Raw In Its Juice by Mungocult

Hello my Blogginz Brothers! Life is busy here in Floory Da. Yes, sirs, tis be true. So here be me and it is finally time to update chall on the haps of the last.

Okeeday. Timo and Mungo (that is I, Erik) went to AlAskA, right? Remember that? Sure sure. Here's the recap the one and only blog I posted: We were delayed in Atlanta which kept us from making our connection in SLC to Anchorage. Bummer, yes yes. A 10-hour bummer of a layover. So, instead of making it to Anchorage at 1423, we didn't make it in until after midnight. So sux. But we made it. Double Osph had to work the next morning at 0630 so instead of him going to bed, we hit up VI and did a Jones run with Tony Bermudez. Sweetness, sirs. By the time that was all done over with and through it was time for Bubbles to head off to NAC. So. What to do? That was the question Timo and I asked ourselves. It was about 0600 and we had been traveling since 0400 the day before. We weren't tired at all. So we hiked to the top of Flat Top. Timo didn't bring his camera because it was megacloudy and I didn't bring my camera because I wanted to bring my video camera. So I vigo-documented the hike to the top. It was the most beautiful I had ever seen the mountain. We ended up breaking through a cloud layer and were were sandwiched inbetween the one we climbed through and another at about 3K. Sweet. We hung out at the top, sitting on the the edges of the back side and looked over the precipice and did the vigo. (Lady Astro does the Vigo.) We climbed back down and mashed around town, hitting up REI and the Sportsmen's Warehouse to pick up supplies for the next three days we were planning in the woods. Double Osph got off work at 1430 and we were off into the wilds. We camped the first night near Sterling. We had smores and I taped Double O making a mess of them... in typical Double style. It was sweet. The next day we went to Rainbow Lake and got some really cool pictures and had a snowball fight. The trail we were going to hike the next two days was the Upper Russian Lakes Trail, but both the bridges were out on the trail and we didn't feel like fording a fast flooded river. So we went to Dairy Queen instead. And then we went to resurrection Pass and hiked 4 miles into the water fall. I video taped and Timo took pictures. We were going to camp at Russian River, but the whole place was closed because of construction. Somehow flooding waters undercut a bank and caused a landslide, so they were trying to fix it. So we went back up towards Portage and the further we got in the worse the weather got and we finally just went back to anchorage. Too much wind and rain and cold air for camping. We hung out at Double O's that night and the next morning we went to Dark Globe for a mountain climbin' day, but the the fwiggin' weather was pretty crappy again and we only got half way up before we decided to go back down. We were out of shelter and the wind was FIERCE! So we wussed out before we got killed. We ended up spending the first weekend bumming around town and relaxing. One day, Timo and I went to Earthquake Park and went walking along the coastal trail for a bit. When we got back to the rental car, it had been broken into and my video camera was gone, Timo's day pack was gone, and Double O's 45 was missing out of the glove box. (He forgot to take it out and Timo and I didn't even know it was there.) We filed a police report and got insurance stuff taken care of, and got a new car. The next week Double O had Mon-Fri off. I don't remember what we did on Monday, but I know that Tuesday afternoon, around 6 p.m. we started hiking Crow Pass (Girdwood to Eagle River). By Thursday at 4 p.m. we were off the trail. 46 hours! Amazing. It was a great hike, lots of awesome views, glaciers, and porky pines. Terrificoso. And that's all we really did up there. We spent the last few days hanging out in Anchorage and Girdwood and Beluga Point.

Hillary and I are over forever and I am finally happy again. It took a lot for me to step back from that situation and realize how stupid and pointless it would be for me to hang on there. I finally feel good about me again.

Double O and I will be in Las Vegas this September. He's buying a one-way ticket and we'll be driving up to Anchorage together. The trip will probably be pushed back a week or so because I want to spend as much time as possible with my family before I move back to AlAskA. So maybe September 14th or so. We'll get that worked out as soon as possible, Mike, so you know and can plan. I don't think we're going to be able to spend maybe more than 4 days in Vegas because of how much time off Double O has. We have to expect some delays on a trip that long in a car and we don't want him getting fired or anything.

So, back in Florida, I'm starting the moving process now. I'm getting rid of a lot of crap that I don't need so that TMO won't show up at my parent's house with a TON of useless stuff. The only things I'm moving to AlAskA with is what I can fit into my car. TMO will move it to AK, but I'd have to pay the difference between Osage and Anchorage. I can't afford that! And I don't need anything. Basically I'm moving to AlAskA with a few boxes of books, some plastic bags with clothes, and a few books of CD's. Double O and Julie have agreed to let me stay with them until I can get on my feet, so I'm very greatful for that. We'll see what happens.

The title of this blog is the name of my new CD. I've recorded a bunch of crappy songs over the last year, mostly those that I have written myself. I'm calling it Raw In Its Juice. The track listing is as follows:

1. Raw Sea Mud Comes To Life At Dawn
2. In The Aeroplane Over The Sea (Neutral Milk Hotel cover)
3. Ode To Modesty
4. In Your Mind (Built to Spill cover)
5. Our Names
6. High as Low
7. Pacing the Landslide
8. My New Song When It's 35.5 Degrees Fahrenheit
9. Brother's Turtleneck Fiasco
10. Leopold's Letter
11. The Mancala Song
12. Everybody Everybody

It's nothing less than perfect.

Peace and Love,
Mungo

Song of the Day: Laura Veirs - "Icebound Stream"