2012-06-29 47 8

Location

A woodside meadow at Wädenswil

Participants

Plans

Calamus plans a midnight geohash after a beer or twelve with a Wädi buddy called Waldzitherclown. As his lower backside still hurts (mostly because of yesterday's hash), he'll settle for the train. Now, the last train back leaves Wädenswil at 11:46 p.m., meaning he'll bring his sleeping bag.

Expedition

"Let me get this straight", Waldzitherclown began once more, "you're going to spend the night on Wädi hill, on a spot where there is absolutely nothing of importance." "Well", Calamus admitted, "nothing by nature, but - " "And you have absolutely no reason to go there." "Well, there is a... Okay, maybe there's no rational reason." "Awesome!", Waldzitherclown exclaimed enthusiastically and took another sip of the beer Calamus had brought. It was the evening before 2012-06-29, and they were sitting on a bench in Wädenswil looking out to the lake. With the hash being located just outside the quiet town, there was no question Calamus would pick up his sleeping bag from his office (don't ask) and have a drink with Waldzitherclown before, who lived nearby.

Waldzitherclown, or wzc (pronounced "whisk"), was no older than sixteen, yet Calamus considered him a peer, as in his opinion, wzc's understanding of the patterns underlaying politics surpassed that of many an adult. They'd known each other for several years now, but it had been only last week that wzc had returned from a student exchange year, which he had spent organizing protests and the like.

"Well, you'd better hurry if you want to get there before midnight. You may be underestimating the distance." It would indeed have been a rare exception if Calamus hadn't. "Come on, I'll join you." This came unexpectedly. Of course Calamus had briefly thought about asking wzc to accompany him, but had rejected the idea immediately, not wanting to appear as an utter loon for a change. However, wzc didn't seem to see anything loony about it, for he began to lead the way upwards through Wädenswil. He had been right. The way was quite a bit longer than Calamus had anticipated, and although they walked quickly, they reached the well accessible hashpoint a few minutes after midnight.

Since wzc didn't have any parental permission to stay away overnight (sixteen, remember?), he had to leave at this point, but invited Calamus to visit him for breakfast the next morning and bade him goodnight. Calamus spread out his sleeping bag at the hashpoint. He didn't exactly have any shelter, but the sky was clear, dry weather had been announced, and what were the odds of a giant unexpected thunderstorm happening the very night Calamus slept in the open?

A giant unexpected thunderstorm happened the very night Calamus slept in the open. It started with annoying rain and continued with one thunderbolt after the other on all sides of the hill. Calamus wasn't exactly sure how well he was protected, being the only non-grass object in some square metres, even though he was no American, which is why he didn't spend a very restful night.

The next morning, the rain ended, just before sunrise. Hypocrite. Calamus, being soaking wet and still not sure what the chance had been for him to be hit by one of all those lightnings, took a picture of the cloud concealing the sunrise, ate what little breakfast he had brought, and left for Waldzitherclown's place.