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Movie: Saving Grace
A fine British film. It does give in to the excesses inherent in the subject at times. I’m guessing it was inspired by the American film Homegrown, and if it doesn’t quite live up, it has fun trying.
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Great Falls Basin
On our way home from Wildrose Canyon we stop at Great Falls Basin to get a couple of climbs in. The air there smells a bit like cat urine, an odor we have noted before in the desert after recent rain. This time we connect the odor to a particular plant that flourishes in the…
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Wildrose Peak
It is one of those mornings when Ann and I both want to do the same thing, then proceed to frustrate each other’s attempts to do it. The proposal is to drive to Wildrose Canyon and hike up Wildrose Peak. It’s Ann’s idea, but she doesn’t want to be pressured to do it. I like…
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Mixed up pets
In the evening our dog Jezze looks at me with big, question-mark eyes, and I notice her bowl is empty. Usually Ann feeds her, but I grab the nearest food bag and pour some in. Instantly I see it’s cat food. Jezze doesn’t care though, and starts munching away. Out of curiosity, I pour some…
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Wagon Wheel
It’s the first daytime Wagonwheel session I’ve attended for a while. Curtis is the only one there at the proposed 11 am. I roll in at 11:30, then Ted, Randy, and Greg show up. I feel kind of unmotivated, but warm up anyway. Soon I’ve done a problem on the Big Loaf that I’ve only…
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Movie: The Hours
A stark look at several characters throughout the 20th century dealing with depression and insanity, contemplating whether suicide is justfied when life has become unendurable. Although the movie’s message comes through clearly, the story line and the role of Virginia Woolf’s novel Mrs. Dalloway in the screenplay can be confusing, especially if like me you…
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Movie: Offret (The Sacrifice)
A dense, strange, stilted Swedish movie that follows some high-bred characters as they grapple with isolation after the onset of world war III. Its philosophical monologues and symbolic characters seem to have potential, which kept us watching. Either they never panned out, or didn’t seem worth the effort to follow. In the end it felt…
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Charcoal Kilns
On our way down from the Telescope Peak trailhead we stop to peer at these odd constructions. Designed by Swiss engineers and built by Chinese laborers, these kilns burned piñon pines into charcoal for the Modock mine 30 miles south. They were operated for three years, then left as perches for the ravens and whatever…
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Telescope Peak
When the alarm goes off at 4 am, I have no clue what we’re in for. We throw breakfast, lunch, and gear together in a blur and are in the car by 5 when we discover the car windows are iced and the defroster doesn’t work. Not the sort of thing we noticed while the…
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New Look, New Guts
The folks at WordPress have finally made enough improvements to the b2 blogging software I was using to entice me to upgrade. They ship with a pretty nice looking layout, I think, so I just made a few tweaks to hobo-ize it and called it home. It will require more tweaking I’m sure before it’s…