Hello friends, family, and whatever the hell Matt is. I am of course having coffee, and watching climbing. Much needed coffee I will add however we will get to that. Last week at school was pretty normal. I spent a lot of time finishing up the 3rd chapter of my Masters Research paper, which I forgot about. Yikes. Luckily they were very accommodating and I was able to turn it in the week after the initial due date. Friday afternoon I took Sharma hiking right after school. The days are finally getting longer which I am very excited about. At least now it isn't dark when I leave work. A substantial improvement. That night I relaxed and watched climbing, biking, and snowboarding movies in hopes they would make up my mind for plans the following day. They did. I decided I was really psyched on that boulder problem from last weekend. I really wanted to send it. So Saturday morning I woke up and went through the normal routine. Coffee breakfast, climbing movies etc. I headed North at 10. I had to share the area with a few different people which I don't love but they were all nice and they weren't working the same thing I was. By no means am I a great climber but I have found the harder the problem, the less traffic on it. Since this is the hardest problem in the immediate area I didn't have to fight for it. I actually ran into a guy that I also ran into last week. Really nice guy named Troy who was out climbing with his wife. They inviveted me up to Estes Park to go sport climbing at an off the map area so I'm stoked to check that out.
I spent probably 2 hours trying CD with varying levels of success. And when I say varying, I mean varying between no success and a little success. I am now moving through the bottom pretty consistantly but the crux move is this really low percentage. I made it from the bottom to the dyno three times which I was excited about; almost hit the dyno once. It was on my fourth try of the day. After that the combination of skin being destroyed and being wicked pumped thwarted the rest of my attempts. By the time I was done I noticed that I was bleeding in eleven places. I initially thought it was just ten, but I found my elbow was too. Seven spots on my left hand and 3 on my right. Maybe what I do is crazy. Whether it is or not I love it.
I climbed two other cool problems that I hadn't done before so the day wasn't all sad. They were both really good and things I will go back to. I was going to refilm the climb that got messed up in the video last week but by the time I got to it I had been worked by CD and had no gas left to send it. Either way good climbing day.
About the time I was leaving Nick was asking me to come to Denver to hang out for the night. After not a whole lot of thinking I headed North instead of South on 25. I got to Denver at about 4:30pm in time to Join Nick, Tracy, Amalha, Gina, Tracy, Lisa, and Jesse for a tour at Stranahan's Whiskey. The tour was good and pretty interesting. I was complaining like a child though because I was hungry and hadn't eaten all day. After our tour we stayed for dinner.
At about midnight everyone decided they were tired. I was not real excited about sleeping on the floor and since I only had a beer at dinner, several hours prior, Sharma and I packed up our things and headed South. It was a really nice night actually. I could have the windows down, yet with heat on. Kind of an oxy moron but oh well. Right in Castle Rock my low gas light comes on. It tells me I have 30 miles until empty. Now historically I test this little gas light for accuracy and it is always low. It says 0 miles for at least 5 miles. It always happens that way! Well right around Briargate, my full proof research proved me wrong...or dumb. Power steering goes out, then the power for the brakes. I pull off the highway a little ways onto the ramp. Now many of you may think that I lost my little mind. I did not. I do think however that I went, (sigh) "mother fucker." So on go the flashers, out comes the phone. 1.5 miles to the closest gas station. Lovely. Luckily I have been sticking to my stringent diet and practicing for my half marathons. That was a lie. I haven't gone for a run in a year. Sorry for the deception. Out comes the warm jacket, out comes the dog, and across the highway we go. We probably walked for the first half mile or so and got very bored and impatient. We ran the rest. When I got the the gas station I tied the dog onto the handle of the front door, and asked the man/boy working if they had gas containers. He was pleasant and showed me to them. I paid and as I left he goes, "have a great night!" I was kind of confused as to if he didn't notice what I was doing and how ridiculous it was. No consensus. It almost upset me even though I knew he didn't mean it that way. Circumstantial pet peeve was other people's happiness it seemed. We ran back down the hill to the highway. Headed for home. Wacky night on the road. I will say that looking down and seeing how happy Sharma was despite our circumstances kind of made me smile. How nice would it be to live so simply. Finally home.
Today I edited and got the classroom together and ready for the CSAP tomorrow. Now to make dinner and say goodnight. Hope the kids do well. Adios and goodnight amigos. Look forward to seeing many of you next month. Here is the video from climbing this weekend.
I realize the music is a little sad and or angry. These are not reflective of my current mood. Just good songs.
Sharma on our run
Stranahan's Whiskey
KING CHEF!!
Sunrise
Sunset
Sharma staring at Karate Man who is out in the street.
