On The Rocks

  Monday Bob D., John G. and I drove to Smith Rocks (central Oregon) for a day of climbing.  We don't get out to climb on real rock very often so the day was a pleasant outing.  We only did 3.4 climbs -- three climbs (Bob and John lead) and .4 that I lead and failed on.  On my lead, I climbed half-way up, got to the crux and couldn't go any further.  A strictly muscle move that found me wanting.                Although I enjoyed the day and the outing, as at Catherine Creek a couple of days ago, I was generally enervated, etiolated, weary and worn.  I tried to play the heart-trouble card but neither Bob nor John would carry my stuff so I labored away the day carrying 15 or 50 pounds of rope.  The weather was generally sunny and warm but tolerable until the last climb when it was just bloody hot. 
   When we got back to the car -- eager, I might say, for a burger and beer -- we were welcomed with a flat tire.  A totally unnecessary complication.  On went the absurd skinny spare and we drove to Redmond to get the tire fixed.  (driving 160 miles to Portland using the spare was out of the question).  With some luck we got to a tire store (Les Schwab) with 20 minutes to spare, got the tire fixed (it had a nail) then returned to Terrebone for dinner.  We ate at a new restaurant (don't remember the name) that replaced the late and lamented La Siesta -- La Siesta was a mediocre tex-mex place -- mediocre but a "historic" restaurant for Smith Rocks climbers:  An institution for 30 years or so. 
   Today, after wasting the morning, I took a walk along Lief Erickson drive.  The Drive is a packed gravel road, closed to cars, that runs for 12 miles through Forest Park.  It's a great place to walk -- after a quarter mile the sounds of traffic die away and the rest of the distance is quite like being in the country.   I walked for four miles and on the drive home, stopped at the grocery store for dinner stuff.

   Arriving home (dw reminded me that cell phones are only useful when they're turned on) I started refilling the fruit bowl when I saw a duck? (no) an erotic device? (no) it was a Nana Saver (patent pending probably) -- A new kitchen device dw saw and bought. Alright, it's a joke but it has definite potential for a variety of uses.
   (clip on your nose for a funny elephant skit.  clip in your hair for a funny jaundiced unicorn skit. ) And I'll bet you were thinking of other things.  Tsk, Tsk. 
   Books:  "The Quiet American" (Graham Green)  I read it thirty or forty years ago.  Still a good read and it was like deja vu all over again.  I would remember having read passages but wouldn't remember what came next.  DA