In life too, so often you don’t know what will happen in the future, what the results of your actions will be, how other people will react, what to expect. It can be really hard, and you have to make decisions the best you can, not knowing the the result.

Several weeks ago, I went for a run out in the fog. It was so thick I couldn’t see for more than a few hundred feet. Through the fog, I could only see one power pole through it. Once it was passed, I could just barely see the next. It kind of struck me our life is like that. We can’t see the distance to the end of the journey, but just a short way down the road. We have to trust God that he will keep us on the right path if we follow him.

• Out here, Dunkin Donuts is king, not Starbucks. They are literally everywhere out here, it’s pretty amusing.
• The accent. Actually, most of the people I’ve met don’t have any discernible accent. But there are some, particularly the Boston accent (think Car Talk or Tom Silva on This Old House) that are quite distinct.
• Wicked. Up here, this word isn’t solely used for evil people, but is more often used as an adjective similar to the word very. So you could say ‘It is wicked hot out today!’ or, ‘that was a wicked climb!’ (which could have positive or negative connotations, I’m not sure if there is a way to tell). Also, ‘That was a wicked game, I loved it!’
• Drug stores: I’m not sure if the population of the north east is continuously in need of prescription drugs to stay alive, or if there is something else these stores have that makes them so popular; but there is a glut of these stores around here. Where I am currently, there are at least three Walgreens, Rite-Aid’s, and CVS stores here. Some right across the intersection from each other. It’s odd.
• Drivers are more aggressive. If there is any way to get past someone who is stopped, they will take it. And they expect you to do it as well, so it has created confusion when I haven’t gone.
• Toll Roads: It seems that all the major interstate highways around here are toll roads. I guess its their way of paying for road maintenance. Thankfully, my car has a toll transponder on it, so I don’t have to worry about always having change with me. The system actually seems pretty efficient, so I don’t think it will be too bad when the new I-5 bridge from Portland to Vancouver is built with tolls. The problem will be more convincing people to go along with it. It’s a logical way to pay for it, charge the people who use it.
• Topography: New Hampshire is known as the Granite State, and for good reason. The igneous rock is everywhere! In the NW we have rocks, but it is mostly basalt and volcanic, and, smaller. That’s something that strikes me out here, the huge uninterrupted rocks out here. I climbed a mountain at Acadia National Park yesterday, and the top was almost one huge continuous rock. Quite different from Oregon. Maine and New Hampshire are defined by extensive glaciation from the last ice age, but instead of creating fjords as in Norway or Alaska, it was a large continuous ice sheet, so it pretty much ground everything down, and you have these long narrow lakes and streams, and then the mountains, and long bays with numerous islands.

I’m sure there is more I am not remembering at the moment.

I am at the two month mark of being out here, I have about one month left to go. It has been fun to see everything out here, and there is a lot more I’d like to fit in before I head back, but I am ready to come back to Oregon.

For about six years, my brother and I played in a fife and drum corps that was part of an American Civil War reenacting group. We were attracted by the music, and it was very enjoyable to perform all over Oregon with them, both in reenactments and parades. There is simply nothing like martial music.

Fife & drum corps eventually died off as part of the military after the bugle was introduced, and other, more modern forms of communication were invented. But they do survive here and there, and especially, for some reason, in Connecticut. I don’t really know why.

Since I still love to hear this music, and this parade in Deep River was actually within striking distance for me, I decided to meet up with a couple friends in the area, and go watch it. I was glad I did.

Looking down the road the drum corps

The Ancient Mariners Fife & Drum Corps

A drum corps from Basel, Switzerland

A reenactor drum corps

I thought this corps costumes were hilarious!

Of course, pictures don’t give nearly the full impression. Here is a video:

http://www.facebook.com/v/887896720888
Deep River Fife & Drum Corps

http://www.facebook.com/v/888155826638
At the end of the parade, most of the musicians assembled as one massive corps, and did the route all over again.

Overall, there must have been 40 fife and drum corps! It was excellent. It is always great to hear good music.

