Well, more precisely, Hashing in the rain, but you get my meaning.
As anticipated, the weather was not a walking man’s friend yesterday. Fortunately, the Hare (Pubic Head) laid a relatively easy trail on paved roads with no mountains to climb. Took me about an hour to complete. Because it was raining I wasn’t able to capture the event in photos, as I wasn’t inclined to take the phone out of it’s ziplock baggie. Not that there was much of interest to see anyway.
Here’s yours truly at Johannson’s, the Hash gathering spot prior to the walk.
The on-home after event was at one of my favorite locations, Treasure Island resort. I’ve pretty much made it my morning stop for breakfast everyday.
The rain let up for the most part which allowed us to enjoy our Hash circle activities in relative comfort.
Waiting for HIV, our master of ceremonies, to call the circle to order.
I shared my dinner with these two fellow Hashers. They seemed appreciative.
And that was yesterday. A busy day today as well. I’ll tell you about it tomorrow.
When it’s rainy and warm, that’s not so bad. But when it’s rainy and cold, well, that sucks the morale right out of you.
So what exactly are “Hash circle activities,” anyway? Aside from sitting bare-assed on a block of ice? (Or is it forbidden to say?)
Well, rainy and cold never happens here at least!
Not forbidden to speak of our rituals as far as I know. We always start by going around the circle and giving our Hash name. Then the Hare sits on the ice while our leader asks us each individually what we thought of the trail. Anyone who says something positive about trail joins the Hare on the ice. Despite that outcome, you are supposed to be honest. This week I complained the trail was “too wet” which kept my ass off the ice.
Anyway, there are songs for every event. The Hare song is “Shitty Trail” which is sung to the old Mickey Mouse Club tune: “s-h-i, t-t-y, t-r-a-i-l shtty trail, shitty trail. The Hare has laid another shitty trail…” One of the few I know most of the words to now. At the conclusion of the song whomever is on the ice is advised to “drink it down, down, down” (meaning his beer) and he gets up…
So there are several more of these, violation of Hash etiquette punishments–like “blood on the trail” (which has put me on the ice twice so far), not wearing Hash gear, etc. Basically lots of singing roguish and un-PC songs (Ricky the retard comes to mind). And the circle closes with a very nontraditional version of “Coming for to carry me home”.
Anyway, the Hash lives up to its reputation as “a drinking club with a running problem”. Although not every in attendance drinks, water is an acceptable substitute. Folks are generally friendly and for me it breaks up my routine days. I know I look forward to it each week.
You’ll have to give it a try when you visit….