Freeloading Up a Storm

So there you go, another post for those who don't like the political thang. So it's a retread of sorts, but whatever. I have to work. This is the best I can do. The blog is what it is.

I dunno, antebellum farmhouse, Joel making slavery jokes; this has the makings of a good RoveStorm. Well, SlaveStorm.

I love anything with a Seinfeld reference.

So if the SAO 15 all use other names, is it actually a SAO 6 or 7 afterall?

Are they all just made up by Achenbach? Too bad X-Files is off the air.

Yes, there is difference between the rich and the rest of us and it ain't just money. Back in the late Nixonian age my wife and I lived in New England for a time while she attended grad school at Brown "where the stupid Kennedys go to school". One of her classmates offered to let us spend the summer in their "cabin" in Maine. We then learned that the cabin was located on their island in their lake, and we could use any of the cars and boats and things that were there. Although the thought of three months rent free was tempting, we didn't have enough money to last three weeks away from jobs, much less three months.

Not to sound too above-it-all -- though, now that I look at the Kit, it really IS above it all -- but I don't invent any of these names/characters in the Kaboodle. They actually exist on their own accord. I have known for some time that certain frequent Kaboodlers are so out of control that they are posting under several different handles, and that would concern me were I not...well, above it all. As I said previously. But I think it is still just about 15 readers total, including those with multiple personalities. Sometimes I wish that others would join this blog, and fear that some of the lurkers have been scared off by the clubbiness and hydrant-marking and heavy-breathing mating behavior. But that's just an outsider weighing in. I'm not in charge of the Kaboodle. The Kaboodle is self-emergent and self-regulatory.

For those who missed it, this was JW's post from a friend who just finished hiking the AT:

It's six thirty A.M. and I am awake. I can't remember when last I was home and I could say that I actually got up this early of my own free will. Yesterday when Dad woke up in Baxter State Park he was shocked to hear that I was already awake, talking to a red squirrel trying to eat our food. I'm never up before him. It never happens.
Maybe it does though. Now. Maybe?
So it's not over. Just like it didn't start on the top of Springer
Mnt. in Georgia. I knew it wouldn't end on Katahdin, not exactly, but I hadn't thought of this. I think it started when I got out of the car at Logan Airport, when it was freezing, too cold to be snowing. When I walked away from the folks in hiking gear, just walked. Being looked at strangely in Atlanta was part of it. Someone saying, "must be hikin' the AT," was part of it. I've still got the beard, maybe when I shave it that'll mark the end.
Probably not.
Four days ago I was hiking across Rainbow Ledges in the Hundred Mile Wilderness. It was late, I had had a long day, I was getting close to crashing for the night. The trail sign on the top said that it was twenty miles to the top of Katadhin. It wasn't right. The distance to Katahdin is measured in hundreds or thousands of miles. It is a constant goal, too far away to imagine. For a hiker twenty miles just isn't that far. It's a day, not even a day. I thought to myself, "I could just go, get there now. How many batteries do I have for my flashlight?" I didn't. Not yet. I took a shower from a water bottle and a stream. I ate rice and cheese and gorp. I slept. All the next day, I kept thinking that it was over then. Over already. The trail was backloaded, I could feel the weight of well over two thousand
miles behind me, and the puny substance of the fifteen, ten, five to go was nothing in comparison.
Time, however, is a strange measure of anything.
It seemed an eternity to get to the base of that mountain. Fifteen miles. It'd take three hours. But as I walked, it was still three hours, it was nothing to the length of the trail, nothing to all those miles behind me, stretching back into the woods, across ledges and fords, across range on range of hills. Time moved no faster though. And those three hours remained long.
When I got to Katahdin Stream Campground, it was over, but I still had one last hill to climb. I checked in the register and read all the entries of everyone whom I had hiked with, all the people that were, by that time, already finished. A bunch of people I'll probably never see again. I went back and slept. Dad and Aunt Laurie came back, we talked, we ate, we built a fire, we played guitar. The last hill loomed above us, obscured by the clouds. In the morning I got up and packed the pack again. No sleeping bag this time, no tent, no cooking kit.
Up we went, up the rockiest, hardest thing I'd seen yet. Up this
thing that they called Kette-Ahdin, "Greatest Mountain." People only call Katahdin, Katahdin. Springer Mnt. is Springer Mnt. Mt. Washington is Mt. Washington. Katahdin is just Katahdin.
They let me walk the last mile alone. Up to the lonely summit where no one was yet, too early for the rest of the world, we had left at five thirty. I got there. On the top stood a big wooden sign that marked the end of the trail. I'd seen it a hundred times, hundreds of times, in pictures, in books, in all things about the trail. The end.
But not.
I still had to climb down, there is no ending on the top of a mountain.
We went down.
I still had to go home, there is no ending on the road.
We got home.
And nothing is the same. And everything is the same. And it all looks different, and it all is different. And I don't know how long it'll last.
I'm not sure it'll ever be over.
And I'm not sure that it ever began. I'm not clear that all this
hadn't been going on for a long, long time; I'm not sure that this isn't just a longer stretch of hiking, and longer time between shaves, and showers, and a softer place to lay down.
We used to joke when we were on the trail. We'd wake up in the
morning and ask, "What do you feel like doing today?" "I don't know, you want to head north?" "Sure, why not?" And we would. And now there is no "North." There is no one direction in which you walk toward the same thing, the same un-summitable mountain that's always hundreds of miles away, until you finally get there.
But, if anyone's interested, if anyone wants to, this thing isn't over yet. Give me a few zero days for my knees to heal up a bit, let me grab a few meals, and then, yeah, I'll pack the pack again, I'll put in the cloths and the sleeping bag and the tent. We can go whichever direction you choose.
I really like this hikin' thing I guess.

