One thing I find interesting is how a few improvements in your life give you a different perspective and change your outlook on things.
I’ve been tinkering with a little side project the last few weeks. it’s still not ready for unveiling but I have to say that even as recently as last year I would not have contemplated something like this.
My economic situation has only marginally improved in the last year but it has improved and that has given me the confidence to contemplate some things I would have never thought about before.
It’s feels like I’m a prairie dog that has stuck his head outside his burrow for the first time and realized that there’s a whole world out there waiting for me. I’m sure that it has probably been the same for anyone else in a similar situation.
I have to admit it’s a slightly scary proposition but I have thought it through thoroughly and the situation looks very positive. Of course there are downsides and potential negatives to any situation and I fully realize and accept the risks. On the whole however I think that this will have a positive outcome once everything is said and done.
I hope I can share some good news on this project by the end of the year.
The other day I was at my favorite writing cafe. It was a nice Saturday afternoon and conditions seemed perfect for writing. Yet the writing didn’t come. This happens to every writer every once in a while. It’s part of the territory and it’s nothing to stress over. You just have to roll with it and use the time for some other purpose.
So I decided to spend the time thinking. Yes, I know. Thrilling. But it’s necessary. I have several plans and issues on my plate at the moment and some free time to contemplate all of these subjects is a real gift.
But just as I was about to get started…. beep. A Facebook update, or a blue light on my phone indicating a tweet response, or a whistle indicating a text message or the ring of an email coming in. Little things but they can wreck a thought process or stop it from ever starting.
So instead of thinking about all those other issues I started thinking about these distractions. When was the last time I had truly been alone with my thoughts for a good long time without any of this coming in and butting in?
Oddly enough it was back in my bar hopping days. Weird I know but way back when I used to go to clubs and bars I would go to some really loud place where I couldn’t hear my phone and just sit back in some shady corner booth and nurse a drink or two for a couple of hours. It was like some sort of white noise that separated me from the world at large and really let me think.
Nowadays? Running gives me a bit of a respite from the world but it’s maybe an hour? hour and a half and half that time I’m keeping my eyes open trying not to trip up or get hit by a car. Bedtime? As soon as I crawl into bed I want to sleep so try as I might I can’t get a thought process going.
So why not just turn off the damn phone or tablet or whatever? There’s always the fear that the second that you do you’ll miss a phone call or tweet or whatever that you need to answer right away. Never works out that way…cept when it does. The minute you turn it off, you know someone will be trying to get a hold of you.
That’s the curse of the instant communications era. You know that you need to keep awake and aware and that fear robs you of that precious time that you need to think.
And I’m not the only one that this is happening to. I’ve noticed other people complain about the exact same thing. These little conveniences are robbing us of the time and opportunity to think. We desperately need to get away from these things. They seem to be so innocuous but they’re a real danger to a thinking person.
TED (technology, entertainment, and design) is a series of talks given in many locations around the world. I’ve been a fan of TED talks for a long time. The thought that people who are out there making a difference in the world would take the time to disseminate those ideas to the public at large is very appealing to me. Very often those that do make a difference seem intent on keeping knowledge a secret.
The rest of us miss out on a lot because we don’t have direct access to these ideas. I think the more we hear from each other, then the more that other people will feel compelled to innovate and think new thoughts and make new things that have never been seen before.
one of my favorite TED talks
The format is open and very friendly. Basically a person stands in front of a group of people and has 20 or less minutes to explain a problem, their thoughts about that problem, why they are concerned about the problem, and what they are doing or want to do about it.
It’s that simple.
And what’s more anyone can do it. The main requirement is that you have devoted time to a certain problem or discipline and that you feel strongly enough that you want others to know about it. You don’t have to be a world leading scientist or politician or rock star to do a TED.
And what’s more you don’t have to speak in front of a bunch of people either. I know some people who hate to speak in front of people or that prefer reading presentations. If writing your ideas is easier for you then go ahead and do it that way.
The main thing is that you share a part of yourself with the world.
All of you have something special to share, to give, to express to the rest of us. Do everyone a favor and let it out. Let the rest of us know about it.
I was driving home on a rainy Monday afternoon. It was the last day of Comicpalooza 2014 and the rain seemed to have held off till the end of the convention but now it was full on raining. As I hit the Montrose/Westheimer intersection traffic slowed to a crawl and it gave me plenty of time to reflect on not just this but all the conventions I had attended over the years.
