Five Peas

Five. This is how many peas Denver was required to eat at dinner the other night. You'd have thought we asked him to saw off his own limbs. The crying and pleading were interminable. We tried every bit of reasoning ("If you don't start eating some vegetables, you will get sick. The doctor is worried that you're not getting enough good food to eat."); we tried bribery ("We're going to watch a movie, and you can join us as soon as you're done. We're having popcorn."); we tried everything we could think of, but he was not allowed to leave the table until he ate those five peas.

Two hours later, it was bedtime. He stopped whining forty-five minutes in and just decided it was okay if he couldn't leave the table. He was almost cheerful about it.

I love the kid, and I pray that he will hang on to that strong will when he becomes an adult and has to fight for what he believes. But in the meantime, good gravy...

Sorry to fall behind for a bit on the posting—it's been a busy week, as is the normal state of things. My times have been off, and so have I. More than usual, I mean. The writing continues apace, though still more slowly than I'd like. I'm pleased with the revisions and even though it sometimes hurts, making myself stick to the story is a good thing.

I thought I'd fill in here with some hiking stuff that hasn't been talked about, because everyone loves that. Back in April, young master Smedley came out to hike with me for a couple of days, and Dan joined us on the second day. He missed all the fun. This is a photo of dashing Ben at the start of our hike:



And this is a picture taken about fifteen minutes later:



We started in cool weather and ended up with a blizzard by the time we hit the top of the ridge. This is me a bit higher up:



We hiked about eight miles and thankfully the storm passed rather quickly, leaving us to descend to Fawnskin under cloudy, breezy skies. We set up for the night at Little Bear Springs trail camp and the next day Mr. Bloomer joined us for another 13 miles, this along the back of the ridge from Big Bear to Cedar Glen and down into desert-like conditions. Really, we went through every major climate type along the way, so you get your money's worth when you come on a hike with me. Here's my favorite picture of Dan from the trip:



We made good time and had a good time, I think. Here's one more picture—the one that will go on the back of my autobiography about the epic journeys I have undertaken:



On that note, I did a day hike yesterday out at Lake Silverwood—from Silverwood to the 15 freeway, actually. It was something of a test. On average, I have been making about 2 miles an hour while hiking, a number that may sound pathetic to runners but is not too bad for a hiker. Still, if I ever want to get out on the Pacific Crest Trail, that's got to come up. So I tried to see what I could do, hoping to make the 13.8 miles in six hours, but planning on 7.

I made it in five, which means my average was around 2.7 miles an hour. That I can live with, and I think after a rest I could have done another ten or fifteen miles. Whoo hoo!

It was interesting desert country out there, through Horsethief Canyon and Little Horsethief Canyon (I imagine the description is based on the canyon being small, and not the diminutive stealer of horses I kept imagining), moving through yuccas and pines and down through sand dunes and great yawning chasms, and finally into a rocky canyon with a burbling creek at the bottom for the last leg. The weather was great for June, just hitting the low eighties and with a good breeze all day. I felt a bit bad about taking a day from the writing, but I end up getting a lot of really good ideas for the book while I'm out there (most of which I remember and write down in my little notebook), and I needed what the gents up at the Bootcamp call a DAWG day—a "Day Alone With God." (Though "day" shows up twice then, but it sounds very strange to just say, "I need a DAWG." Sounds like Smedley asking for dinner when we were studying in London, actually.) A lot of prayer and sorting things out went on, which was good.

Okay—back to work. Sorry for the blather. Since I'm trying to keep this updated and not spend a lot of time editing it, you get the raw stuff spilling out of my head. Enjoy it anyway.