I have 5 friends with fantastic, late model, boats. My parents noticed my love of the boating life and asked if I thought I'd ever buy one for myself. I looked at them and said, "I have five friends who own boats." I had to repeat it several times before they got it.

Perhaps advanced freeloading is a generational thing.

The Kit is the vacation house and the kaboodle is the set of second cousins that just show up and pull the key out from under the rug.

Wow, a repeat! I'm glad everyone liked it. He has no idea I posted it, maybe I'll let him in on it eventually.

I'm feeling like a rather pathetic second-cousin twice removed right now, one of those cousins who doesn't bathe and always has messy hair and dirty clothes. I feel I've worn out my welcome, if in fact there ever was a welcome. I may have to lie low for awhile. Cold turkey is probably the best way to go.

A: Don't overreact! Your hair and clothes are fine. I'm the one with the famously bad hair.

I like the Kaboodle. Perhaps I should have mentioned that.

freeloading can sometimes bit you in the you-know-where! several years ago i had a friends who was summering in the hamptons and invited me for a weekend (my birthday weekend)... sounds great right? well, it turns out he was sharing three bedroom house with 8 irish lads/lasses here for the summer - house had no ac, i had to share a single bed with him, bathrooms were filthy, filthy, filthy and there was no car, etc to get around in - oh, and he had to work the entire weekend so i was stuck there by myself with ppl i didn't know... needless to say i was not happy!

Well, two out of three ain't bad, I guess. I 'll keep working on the bathing thing.

ja - i only marked the hydrant once! sheesh!

Mo, if you can't curb yourself, JA is going to have crate you...

"to" -- ...have "to" crate you.

The clubbiness of this blog in, indeed, quite striking. I been lurking around for months but wouldn't actually participate. I've became a voyeur, don't know why. Maybe is because I actually have to pretend to work and strolling down the mouse wont give me away. I'm also afraid of any initiation rituals. Best regards and sorry about the english, not a native.

I think there are many lurkers, who are kept amused by Joel and the regular posters, and are too nervous to jump in for fear of bringing down the quality of the Kaboodle.

BTW: I still have a smile on my face from last week's "mushroom cloud"

The comments of ChiquitaBanana and Lurker prove my theory that there are millions of silent readers of this blog. Each just waiting to generate enough courage to dip their toes in the water.

All are welcome!

Maybe we could start our own alternative club, with our own bouncer at the door. The Not So Select Audience of Many (not T.N.S.S.A.M. please!) Though Im a little scare my presence could bring down the average age of the participants.

Speaking of The Kaboodle and The Kit, it reminds me of a news item long ago in Peoria, where Caterpillar Tractor is a major employer. The city purchased some Kubota tractors for its parks department, so then Peoria had the whole Cat and Kubota.

You probably had to be there.

I've got some first-class freeloading coming soon: just found out a friend is letting us use her fabulous NYC apartment while she's gone. Now that's some good freeloadin'.

Loved the AT post. Boy, there's a metaphor for something if I've ever read one. Now if I could just figure out what...

Wow...you guys are great at freeloading. I guess I do not have friends with vacation homes. I am the idiot who has to pay the big bucks to rent a beach house for a week. I am thinking of all the $$$ I could of saved by free loading.

Anyone out there have a house I could freeload off of???

Woah, woah, woah. Hold on a minute. I didn't post at all today. Who the hell was that back there? I'm at home sick with some kind of really monstrous flu crap. I'm sick, but not sick of this blog.

The only reason I'm posting now at this late hour is because I slept from 10 AM to 7 PM after sleeping from 10 PM to 7 AM (hmm...pattern?) last night and I can't sleep again yet. Give me 30 minutes though, and I'll be out until some kind of mid-morning hour tomorrow. Unless I grow a responsibility bone and go into work anyway, hoping my breakfast and my stomache will remain on good terms. All together now: Unlikely!