Most of these conventions (cons) follow a pretty standard format. They are usually 3 days long and tend to take place over a weekend when not much else is going on in the local area. Comicpalooza is an exception in that this year it was a 4 day convention and it always takes place on the Memorial day weekend. The scheduling couldn’t be helped. Other conventions take place before and after in Dallas and these conventions try to not book on the same weekend if possible.
On the first day the die-hard fans, the professionals, and the artists prefer to show up. Casual fans usually don’t show up on the first day or if they do they will come in limited numbers. The crowds are light and those of us that are interested in getting to know the artists, performers, and to see all the merchandise on sale in the dealer’s room will usually make it a point to come in on that day. I see old friends and go in to listen to the small professional panels.
The big stars that were invited to the con are usually out on Friday night touring the town with the convention committee or recovering from their trip. In some ways this is the best part of the convention for me.
Saturday is almost always the big day. If you ever do more than one convention you quickly learn how invaluable parking is. You arrive early at the convention hall and pretty much stay all day long if possible otherwise you are forced to endlessly circle a parking lot or park miles away.
Long lines and waiting are the rule. Lines for popular panels, lines for autographs, lines for food, lines for the bathroom. Of course you can get VIP or privileged tickets to avoid lines but even these end up having lines.
In the smaller meeting rooms the real panels take place. These panels are the professional panels. Authors explain their writing process, artists discuss the current market and how best to network, people discuss the future of genres like comics, anime, books, and film. They don’t have wide appeal but they are very important to small groups of creative types that want to know about these things.
In the main hallways little kids run around trying to see and do everything that they can. Teenagers and young adults sit on the floor in corners looking over an autographed picture or discussing some TV show or movie or game that they all know. Older people like me act like kids.
Some time around the middle of Saturday afternoon a real sense of community descends down upon the convention. Attendees are more comfortable around all of these fellow conventioneers. People in costume readily pose for pictures, impromptu debates erupt with everyone giving their opinions, someone in the crowd breaks out a guitar and starts singing the theme song to some TV show and complete strangers around him join along.
On Saturday evening come the big events. Usually a local band will play, some sort of costume ball will take place, and some big movie will be screened later in the evening. By this time in the night most of the kids have gone home and the hardcore party people will be out in force. The bigger conventions will sell alcohol or someone might suggest the local hotel bar or nearby drinking establishment and people in costume will be wandering round the convention neighborhood, possibly inebriated but everyone is having a good time. The really die-hard fans will camp out in the 24 hour a day anime TV room and basically fall asleep there.
Sunday and things are quickly winding down. Everyone involved in the con from the fans, to the dealers, to the stars, to the volunteers (most of these conventions are run by volunteers) has given their all by this time and the enthusiasm that they had is pretty much gone. The last few panels and sessions occur but no one is really into it. You have a last chance to pick up some items in the dealer’s room and maybe hook up with that new friend you made while standing in line on Saturday but basically it’s all over.
By the early afternoon everyone is earnestly packing up and getting ready to leave.
I feel a slight wave of melancholy wash over me as things wind down. Here is this wonderful bunch of folks that like all the stuff that I like and we’ve spent a couple of great days together and although you hope that it will continue on, it has to end.
So here we are stuck in traffic where things began. It’s not all sad of course. Overall I feel re-energized. I’ve shared all the latest ideas, thoughts, concepts in fantasy, science fiction, pop culture, and general fiction. I’ve gotten to talk to people with different perspectives, with radically different ideas. People that have their own dreams and ambitions. My mind courses with ideas, with new ambitions, and I find some things that have slept within me for a while begin to re-awaken.
I suppose that the main thing that these conventions give me is life. They revive the youthful enthusiasm for my fiction writing. They remind me of more carefree days. They let me know that I am not alone and that my ideas may not be so odd after all.
I recently attended a sci-fi convention over the memorial day weekend. Comicpalooza took place last weekend and it was a major success. My next blog post will be partly a summary about that and about conventions in general but I wanted to address a side issue about this last convention before that.
I posted a lot of my activities and a lot of the sights and sounds from the convention to my social circle on Facebook. At one point I thought to myself that I was posting too much. I have seen people become obnoxious on social media and post every passing thought and every event that takes place in their lives. One of my peeves about Twitter is that it seems to encourage that sort of thing. Not so much on Facebook but it still happens.
