who didn't know, we did not get to leave Monday as expected.

This was probably better though, as we got to have more time for packing and bike tuning, etc.

And boy, did we need it- check it out:



We ended up leaving a little bit of the stuff we bought behind- we only took something like 18 packs of ramen instead of the whole 24. For shame- thats 78 cents just wasted! But you should see the ramen I have managed to cram into that pack already- I have practically created a super structure for the pack by bracing it horizontally and vertically, using exclusively ramen noodles. We also have a lot of jerky and these other preserved tasty meat products.

Oh, and somewhat impulsively, we decided to get smore supplies... we were walking down the aisle and saw the marshmallows and hersheys and sort of made a dash for it- reason be darned.
I don't know how it will work out, but I tried to pack the breakable stuff- pop tarts and gram crackers- surrounded by marshmallows. My idea is that it serve as a sort of edible shock absorber. We shall see.

Speaking of impulse buys, I also got a bike computer! It was only 8 bucks at walmart but it was so cool- has a speedometer and a odometer function, as well as some other stuff. We also decided to kill two birds with one stone- instead of getting kindling or lighter fluid, we just got an extra big pack of isobrupo-something... thats nasty stuff you put into your cuts to clean them. Its 91 percent alcohol, so it should serve as fire starter just fine. Actually, its already been tested. Trust me- it works like a charm. ;)

I know its hard to tell from this picture, but this backpack is totally crammed:

...and I haven't even been able to fit my Bible in there. I know the blanket can go on the outside, but I'll have to see what I can do about getting a pocket Bible for the trip... I dunno. Really wanted to bring one.

Oh, and here is our method of contact with the outside world:

Great, eh? Except this bring us to our mandatory "last-minute-crisis"- we left the charger in Fitchburg, MA. So yeah, hopefully we shall pick one up early in the first leg of the trip.

Well thats it for now... like I said, by the time you read this we should on our way!

See you on the road everybody!


(dX performs an unsolicited display of pyro-technics at an undisclosed location while bored last night)

Saturday, June 24, 2006

New ride, new life idea(s)

Hello, everybody. I'm back. For those of you who were looking for new material, sorry. I was sort of busy with life things and not updating my blog. But for those who’ve been checking, thanks. It’s cool to be read.

Alright- so I will start this off with a picture of my new friend:

(Tiki mug for display purposes only. Uttereast.blogspot.com does not condone drinking and cycling. Check your local state laws before drinking anything, eating anything, or breathing in certain restricted state wildlife zones. Buckel up, even when cycling if at ever possible. Voidware prohibited.)

That’s right, them right dere is my new wheels, yo! And don’t be hate’n just cause It’s 2 wheels instead of 4- for one thing, I’m sitting on 26’s and this baby has taken me 40 miles already and will take me over 133.16 more. It is a Schwinn S-30 and whenever it is not breaking, it is my friend. Its lighter then my old hard-tail (which in retrospect must have been made from some sort of lead alloy) and it climbs and accelerates really nice for soft-tail, or any bike for that matter. It even makes me feel cool sometimes, which is quite the fringe benefit. But wait- I’m getting ahead of myself, I know. Let me start at the beginning.

Probably as far back as two years ago, my friend (hereafter referred to by his alias, “dX”) and I talked about doing some crazy-go-nuts trip across New Hampshire over the power line trails. We decided to try it next summer, when dX would make a return visit to NH from his new residence in Kansas. He came up, but for various reasons I don’t recall, we never made the trip. This year, we have decided to right that wrong.

Originally, we planned on starting up in Canada and riding our way back south for a week or two over the power line trails. But eventually, due to the current restrictions of reality (such as our inexperience, flood levels and the difficulty in securing complete maps of power line trails) we decided to shorten the trip- From Maine, across New Hampshire as far as Milford, and then eventually back to my house, in 4 days.

That’s where the new bike comes in. You see, I had one already- a Boulder SE hard tail. Nice bike, but I killed it years ago. I took it in for estimates and it would have cost me as much as $230 to get it back into working condition. I figured if I looked hard enough, I could find a good deal on a better, newer bike for less money. But where?

I found “the one” astray in a police auction of seized possessions. I took it under my wing and had it fixed up. It had some loose bolts here and there and a bent wheel, but other then that it was in FINE condition. And though I’ve had to have the rear wheel trued twice since getting it, it now seems to be holding up very well… I’ve been trying to ride it far and wide to train myself up, and it is performing marvelously well. I love it… And I am so psyched to get going on this trip.

