Short on Time

OMG, I cannot believe I'm going to say this...I'm so glad the weather is suppose to be crappy this weekend. We had plans to go climbing and I'm just too tired to make the trip.

I'm certain I would have fun if we were to get out and climb outside, but we've been burning the candle at both ends -- we're almost out of wax. In fact, we have not grocery shopped in probably three weeks. I'm serious...three weeks. Our pantry is even starting to look empty. While we could probably make something to feed us if we had no money or other food resources, there is diminishing items of nutritional value in the cupboards.

Okay, now for my end-of-the-world story. I finally contacted a company that will install Solar Panels. Sara got me a subscription to Home Power and now I want to get a solar water heater, and electricity. You are probably wondering what does getting solar power have to do with the end-of-the-world? Well, unlike Y2K were I wasn't even remotely concerned about it, with the rising cost of gas, fresh produce, and even getting to work, I've come to believe that thanks to the <sarcasm>great leadership</sarcasm> of George W. Bush and his faithful band of idiots, we are doomed to suffer another Great Depression.

Sara thinks that we are fortunate that there is going to be a change of leadership soon that will help to alleviate a major depression. And of course we are so certain that only the most extremely zealous and thoughtless are going to vote for McCain and another four years of a war that should never have been.

Okay...that is my interpretation of what Sara thinks -- she'd be a lot more elegant in her choice of words. Anyway, I need to get the ivy cleared from my yard, and cut back a few more car loads of blackberry bushes, and then maybe I can start my garden. Oh and we are trying to buy a climbing gym, and we have a couple of businesses running, and I am also trying to master my new hobby of Spanish.

Huh...when you write it all down, it almost seems like I need to cut back a bit.

Sooo Sore

While Sara was out climbing I decided to stay home and do some yard work. I started at 7:30 in the morning by starting a small fire (my fire permit only allows for a four foot diameter fire) which burned very hot and in a counter clockwise path burned the two year old yard waste. I actually had to pull some dried alder from our wood pile to get the fire to burn because the moisture was still very high.

I proceeded to start cutting out large sections of blackberry bushes. I swear I burned down a pile of vines that was a couple cars large. I had dreamed that I would get all the blackberry bushes in the front yard and it wouldn't be too much work. Well after six hours I can hardly tell that I did any work at all. It is really just depressing. , and my body is still sore two days later.

I figured being the kind of person that likes to hike, and rock climb I should be in pretty good shape for the yard work. Apparently that is just not the case, and I'm looking forward to more rest. The last time I was this sore, I road my bike 110 miles from Bellingham to Bellevue.

InDirecTv

I have found that companies that try playing games with me is simply unacceptable. For years Sara and I paid a monthly bill to a satellite television corporation. In June of 2007 I called to cancel my programming. As is the custom of these corporations they want to keep you as a customer. I said I just wanted to cancel the account, but they persistent and I finally let them "Park" my account for six months. What I didn't know was that they would reactivate my account without contacting me, and start billing me for the service after that period.

This weekend I happened to open a letter from this television distribution corporation and saw a bill for $125. My first thought was, "What the Hell?" I was certain that I closed that account, and I had no intention of continuing service. My second thought was, "Good thing I didn't just dump this in the recycling like I usually do." I proceeded to call the service center to find out what was going on.

A very nice and polite lady took my call. She was more than willing to help me but she said I either owed them $125, or I had to pay back a $150 credit that they gave to me. They gave me $150? I don't remember cashing that check, and my bill was paid up when I closed my account. I didn't use the service that they were charging me for so how could I owe them any money? I was a bit irritated, and told her I didn't owe them anything, but could she please get a supervisor. I didn't feel the service rep was responsible for such poor business practices and I didn't want to be yelling at her. Already my voice had been getting harsh.

After making me wait for nearly five minutes, "Chris" my service rep supervisor got on the line. Now, "Chris" didn't sound to be the brightest bulb, but I suppose he could have been educated thru high school. He tried, as the service rep did, to convince me that I owed them money. I let him speak his bit, and then responded, "Look, the only reason I let you 'Park' my account was because I was being badgered and I just wanted to get off the phone and get on with my life, and as for the 'credits' you gave me, I received no money or check from you. Now, you know I'm never going to pay you for something I didn't use, and I'm not going to pay back a credit I never received. You can either continue to waste our time or you can clear and close the account." To which "Chris" responded that he had closed the account and reversed the charges -- just like that. That was very smart as I was about to reach through the phone line and knock him upside the head with the receiver. I have to admit, I was very surprised, and kind of delighted that he resolved that situation so promptly after my spiel.