Apart from this I have noticed that some people really don’t like it when you post good news or life events. They tend to feel sadder and find their lives less satisfying. I have a couple of friends that always detail the latest tragedies in their lives and how much worse that they are doing in comparison to everyone else.
When I think about these two categories of people I get self-conscious posting about the good things in my life. I want to be sensitive to the fact that not everyone is having a good time like I am yet I don’t want to limit myself either. I thought about this a lot on the first day of the convention and decided I would go ahead and post my updates and here is my reasoning.
Firstly, I post the positive, the good and the interesting things that happen in my life. I very rarely post the bad. Now that doesn’t mean that bad things don’t happen in my life. They do. In fact bad things have happen to me all the time but they never get mentioned on Facebook. I don’t really see the point in posting these “micro tragedies”. Apart from people telling my how sorry they are, they really can’t do much to alleviate the situation. So I really don’t see the point in doing that. If it’s something big I will post about it but otherwise it doesn’t get mentioned.
Secondly, posting about things that I do, see, hear, experience lets people who might be far away share a little of that. If they were curious about a movie, or about steampunk, or rock climbing, or about night life in Houston then they might learn a bit from me. Maybe they wanted to ask about something but didn’t know how to broach the subject, or they might become emboldened to try something new. You can never tell what one little thing can lead to.
“There’s nothing enlightened about shrinking so that other people won’t feel insecure around you… As we let our own light shine, we unconsciously give other people permission to do the same. As we are liberated from our own fear, our presence automatically liberates others.”
I know that people brag. I acknowledge that they sometimes get carried away. We should all strive to be a little more humble in our daily lives. But at the same time, being a shrinking violet and refusing to share is just as bad if not worse than being a braggart. In this life we should look to each other and support each other in whatever way we can.
I say that part of that is sharing your gifts, talents, interests, and even good news with each other.
It almost always starts that way doesn’t it? Progress, development, change. Whether you’re talking about the march of history, or evolution, or even just doing something in your own life. Some tiny little detail changes and forces you to adapt and before you know you have wholesale dramatic changes.
People always talk up big moments in life where you have to make some stark or dramatic decision that will alter your destiny. Moments that are portentous as they are melodramatic. But I’ve found that those times, although they do exist, don’t really determine the course of your life as much as those small seemingly innocuous decisions that end up making a big difference in your life.
Some examples.
Back in college my dad would send me his mining journal magazines from time to time. One thing that caught my eye was an advertising insert from a start-up Australian software company. The insert was a glossy colorful ad with a CD that had an evaluation copy of their software (ER Mapper). As I had access to computers with CD-ROM drives (a rare thing back in the early 90s) I tried out the software. I wasn’t too impressed but later on when I went to write my resume, in the software section I wrote down ER Mapper. That little detail along with my knowledge of computers landed me my first job.
In the mid 90s I loved going on newsgroup forums. One day a correspondent from the UK wanted to chat more and asked if I had ever tried Yahoo chat. I had not but I gave it a go. We had a nice chat but more importantly this led me to discover the Yahoo chat rooms. It was there that I found my first long-term relationship. The relationship didn’t last but this contact led me to Myspace, which led me to OkCupid, then to Facebook, and in a roundabout way eventually led me here to start writing this blog.
Last example, a few years ago the city decided to do extensive road repairs in West Houston. Up to that point I had been taking sedate short walks to promote my fitness levels and really not getting anywhere. The road repairs forced me to take longer detours and extend my walking route and to do some running to make up for the extra distance. This led me to taking longer walks and running longer distances. I began piecing together little half mile sprints here, quarter-mile jogs there and eventually I put it all together and found I could easily run 6 miles per day and on exceptional days 11 miles like last weekend. Not up to the level of a marathon yet but getting there.
I’m watching an angry green blob dance across my smartphone screen. That green blob is a thunderstorm and currently it may be passing me or it may just be reaching me. I can’t tell. It’s 3:41 AM, I’m in my running gear, it’s raining and I’m beginning to think that I won’t get my run in today. I get edgier and edgier as the clock moves towards 4 A.M. I’ve had my day off this week and I really don’t want a two-day break from my work out. I’m considering just going and chancing the rain and lightning anyways.
It wasn’t always so. I used to be the opposite in fact. I would use any excuse not to go out for a run.
