Fire Fire

SoCal is burning up - reports put the displaced between 500,000 and a million people. I really can't count that high, but I assume a million is larger than ten, the number of fingers I have. Wait, I can actually count to eleven, but it's still got to be bigger.

Jesse was forced out of Irvine by the smoke and slept on my floor last night after a marathon grading session. His kids get to answer a creativity question on their exams, update an ancient myth to a modern setting for a Hollywood film. I'd cast Leonardo DiCaprio as Icarus, a troubled teen from a broken home. If only someone can dispel his demons to find the young man inside. But then comes Prometheus (John Travolta), a gunslinger displaced in time, come to the future to save himself from the past he can not escape, even if it destroys us all. Only one man can stand up to him: Gilgamesh, played by Kate Blanchett, because you see Gilgamesh is really a woman who has been living a lie, a lie that weighs her down like the pendant she holds in her tired hands as she cries herself to sleep. Then Icarus flies too close to the sun and dies.

Times like this make me wish I could make some sweet biblical references to the folly of man's hubris, but all I have is this video. Something about it seems inappropriate given the circumstances, but by inappropriate I mean perfect. I've got a feeling our war would make it into Billy Joel's list if he ever gets out of his drug stupor and updates his song.

Lurking Fear

Since Riverside is a shit-hole, I had to get the hell away for the weekend. Yosemite was the place that found me. Saturday happened some bouldering with Justin, Peter, John, Shannon, Vicki, Taylor - like a Davis reunion or something. Things were tired on my end, so I took it easy. But baijiu came out in the evening, and I'm pretty sure I saw some head-butting, the baijiu rage speaks. I had to leave the bottle with Justin, I think he's found a new friend.

Sunday was the big one. Alex and I did Lurking Fear, that pink line on the far left of El Cap. The rig goes free at 13c, but we were french freeing it for the speed. 10 hours and twenty pitches, then the summit. And let me just put this out there: "aiding sucks." That's the moral of the trip. It's slow and miserable and not any fun.

While driving in the valley I saw a little black bear cub, and all I could think about was shooting it full of tranquilizers and cuddling with it in my arms. Where's my ketamine at?

I leave you to ponder this. I'm not sure either. Something about it is christ-like and something about it is gay. Here we go, the pose and Alex, in that order.

UPDATE: One final shout out to Alex for freeing the Salathe, linking the headwall. Sweet.

The Mastodon

The run down today, a list: studied in the morning, ran up a big hill, climbed a fucking mastodon, ran back down the hill, drove to the quarry, climbed 11 pitches by headlamp on a garage sale rope, spotlighted by a ghetto bird, pulled over at a traffic stop, nearly shot by the cops while being frisked, ate a burrito.

Check out how shitty that dinosaur is. Rusty sheet metal, glad I've got my shots, a superman of sorts. And then there's the smog. SoCal is rad.

The cops had me on the ground, nearly in cuffs and called for the passenger to get out. Jake was trying to eat a burrito, and didn't want to get shot, so he yelled back that he was going to put the burrito down. The cops couldn't hear him, so hands on the guns till jake finally opened the door. I guess he found a place to put it.

My rope was a gift from my aunt who found it at a garage sale. Good enough for me. When you've got to choose between two devils and you know one of them is total shit, sometimes the unknown is worth it. I need to throw away all of my climbing gear, my old rope has about 40 meters left, duck tape is an integral part of my harness, my draws are over 12 years old, and of course my shoes have holes. I feel like a climber out of a dickens novel. Gear for the poor gov'na?

Vegas

Some news from all over. Spending the weekend in Vegas to do a little climbing, some going outing, some studying, some ditching Riverside. Yesterday I did an endurance day at the gallery, over 12 pitches, halfway there to the top of Lurking Fear on el cap. That climb is going to be brutal. It doesn't help my psyche that I don't think I even finished anything yesterday, it was more like falling than climbing.

The reason for the poor performance, lack of sleep. I got suckered into teaching at 7:00 in the morning on thursdays, and since I don't sleep till 3:00 I wasn't left with much time to turn off. But my kiddies are great, all business majors that get my advice on business ethics. Looks like we're all a bunch of suckers. I don't know anything about business or ethics.

I need to figure out my students, so I asked them all to say their name, major, year, and something interesting about themselves. Typically it goes something like: I'm annie, this is my third year as a business major, and something interesting...I have three cats. But occasionally it isn't boring. One girl introduces herself: I'm Jamie, I'm a second year, a business major, and my mom almost had an abortion with me. That's to a teacher she doesn't know, in front of 25 students she doesn't know. It made for some awkwardness, but what do you say? That's intense. Next.

Free scotch at the casinos last night. That's suits on the strip. There's only one way to drink scotch.

God Damn That's Cute

I used to think my heart was a frozen wasteland - devoid of flora, fauna, and love. Then I saw Justin cradling a baby black bear and it all just melted. That is so fucking cute. It gets even better. The bear was drugged so they could tag it, so its little head was rolling back and forth in a super cute way because of the tranquilizers. Ooooooooo I want one! I want a black bear now daddy! They probably get bigger and less like a ball of fur though, don't they? Can I lease one? Cuddle with it until it gets big enough to maul me and then release it back into the wild of SoCal.

The picture comes from Justin's blog of course. He's my hookup in the Yosemite Forest Service, so if anyone needs, I don't know, help tracking a large animal, let me know and I'll see what I can do. He owes me a few favors; being a philosopher has its perks.