Big Brass Ones

The vodka is good, but the meat is rotten.

Or maybe what I mean is something more along the lines of It was a good plan, but the execution left something to be desired.

Turns out the biped had a pretty slow day at work today. Even after installing the newly arrived peat bag in the pond biofilter and starting up his total-alkalinity-reduction experiment in the erstwhile quarantine tank, it was still only early afternoon.

So he decided to take me for a hike. And, just for a change, he decided to do it at Fort Ord, rather than Garland Park.

It's been quite a while since we've been to Fort Ord. Long enough, apparently, for the biped to forget that the trails there are a lot hotter and drier than at Garland Park. That particular memory lapse--just one among many, of course--caused him not to bring along my water bottle (or his own, for that matter, but who cares about that?).

The temperature is only in the low 60s today, and it's quite breezy. So it's not like either of us was likely to wilt to any dangerous extent. Still, I think the route he chose to take was probably no more than two thirds as long as the route he would have taken, had he had water for me.

So, anyway, I appreciate the mid-week hike and all, but it really was not up to what I wish were his usual standards. But I guess I can cut him some slack and just call it a spring-training hike. He'd better shape up by the time the regular season starts, though, or I may have to trade him in for a Korean hiker--I hear those Koreans train pretty darn hard, even during the off season.

What?

They don't!

Really?

Ahem. Did I say Korean? I’m pretty sure I actually meant Japanese.