you hang out in the hot sun all day, it leaves you drained. i already got dark (i.e. tanned) from hanging out with julie in walden pond yesterday, but today i became even darker as rob and i ventured out to the boston harbor islands to scout locations for his lesbian vampire film.

my last visit to the islands was with john miller back in june 2001. the most dangerous part of that trip was we almost got stranded on peddocks island, barely making it onto the ferry as it was about to pull away. the most dangerous part of today's trip happened once again on peddocks island. we didn't miss the ferry, but we did scale down a steep vertical hill, about a 10-story drop, riding in the shallow grooves left over from some recent water erosions, kicking down loose rocks and dust clouds, a miracle that neither one of us tumbled headfirst into our deaths. rob was the first to go down, which was good, because i learned from his mistakes as he slid recklessly down the hill.

we also didn't bring a flashlight, and explored the pitch dark catacombs of the old abandoned military fort (some say haunted) aided by rob's mini-lighter and the flash of my digital camera. we would've had two flashes if rob hadn't forgotten the battery for his own camera. and we can neither confirm nor deny that we might've trespassed at times, since it's hard to decipher those cryptic "keep out" signs posted near some locations.

georges island came first (the hub island), followed by peddocks. originally we wanted to visit lovells island as well (the pretty girl at the info booth back on shore said it was her favorite island, so naturally we were sold), but after a long wait (while the boat people took time to have their lunch break), the ferry to lovells was over-capacity and we had to wait for the next boat an hour later. so we ditched the idea of seeing that island and instead went to peddocks. when we got there we were informed that we only had 45 minutes of exploration before the last ferry boat back to georges island would be arriving. not that there was much exploring to be done on peddocks anyway: almost all of the old abandoned buildings were boarded up and fenced away. that didn't stop rob from hopping over the barricade (i followed, after much hesitation, only because my legs aren't as long) to check out the outer perimeters. we tried to find a way back out, and that's when we came across the cliff overlooking the rocky beach beckoning below. the rest is dangerous history. in between reconnaissance missions, rob had time to grab a hot dog, we drank expensive extortion-rate sodas ($2/can), oogled bikini-clad under-aged hotties (they were literally hot, the temperature soared into the 90's), and talked dirt about our mutual acquaintances, past and present. every once in a while rob would light a parliament, while i wished i had my awful-smelling burmese cheroots with me.

the living tragic comedy that is known as human existence played itself out in full force on the ferry boat back to boston. we sat below deck, and was fixated, along with everyone else, by an ineffective father trying to placate his daughter who was crying and throwing a tantrum in her carriage. this was the same little girl who earlier was the epitome of childhood happiness as she performed pole dances for the captivated audience while the boat rocked back and forth on the ocean waves. a lot of disapproving older women were grimacing, completely turned off by the father's inability to control his offspring, as she was wailing away on the tear and scream machine. finally the father just gave up, and looked to be sobbing as he put his hands over his face. baby 1, daddy 0.

when i didn't hear back from renata about possible evening plans, i decided to go over to my parents' place to have dinner instead, where we had jumbo fried shrimps. i got a ride back to my place, and gave my father a spare old ibook power adapter that also works for his ancient powerbook 3400, powerless since march. after he left, i cranked up the air conditioner, finally the weather humid enough to warrant some of that sweet frigidity.