Just being on the verge of this adventure has birthed ideas that tantalize my brain- I’ve always been fascinated with under-the-radar, obscure ways of living: hoboing , truck driving, eeking out power and water beneath forgotten subway tunnels in New York, the cowboys of old and so forth… But I have come up with an idea that seems more immediately accessible to me: Nomadding Bicycle tech-gypsies. Or just “Bike Tribes” for short. In case you are still not clear on what I am talking about, think of it like this:

Gypsies; only with bicycles, a little less smelly, and hooked into the Internet wirelessly.

Think about it- the idea is insanely plausible. I haven’t run any hard numbers yet, but it would make your cost of living take a nose dive- you could work for maybe a few months and have enough money saved up to live in the outdoors for a few years. You wouldn’t need insurance, and you wouldn’t pay rent. Of course, you could choose to pay for a cell phone, occasional internet access or the occasional campground fees- maybe even a real motel bed if you wanted it- but the only mandatory costs would be food and things relating to bike maintenance. The best part is this: if you wanted to, you could still have a job in many fields. Anything you can do online, obviously you can do on the road now. With services like manpower, it would not be posible that people could get as much money as they needed for life from every industry in any State (and 68 other countries). Not to mention other, more loosley defined resorces such as Craigslist. Seriously, this is huge. It's outdoors, it's tech, it's social and it's wanderlust. All of which are pretty much in my top ten ideas of life. Whats not to love?

Okay… but as for now… Heh, it will just be a 4 day trip for me and dX. Several of our friends have also been nice enough to lend us their homes as hops along the journey where we will have access to modern marvels such as running water and internet. And of course, in addition to refilling water, taking a shower I plan on blogging whenever I can. I will bring my crappy camera and dX will probably have at least one camera amoungst his many gadgets. So- stay tuned.

Lord willing, we should be leaving this Monday (the 26th).

LatSee you on the road!

Thursday, June 08, 2006

A boy named Wanderer- A true story.

Once upon a time, there was a boy named Wanderer. He grew up in a good home with good parents and good siblings. But even those so well fortified in life are never truly safe from its darkness- for while he was still young, the boy was visited by an evil. For a season it wreaked a quiet and untraceable havoc on him, making no visible damage but sowing dysfunction. And then it stopped. The boy was spared by the Hand of God.

Wanderer seemed to show resilience to the evil. After a few short years he had all but forgot the dark force that had visited him. He became an ambitious child and continued to grow up as an apparently well-adjusted child. But two forces resided in him that he knew not of.

The first was a parasite. This parasite was an agent of the darkness that had invaded the boy, and its purpose was to corrupt him to the very darkness itself. The parasite hid itself and masked its symptoms behind things normal to a growing child so that it would not be detected. Meanwhile, the boy developed a love for the Cause, wanting and training earnestly to fight the forces of evil as a warrior. The boy became vigilantly on the lookout for The Darkness- he set garrisons about the property and gazed over them with watchful eye. He tried to keep himself informed of the Enemies plans- he knew of all their latest movements. But he never realized the threat within himself- the parasite was so close and so hidden, that he did not see it. And so the greatest danger to all was allowed to grow.

As the child developed into a young man, the second force started to appear. Wanderer grew apathetic and weary. It was another symptom of the parasite, but he did not know it. His far sight was attacked and his Vision blurred. His dedication to the Cause waned and faltered. He always knew the drills, but his heart was not always in it. He knew in his mind what the moves and strategies were and he remained engaged with others in his ranks, but he grew less and less motivated. This force he at least recognized. He called it different things- lack of self-discipline, laziness, and more. He tried to correct it. He decided he needed an infusion of discipline- a personal morale booster of sorts.

He volunteered with the Cause for a dangerous deployment far away. He submitted himself to the riggers of discipline and danger, and he felt the tide turning. He returned to his native shore, alive and stronger. He was no longer weary and for a time it would seem that the force of apathy had been ridded from the man named Wanderer. But the parasite was still there, and though damaged by the Hand of God, it was not destroyed.

The parasite was smaller when Wanderer first came back to his native shore, but it grew past its previous size in mere months. Wanderer was again tired and careless. He knew he was being damaged and so once more volunteered for more missions. Each mission would take longer to restore him then the last and each time he returned his morale and energy would last shorter. Each time his morale was dampened, it became harder for him to get up the courage to volunteer for more missions. He volunteered less frequently, until he finally stopped altogether.

