Little Mountain

I didn’t make it up to the high country this weekend, as my Saturday was full, with a WWU board meeting in Seattle in the morning, and then a wedding in Bow in the afternoon.

I’m not a wedding person, but I had a great time. The groom, Chris, has been a friend of mine since the late 1980s, and there are plenty of stories, but I haven’t seen he and Jenn much these past ten years. As weddings sometimes do, though, many old and very close friends came together to celebrate their union. And it was good. There was glow in the dark bocci ball, very bad renditions of Don’t Stop Believin’ and Loverboy’s Turn Me Loose, as well as campfire and s’mores. Many hugs and smiles. And a few new children too.

The master weekend plan had me going up high early Sunday morning, but it didn't happen, as my sloth spirit animal took over. But not for too long--eventually, when the afternoon sun came out, I made it up Little Mountain. Little Mountain is a nob of a hill, similar to Bellingham’s Sehome Hill, just east of I-5 as you enter the MV. MV Parks and Recreation has been putting in lots of new trails, and it makes a good run from my doorstep.

I managed to break a sweat and stay out for a couple of pleasant hours. It’s mushroom season, and so my intent, above all else, was to find something odd. I managed to find a cluster of big hooded ones, pictured below, variations to be determined. I didn't kill that one that's flipped over--that was some other shroom killer. I also caught some beautiful views of the valley, the Puget Sound in the distance, the towns, the Skagit River. If you care to look, I live in the middle of the top picture somewhere, in one of the heavily treed areas.

So now it’s Sunday night. I’m getting ready for my week, and listening to “Harper Valley PTA” on the AM Radio Sunday Night Classic Country show. They just finished playing the old Barbara Mandrell/George Jones duet, “I Was Country, When Country Wasn’t Cool.” Makes me smile.

And, as I'm thinking about this week---last week I went to a sports psychology seminar, sponsored by the most excellent Triathlon Club of Bellingham. I've been in one of those seasons of planning and assessment, of late. And so one takeaway from this seminar that I seem to be chewing on today:  Better to aim too high and fail, then to aim too low and succeed.

Now they're playing "Delta Dawn." (: