I keep typing the year on these as 2025. I blame being sick. I’m hopped up on cold medicine and my head’s full of mucus. And I just don’t want time to be passing. Taking me farther and farther away from the time when Ambrose was alive. When we were planning our lives together. When I felt like I had a purpose and a direction.
My dreams featured a guy I knew in high school. A good friend by happenstance. We were seated next to each other for Freshman year homeroom and both did band. In the dream, I was visiting his childhood home. I think I picked him up there once, but I don’t recall ever going inside. We were school friends, not outside of school friends.
I think I’m starting to feel better. I cleaned a bit today. And I prepared my breakfasts for the week, oats and boiled eggs. I’ve still got pizza to eat for dinner for another couple of days. I’ve been drinking my water and tea.
The sunset glowed the sky today. I’m betting the sunsets all this week are going to be pretty spectacular. There’s an inversion that’s supposed to last all week. I’m not happy about that, because the air, especially in the mornings, is going to smell strongly of woodsmoke. And there’s no snow in the forecast. Two years ago, Ambrose was snowshoeing in the yard, but today there’s barely frost in the mornings.
I haven’t been able to sleep on my back the last few days. When I lay down, my throat gets a tickle and I can’t stop feeling like I’m about to cough. Keeps me wide awake. I’ve been sleeping propped up a bit, which helps. I hope I get good sleep tonight so i can be ready to get to work in the morning. I might still be medicating tomorrow, but I really hope I’m over the worst of it.
My plans for the summer’s backpacking are kind of up in the air. I want to do a trip with my nieces, but I need to get some information from them about availability before I make firm plans. My dad wants to visit in June again. I know I want to do another Idaho Centennial Trail segment, and I have options. The Idaho Department of Parks and Recreation is applying for a grant to do maintenance on the Selway stretch that I skipped. If all goes well, I should be able to tackle that stretch next summer after it’s been cleared. And I want to do at least 5 days, maybe 7, in the Queens River Wilderness. That’s another place where I want to scatter some of Ambrose’s ashes. So many good memories on that loop.
I’m having trouble deciding on a firm itinerary for that trip because there are so many options. So many ways to do it. I can go hard and try to visit all the places or I can go slow and take my time in places that were special. I might need to do two Queens trips to cover all the spots I want to scatter him. Browns Lake, Johnson Lake, High Pass, Pats Lake, the other pass (which is actually higher than High Pass), the lake at 8696, Everly Lake, Plummer Lake, Nanny Creek…
I need to finish my trip write ups. That’s my next writing project. Get it done. Finish this past summer and move on to planning next summer.