“It’s 96 degrees out instead of 95. too hot”
“I wore this yesterday, can’t wear it twice in a row”
“I’m 2 minutes too late. Can’t go today”
The rain is coming down steadily on my roof. I can’t tell if this green blob is moving towards or away from my house. I look it up on the desktop. Zooming in as much as possible. Straining to see if this is going to cancel my run or not. If it lets up soon I may still be able to go out.
I used to be so good at relaxing. It was second nature to me. Time off and time to my self were the most important parts of life and I marveled at the fact that some people had problems trying to relax and unwind. My priorities were so much different when I was younger. I once spent 18 hours straight playing an online game one time. Something that I still take perverse pride in. I only quit because the game owners brought the system down for maintenance. Carefree days back then. Not so much anymore.
3:52. The rain has decidedly slowed but will it pick up again? The radar says it probably won’t. A rumble of thunder in the distance. Maybe I should wait a bit. If I do a speed run I may still be able to afford a quick rinse in the shower to get the worst of the brine and mud off me before work.
When I began walking and then running I had to break my sedentary habits that I had cultivated for decades and commit myself to this type of life. In doing so the new paradigm of working to exhaustion took root over many long and hard months. Forcing myself to crave exercise took awhile but I got it done.
At the same time I had to recognize that my body needed time to repair itself and to sort itself out each week. So I took one day of rest and away from exercise each week. Two days a week, specially two days in a row had become unacceptable.
Don’t get me wrong. I’m not a someone that lives with a barbell attached to my hand and that does reps while talking on the phone or who lives in the gym. In fact I could probably stand more exercise in my life. But I do have some minimums that I have to keep up in my life and I don’t want to slide below my minimum level.
Life gets annoying, hectic, even overwhelming at times. You’ve got to have one day of rest or even just part of one day that nothing may intrude upon. You do what you want and at your own pace. You have no job appointments to get to and no critical duties to fulfill.
Sunday mornings.
It has always been my time for this. Something about Sundays has always evoked lazy restful feelings within me. Feelings of domesticity and getting done those things round the house that need doing but that don’t have to be done in a rush or tearing hurry.
Sleep. Don’t get me wrong. I’m a fan of sleeping. I specially adore it when I’ve had a long day and I literally come home from some evening job function and undress and crawl into bed and fall asleep right away. But spending 10 to 12 hour sleeping? Not for me. Five to six hours is my typical amount of sleep. Eight hours would be a guilty pleasure. Lying in bed all that time has no appeal for me. Besides which I want to get things done in the morning. Even if it is my day to be lazy I feel I need to get on with “being lazy”.
A run. unimaginable five years ago. Now it’s just routine. I feel more relaxed after a run. Weekends are my challenge time. So either on Saturday or Sunday I take an extra long run or try to better my time on my regular runs. I usually do this on Saturday’s to keep my Sundays as lazy as possible.
The paper. A real life paper. Not just a digital edition. Something with heft to it. With ads for things that I will never buy. Long articles that I can think about and chew over in my mind. Sports scores for sports I don’t care about. Comics and crossword puzzles to fill out and erase when I get words wrong.
Breakfast. I’ve done brunch in the past but I’m not too big a fan of it. Brunch seems too fussy.
A real breakfast that isn’t calorie counted and nutritionally balanced and portion controlled. Something home-made with eggs and random spices. Pancakes or waffles? Maybe but doubtful. Even on Sundays my diet conscience nags at me about too many carbs and refined flour.
If the timing is right I may sometimes venture out to some small breakfast place to read the paper while I linger over a plate and a cup of tea for too long. Maybe do some people watching as they come in and go out. Watch the sun rise.
The weekly maintenance. Floors to mop, light bulbs to replace, vacuuming. Generally just keeping the household running for another week. But none of it done in a hurry. All at a relaxed pace.
Bills to pay and finances to go over. Just out of tradition ever since college I’ve done this on Sundays at the breakfast table. I write out, seal, and stamp the envelopes and head to the post office with the mail.
Noon, or noonish thereabouts. The morning’s gone and the long Sunday afternoon begins. Some time around this thoughts of Monday morning creep into my head. The cycle begins again but I’m recharged and ready to face it again.
Truthfully I don’t remember what this post was supposed to be about.
I recall that I had an idea in the shower about a week ago. I had several other things to attend to so I penned a short note in the blog and forgot about it. Now that I’ve come back to it the note says:
“dating do’s and don’t: mostly I don’t”
Not too clear. However it’s on the list and since we’re near Valentines day I might as well write something about dating and get that semi-obligatory post out-of-the-way.
