A wedding, a funeral, and Publisher’s Weekly
On our way backpacking up to Yule Lakes yesterday to camp overnight, we ran into a wedding party. We didn’t know they were a wedding party until we noticed the wildflower wreath on the back of one of the women’s packs. We asked, they confessed. There were eight or nine people, and they had all backpacked up to Yule Lakes for the ceremony. They weren’t youngsters, either–all middle-aged and above, all humping big packs that probably held wine and cheese and other impractically-heavy foods for the celebration. Bear found half a loaf of fancy bread they’d left behind, so he got to celebrate, too.
They also left something that turned out to be just what we needed: a bouquet of wildflowers they must have picked yesterday afternoon. We set Red’s box of ashes beside it, and that’s how Bear got to meet his predecessor/big brother for the first time.
This morning we opened the box and scattered the ashes to the wind and got choked up doing it, even though it’s a full year after Red died. A good dog is hard to say goodbye to, no matter when you do it.
But on to lighter matters.
Publisher’s Weekly gave me some ink last week. What a thrill! Look for me under “Rights Report.” And then today, they paid some attention to my pal Barry Lyga. Scroll down to “In Brief” to see news of his VidLit. Click on the link for Barry’s VidLit if you haven’t already seen it. It’s too cool for words.
The husband and dog and I are taking a day off tomorrow before heading into the wild once again–this time for a good five-day hump over hill and dale (whatever a dale is). Little Bear is sleeping like the dead right now on the hotel couch, and my legs scream to me each time I stand up. But it’s a good tired and a good hurt. And let me tell you, NOTHING feels as wonderful as that first shower after you come out of the mountains, whether you’ve been away for two days or five or twenty. What you thought was sunburn turns out to be just plain dirt. I apologize to the hotel cleaning crew.
Now off to find some salad. Some things just don’t pack well.
Technorati Tags: Backpacking, Hiking, Camping, Outdoor Weddings, Dogs, Pets, Publisher’s Weekly, The Astonishing Adventures of Fanboy and Goth Girl, Barry Lyga, Books, Reading, VidLit, Writing, Publishing, Young Adult Fiction
August 17th, 2006 at 9:03 pm
thank you for the poignant pic of bear paying his last respects–it is very dear.
kudos to you and barry, very cool indeed.