An Exercise In Futility

It is 20 C in here, yet despite wearing a fleece and touque, i am still cold. Finally got around to having a cup of coffee and it seems to be helping. It is still snowing, ever so gently. “fortunately”, it is supposed to warm up and be above freezing for about a week, starting wednesday, unfortunately, the warm spell is supposed to kick off with lots of rain. Let’s hope it washes away the snow instead of saturating it and freezing…. We still have leaves to rake! We were in vancouver when the snow came, and had to drive from Surrey to Tsawassen in the bad weather. It was actually not too bad at all; traffic was very light and generally well behaved all the way along 88 ave, nordel way, and river road. Unfortunately, it got very busy on hwy 17 and slowed to a stop; we were 10 km from the ferry when we hit the traffic jam. The news report said a truck had jackknifed across all southbound lanes, and another truck had crashed or broken down somewhere on the detour route, so it was slow going. Turns out it was not a jackknife at all, (ie not a semi), and it was only really blocking maybe one lane — but the hwy was blocked while they tried to move it. Fortunately we left an hour earlier than necessary, so we made the ferry terminal with 10 minutes to spare Still cold, time for more coffee.

My wish was granted, and i am on the opera enhancement project now. Whee! So my week took a turn for the better. Had a frustrating night climbing, what with having taken tuesday off due to being under the weather. I had a mediocre performance, being unable to finish the 12+ which i can usually flash! (oddly, R. had problems in the same spot too, and we suspect one of the holds has been moved into a uselss position) Only on the very last climb did i feel i was doing well — had a solid run up a 12: was tired and weary but did not falter. I think the next time i take a week off i must at the very least do some hand exercises to keep my crimping muscles in shape.

climbing is going well. I am working on two different 5.13 routes now; one is currently impossible, it simply requires skill i do not have. Getting close though. the other is new and doable, i just need to have a good night i think — the sequence is key, one wrong transition and you’ll be out of balance and unable to hang on to the tiny crimpers. I tried to lead a 5.11+ last week and it kicked my ass. My clipping is getting better but is still not good enough to do me anything but a detriment on a hard climb. I am not happy with work these days. I really am hating programming at the moment. i would love to move on to the opera project *right now* but i have this airline stuff to finish. As i sip my coffee, i close my eyes and am transported back to the main office, reminded of hectic but memorable times when we worked long hours and travelled a lot, but were doing exciting things. How can i miss those days which i *know* i hated at the time? I think it was a different kind of hate. I remember saying to Jo one day ‘i have never been happier’; I’d sure like to figure out what it was that made me happy back then.

a billion browser tabs open trying to (unsuccessfully) google for a needle in a haystack, ankle hurts, brain feels like goo; it must be the end of the week.

Well, that became very boring very fast. I spent a sum total of about 12 hours in the SL world and it was very un-exciting. Maybe if the UI was not so slow and choppy it would have been a little more interesting, but even then, apart from chatting with people, there doesn’t seem to be much more to *do* than building and using objects; and i think my time would be better spent doing that sort of stuff in, you know, *real* reality. I met a couple of interesting people, but it seems like a lot of effort to go to (take 100% of computer resources so cannot do anything else concurrently) just to chat to them. A shame really. In climbing news, i was unable to flash a new 5.12+ climb, but i did manage to get 2 holds from the top. Leading, i have finished some of the ceiling routes, though not without lots of rests. I definitely need to practice my clipping in a no-pressure environment instead of while trying to lead a 5.11-! V will be old enough to go trick-or-treating next year, so it is finally time to start thinking about the final design for my hallowe’en costume: Predator Redux 2007. (original version from around 1996; i’ll dig up pictures if possible).