not dead

if you were given the choice to spend 16 hours in the car with your parents (after having spent 14 days living with them) or to go on a five-hour drive on the back of a 600 lb. two-wheeled death machine piloted by an 82-year-old, nearly deaf, grandfather with pop bottle glasses in 90-degree weather whilst wearing an ill-fitting helmet, which would you choose?

i chose (b) and, by the power of greyskull, i'm still alive. i've always loved summer motorcycle trips with Ol' Red Hunt. maybe saying yes is my way of being in denial that he is, in fact, getting really old. maybe i should find a safer way to be in denial.

as an aside, i also took a plunge into the 55 degree water of the deepest lake in north america this weekend, crater lake itself, and didn't die there either. of course i jumped off a rock that was submerged and then almost hyperventilated because the water was like a fricking vice wrapped around my lungs. i think my friend cissy said my first words upon surfacing were something like "f-f-f-f-fucking c-c-c-cold" or similar.

well, i'm obviously making the most of my northwest vacation. back to scratching the hell out of the mosquito bites that cover most of my body. more later!