Today when I'm feeling like crap someone decides to mess with my previously good name. A day I couldn't fight back because I was having dreams about being sick because I was too sick to wake up. And people wonder why, when asked who I want to meet (stupid question to ask someone in the first place) I say, "No one. People are generally disappointing." I thought I'd found a haven. A haven of 15 non-disappointing people. And then someone else comes in and haven-crashes! I will hunt down the haven-crasher.

In the meantime, how's everyone doin'?

I like your friend, jw. He could change the 15 non-disappointing people to 16 if he ever decided to join this community.

Happy Birthday, TA!

CowTown, all are welcome except said haven-crasher. Othwerise I agree with you.

And Achenfan, there is still a welcome here for you. We like you. Cold turkey is never good. Habits like this (The Achenblog, etc...) should be kept up. Nurtured.

We like you too, Joel!!

Of course you know that, but I'm happy for the opportunity to say it anyway.

Many happy returns of the day, TA!

Today I met a local celebrity--his name is Cha' Tullis and he is very famous in Hominy, Oklahoma, where he produces and sells Indian themed artwork. He has a website, chatullis.com. Tour buses come to his store from all over the region. I bought some postcards and he signed one for me. That is how I got through the day without Achenblog.

Tullis created some metal sculptures that I really liked: on a ridge on the outskirts of town, life-sized iron silhouettes of Indians on horseback, so when you're standing outside the train station, you look up and--"Indians!!! AAAArrrggghh!!! Circle the wagons!!!" Very dramatic effect.

(Was that politically incorrect? I would again invoke the Chris Rock rule: I can be flippant about Native Americans for the same reason he gets to use the n-word. I myself am not technically a member of an Indian tribe, but all my first cousins are, so I'm kind of an honorary Indian.)

I hope my weekend doesn't turn out so bad as mo's did. Today is my 21st birthday and so some friends invited me to a house they have on Lake George for the weekend. There are a lot of people there that I don't know and your story makes me nervous.

I notice that Joel didn't mention that journalists are indoctrinated into freeloading via osmosis.

Just about any press function held by any organization will include some sort of food and/or drink.

When I used to cover sporting events on a part time basis, my photographer friend (who is the cheapest human being I know, and a wonderful human being in all other respects) and I used to make a game out of spending as little money as possible over the course of a weekend. This would include sleeping in tents or in the back of a minivan, using campsite or truck stop showers, "liberating" snack platters (including eating the pineapples that all the cheese cubes were toothpicked to), and never ever refusing an invitation for dinner.

bc

Sara:
Thanks for explaining about the haven-crasher. Yeah, I thought that "I'm sick of this blog" comment was out of character for you. I was shocked when I read it, completely shocked.
And thanks for saying you like me. I was seriously thinking about retiring my Achenfan persona, because people seem to like the other two better. (For some reason, they really seem to respond to the geek of the trio -- I know, I know, Achenfan is a geek too). Plus it would be nice if I could shed my inner jackass. We shall see, we shall see.
Get well soon!
(Get well, get well soon, we wish you to get well . . . a Seinfeld reference there for jw.)

oh, don't be nervous cloudy! it's your 21st!!! If you are sober enough to notice your surroundings than i would say you didn't do 21 any justice! isn't it a rite of passage to wake up the day after your 21st in a pool of your own sick??

Achenfan, there is nothing wrong with the multiple personalities. I have multiple Ps professionally -- there's almost no connection betwixt that history book and the humor stuff and the science geek stuff. One wears different hats at different times. I do think we need to find a way to lure the lurkers out of the shadows. Like, have a Lurkers Only Kaboodle.

I peeked out of the shadows yesterday, so this makes 2 days in a row that I've emerged from lurker only status. So far, so good.

m.a.

Ha! That's funny -- a Lurkers Only Kaboodle! Get it? There'd be no comments in it!

I guess it is a new standard now that the SAO 15 must have a country home in Middleburg or a town near Blue Ridge mountains. The how must have a porch and pool to be eligible.

No, no, no, fdg31 -- it's quite the opposite. The ideal Kaboodler has precious little. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to participate in the Kaboodle.

On a more serious note, I think we might recruit more Lurkers if we call a truce on grammar correction -- except when someone specifically asks to have his or her grammar corrected. (Of course, there are those who are just asking for it whether they have specifically asked or not).

I mean, "or not.)"

A truce on grammer correction? But that's the only reason I lurk! Lurk & learn I always say.

m.a.

This could turn into the equivalent of a sports talk show on the radio. "Hello Joel? I'm a first-time caller. Yeah, I have a question, but I'll hang up for the answer."

lol now I get! For the record I am not a lurker and I post under one name.

