My angry driver

This morning on my way to work I had a driver turn his car into mine and honk at me. Why this driver did this is hard to explain, but I think it had more to do with being cranky or angry than with me.

So I came to an intersection where the cross street has one lane that extends into two lanes after going through the light. From my perspective this gives people wanting to make a right turn an open lane to turn into. Remember the rules of the road say you must continue through an intersection without changing lanes.

So as all the cars are going through the light and into the left lane, I make a complete stop at the red light. I then proceed to make a right turn into the open right lane. Ahead of me in the right lane is a big semi truck which I purposefully pulled in behind so as to not crowd the left lane, plus he was moving slow so I figured most of the drivers would want to go around the big truck.

Then all the sudden I hear a honk. I look in my left drivers side mirror and a car is turning into me. I continued to move forward figuring if I stop I'm going to be hit, but the guy then pulls up next to me, gives me the finger, and then proceeds to drive past the slow semi truck that is in front of me.

Someone needed a hug this morning apparently.

No more Television

So I canceled our satellite television. I figured at $65/mo I could save a lot, and we don't really watch much anyway. Besides, the shows we do like will be out on DVD in a year, and the ones we want to keep up on are likely available online.

Surprisingly, I am missing it more than I thought I would. I mean, there isn't anything on but I often would put it on for background. Or I would find two shows and I would pause one while I watched the other until a commercial would pop up. But some how saving almost $800 for the year seems like a good idea. That means I can buy $800 worth of television from apple or bittorrent.

Now I'm in the process of finding a tuner card for my machine so we can download the television we like to the computer and play it out to the tube. I suppose I could just hook up a monitor but I thought I'd like it better if I could watch my actual t.v. Besides, I have the tube available for our DVD's and NetFlix.

I think I'll miss PBS the most. I might have to put up an antenna for local channels. We'll see.

Weekend of Firsts

Last weekend, Memorial Weekend, Sara and I were joined by about 10 other people in Leavenworth for several days of our favorite activity -- rock climbing. Our first day was mostly orienting ourselves, and we did some top roping at a spot that is popular but no one was around Friday. Sara and I spent our second day out on the hard stuff with our friends Shawn and Ken. Shawn was our rope gun and we had a couple of ropes running between the four of us. We did some fantastic climbs and as usual after about three I was totally whooped. I have a goal climb though which is to lead this 5.8 crack at the Alphabet wall. I'm certain I can lead it, but doing it while placing my own gear is something I'm a bit nervous about. I have lots of excuses though -- I'm old, I'm relatively new to climbing, I break easy...

Day three was a day of firsts. Sara lead her first 5.5 crack on trad gear, and we left the gear in so Ashley, and Kari could do their first outdoor leads. I also lead the 5.5 and had fun on a 5.9 and 5.4 cracks. I should have gone back and lead the 5.9 (it was just about three hard moves) but as I said, I have lots of excuses. Day four was the easiest day. We spent time leading a 5.6 with gear again. Sara did it and I checked placements, then Kari mock lead it with Sara checking the placements. I climbed and cleaned my own placements and was very happy with how I placed my gear.

Leading on your own gear placements is kind of scary. If it fails...it is your own fault. We watched our friend, Shawn, on a very hard climb, and he did something super smart -- he placed two pieces of gear right near each other. It was a good thing too because just after he moved beyond the gear he kicked out the lower piece. We all breathed after he placed a new piece of gear. When he got down, he didn't even no he'd kicked out his gear. It was just good he had that backup.

So lots of good experiences and we cannot wait to get up to Squamish, B.C.

Oh -- I saved off the beard. Yep...it is true. But I'm definitely going to grow it out this fall.