I had an action packed weekend in Oregon, including visiting my parents, calling ECD, seeing my Oregon coworkers and commiserating with them about our crazy line of work, and staying with my brother and sister in law. I was also able to do another insane hike in the Columbia Gorge with several good friends who share my taste for misery.

We must have looked quite funny hobbling from the car when we finally got dinner that evening, but sometimes you need a hike like that to feel alive.

I went to see Cars 2 with some family friends of mine, it was quite different from the first one, but I thought it was pretty good.

Playing volleyball  twice in a week was super fun, as well as wrapping the weekend off with a big 4th of July party at my friend Josh’s place. There is nothing like having all your friends together to enjoy the time!

And before I knew it, it was time to fly back eastward. Now I am in Maine, working on several jobs up here. Two months to go.

Previously, I had compared myself to Riley Poole from the movie National Treasure, because he is always finding ways to make technology work, and getting into secret places. Working out here, often alone, without any friends or coworkers around, I sometimes feel like the agents in the Bourne series of films (except I’m not getting assassination orders or getting in fights), because I get orders on my cell phone to go there and fix this, then go over here and do that. It’s funny at times…

I will see you all again soon, my friends…

We intended to take a train into the great city, to avoid having to drive its crazy streets, but we managed to miss the train by minutes (hey, this is what makes fun memories later on, right?), so we had to drive in anyway. Thankfully one of my friends lives in MA and has driven into Boston several times, so she was our excellent (if somewhat crazy) driver. We drove to the main station and hopped onto the ‘T’, the city’s subway system. There’s a famous song about it by the Kingston Trio, called Charlie and the MTA:

In honor of the song, the tickets are called Charlie Tickets:

We went to Chinatown to get some lunch, which was good, and then we headed to the North End of Boston, which is also home to ‘little Italy’, as well as the Old North Church, and Paul Revere:

It is really neat to be standing where so much history took place. We didn’t explore a quarter of what was there, due to time constraints, so I’ll just have to go back again. It’s an amazing town.

One of my other friends that came along is of Italian heritage, and she insisted I try a Cannoli, which is a pastry made with a ricotta cheese based filling. It was really good, and really rich.

We went down to the waterfront to see the USS Constitution, but alas, we were too late to take a tour. Still, it was neat to see it.

We then decided to go to Harvard, and walk around that campus.

And, since we were all Car Talk fans, we searched for their office in Harvard Square:

There are always random performers in college towns, it seems:

All in all it was quite a fun day. All the more so because I was able to share it with some friends.

Here are some things I would like to change or improve on in my own life:

• read the Word regularly and with purpose
• exercise regularly with a goal of improving my speed and endurance in running, and getting better general fitness
• make the effort to talk to strangers more, and be more friendly to people
• rebuild my guitar skills, and teach myself more advanced pieces of music
• make more meals from scratch that are healthier

What do you see in your life that needs to change? What are you doing about reaching that goal?

New Hampshire is nice, especially Portsmouth, where I am working right
now. There are bunches of old brick buildings, and all alleyways and side
streets you only find in old cities.
Apparently Portsmouth is the third oldest city in the country. I can’t wait todo more exploring.

As for work, I’m doing all sorts of things. Right now driving all over the state with brice

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There is definitely a difference between living on you own, and with your family. On your own, every decision is yours to make, which is both freeing and a burden at the same time. You don’t have any one else to worry about, or to take into consideration in your decisions. Living with the family again for this short period of time, even though I am still free to make my own decisions and do what I like, it is important to keep the rest of the family in the loop, as a common courtesy.

And then in a week, I will be heading to the other side of the country, and truly be on my own, with the only people I know being coworkers, and several friends scattered across the Northeast.

There is still all the small stuff left to pack, the various important papers, the music, technology, clothing, and cookware. For one person it seems like a lot of stuff just to live. I wonder if one was camping or on the move all the time, how little you could get by with, and what would be most important.

Well, back to packing; I have to be out of my apartment in a week and a half, and leave for the East in a little over two weeks.