2005 April

For me this movie was a good history lesson about Queen Victoria and the labor and tory parties, with some really good performances.

The Crabapple blossoms look a little different this morning - they’re now all the white variety. I’m curious what things will look like in another week.

A bitter tale of the devastating effects French Catholic missionaries had on the Algonquin and Huron tribes along the St. Lawrence river. Beautiful scenery is the only respite in a spiteful, if accurate, story.

These blossoming trees have brightened the streets of Fort Collins lately, like a message that Spring has officially opened. I had no idea what they were, but there were clearly two varieties: white and rose. They intrigued me enough to tote the camera to work with me and identify them.

I usually have little interest in trees I think of as “landscaping trees”, but these appear to do so well here I thought they might be native. It turns out they’re not, but once introduced they’ve done well along the Front Range. They adapt to dry and cold weather with a hardy root system, and would probably survive on their own now without the help of landscapers. They are commonly grafted with other trees to make bushes and other decorative varities, though. Do you know what they are?

I had no idea what I was in for with this movie. It starts with a true story that took place in Brooklyn in 1972, and proceeds to hit you from all directions with the oddities of human behavior. Economic hardship, the influence of mass media, gay marriage, mob psychology, hostage psychology, transgender operations, geographic awareness, parenthood - like life, the list goes on. Best of all, the movie doesn’t get preachy about any of these things. Amazing.

Our plan was to head back to Vedauwoo today, and we told many people that we’d be there for an overnight trip. But even though we’re very excited to spend more time at Vedauwoo, there is another idea stewing in our heads, and this morning our conversation turned to it. Ann and I have been talking about pursuing the cyberhobo lifestyle by buying an RV and moving into it. The idea has been stirring us up, and we wanted to either validate it or lay it to rest permanently by looking at a few of these things. So we changed our plans at the last minute and went south instead of north, to the Windish RV dealer in Denver.

After seeing a whole bunch of trailers and fifth wheels, we still feel it’s a possibility. It’s not the All-American path to wealth and prosperity through home ownership, but that path just looks depressing to a cyberhobo. Travel, freedom, flexibility, (no need to mention the risk of abject poverty) sound much more like the trails we love to tread. So, stay tuned.

After lunch we headed up to Golden Cliffs for a little recovery climbing. Continuing to get back into some lead climbing, I lead Offline 5.8, Between the Lines 5.9-, and Deck Chairs on the Titanic 5.9+. They all felt like real, challenging climbing, especially Deck Chairs, a classic at this crag.

It felt like a long, full day, and we headed home tired. Our apologies to friends and family in Denver for sneaking through like that!

Ann reminded me that this week a year passed since we set off from the Mexico border to hike the Continental Divide Trail. I feel a little guilty that the day slipped by without snapping me out of my busy work week to recognize it. It’s still very emotional thinking back to that first day of hiking, setting boldly off to make many mistakes and enrich our lives with unimagined experiences.

This year at least two dozen brave souls have announced their intention to hike 200 miles or more on the CDT, many of them probably as innocent as we were. I feel jealous, excited, and even a little protective of them. Several include links to their own websites, and a few have started online journals at trailjournals.com. I wish them all the best.

This movie compares mental illness and drug addiction to love, and has fun doing it. I wouldn’t usually root for a violent, thieving stalker as a hero, but what if such tactics are the only ones that would ever get through to the self-loathing, drug-addicted object of his obsession? The dangerous presumption is that his intentions are good, which is probably rarely the case in such situations. Nevertheless, a lot of fun is milked out of these characters. At the same time, harsh realities are not forsaken. Even the fact that they both survive to some extent on their youth and good looks is acknowledged, and we can imagine how much worse off (and less fun to watch) they would be without them.

At last, my old childhood stomping ground is melted off and climbable! We headed up to Vedauwoo with our friend Alan to introduce him to climbing, and I eased back onto the lead on Easy Friction, 5.4. We all had a ball on this familiar slab, Easy Lieback 5.5, Cold Fingers 5.7, and Dropzone 5.9. The weather was gorgeous, and we invented a new sport - rope yoga! Check out the Flickr pics for some more shots of this.

Best of all, we’re stoked on climbing again! The gym had become depressing, and the fresh air and uncontested views of Vedauwoo reminded us that we like climbing!

I thought this was a refreshing, satirical break from the “crime movie” genre. The characters and the setup are ridiculous on one level, and very real on another. It’s light entertainment that, if you think about it, asks difficult questions about the nature of crime, justice, mental illness, love, friendsip, and cultural clashes.