Right, so taking a cue from the note, mostly I don’t date. Introverted and shy are not the best combination to work with as far as dating goes so that’s a handicap even before coming out of the gate. However, even a broken clock is right twice a day so I’ve picked up the odd date here and there (some odder than the rest). So here are some first date tips and hard-won lessons from memories of those dates from long, long ago.
…(long ago)
Do’s
Establish that this is going to be a date. In most cases you don’t have to blurt out “This is going to be a date, right?” But sometimes it’s needed.
Pro tip: Start with something like “Do you want to go out on a date?” Pretty unmistakable intention right there.
Know something about your date. Not knowing that your date is vegan and taking them to a steak place is not advisable. I mean I get it that you just met this person like a week ago and haven’t had any in-depth conversations and all but I think that might be a good detail to know?
Obviously something attracted you to this person so why not do a little research first? Just don’t be too creepy and carry around a clipboard with a list of questions.
Confidence. Dates can smell fear. You must be relaxed yet assertive. Cool but not cold. Self assured yet not arrogant. Act like that movie cool actor you saw in that movie (whatever that movie was) that you liked.
Just don’t quote lines from the movie verbatim and if you do, make sure that it’s not a movie that your date knows.
Have something in common. Going out with someone just because they’re good-looking will usually be very boring. The conversation will quickly start to revolve around how good-looking they are and what they do to stay good-looking and how they like to be around other good-looking people. After that (say about the time that the salad arrives) things pretty much go dead quiet for the rest of the evening.
Going out with someone who you have something in common will give you something to start with and usually leads to other topics of discussion so at least your date won’t be boring.
Dress (yes, you must wear clothes) appropriately. Going to a heavy metal bar in business attire is usually not advisable (meaning safe) nor is meeting your date at some high society function looking like you just came from panhandling next to the 59 and Kirby underpass.
Pro tip: Soccer moms in mini vans are the best panhandling opportunities.
Showers are amazingly effective in making your dates not run away; as is some sort of deodorant/perfume/cologne. Just don’t go overboard. A clean smell is preferable to smelling like a Fort Worth stockyard in mid August or like a Marseille bordello.
Ending the evening. Always try to end the evening on a positive and cordial note no matter how horribly it went. At the very least you will gain a friendly acquaintance from the experience.
Always smile and if they apologize for a terrible evening say something like “I never did mind about the little things.” (bonus points if you can tell me from what movie that line came from.)
(Addendum). Not really sure what the procedure is for a successful date as it so rarely happens to me. I can however speculate. One thing that springs to mind is to ask for another date. Then if you’re successful at obtaining one, try to remember what you did right the first time, then, do it again.
Don’t s
Don’t do something involved for the first date. Things like going to the movies together, or sports events, or spelunking. Things that require both parties concentration. You want to get to know the other person the first time around not just go to another event. Save that for down the road.
Hang out together, talk. Some people I know have had “phone” dates and chatted on the phone for 6 hours at a time. Other people take walks or share a drink. If you make it an alcoholic drink keep it to a mild buzz. You don’t want to have to rely on your date to drive you home or to hold your hair back while you kneel in front of a toilet bowl.
Put away the cell phone, the tablet, the beeper, or whatever. Unless you’re like a heart surgeon or a member of SEAL team 6. Then yes, keep that stuff on… People are depending on you.
But really it’s just rude and you’re cheating yourself of the experience. This is time set aside for this person not just a regular part of your routine. Make the honest effort to make the date special.
Don’t get too personal on your first date. You don’t know this person that well. Maybe they will get scared off if you get too personal or maybe you don’t want to see them after this date and you don’t want them knowing all this stuff about you. Keep things casual and light at first.
On the other hand if you want to get rid of them and freak them out you can tell them that you’re carrying your meth-head ex-boyfriend’s baby and that he just busted out of prison and might be in the area.
Don’t try to be someone you’re not. Be yourself and don’t try to over impress on the first date. If you do this then you have to come up with a back story to frame your over impressive self-resume and that just devolves into lying.
You have to come up with various reasons as to why your private jet isn’t working and can’t fly you to your beach house on St. Kitt’s Island and I mean have you even looked into the price for renting a private jet by the hour? Ridiculous!
Sex (there, I said it). Just put that out of your mind for the first date. Unless there are sparks and fireworks going off all around you (and it’s not just gunfire in the distance) you won’t even reach this level of intimacy for a few dates.