So are we supposed to be impressed because Joel has rich friends? Oh wow. Can't you think of anything else to write about?

Awwwww. JW's friend's AT post makes me want to cry. Growing up, very summer I'd go camping at Baxter in the shadow of that grand mountain. On the upside, now I can go freeload up in my "cabin" in Maine- aka my parents' farmhouse.

So is the blog dead today or were the two most recent entries closed to comment for another un-Sydney reason.

Joel, get to work.

What's going on!?! The blog is dead, dogs and cats are living together...if I were a different type of person I would suggest spamming Sydney's email.

Re; The Events of Last Night (7/26)-

Sydney, as tempting as it would be to say something flip; e.g. "We don't negotiate with terrorists.", perhaps it would be useful to extend the blogging form of interactive journalism, and have Joel write a story about his experiences as a blogger, both pro and con.

Someone has already suggested this in one of the closed items, but I think it's worthy of consideration.

It is better than a "Joel Achenbach Washington Post Magazine Cover Story Contest", isn't it? Hmmm...

bc

Or the cover story could be on oppressive editors and whether their styfling of creativity is justified by their nit-picking of grammar.

I just ran 5 miles, which is why I'm a little ornery this morning.

Also, how could the blog be taking up too much of his time. He posts once a day! Unless he's posting under assumed names! A-ha!

At the risk of injecting umbrage into the blog, I, for one, refuse to take the blame for Joel's poor work ethic. It is a matter of self-control and self-discipline. Like Dunkin' Donuts, just because the blog is there, doesn't mean you have to stop by.

(I say this with a Boston Cream Pie doughnut here on my desk awaiting its fate.)

Lately I've been trying really hard to not judge others and not say mean things, but today I can't help thinking Sydney is a bit of a spoilsport. Or maybe even a sadist -- shutting down the blog with such little notice is just plain cruel. Talk about cold turkey.

Yes, we've all gotten a little carried away with blogging over the past few weeks. Instead of just posting one comment under each entry and then moving on, we've tended to linger in the Kaboodle. Some of us (me included) have probably neglected the non-blogging areas of our lives, especially our jobs. But I think this has been a temprorary phenomenon. I personally am getting better at multi-tasking, rearranging my time so I can Kaboodle AND get my work done. I'm sure Joel is capable of doing that too. I think the addiction problem we're currently experiencing will work itself out naturally over time, if it's allowed to. I'm sure something could be worked out. Maybe Joel could post every other day, or weekly?

But if the blog really is closed, we're just going to have to head on over to the Going Out Gurus Blog. We can find an entry with zero comments and set up Kaboodle there -- first one to arrive gets to write the Kit. Just be sure to add an explanatory note for the GoG kaboodlers: footnote: This kaboodle has been seized and is now the property of the AchenKaboodlers.

We need to think positively, although I know that's hard -- I just can't get the image of an Achenwake out of my mind, where all the Kaboodlers are sitting around misty-eyed while listening to "Rocket Man."

And I think it's gonna be a long long time.

I'm with jw on this one, he only posts once a day. There's got to be something else keeping him from doing his real job...excuse me while I put on my Holmes detective hat and grab my magnifying glass.

I think we need to appeal to a higher authority. Tom?

jw,

I ran 5 miles this morning too, but it made me more mellow.

What takes up Joel's time is not writing the blog, but reading (and responding to) the comments. He reads the comments because he respects his readers and appreciates our adulation and analysis. He hangs out with us, IMHO, because he is a nice guy. Unlike most of us, he could hang out with his many witty, intelligent real-life friends. [The difference is that the blog is filled with witty, intelligent, UNDER-EMPLOYED people.]

I think Sydney is out of line and I would send her an email but I don't want to be bitchy.

So I guess I'll just take what comes. Joel will keep writing and we will keep reading. I don't think Sydney will take the blog down altogether, or close ALL the comments--Joel can stop by here and chat whenever he wants...

See ya--

I second bc's idea that Joel should write a story about the pros and cons of blogging. We're all aware of the cons -- addiction, flaming, shirking. But there are indeed pros -- friendship, humor, joy, learning, validation. All the material Joel would need to write such a story is right here. He should do it for the Kaboodlers, and the Lurkers. He should do it for Story Musgrave.

Peace to all.

Well said, kbertocci. "I'll just take what comes." I like that. Whatever happens, we will be OK.

I think this is brilliant scheme to generate a story out of the blog, thereby garnering more attention to the blog.

Surely, irregardless, they wouldn't be that cruel. I think it's more like taking a bottle of Scotch away from an alcoholic.

My name is Achenfan, and I'm a blogoholic. I need to get myself into Achenrehab.