Indian "summer"

Oh my god its OCTOBER. I have no idea where summer went, but I feel like we are getting summer NOW - Homer hasn't seen a single cloud since last Thursday. We are all finally getting some much needed vitamin D. As a result, this past weekend I literally ran myself ragged - I went running, biking, climbing (ok so that was indoors), played soccer and attended my first "hash" (more on that in a second). Its actually kind of funny, I think the entire town went into spring fever mode. I was talking to the office manager and we were sharing tales of muscle soreness, and she was like "I'm pretty sure Homer's ibuprofen intake just doubled this past weekend." Another guy who works in my office was telling us how he could hardly get out of bed today because of all the biking he's been doing. Hah.

But really, I've had a fantastic week. The weather is still holding up, although it is definitely getting colder here. We had our first frost Saturday night and (as I just started a new housesitting gig and thus have a car) I've had to scrape frost off the windshield in the mornings before work. But I'll take that if it comes with the sunshine, for sure.

Anyways, Saturday night I went to the first Homer Hash. Hashing is an event...I think the best way to describe it is a treasure hunt for alcoholics who like to run. Haha. I know, it sounds ridiculous. More officially, wikipedia seems to explain it much better than I can. So basically, its kind of like a quest - you follow a trail (ours was set with markings on the ground made from flour), and there are false trails and checkpoints so you have to figure out which is the correct one. But there are also beer stops (preceded by the flour sign "BN" - Beer Near), and a party at the end. I don't even really like beer, so I wasn't partaking, but it was still absurdly fun ( alcohol and physical activity seem like SUCH a bad combination, with that whole dehydration issue). The trail wound along the hillside. We we running through trees and meadows. The first beer stop was a pine tree with all these beer cans tied to branches - it looked like a Christmas tree. The second beer stop was halfway down a really steep hill and the view was AMAZING - all the fall colors along the hills, view down to the bay and the harbor...At the end, we had pizza, a keg and a fire pit. The stars came out and Milky Way was right above our heads. Most of the people there (there were maybe 12 of us?) were older, more were men. They were funny - all old enough to be my parents, and regaling me with tales of their younger days. 

A lot of other exciting things have happened in the past week, but I want to avoid writing novel-length entries, so I'll try and break it up a bit.