I think it is amazing how difficult corporations have become and the tactics that they use. If I agree to put something in "Park" or on hold or however you want to describe it, and I don't return the call to continue service the account should just be closed. Or if they are determined to keep my service, they should be required to gain my okay to continue the service. This process of resuming billing without a verbal acknowledgement is unacceptable. Now some might say I received a bill from them, but I also receive tons of junk from them and most of it went directly to the recycle bin. Anyway...the lesson is don't be nice to these corporations, it will only allow them to take advantage of you.

Too Busy.

Sara and I have been burning the candle at both ends lately. It is starting to effect my work, and play. I'm, personally, going through one of those stages where I want to do too many things. I want to be a programmer, run my own business, keep my day job, start a climbing gym, go out climbing, read books, do more photography, clean my house, clean my yard, fix my roof, install solar panels, install solar water heater, send my nephews grandpa's laptop, visit friends who just had a baby, and the list goes on.

Sara isn't doing much better. We did get out for some climbing that Sara blogged and it has been restless since. In fact, now we are just bidding our time until we get out to our next trip.

*Yawn*

Yep, I'm tired -- we are both tired, and Sara made me clean up so the house cleaner could get to all the counter tops and the rug, and it turns out I have another week to clean up. That kind of sucked, but it wasn't too bad since we've had help keeping the house clean.

There is lots going on in the world right now, and I just want to sit and watch it go by for a bit.

Yes, We Can.

A number of people have asked me who I support and why.

Now that the candidates have been narrowed down, I support Barak Obama. I believe, despite some policies I disagree with, he inspires something more of America, of U.S. Citizens, that the other candidates (right or left) have not and cannot inspire in the people of this Nation.

McCain is a disappointment. Eight years ago I thought he was someone different, but after watching his actions, his votes along partly lines despite policies he openly disagreed with, his idle response to illegal signing statements, his weak response to veto's that he knows are wrong, I simply cannot support him.

Hillary simply does too much double speak for my taste. I think she is more than capable, and would actually do a lot to repair the foreign policies that have been so diminished, as well as bring the return of checks and balances to our political system. However, she simply does not make me believe that a change to our lobby and PAC system can be repaired to do what is right for the people of the country (I simply do not believe that corporations are people.)

But Barak -- He inspires. He brings people both young and old, male and female together. I believe with Barak we can do great things. I believe with Barak we can see a return to a strong stable economy. I believe that Barak will return to caring for our neighbors all around the world. I believe Barak will bring a return to wanting to achieve great things.

Be a Patriot

Tell your senators to stop any attempt to give telecom companies immunity for illegal wiretapping.

It's here, It arrived!

I'm so excited to get home...omg, omg, omg. My first ever

Watch for Feral Asses

 It begins with a very long trip from Poulsbo, to Las Vegas. We left on the 26th, and the 19 hour drive took a little over 25 hours (including a stop at Denny's). But we soon arrived at our destination of Red Rocks Canyon, where we spent the next seven days climbing as hard as we could. There were six in the group and despite the cold nights, the days were pretty spectacular. Our first day we spent up at Moderate Mecca and despite a two hour belay, we had a pretty good time until the wind kicked up and we had to head for shelter. We ended up going to the boulder fields where we played on the smaller stone until it got late and we had to head back to camp.

Camp was pretty baron and not much shelter was provided from the wind. We were all pretty tired from the drive and decided to eat and hit the sacks for another day.

Oh, and if you are wondering what "Feral Asses" have to do with anything, in the canyon there are apparently Feral Donkeys that roam the desert range. We didn't see any though, otherwise there'd be a picture to share.

 
Day two was spent at Cannibal crag and while much of it was out of my climbing level I did manage to run up a nice little 5.4 that super easy and provided a little confidence building. I also managed to climb a 5.8 that was hiding in the shade, and while my fingers were too numb to actually feel anything, I am sure it could have been a fun climb.

