How Pleasant

Jill and I joined Amy and Mike yesterday for a hike up Pleasant Mountain. I agreed to hiking without immediately associating the words "hike" and "mountain," and as a result, scaled a 1900-foot peak, shattering my mountain-climbing record by 1964 feet. Over the course of a 3 1/2-mile stroll, I experienced the following emotions:

10 feet high- anxiety
200 feet- pleasantness
205 feet- first knee pain
800 feet- inspiration
1200 feet- regret
1500 feet- snowiness
1850 feet- terror
1875 feet- ambition
1900 feet- elation
1750 feet- slipperiness
1500 feet- severe knee pain
1000 feet- exhaustion
600 feet- hip pain
250 feet- helplessness
25 feet- relief
ground zero- success, further knee pain

The legs are feeling surprisingly strong today. Perhaps they draw inspiration from the second straight 55+ degree day they've seen. Perhaps they were energized by the hamburgers and hot dogs I grilled this afternoon, the first use of the grill since it materialized from a snowy abcess on the back porch. Perhaps they're excited to be smashed into an airplane seat on the way to and from Ireland this weekend, or to help me boogie down at Eric's wedding in three weeks. I just hope I'm still standing by then.