Nature, Partings, & Memories

I'm packed and intensely excited for my little incommunicado excursion into New Hampshire. I'm leaving my cell phone and all methods of communication behind to maximize the recovery potential of nature. Basically, I'm burned out from working and filming and this and that, so I fully intend to return from camping much happier, healthier, et cetera. Then I'll be back to see Tony off before he leaves for the Army and be able to reevalute the rest of the summer with a clear head. My uncle offered me yet another job. While the logical, pragmatic Tim says I need money for college, the self-concerned Tim insists that I need to occasionally see the sun.

The whole "goodbye" thing sort of hit me today, seeing Tony out the door after my party today. I mean, potentially, if we get stuck in New Hampshire or something and come back a day late, I may never see Tony again. He's out of touch for several weeks and I have no idea where I'll be when he gets his two weeks off before he ships out. It's very strange, the concept of a permanent goodbye. How often in my life have I been forced to go through that? It's a very foreign thing to me. It's so rare that you get the opportunity to say goodbye to someone you'll most likely never see again. When people die there are always regrets assosciated with not being able to see them off, but even when someone is leaving for controllable, human reasons it's hard to avoid a strange feeling of failure. At least for me. I'm always seeking the perfect way to communicate things, but when it comes to "goodbye" I always feel like I missed the mark. No goodbye is perfect.

Regardless, I'm pushing forward. I'm not letting anything ruin the hiking and the wilderness. Besides the liklihood of coming back a whole day late is extremely tiny. Anyway, since this entry is lightly Tony themed it only seems appropriate that I post the pictures from the Eric and Tim excursion that featured him. I've been neglecting to post these pictures for a while, but I've got some freetime for once (as I wait for departure time) so, as they say, no time like the present.

Ahem, I give you: Eric and Tim Do Irondequoit, Part II(ish)

We were driving around, Eric, Tony, and I, thinking about what other sort of places stuck out in our childhoods in Irondequoit as landmarks and we decided to head down to the Seabreeze area with the water and all that.


Tony suggested that we snag some ice cream and, of course...


...being in the Seabreeze area and all, we went to Don's Original.


Eric suggested that I indulge in this chocholate and almond deal, insisting that it was an important memory from his childhood and I should quickly incoperate it into mine.


A financial transaction occured. That subtle unwillingess to let go of a hard earned greenback always intriques me when caught on camera. I believe Eric needed to borrow some money from Tony or something.


Eric managed his ice cream and a serving of onion rings like a professional, while I (off camera) struggled helplessly to avoid ice cream drips even without the additional challenge of a second food item.


What kind of ice cream outing would it be without a picture of Tony chowing down?


At this point, Tony wanted something else to eat so he crossed over to Vic & Irvs. Eric and I had a strange discussion about what happened to "Bob" from Don & Bob's (now Don's Original) and wondered if either Vic or Irv were likely to suffer a similar fate.


Tony made his purchase and I realized that this, perhaps, was not the most interesting of adventures, but continued to snap off photographs anyway.


This is a picture from the intermediate excursion in between Part I and Part II that I struck from the record. I like it, so deal with it.