Alas, the sun didn't provide enough to keep us there all day. Again we ended our day in the boulder fields and lots of pictures were taken of some valiant attempts at very difficult problems.

  Day three Sara and I were on our own while our friends did an epic climbing day. Sara and I went about climbing the Solar Slab Gully. I'm certain it could have been a lot of fun, but we were having a learning experience and as it went we did pretty well. We came away with some things to remember for future climbs -- like optimizing our activities so we move quicker, and making sure that we double and triple check before we do something potentially stupid -- and we had a number of successes that made the learning experience worth it.

Unfortunately, it got cold and as the name implies "Gully" doesn't allow for as much of the "Solar" that we were hoping for while climbing. Though we did get back to the car before sun down, unlike our fellow climbers.

 The fourth, fifth, and sixth days we spent in the Calico Hills at Panty Wall, The Gallery and Stratocaster Wall, and Dog Wall. I managed to get a couple more leads in, and worked on a few harder problems, but ultimately was pretty burned out by the prior days and needed to rest. I have a lot of work to do so I can do multiple days in a row and keep up with our younger friends. My excuse is that I have put on some muscle and now have more to haul up the wall...but really I just need to work on my endurance.

Our last day was just hanging in the boulder field, and I tried to work on a few problems but I really just didn't have anything left. Endurance. That is the goal for this spring.

The Dream

As you know, Sara and I like to climb. We have made this a priority of our life, and do our best to get out and do some long weekends and lots of climbing. This year we are heading to Red Rocks Nevada. I can hardly wait -- we leave the day after Christmas and will get six days of climbing before returning on the 2nd of the new year.


As I dream about the climbing in Nevada, I have started to dreaming about my own climbing walls. We have in our yard a woodshed. The thing about having a woodshed is that we don't have a place to burn the wood. In fact, it should be sold for a couple hundred dollars. The shed is sheltered, sturdy, and that would give me motivation for clearing out all the crap in there...besides selling the wood.

Ah, the dream continues...

Thankful

This is the first holiday without my dad. I think I'm suppose to be sad, or depressed, or maybe in deep thought.
I'm not.
In fact, Sara and I are doing this holiday by ourselves, with a few visits with friends. Thanksgiving is my favorite holiday -- food, family, and relaxing. That is my kind of holiday. I like the idea of enjoying and celebrating something that is all inclusive.

So some things I am thankful for ...

...Climbing
...Good Health
...Balance
...Friends
...Family

I am very thankful for Sara and Hana. They both bring me the most happiness.

K. David Prince March 19, 1943 - September 15, 2007

For those of you who were not aware, my father was recently diagnosed with terminal brain cancer. Last night at around 7:30 PM he took a couple of last deep breaths and then stopped.

The last two weeks of his life were very high. I commented to my dad "You haven't sounded this good in a very long time." During the second week my dad had expressed some fear of coming off this high, and by mid week it was clear he was coming back down. Friday night dad had a rough night.

When I arrived my dad wouldn't talk to me. He would say a few phrases to the nurse, he talked to his brother and sister, but he wouldn't talk to me. He did smile at my joke -- "Hey dad, how does Chinese sound for dinner?"

Around seven o'clock, Kathy asked if dads head hurt. He responded yes, and Kathy gave him a bit more mediation. He complained of no other pain through out the day. Kathy and I soon after went out for a walk with her boys. We dropped the boys off to watch a movie with some very kind neighbors, and after a bit more walking headed home. As we turned the corner I told Kathy I was going to sleep on the couch with dad, because I felt that it was going to be a very short time until the end. My Uncle Keith came out and told us that he had passed.

I had told my dad earlier in this process that I didn't know if I could watch him die. I find it interesting that he waited until my sister and I left the house.

This kind of feeling is hard to explain. There are waves of grief, and some uncontrolled crying. But there is also relief. He had very little pain in the grand scheme.

He was a good person. I miss him already.

She's so Pretty

It has been years since Sara and I attended a wedding. A couple weekends ago Sara's cousin was married, and had one of the most fantastic parties I have ever attended. The property was her cousin's uncle's place on Vashon Island. It was like a small Italian village -- or how I imagine one to be since I have never been to Italy.

