Guadalupe Peak intro
I've had Guadalupe Peak, the highest point in Texas, somewhere in my head since 1995 when I first got my drivers license. Back then, I planned this huge road trip that involved going to Big Bend and hiking forty miles through the desert, and doing a bunch of unlikely stuff, before ending up at Guadalupe Mountains National Park (GUMO) to climb the 8751ft Guadalupe Peak.
Of course, it never happened.
I spent the rest of my high school years driving an hour every weekend to see a girl, and forty hours a week after school working at Burger King to pay for the gas for the weekend trips. Later, I replaced the girl with getting drunk and going to school with a hangover. Then I traded going to school hung over for just not going to school at all. I quit school halfway through my senior year as a petty little protest in support of a friend.
Quitting school left more time for work, getting drunk, and sitting on the friend's front porch, but somehow there still was not enough time to go do all these great things in my head. Quitting high school felt so good, that one night, on a whim, I quit Burger King. This left even more time for drinking.
(If you are wondering, I finished school through a different school district, and had my diploma about two months before my classmates in the old school. )
Soon I realized that while I had all the time with which to do nothing with my life, I didn't have the money to make the time fun; off I went to play construction worker for seven years. Learned lots of things, saw lots of places, met lots of people, but never could find a way to do those other things floating around in my head.
I worked construction until I achieved one of my goals (that which will have to remain untold for this story) and then overstayed my welcome, jumping from job site to job site, not really being happy. Seven years and 34 jobs later, 2003 rolled around, and still most of the things I wanted had not happened. I had gotten what I had wanted out of construction, so I made a choice to completely change up things.
I got a new job, a steady job, bought a small car, got rid of the truck for a while, got a new girl, bought the land in the country I wanted, got the hell away from Merkel. Hell, I even changed the style of underwear that I buy. It was good too, at least mostly. The happiest parts of my life have been in the last years. Still, the seven year cycle has made another revolution, and there are things left undone since 1995/1996.
My "new job, steady job" has become a burden, but I cannot just quit as I would have seven years ago. So, I'm going to fill the cracks between that shitty job and my life with the little things that have been left undone from the last cycle of my life. That is part of what this blog about camping 30 nights in 2010 is all about. The actual number of nights is meaningless, homeless people and yuppies with money wearing their North Face jackets and No Fear T shirts both do more camp out nights each year. This entire thing is about making my life match what is in my head.
Or just some guy talking to himself in the rain.
Of course, it never happened.
I spent the rest of my high school years driving an hour every weekend to see a girl, and forty hours a week after school working at Burger King to pay for the gas for the weekend trips. Later, I replaced the girl with getting drunk and going to school with a hangover. Then I traded going to school hung over for just not going to school at all. I quit school halfway through my senior year as a petty little protest in support of a friend.
Quitting school left more time for work, getting drunk, and sitting on the friend's front porch, but somehow there still was not enough time to go do all these great things in my head. Quitting high school felt so good, that one night, on a whim, I quit Burger King. This left even more time for drinking.
(If you are wondering, I finished school through a different school district, and had my diploma about two months before my classmates in the old school. )
Soon I realized that while I had all the time with which to do nothing with my life, I didn't have the money to make the time fun; off I went to play construction worker for seven years. Learned lots of things, saw lots of places, met lots of people, but never could find a way to do those other things floating around in my head.
I worked construction until I achieved one of my goals (that which will have to remain untold for this story) and then overstayed my welcome, jumping from job site to job site, not really being happy. Seven years and 34 jobs later, 2003 rolled around, and still most of the things I wanted had not happened. I had gotten what I had wanted out of construction, so I made a choice to completely change up things.
I got a new job, a steady job, bought a small car, got rid of the truck for a while, got a new girl, bought the land in the country I wanted, got the hell away from Merkel. Hell, I even changed the style of underwear that I buy. It was good too, at least mostly. The happiest parts of my life have been in the last years. Still, the seven year cycle has made another revolution, and there are things left undone since 1995/1996.
My "new job, steady job" has become a burden, but I cannot just quit as I would have seven years ago. So, I'm going to fill the cracks between that shitty job and my life with the little things that have been left undone from the last cycle of my life. That is part of what this blog about camping 30 nights in 2010 is all about. The actual number of nights is meaningless, homeless people and yuppies with money wearing their North Face jackets and No Fear T shirts both do more camp out nights each year. This entire thing is about making my life match what is in my head.
Or just some guy talking to himself in the rain.
Wonderful.
ReplyDelete