Year End Hiking Wrap-Up

It's all done. All I needed to hit my goal of six hundred and fifty miles for the year was a mere four miles and they fell easily this afternoon. It was a fine, clear day and there was enough beach for me to walk down to the Lessner Bridge and then come around back down Shore Dr and through Bayville Park, then the final push home. It's a six mile loop and my favorite backyard hike because of the contrast between the beach and road. I needed four and picked up six, so on the gravy train and will add a few more before the ball drops on 2009.

It's been a good hiking year for me. Made three trips to the mountains of Virginia.
Added some great memories including clinging in forty mph winds to the top of Spy Rock; hiking the Jones Run/Doyle River loop off of Skyline Drive with my wife Janet on my birthday; conquering The Priest mountain in the fog, wind and rain with Jeff Maisey. All good miles and righteous mud on the boot and happy sore muscles at the end of the day.

Six Hundred and Fifty miles is a good number for me and will be the same number I'll shoot for next year. I'm looking forward to even bigger adventures in 2010 and hope to find my boots back in Ireland and Scotland.

Happy New Years,

OK HW

Happy Christmas 2009

Hope any and all who read this find themselves safe, warm and peaceful this day in December. I've had much more holiday spirit this year and I'm enjoying it. Decorating the tree is always my favorite part of Xmas, but this year I am enjoying the whole ride. 2009 was a full year, more so it seems then some other years with some high-highs (Janet's art show at the Portlock Galleries and our trip to Toronto) and some low-lows (losing four friends this year, three of which were in their forties including my childhood amigo John Verhulst who's 46th birthday would have been tomorrow). Here's wishing 2010 is a kinder, easier year for us all. A year when we try to work together and hate a little less (or a whole lot less). As always, the best days are yet to come. Zahdah.

OK HW

peace

Fare Thee Well Jack, You Are Missed

Forty years ago today we lost Jack Kerouac. If you have never read "On the Road" or "Dharma Bums" or any of Jack's other works, do yourself a favor a give him a try. I stumbled on him in my late teens as so many young searchers do and his words threw gasoline on the fire of my soul to live, to travel, to make art, to love. As I grew older and read more of Jack's works and biographies on him, I was torn between the largeness of his words and the chaos of his life. I longed for the adventure of the open road and kicks with friends, but cringed at reading of his desperate calls to his Mother for bus fare home. It was his life to live and live it he did and we're all still dazzled by what he left behind. I did this little sketch of Jack to try and get closer to him. To honor the kinship that I feel to him. To keep him alive. I strive to be that "angel-headed hipster" laying out kind and generous acts onto a world that increasingly works against the silly and the weird. The open road is medicine to my spirit and I seek it out as often as I can. In fact, will be embarking on a new adventure tomorrow morning, packing of to the mountains of Virginia for a well-deserved stomp, then onto Cleveland, Ohio to take in a competition between the Browns and the Packers. Never been to Cleveland, but I'm sure I know people there. People who have read Jack and know time. Yes, yes.

Sleep well Ti'jean...

OK HW

I am the Zombie Master

I have been helping my friend Jeff Maisey with his monthly broadside VEER magazine, mostly on the net side of things (built and help him maintain the site), but recently contributed an article. Jeff has been gently nudging me to write something since Veer reappeared on the scene in April, but a full schedule and my own negative inertia has kept me at bay. Finally, the perfect project appeared in the shape of Norfolk's Generic Theater and the Foppish Dandies putting on a production of "Evil Dead: The Musical". Jeff knows of my love for horror films, particularly the zombie genre and threw the task to me and I got it done. Check it out: Evil Dead: Zombies Come Alive at Generic Theatre. I've also produced one video for Veer as well, but that's a story for another post...

OK HW

note- Photo by Jeff Maisey, courtesy of Veer