In Rain and Snow

It turns out my worries that Dennis wouldn't want to hike in the rain was unfounded. The guy was at our meeting place before me, bright-eyed bushy-tailed. Apparently he is an avid hiker and most of his hikes were in the rain. He's a programmer in my team...it's how I managed to snag him as a stand-in when Daniel bailed on Friday. We had such a good time hiking, we're planning to go on another hike next Saturday.
Dennis mentioned how much more fun it actually is to hike with someone for a change… I asked him why he would hike alone when a hiking buddy could push you. It’s true, had I hiked alone, I would have given up when I felt a little faint around the 1^st mile blaming the recent blood loss…but then Dennis donated blood too and was hiking along.
I would have given up when the rain started pelting down really hard or when rain became snow near top.
<---(it was snowing like crazy on top of Mt. Si, this was taken from our lunch point next to the Haystack) I would have found a million excuses stopping hiking; I’m a lazy bastard when no one is watching. Dennis’ reason for hiking alone is because he is socially inept. This seems so sad to me. I never thought of him as socially inept because we always have such a good time chatting about hiking or programming, those are two things the two of us could drone on forever. Yet, I guess that’s not a lot of common grounds for most people.
<---(REI approved rainjacket!)
I'm glad I finally bought myself a new compact camera that I ACTUALLY carry around and take pictures with. I didn't realize I had my world's dorkiest camera bag in hands. When Brian first saw my camera bag, he called me a hippy because he thought I made a little drawstring bag for it. Then I flipped it over, he laughed, "Oh my god, that's so cute, you really are a dork." I'm not sure which is more insulting, but whatever. The bag was an old Harry Potter Bertie Bott's Beans sack. Hey, I never claimed to be a role model for coolness.