It sped away

Eventually I wound up at the climbing gym, setting a route. Turned out I chose a particularly problematic wall to put one up, and struggled for a while until I could get some traction. Several of my climbing acquaintances stood around for a bit, observing my efforts; occasionally I had to draft one or the other of them for help in retrieving a dropped hold or giving me a shove back onto the wall. The three males in the group appeared far more interested in paying attention to the young woman we've befriended recently, especially the guy my age who's single. He's giving off an almost palpable aura of attraction to her. Not sure how to read her, but it should be interesting to see what happens as he gets more and more obvious. Her humor seems to have a bit of an edge to it, so I suspect she's not exactly a Dewy Young Thing. She and I had fun trying out some TR routes and a few boulder problems before I needed to heed the signals my arms werer sending to me. And as soon as the guys realized she had gone to boulder, there they were...funny, I often feel like a zoologist, observing mammal behavior from a safe neutral post.
Broiled razor clams and curried prawns for a simple dinner, then went out for a walk and a beverage. We had a lovely late evening talk at Mona's, over some kind of drink made from a Brazilian liquor called cachaca and fruit juices for me, and marninis for my dear companion. The barkeep said cachaca was made from sugar cane, so basically it was a high-priced white lightening. Just looked it up: it's a brandy distilled from sugarcane, and has been made since the mid-1500's. Originally it was a poor man's drink, but has gained popularity as a "fun tropical drink." Usually it's blended with lime juice and sugar in something called a caipirinha, which sounds like any number of other cocktails, except with a different type of alcohol. Myabe caipirinha means drunken piranha...