HomeSeptember 12, 1997
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It poured rain all night. I woke up a few times, once because I heard the rain start and once because I was cold. I had fallen asleep with my sleeping bag unzipped because it was hot and humid. In the middle of the night I couldn't figure out how to zip it up again so I rolled myself up in it like a tortilla. In the morning I realized I had unzipped it all the way around. No wonder I couldn't find the zipper. Joan-east and Rita were up early. I heard them go out to the deck and ask each other if I was asleep. I wasn't really awake so didn't answer them and didn't' hear the rest of the conversation. When I finally did wake up they told me that Mt. Cranmore had been floating above the clouds - a layer of clouds below it and a layer of clouds above. They took pictures. I looked out and Mt. Cranmore was invisible. It was no longer raining though. After breakfast we decided to drive into town and shop. The trail to town was too wet for comfortable walking because of last night's rain. We hit all the usual shops. I find a jasper necklace for Nancy at The Rock Shop. We spent most of the time at Settler's Green, a huge arid mall of outlet stores. Uplifting music blares from outdoor speakers. It feels surreal to me. My buddies are actually doing some of their Xmas shopping! Yikes! I pick out a couple of mock turtleneck shirts at the Jockey outlet. We head back into town to check out a couple more shops that have opened since last year. Rita wants to go to Smoke and Mirrors. I get within 6 feet of it and smell the tobacco! It's a cigar store! They go in anyway for a few minutes. I meet them at Zeb's. We keep shopping. I remind them Claire's husband, Art, will be waiting for us as he is supposed to pick Claire up at 2:30 to head to Maine for a camping trip. When we get back to the condo, Art is there waiting for us. He takes a group picture of us on the deck with Mt. Cranmore, which has become visible again, in the background. We finish lunch and Claire and Art take off for Maine. Joan-east, and Rita, and I sit on the deck until Charlie arrives. Rita and Charlie are staying for the whole next week, so there's only me and Joan-east for the drive home. I want to stop at the observatory's museum shop in North Conway to see if there's some little thing I can send to Bobby in Bosnia to remind him of home. I pick out a book of photos of the Presidentials in autumn. When I tell the lady at the store it's for my brother in Bosnia, she throws in a book of poems about the White Mountains and a card with the URL if the live camera at the Mount Washington Observatory. On the way home we stop at Joan-east's land in Ossippee. The house burned down a few years back (arson) and they haven't rebuilt yet. She wants to check on some road construction project that wanted to put a temporary trailer on her lot. The trailer is gone. The construction is well underway - nearly finished. We walk back to the swimming hole, making plenty of noise to scare away the bear that's been hanging around there lately. More mushrooms. Really big ones. I take more mushroom pics. Joan-east takes pictures of the water level in the swimming hole to show her cousins. By the time I get home, I'm wiped out. And the heat and humidity is back. |
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