Return
February 29, 2008 at 10:55 pm | In Skiing | Leave a CommentTo winter.
To sleep, perchance to ski in the morning.
Mend
February 28, 2008 at 11:52 pm | In Drivel, Physics, Skiing | Leave a CommentI must be feeling better. The walk home from the bus was captivated by an intense need to ski – to fall gracefully from on high, snow flowing past my feet, and my worries left in startled repose on a summit. I’m still lacking inspiration for the weekend. My usual partner and I have been tossing ideas around, but nothing feels right yet. I want to get high on unusual, safe, and secluded routes. I need to solo a challenging route soon – the rest of my life will go better once I have.
Here’s hoping our lab’s resident steep skier fared well today. The weather was good – I’ll bet the snow was good on high north-facing routes.
T’was another late night of delving into the grand art of making a small piece of metal flat and shiny on two parallel sides. It’s a grand art alright- I still don’t get it.
Steep, cloudy, boot deep, soft, and long.
That’s what I want.
Saved
February 28, 2008 at 12:00 am | In Drivel, Skiing | Leave a CommentThanks to an unknown denizen of the web, I was saved from buying yet another pair of skis. Here’s hoping the fleet-fingered purchaser gets more life out of the skis than I feared… ($350 for a pair of Goode 95s mounted up with lightly used Comforts is pretty amazing) I just couldn’t bring myself to trust that the skis wouldn’t break.
Bailed from a morning ski trip tomorrow – better to sleep.
I’m still lacking inspiration, though I’ve found a few new possible projects. Inspired or not, the weekend’s looking better and better. Freezing levels falling from high to low, with precipitation as it does so – all atop a now solid base. Powder Saturday, project Sunday? hmm.
Prolly won’t be safe to go, but it might be. Only time will tell.
Productivity?
February 26, 2008 at 9:50 pm | In Drivel, Physics | Leave a CommentWell, a little happened today. I got a little desperately needed data analysis done, and we moved a large piece of hardware without hurting anyone or breaking anything important.
On the outdoors front, t’was another skiable day up north. I still feel sub-par. The weekend has a window in it, but it looks short – too short for comfort, unless the forecast changes. Casting about for inspiration has been thus far completely unsuccessful. Hopefully I’ll be captivated soon. …. in fact, another idea’s just come up.
Got a clue what this plot means?
I sure don’t. I even know what the axes have to say.
Edit: I’m still not inspired, but man Google Maps is handy.
Edit again, hours later: I’m still not inspired. Tons of ideas now, but I’m failing to be pulled by any of them. Hm. I need a good solid solo outing like I need a trip with a good friend or two.
Unproductive
February 25, 2008 at 10:39 pm | In Drivel, Physics, Skiing | Leave a CommentJust watched an episode or two of Mythbusters. Consciously I understand that my job is, in fact, equally cool. Hell, we even get better toys and we actually get the physics right. Subconsciously, work feels like work these days; I can’t figure out why. It’s so damn cool – I know that I love it, but it still feels like a job.
So, to set things right these days, I ski. Thursday looks like the next good morning. I hope I’m healthy.
?
Blather
February 24, 2008 at 10:42 pm | In Drivel | Leave a CommentTags: eye candy, sailing, WordPress
It’s good to muck up a blog with a little blather, methinks. That way, I won’t feel so bad blathering later. Blather blather, blather blather blather; blather blather. Perhaps if I get the blathering done now, I won’t do quite so much in the future. While I blather, images move from one computer to another. By the time I’m done blathering, I’ll find a little eye candy to slip in here. Besides, editing a new blog’s a little more engaging than making fits fit.
Thus far, the WordPress interface hasn’t been entirely intuitive, but it’s pretty easy to get going nonetheless. It’s unfortunate that the CSS editing features are restricted to those that pay (this wouldn’t be a fixed-width template…) , but it’s pretty nifty that they’re hosting the service for free.
The blather continues with thoughts I’ve wanted to express but not had an appropriate venue for. Now that I’ve my own venue, I declare the below to be appropriate.
- Mountaineering is selfish. Especially soloing. That doesn’t make it wrong. Cutting your own path, in part for the sake of doing so, is inherently selfish.
- I’ve been a part of our local climbing community long enough that someone I’ve chatted with is probabilistically going to die in the next year. Don’t let it be you, and I’ll do my damnedest not to let it be me. The mountains are way too good to allow yourself to get hurt.
- Some folks ask why I like to do more difficult and challenging things in the mountains on my own – one of my parents has gone so far as to imply that doing so is inherently stupid. I feel safe on my own. There’s no ego pushing me forward, simply my own little voice – the one which is rarely wrong. The little voice is easily overwhelmed. When I’m with a partner, or with a group, I inherently feel safer in numbers, and I’m often driven past my own internal thresholds of safety. While it’s certainly true that numbers help with rescue, they can also draw you into accidents. I have to know and trust my partners almost fully before I’m comfortable pushing the limits with them – the list of such partners is quite short.
- This is really true. One of the purposes of having a significant other is because, on the whole and over long enough time periods, they make you happier than you would be alone. If they don’t, then what’s the point?
- The time in our lives is extremely limited. Goethe chimed in: There is time enough if we will but use it aright.
Blathering temporarily complete, it’s time for the aforementioned eye candy:
Proof positive that sailing doesn’t cost much money – a dream, time, and a little wind will suffice.
The people pictured above are engaged. Congratulations are in order.
Kinda makes you want to watch the sunrise from more summits… doesn’t it?
In closing, as I just re-watched the directorial triumph that is Episode II, I must leave you with this:
YODA: Truly wonderful, the mind of a child is. The Padawan
is right. Go to the center of gravity’s pull, and find
your planet you will.
Stricken
February 24, 2008 at 11:45 am | In Drivel, Skiing | Leave a CommentHere’s where I want to be:
Instead, however, I’m here at home, despite the route’s pristine condition. The smallest of afflictions, some sort of feverish sinusy thing, left me woozy and nap-ridden; not the sort of thing one wants at the beginning of a three-day push. In a way, the whole thing is good. I’ve been beholden to the vision of skiing my line of choice for months; plotting, planning, waiting, and preparing. Everything, work, life, and myriad choices, has taken a backseat to the goal. Now that everything’s right, except for me, there’s nothing to be done except to reach out and get back in touch with all the other stuff I’m missing out on – like the magnetic moment of a piece of titanium.
Obviously, the correct choice is to start a blog.
The weather and the illness may yet give me one last shot at skiing out of Newhalem at the end of the week. Otherwise, the route will likely have to wait for next year.
Inception
February 24, 2008 at 11:09 am | In Drivel | Leave a CommentPerhaps a blog will serve me well. Perhaps it’ll just waste my time. Either way, it’s here now. I’ll allow the content, rather than more premature words, to define it. Thus endeth, I hope, the pithy part of a blog’s first post.
Whence the name? To believe that extending in the right direction makes for effortless flight and that going with gravity brings a lark into my hand.
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