Discussion: Such volume in your training!

You haven't gone completely crazy and started training for a rogaine, have you?

Here is a short list of things I would rather do than participate in a rogaine:

1) Run several hundred miles through vicious sage wearing little more for protection than ordinary O' pants. (I actually did that one, though not all in one non-stop run.)

2) Step into a McDonalds and order a vanilla milkshake. (I haven't been in a McDonalds in a long time, and I'm not sure why, but if it would get me ot of doing a rogaine, I would happily drink several McDonalds' milkshakes.)

3) Submerge one arm into a tank of water containing a giant floating ball of fire ants.

4) Submerge one arm into a tank of water containing an entire school of ravenous Piranhas. (But I would only do this if they were dead; I'm not stupid! But, okay, if I would stick one arm into a tank with a giant ball of fire ants in it, I guess I'm kind of stupid, but at least I wouldn't be rogaining.)

I count 2017 as a year of total personal success, largely because I didn't you-know-what.

Oh, good. I was getting worried. Carry on!

Anna is deathly afraid of ants and would not like #3 one bit. I suspect that if offered the choice, she'd go actually choose to go orienteering,. Of course, she actually likes rogaining because I do most of the navigating and she gets to look for snakes...and rocks...if she finds either, she has to carry them.

It's a rare piranha that's still ravenous after it's dead.

We are dealing with rare events here, so it's more than appropriate. After all, how many rogaines were there last year anyhow (24 hrs, in the US)?

Re: Anna, how could she not like orienteering? In some parts of the country, the routes from the start to the finish are practically paved in snakes Really, the sport could almost be defined as running with a map to navigate a course in the woods, while avoiding multitudes of snakes.

Orienteering is of course also the best way to stay out of rogaining.

Bubo has right. You can go to as many events in Sweden as you like, post yourself at the finish, and listen for as long as new finishers are finishing, and you will never once hear anyone speaking in tongue or speaking about rogaining either.

'Step into a McDonalds and order a vanilla milkshake'? Er, no--you are much too smart for that.

She's practically a teenager. Logic has no relation to her likes and dislikes, which may be real or imagined and change as soon as she thinks her parents might have her figured out. But for the record, she hates orienteering and will never do it again. At least not until Saturday, and quite possibly Friday since we're going out field checking for the courses that she completely hates designing. But she loves rogaining.

Very impressive, Clem. Assuming there's actually any real vanilla in a vanilla milkshake at McD's...

I had the same thought, and I suspect there isn't, though it's hard to guess what "Natural Flavor" means.

Probably wood-tar creosote. It's not "real" vanilla, but it is "natural".

At least it's not cow poop. Or, being Wyoming, maybe it is...

I don't care. I still would rather go to a McDs and get a vanilla milkshake and drink it than rogaine.

And, for some reason it brings to mind one of the 10 Best Quotes of All Time: Samantha Saeger's: "I would rather drink spit than carry water."

Well, you could have Sharon Crawford carry the water for you, but who knows what kind of "natural" additives might come out of her water bottle. I assume she's still using the one I first saw in the summer of '80 in France and Switzerland containing all sorts of water filtering stuff anchored to the inside of it. Would be hard pressed to convince yourself of any vanilla flavoring in there.

The story I heard was that some bottle that sounds like the one you describe was confiscated from Sharon at a border crossing many years ago. Last I knew she was using recycled ketchup bottles.

I have long doubted that I would ever participate in a rogaine again, but if it came to a choice between that and a McDonald’s vanilla milkshake, I think I’d strap on my shoes and compass and head into the wilderness.

Anna is now in your camp, Swampfox: she hates rogaining. She is interested in any orienteering course that has snakes. And she will happily drink water from a ketchup bottle (ketchup is its own food group) and drink a vanilla milkshake from McD's.

I think it's time to send her back to school.

I think after Charlie's comment it is time to send Anna to McDonald's and conduct some milkshake research. And then maybe school--who knows, you don't want to go overboard, right?