I took the above picture with my cell phone, and I just think Sara looks so amazing. It was on the way to this wedding so that is why she looks so good, and I could lose a couple pounds.

I'm getting Fat

I am usually busy with climbing. It is the primary activity that I use to stay in shape, but lately I've had more going on than usual.

Back in April my Dad had an incident where he collapsed at a gas station. He ended up driving himself to the ER. As they ER was about to discharge him, he collapsed again. They did a cat-scan and it turned out that he had a dark spot on his brain.

In mid-July he started to seizure and since his cancer has taken its toll on him. He's now in hospice care at his brothers home and has lots of visitors.

In the meantime, Sara has decided to go out on her own, and I have started a side business doing tech support for the small businesses in Kitsap. My sister is staying with my dad, and been doing most of the care. And we have her two year old golden retriever, which is so mellow everyone thinks he's wonderful...yet he keeps getting into trouble with us.

So as you might have guessed, I am not getting much exercise. The last time I was out climbing, was mid-July and I've gained 10 pounds. It is very sad. I'm starting to look like a dumpling. Sara and I have plans to get back into the climbing gym, and to start walking the dogs but even that is difficult as the weeks have been so busy.

Oh well. I'm sure I can work off the 10 pounds eventually.

Slippery Slopes

Recently, Sara and I were visiting with my Dad, Sister, Uncle and Aunt, and a friend of my dad's. This longtime friend showed up and provided great conversation. It was a blast, but he liked to bring up the touchy subjects. My poor sister was inundated with liberal/progressives to battle her down.

My sister has never been a great debater. To defend her position (not that I'm sure what that position is) she argued the Slippery Slope. So here was how I saw it --

• Dad's friend mentions sex education for kindergartner's
• Sister makes an acknowledgment of disgust towards the topic having heard it on CNN
• Other commentary rises
• A lull in the conversation
• Me -- points out the miss-information and corrects the topic by providing context.
• Sister says -- Yeah, well that is a slipper slope

Of course, that got my sister in a position where everyone was trying to provide their opinion and convince her to change her own. My self included. I felt slightly bad -- that's brotherly love.

What really bother me about the "Slippery Slope" argument is it has no position of substance. Not to mention that it can be used to support either side of the argument; it is a straw man. I mean someone might say that legislating "Abstinence Sex" is a slippery slope, because it leads to a government sponsored religion. Or that providing health care to poor children is a slipper slope, because it will lead to a national health care system.

This Slippery Slope argument is used so that instead of saying "Oh, I am mistaken in my position. If what you say is correct then I'd agree," they can then say "Oh, Well that is a slippery slope...If you follow it far enough there are a million What ifs"

Why are people afraid to have their opinion changed? Is it really that bad for you to say "I'm not familiar with that topic, where can I find more about it?" Or are you so afraid of what could be a remote possibility?

I like to read my news on the Internet over watching the television. The reason is that if a statement is made, I can Google it to get context. If I cannot find anything of reference I can then disregard the writer as a poor example of a reporter and move on knowing that such a writer is not worth my time. With television you get a personality who pushes an opinion, and is on daily and is only held accountable by the ratings. So I have very little impact on the ratings -- I have to turn off my television, stop buying from the advertisers, write letters complaining, etc. I think people who do the foot work on the Internet can find the transcripts, the video, and the context. You don't have to depend on a system to be truthful to you, you just have to be honest with yourself.

Why do we celebrate the 4th of July?

My eight year old nephew asked me that question yesterday while we were all visiting. Made me wish that I had thought about it a bit more. I kept my answer to the bits I could remember from high school, but for what I told him I believe I told him the truth.

We had a very nice visit at my Dad's place in Bellingham. Unfortunately, the 4th being in the middle of the week made it difficult to stay the night. Sara and I both had meetings and work the following morning. But the family all got together, we had hot dogs, and Kathy made burgers, and Lars cooked up oysters -- I have the pearl to prove it. Seriously, my dad handed me an oyster and as I ate it I got a pearl.

We had a nice week so far... We started it with a weekend at Smith Rock for some fantastic climbing, and amazing weather for some camping. Now, we are recovering from the fourth.