Focus on other things like not coming off as creepy or desperate (see confidence up above)
Don’t assume anything. Maybe the date went better than you think; maybe it was a total fiasco. A wait and see attitude is always best.
If weeks pass by and the other person’s phone number has changed or they’ve moved without any forwarding address then yes it probably was a bad date.
The best piece of advice that I could give is to try to have a good time. That’s the point of the date, right? It shouldn’t be a chore or a bothersome obligation or something that you dread. If it starts feeling like that then maybe this is a sign that this isn’t going anywhere.
I began my Tuesday morning at Mohonk mountain house early in the morning. I had arrived late Monday afternoon and there seemed to be too many things to see and do so I wanted to lose no time.
I wanted to run a lap around the lake but I found that it was less than a mile around and I would need to run five laps to get a decent work out. I dislike doing laps round the same path. I prefer long runs with one unique path so instead I opted to make a morning of it and hike all around the property.
I emptied out my leather satchel and put in some things that I thought would be essential. A couple bottles of water, my Swiss army knife, some twine (can never have enough twine), my cell phone, my room key, a sweater, and my tablet.
As to my tablet, I had recently begun using it for sketching and I had the ridiculous idea of hanging my feet over a tall granite cliff overlooking a majestic scene and doing some sketches of the horizon. More on that later.
So I started off pretty much just ambling along and exploring whatever struck my fancy. I saw some “closed” trails signs here and there but considered these to be more suggestions than anything else and proceeded anyways.
Closed trail
After getting lost a few times and “discovering” the employee parking lot. I just headed off into the woods. I got far enough into the woods that I could not hear or see anything man-made. I sat down on a rotten tree stump and just existed.
It was everything I expected and more.
After a few minutes of silence the chipmunks all around me either decided that I had left or that I was no danger to them. They came out and went about their business. It was a Tuesday, around mid morning. Back home I would be swamped with emails and phone calls. Everyone I knew would be doing the same thing. Here I was alone, the world didn’t exist. After a while even the chipmunks went silent. Leaves drifted down seemingly in slow motion and I could feel the rotation of the Earth under my feet. It was wonderful.
Feeling a little bit more sane after that I got back on the trail and began climbing. I found my lofty pinnacle to sketch from.
Eagle’s nest
Of course the hotel staff had over a hundred years to explore and “improve” every scenic vista. So they had installed this little tree house on the cliff edge. Tour groups were hiking by on a regular basis and were taking and posing for pictures so I would never be able to get anything done. So that part of my plan went out the window. I took a few pictures of the horizon and walked on.
Up a ways I found a curious signpost with an arrow pointing down and the caption that read “eagle’s ascent”. I had read about this in the hotel literature as a sort of rock climb activity. I hadn’t planned on this at all. I just wanted a long nature walk that morning but this beckoned to me. By pure luck I had on some shoes that although they weren’t meant for mountain climbing were well suited for it so I decided “why not?”
As I wasn’t really prepared for this, at first it was a bit of a challenge particularly as I had decided to be an amateur videographer and used my cell phone camera to document it all. The hotel staff had spray painted arrows as to where to go so it was all fairly straightforward.
I got through that trail fairly quickly and easily but I felt I wanted a better challenge so I climbed back up the mountain and climbed even higher looking for one of the better challenges called the “giant’s path”. It was as if some giant child had strewn boulder sized legoes all over the side of a mountain. Just looking at it made gave me pause to think.
I pushed on regardless. I found that I had to use my fingers, the tips of my shoes, my butt, just anything I could to keep myself from tumbling over the edge. My entire body got involved into the climbing activity.
I descended down under giant boulders into dark tunnels with barely any hint that there could be an exit on the other end. Crawling on my belly sometimes and trying not to think of what that slimy thing that my hand had just brushed across really was.
I took a few wrong turns and once jumped a small chasm almost sliding down the slippery rock face. My shoes barely gripped the rock and held me in place just before I would tumble into perpetual inky darkness.
I began to think to myself when was the last time that I had purposefully exposed myself to this much danger and had to rely only on my body to get myself out of harm’s way? Years if not decades. Was this the literal “life flashing before your eyes”?
I pushed the thought out of my mind and pressed on. Determined to finish this and get out alive. I squeezed and pulled and finally found the end of the rock climb and could not believe that I had just done that on my own.
I lay down on some nice flat gravel and found myself positively beaming with joy. I had done that. Middle aged, out of shape (sort of), me.
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