Tag Archives: travel

Fatherly Pride Redux

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The Story Thus Far

Almost exactly a year ago, I wrote about the tremendous pride I experienced, when my then 13-year old son, Julian, took first place in the Men’s Intermediate Division at the annual Veni. Vidi. Ascendi. rock climbing competition at Western Washington University.

Julian continued climbing in the year since, facing the typical ups and downs, and since this is not a hardcore climbing blog and you, my readers, are not, for the most part, I assume, hardcore climbing enthusiasts, it really hasn’t made sense to chronicle here much of what has transpired. For rock climbing is essentially a practice of such small incremental progress, measured in cryptic rating systems that are completely meaningless to the layperson, and at the same time it’s more about achieving one’s personal best rather than beating the competition.

The News

BUT…then there are the occasional HUGE accomplishments, like when Julian qualified at the Regional Championships on December 10th to move on to Divisional Championships, and when this past weekend, at Divisionals he qualified to move on to the National Championships in Colorado Springs, CO the first weekend in March!

Woohoo!!!

The Irony

The Injury: Right after Regionals, Julian hurt the middle finger on both hands from overuse, he was told he needed to rest for 4 weeks, meaning no climbing at all, we’d just completed construction of a new, killer climbing wall in our garage and he’d qualified for Divisionals.

It was torture! Julian had to develop some serious discipline, with daily ice baths for his hands, and resisting the temptation to climb, with all his climbing buddies itching to get on the new wall.

I think the thing I’m most proud of is how well he stepped up to these challenges, which really enabled him to heal in time to train hard the week before Divisionals, and then, of course, enabled him to do as well as he did there.

The Money: Usually we think about success in terms of positive gains. There’s the sense of accomplishment we earn, the acknowledgment of the accomplishment from others that we receive, and some times there are even prizes or other awards.

In the case of Nationals, well, Julian’s accomplishment will be costing us a hefty chunk of change, for airfare, car rental, lodging, meals, competition registration, etc.

And yet, I give it all up gladly, that he might have this amazing experience, that he can see where his hard work and determination can take him when he sets his mind, his will, and his passion towards his goals.

Go Julian!!!

Post-Vacation Syndrome…again

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As I’ve written several times before — Trapped Under Something Heavy, The Double-Edged Sword of Vacation — coming back from a vacation, even when it’s just a four-day weekend, can unfortunately be a rude awakening.

Hundreds of unread emails, half a dozen voicemails, projects screaming to be attended to, and, this time of the year, with the university where I work preparing to begin it’s Fall Quarter in just a few weeks, each tick and tock of the clock feels like the pounding of a timpani.

So, I might not manage much more here at Fish & Bicycles today than this brief note, with links to my older posts on the subject.

Hopefully, starting tomorrow, I’ll be able to return to my normal blogging frequency.

Thanks for your patience!

The Chief Kicked My Ass

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Fearless Son

Ok, true confession:

I didn’t make it to the very top of The Chief.

I don’t have a total fear of heights (I’m fine with flying in airplanes, looking out windows in tall buildings, even looking over a railing at someplace like the Space Needle, for instance), but I do have a tough time when there’s a lot of exposure.

For most of the hike up, you’re climbing a trail through shaded forest. VERY strenuous, but lovely. Towards the very top, however, things open up and there are sections with fixed chains and ladders, and as you get to a certain point you can start to see how high up you are, you (or maybe just me and others like me) lose sense of where the edge is, which drops off suddenly, hundreds and hundreds of feet down to certain death.

Well, I got up the second ladder and some chains and then there was nothing to really grab onto…or so it seemed. I could see the edge to my left and Howe Sound below and in the distance, and I just froze. Nothing my son and wife could tell me about how I was just a couple of hundred feet away from the summit, and how it flattens out and isn’t scary, could de-escalate my fear, fear turned to panic, and I scrambled back down to the tree line, found a nice spot with a view and a lot less exposure, and waited for my family to come down.

