This three-day weekend I’m not sure if I’m coming or going. Morning workouts usually mean my my brain needs a nap in the afternoon, and sometimes my brain doesn’t turn back on after the nap. I’m not real sure if I’m coming or going. And even worse, two beers last night and I was very tired this morning. TWO. Actually, there’s always been some small quantity that makes me even sleepier in the morning and I think I must have hit it.

My buddy Deren is back from Maui, where he moved a year ago, and he’s on a rampage. He wanted to climb Mt. Adams tomorrow, Mt. St. Helens on Monday, rest Tuesday, and then do another mountain on Wednesday. I was invited on the Mt. Adams trip. I, however, looked things up on the intarweb and Mt. Adams looked hideously difficult. Well, long, if nothing else. So we were going to get up at 4AM and try one of the mountains in the Olympic Peninsula where there are supposed to be avalanche warnings.

I was wondering if this would wreck me for work next week when my sister reminded me that the plumbing contractor was coming and all I was responsible for cleaning out the basement before he arrived. And since I may be in Japan in a week, I wasn’t allowed to do anything tomorrow except moving crap around the house. So much for testing out Deren’s assertion that chicks dig guys who climb mountains. I suppose I could always lie about what I do on Sunday. Chicks seem to end up with guys who lie whether they dig them or not.

In the past few years, I either go outside to watch the fireworks from the hill above the school, or get invited to someone’s boat. The boats are the best way to see fireworks close up. So that means either hobnobbing with the yacht owners at the Columbia River Yacht Club or with the giant-house-small-boat owners in Lake Oswego. I have been unable to gain enough brownie points to hang out with the yacht club people, but my buddy Deren came back from Hawaii to visit his parents in Lake Zero and invited me to watch the fireworks from their boat.

If it wasn’t for friends inviting me out on the 4th of July, I’d be on the hillside across the street. It’s quick, it’s easy, there’s no crowds, and it has the added benefit of being able to watch the rich kids set off their expensive fireworks in the school yard. And I can go hide at any time, since it’s usually overcast and drizzly on the 7/4 in Portland.

My buddy Deren also convinced me to go with him to hike Mt. Adams. I’m actually dreading it a little because it sounds hard. Anything that requires that kind of exertion and getting up early sounds like bad news to me. I have to stay awake at work, after all. Weekends are for sleeping, not working that hard.