Now the ideals and Man behind the Cause are noble, just and good. But the institution of the Cause is never perfect. A man can sometimes too easily fall aside from the true meaning of the Cause. He becomes weary and dysfunctional, but as long as he maintains the correct drills and courtesies, the commanding officers will never notice the difference. Such was so for wanderer. He attended all mandatory drills and followed proper courtesies and customs. But he was no longer in it. His body was a husk; an empty shell.

He became a man divided, and deeply introspective. His outside mannerisms were controlled by courtesy, by custom and by upbringing. He never lost that. His conversations were intelligent and polite, for the parasite attacks these more visible things last. But his mind was growing more corrupted by every minute. He soon grew worried that his inner demons were stronger then most. He knew everyone must deal with them themselves, and so he never thought to ask for help. He began to question this line of thinking. But still the parasite grew and established more control, all the while unnoticed.

But alas, these were not the only forces working in him as a young man. There were forces called in, forces of Goodness that had been sent by the Hand Of God. They were appointed to him while at the outpost “Love of God”. And they were agents for truth and love and courage. They were forces of spiritual stimulation- forces that began to shake Wanderer’s apathy, even while the parasite struggled to maintain it.

The battle was played low-key. Forces from either side never openly assaulted one another- there were only munitions fired in burst at targets of opportunity, poorly aimed grenades and botched assassination attempts. It was a secret stalemate, each side hiding enough cards to be one step in front of the other and just out of sight enough so that no witnesses were aware of what they were witnessing, even when they saw it.

The struggle awoke ideas in Wanderer. He continued to be introspective and to think on things long forgotten. He watched for patterns. He noticed his mind growing darker and darker. He felt a vague horror. He had disgust for his own thoughts- but yet he held a spellbound twisted fascination with them as well. He was recognizing something… but what was it? He thought on it often. He had seen these thoughts before.

Meanwhile, he continued to try and function for the Cause. He would escort less skilled forces and assist them. An ambush would happen, and his old training and his well-ingrained skills would come back to him. He would lay down a suppressive fire, he would route the enemy. He was commended. But sometimes when this happened, he felt dizzy. He would falter for a second, and in his confusion he would point the weapon at his own forces. He scared some, but it only lasted a few seconds. He would get it under control and retreat for a time. He would wonder what happened- his thoughts…were they were being rendered? Were they really animating him now? And where, where did they come from? He grew tense with the question, and the uncertainty of when it his spells of confusion would strike again. But he continued accompanying younger troops. It was what he did intuitively; his instructors always said he seemed to be born for backup and escorts.

Once, he was accompanying a small group, and there was a surprise ambush. They were badly outnumbered and outgunned. Wanderer quickly created makeshift bunkers, and laid down return fire. It was an intense fire fight- the younger troops hardly fought at all. Bullets were flying everywhere- the air was filled with the stench of sulphur and of the dirt that was kicked up in clouds from the bullets that had missed their marks. It created a haze and freighted the troops who were not properly trained. After an hour of holding the enemy back, Wanderer knew they needed to retreat. He began to think of the plans in his head- who he would call, the platoons he could radio in- but the leaders above him beat him to it. An extraction force came in valiantly and scattered the enemy long enough to make an escape possible.

When Wanderer returned from the battle, he was exhausted but proud. He lay down on his bed and thought. I may be losing my energy, but I still have it. It felt good to Wanderer to know he was apart of such a dangerous mission and that he defended the Cause’s new blood. Just then a medic came up to his bed.

“Were you the sergeant on escort duty for the new bloods today?” the medic asked.

“I was.” Wanderer replied, rising out of bed.

“Come with me.”

He followed the medic into the infirmary. All along his way, the camp was abuzz with the news of something. People were talking in excited tones and almost all who were talking seemed to have on their face a look of disbelief. When they arrived at the examining room, he recognized a recruit a few tables down. She looked sad and in extreme pain; her gaze met Wanderers and her eyes filled with pain. He had never seen anyone look so sad before. She was in bad shape, too. Blood was everywhere- it looked like she had a head wound. The doctors and nurses assistants were buzzing around her quickly, only meeting Wanderer’s gaze for a brief second of recognition before returning to their work. Then, suddenly four fully armed military guards closed in around her, and stood on alert. He could no longer see her.

