Wednesday, August 18, 2010

The Pinnacle of Pain


My thoughts have turned recently to Bill Cosby before he became a famous TV star. He had a comedy routine about driving the hills in San Francisco. Basically the joke was that he gunned the motor to get up to the top of the hill and when he got there was no more hill, "Where the heck did the land go, for crying out loud!"
This all came to mind as my son Ryan and I went hiking at the Pinnacle of Pain in Berks County. I started off all gung ho and quickly realized that the trail leading to the top was very steep. So steep in fact that not even a Pudding Pop was going to help me make it to the top.
I was huffing and puffing after a short distance and was taking water breaks every few nano seconds. Ryan took pity on me and offered to take the backpack with him after I bribed him. But nothing could stop him from walking in front of me so that he wouldn’t be seen with his old, out of shape Sissy Mary, father. No bribe was going to fix that problem.
I am proud to say that I made it to the Pinnacle of Pain and began my decent. Believe it or not I had more problems going down the hill than going up, with the minor exception of exchanging O2 for CO2. I must have stubbed my toe or stepped on something, but whatever it was hurt like heck, every single step, no matter how I limped or hopped, I winced with pain.
I finally made it to the parking lot and was about to do the limp of joy when I sadly discovered that my car battery was dead. In my mind all I could think of was hearing Bill Cosby utter that famous line. HEEEEEEYYYYYY, HEEEEEEYYYYYY, HEEEEEEYYYYYY.