Wednesday, March 08, 2006

Route settin' time agin

Walp, I headed on over to the old climbin' corral this afternoon, roped myself up, and hauled my ass up the wall to put up another classic. We get to name our routes, so after a spate of problems inspired by our trip to Joshua Tree National Park, as in, "J-Tree Moon," J-Tree Skies," "J-Tree Sunset,""Dogleg," I thought I'd branch out. I used all yellow holds, so I called it "Arnica Montana," after the little yellow, daisy-like wildflower from which arnica gel gets its active ingredient. We saw this wildflower growing in the Tetons, and I think it has a pretty good range all over the West. I'm a fan of using arnica gel for my bruises and aches, and in my psychology, it works wonders. Can't seem to convince our rock climbing son, though - he accuses me of "witchcraft" - he prefers ingestion of beer.
Witchcraft - Now, damn it, I wish I really were an adept. In honor of International Women's Day, I'd be casting some vengeful spells right and left. Trading deaths of good people for the misspent lives of the people ruining this country. At this point in the looting and pillaging that the GOP and their fellow travelers have perpetrated, I would have absolutely no qualms or remorse in my occupation of Nemesis. Nothing good for this country or the world has come out of the past five years with these people in power.
I confess, in addition to reading Gilgamesh, I have gotten into a wonderful novel titled Small Island, by a British writer, Andrea Levi. She's in her early 50's, has a few other novels published; her heritage is Jamaican. It's deftly written, with immediately engaging characters, and goes right for the big issues: Race and love.

2 Comments:

Blogger Unknown said...

I do enjoy a fine brew - esp. those from the Pacific Northwest. I'm with your climber son on this one. Never heard of the other salve.

The Tetons happen to be my most favorite NP thus far. I haven't been to them all, but I love the Jenny Lakes area and moving on into the back country from there.

Blog on Sister.

7:33 PM  
Blogger Neil Shakespeare said...

It's been my experience that ingestion of beer CAUSES aches and bruises. You just can't remember how you got them...

3:20 AM  

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