My wife and son have been with me before when I’ve been spooked on the trail, and they really thought I’d be fine on The Chief. At the top, there are all kinds of people going up and coming down, people who are not nearly in as good physical condition as me, and they make it just fine.

It’s not really a dangerous place, especially on a dry, sunny day like it was, I knew all of this and could see it right in front of me, no one was slipping on loose dirt and pebbles and falling off the top and then smashed to bits below. Yet, to me, it felt like if I made one wrong move, or even, as crazy at it sounds, if the wind was to suddenly kick up, gravity would grab me and pull me right over the cliff.

I hiked back down disappointed and determined to either: 1. Better avoid hiking in areas with a lot of exposure; or 2. Research various methods for overcoming this kind of fear.

The latter would be my preference, by far. There are a lot of places on this planet that I want to explore before I’m too old to do so. I don’t really have a desire for hardcore mountaineering, but I’d like to get to the top of Half Dome in Yosemite someday, for instance, and dozens of places like that.

My sense is that it will be a matter of finding somewhere nearby where I can spend some time desensitizing myself, taking up entire days creeping out near an edge and sitting there, breathing and meditating perhaps. Mt. Erie in Anacortes comes to mind. I’ll allow all the feelings of imminent danger to rise up, allow myself to continue to think of all the horrible scenarios associated with falling and crashing, but I’ll stay in that place, noticing at the same time, despite the feelings and terrifying thoughts, that I truly am solid and safe.

And maybe, just maybe, if I do this numerous times, I’ll be able to return to The Chief, and this time I’ll kick his granite ass.

Fish & Bicycles: Out of Office

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It’s going to be quiet around here at Fish & Bicycles for the next few days, as the family and I are heading north tonight for Beautiful British Columbia!

Two nights and a day of city time in fabulous Vancouver, followed by two days and one night in gorgeous Squamish, home of the magnificent piece of granite you see here to the right, a rock climbing mecca called the Stawamus Chief.

For those of you who don’t know the geography, this involves driving about 25 minutes north from here in Bellingham to the U.S.-Canadian border, havin’ a quick chat with a Canuck border officer about passports and our plans, driving another 45 minutes or so to Vancouver, and then on Saturday morning driving another hour north to Squamish.

As easy as pie!

Internet access will be unpredictable, and at times unavailable, so I might not be able to post anything more than a photo or two.

In the meantime, feel free to browse around Fish & Bicycles in any of the following ways:

  • Tags: In the sidebar, under Stuff About…, you can click on any of the Tags and see all the posts I’ve done that have at least something to do with those topics.
  • Recurring Series: At the top of the page, hover over the Recurring Series drop-down menu and select from options like Celebrating Progress, which applauds businesses adopting sustainable practices; Eyecatchers, a collection of photos, graphics, and videos that have, well, caught my eye; Video Fridays, my favorite video of the week pick; and more.
  • Archives: Towards the bottom of the sidebar, select a specific month to see everything I posted in that time period.

I’ll back at this blogging thing before you know it, but if you are REALLY going to miss me, I wouldn’t mind if you left me a comment telling me so. (hint, hint, nudge, nudge)

Greece: I.Want.Go.

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A friend posted the following photograph that she took during her recent (if not still current) visit to Greece, a photo of the town of Hydra, to be specific (can’t imagine why it would be so named), on Facebook today, and all I could manage as a response was…

…I.Want.Go.

It was as if I’d lost most of my capacity to use language.

All I knew was that I wanted to go there…soon…to sit in a café, drinking an iced coffee, nibbling on dolmas and pita and hummus, reading a book or writing in a journal, occasionally watching the comings and goings on the waterfront.

Greece was never really near the top of my list of places I wanted to visit, but these days I feel a sense of solidarity with the Greeks, who are hurting much more than we in the U.S. are, from the cruel joke of austerity measures, while, as SpiegelOnline puts it, “…wealthy tax evaders manage to get off scot-free.”

So, let’s see…