“Hey!” Wanderer shouted out to the medic “I know that person! She was with me today on the field-“

“Yes sir… she…” the medic looked out into space for a second as if not exactly sure what to say.

“Is she badly hurt?”

The doctor looked back at him. He seemed angry.

“Do you know why you’re here?”

Wanderer was upset with the question. He ignored it and turned to her.

“Lieutenant, your going to be fi-”

The guards tensed and raised their firearms in his direction. The medic grabbed Wander by the shoulders and looked him straight in the eye.

“WANDERER- You are not to talk to the Lieutenants anymore. That is an order.

“What?!?”

“Do you know why you’re here? You nearly KILLED her. Wanderer- you shot that Lieutenant in the face!”

Wanderer reclined slowly on the operation bench. His head was reeling, but suddenly he wasn’t confused anymore. The excitement at the camp, the reason he was here… it all began to snap together. The escort job that day, the pattern in his thoughts… then the piece he was missing, the part he had nearly forgotten so long ago-

The evil that visited me… it didn’t leave. It never left. Oh God…

And he knew he had the parasite. It was the last thing that he remembered for a long time. Whether from fainting, exhaustion, or the needle in his arm, Wanderer fell asleep. They were to try and operate.

THE END.

Saturday, June 03, 2006

My summer so far acording to me.

So... I don't really think I am going to do a proper farewell post to the school year. Mostly because my sentiments have been echoed allready by all my friends- basically, go here or anywhere else in my blogosphere where people mention the end of Agape and my sentiments are very much the same.

I suppose I must elaborate a bit though... So, this was my first year at the co-op. I didn't really know exactly what to expect. Beleive it or not, when I'm in a totally new surrounding with all new people I can be intimdated. I don't like to show it and I suppose I'm not technically shy, but its just as awkard for me to try and strike up a conversation cold-turkey as for anyone else. But given enough time, I can make aquantinces anywhere. For some reason I thought there would be alot of HS steryotypes- very steady people; well educated, formal and intelligent but eccentric in nothing. I think my first guess was that 40 to 60 perecent of the people in the co-op would fit this mold, with a strong representation of these characteristics in the leadership.

Boy was I wrong. This group has blown me away with how awesome they are. They are my type of people; I don't know how to describe it. I '"clicked" with so many of them instantly. Knowledge is there, as is to be expected, but so is that weird sence of humor that draws on knowledge, and eccentric interestes abounding. I am frustrated because words are failing me(or perhaps at this hour, I am failing them...) But the point is, I didn't just make aquantinces- I made REALLY GOOD friends. These people felt like just that- a people, if that makes any sence. I relate to them on so many more levels then I do with any other group. They felt like old friends instantly. How else could I have relationships that are intergal to who I am with people I have met only two semesters ago?

I shall miss everyone, yes- but I am always on the AIM network or Gmail and with technology it never seems that there is such a gap between people as once there was. And of course, I'm not making a plan of avoiding my homeschool brothren all summer either- I shall be meeting up with you all as often as I can.

Which is not for the next 2 weeks or so, with limited exceptions. We have a sort of soft stop-order on extranious activites since we want to get our house in working order for the summer. (We still have some flood stuff to work out, though nothing major.)

I have much planned for this summer- I am going to World View Academy once again (and now some new friends Agape are coming too!) as well as going to Inside out Soul festival. In about three weeks I am going on a bike trip with my friend for 5 days. I'm really stoked about it but nervous all the same as I have to make sure both me and the bike are in working order. My friend is coming up all the way from Kansas for this afterall. Between all this I will also be stuffing my summer with as much Math as I can stomach. I need to catch up on that badly, and the classes I have picked out for next school year will fall through if I don't.

Of course, all that anticipation, but nothing exciting has really happened yet. So far the biggest event was my computer crapping out. Yeah, my main operating system hard drive had served me faithfully for over 5 years, and it began going into its death throws two days ago. Alas, we morn for the drive but move on with our lives. Knowing myself, I have stopped storing anything of value on my main disk along time ago. All my personal docs, movies, pictures, music, etc. are on other drives. This is good.

I'll probably be posting back from Frankenstien (the name of my main computer) soon. I just grabbed a drive we had laying around from a scrapped project and slapped it into my box. Things are looking good. Next post should be from the other side.

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Oh, and don't mind the spelling errors please. Its 12:31 and I have no spell checker on this box. Yes I know there are online options but I'm TIRED. Goodnight.