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.

Christian Terrorist?

Why is it that if a person of the Muslim faith straps a bomb to their chest they are called a "terrorist," and a Christian with the intentions to bomb anyone who would protest Falwell's funeral is just called a "bomber?"

Can we say "hypocrisy?"

An Epic Adventure

Sara and I had a weekend climbing which was a grand time. We started on Saturday at Index doing some trail clean up. The WCC arranged a crag clean up to foster a relationship so that sani-cans can be put in place. Otherwise you have hikers and climbers digging cat-holes all over the place, at best. Currently, the later is what is taking place if the individuals don't know about the park just in town.

Day two took us to Leavenworth for some visiting with friends and climbing. Sara and I are early to rise and start climbing. Thus began the adventure. We started by reading a couple guide books. Picked a climb to do an prepared for the climb.

Now guide books are to provide the climber with appropriate information to help make the climb safe but can still have errors. In our case, we started a climb that did not tell us we had to climb to the top. We made our first mistake in assuming we could rappel to where we started. Normally going to the top would not be a problem, but we were looking for a quick single pitch route so didn't bring enough gear to climb all three pitches. Not to mention the route was not clearly marked. Both books that we had reviewed had some errors.

So we began our climb. I started by setting a piece of gear to secure me before the first bolt. I climbed up and at the bolt saw two more bolts. One was a traverse to my right the other was a good 15 feet up from there. Now, normally, I'd traverse and clip in, but I presumed it was part of the climb next to us and was rated much harder than I wanted to climb. I decided to continue up and took the run out to the clip above me. It was no problem. Beyond that, I continued to climb, but there were no more bolts, and the anchors I could see (again presuming they were for the climb next to us) were far off to my right. I placed another piece of gear and then ran out my line until I got to a point where I could build my own anchor.

Now, problem two became very clear even though we knew it would be a problem. The wind and the noise of the river made it impossible to communicate. I sat at the anchor I had built and kept pulling up the rope. Finally, I saw Sara pop-up over the edge and she cleared the gear I had placed. Sara, wisely, eased out to make sure I'd take up the slack. However, she had to make a guess that I was safely anchored before making a move. When she reached me she promptly scolded me for running out the rope.

Now we had to make a decision -- Do we go up? Or down climb? We choose to down climb, because again to our right we could see the rock had been bolted and we didn't really bring enough gear to go up. I began to lower Sara to the anchors that I had skipped before. I cleaned up my anchor and down climbed and traversed to her. This was particularly scary because I had no place to put any gear to protect myself as I moved down, and it would have been a long fall that would have left a nice rock rash.

Once at the anchor Sara informs me that we don't have the rope length to rappel back to our safe place on the ground. I suggested I could rappel and see, and then just hitch my way back up if it was a problem, but we could also see more bolts going up.

There were two crews below us, so we went up. I cruised up the slab hardly using my hands. Again Sara came up and we had a choice again. We just happened to have one of our friends walkie-talkies, and we made a call out to our friends. They had four ropes between them, so if they sent up a climber we could all rappel and not lose any gear.

We got a message through to our friends and they made a plan to climb up to the anchors. Many people discourage the walkie-talkie idea, but I have to say that if you use it only to pass along commands, and only to clarify safety needs it is a great backup system. Used properly and they can be a life saver, used wrong and they can be dangerous. In our case, I was very happy to have one with us.

I had Sara lower me to the first anchors. As I went down I clipped in some gear to protect her from any falls. At the anchors we lowered Sara and Kari (who came up just to have a climb) and Mark (a new climbing friend) and I tied the ropes together, cleaned the gear and rappelled.

It was quite the adventure, but I'm very proud of how we handled it. We could have climbed our way into something very dangerous but we kept our cool and practiced our safety the whole time. We also figured that in a worse case scenario we could have rappelled the length of our rope, built and anchor and then down climbed the last bit with the gear from an intermediate anchor.

Now we have to get a second rope. And some bail webbing, which would have made our down climbing safer. Such is life though, and we live and learn. I'm very thankful for all our climbing friends who have taught us all our safety skills and didn't think we were too insane when we asked question after question.

Be safe, Climb On, have fun.