Back to school

Tonight I went to my first college class in two years. The class was on my new favorite subject; climbing volcanoes. It's going to be twice a week through the end of June and then in July we are going to climb Mt. Baker and then Mt. Adams. I'm exicted to go back to school, and am enjoying college again.

My weekend so far

A few days ago I posted and said that I was tired and couldn't wait for the weekend. So now on Sunday morning I'm writing to let my readers know just what happened this weekend. IT startedon Friday when our officers reminded my supervisor that he had dropped the ball and she needed someone in my position to work a 24 hour shift from saturday to sunday morning. This was an hour and a half before the end of of the day on Friday. My supervisor remembered that I had gotten the shaft last time something like this came up, and so he was successfull in finding someone else to do it. Until 8am saturday morning when someone else called and said that the other person was nowhere to be found and I had to be at work in an hour for thenext 24 hours. And this was after I had worked half a day last weekend as well. I was not happy about working on such short notice and canceling all of my weekend plans. If only I had gone hiking saturday I wouldn't have been around to be called in. I wouldn't have even answered the phone and when asked about it later I would have said I was a moutain slope somewhere. I don't like my job partly because stupid stuff like this happens far too often. I lost my weekend because my supervisor can't plan. Someone said they'd talk to my supervisor about giving me another day off because it was on such short notice, but I doubt that will happen because my own supervisor doesn't care at all. On the plus side, I did get to go an 8 mile run and I had a great time. I don't normally run 8 miles for lack of time, but I love doing it. Yesterday the weather was perfect and there was an awe inspiring view of Mt. Rainier. I also got a decent amount of sleep last night. I finally watched Jarhead. Not something I'll watch again. Nothing will stop me from taking a 4 day next weekend and I'm going to the mountains, and planning for a 2-3 day backpacking trip.


Nothing except for horrible weather and lack of friends.

So tired. I can't wait for Saturday. too much work.

Samantha the Mountain Goat....and Mildred lakes

it was 1pm and the worst of my day was over already. I had spent 5 hours at work on a day when I should not have worked at all. But now I was free. It was my first day off since aquiring my new toys, and ice ax and crampons and I was excited and anxious to use them. I had also rented a set of snowshoes. I was trying to decide between Mt pilchuck and the Mildred lakes in the Olympic forest, and since I had no map of pilcuck, I headed west for the Olympics. It turned out to be a bad choice. When I finally got to the trailhead it was after 3 pm. I didn't think I'd need the snowshoes and I then realized I left the crampons at home. After some time rearranging my pack I set off at a slow pace. It had been a long week. The trail was hard to follow and blocked by many fallen trees. There was evidence of storms during the winter, because not only werethere fallen trees but also branches strewn everywhere.
It was very pretty and very green. After a time I heard something that shounded like drums far off in the distance. After a standing still for several minutes to be sure it was not my waterbottle, I determined that it must have been and animal somewhere. After about half an hour I decided I wasn't going to do the whole hike because I was having a hard time finding the trail, I didn't have as much daylight left as I'd like, and no one knew where I was. In spite of this decision, the forest lured my further for another 20 minutes before I reluctanly turned around. The trip back to the car went by much faster than the walk out, and when I returned I found 3 guys on thier way out to camp at the lake. Iwas a little envious. I wasn't ready yet to go home, so I looked at my map for other places to go and found a road that went close to the top of a ridge nearby, and I set out with Samantha (my '04 Xterra) to climb it. This proved to be a less than intelligent idea, when the road just got steeper and steeper and more and more potholed a gravelly and I was afraid I'd get stuck or slide off an edge. Still curiosity kept me going almost to the top until I got to a great view point and a good place to turn around. After parking on the most level ground that was there, I got out and enjoyed the view for a few minutes. The road was so steep that I only felt comfortable going down it in 4L in 1st and 2nd gear. I was home by 7:30pm and wished that I'd gone to Pilchuck instead. I'll need to buy more Green Trails. I lay down to take a nap and woke up 13 hours later. It had been a long week. I can't wait to go back.

He just couldn't make it

Monkey see, Monkey do...

It's been a long week. and only slightly longer than last week. there's just so much stuff going on. I leave at 0500 and don't get home until 2100 or later. My job is very stressful, and I rarely get off work on time. Last night I got off at 5pm for a change, and when I got home I didn't know what to do with all the extra time. I need a day off. Better yet, a few days off. Times like this I envy the dog. He just sits at home and sleeps all day. then people come home and feed him and spend time with him. he has the free time to rest and enjoy the best parts of life. As much as I want and try to be like the dog, it just doesn't work. I can't get away with it. But as I write this post and think about, there are many areas of life where I would not want to be like the dog. He'll never stand on top of a mountain in awe and wonder at God's creation. Because he knows so little about stress and heartache, he also knows little about joy and happiness. He doesn't have a relationship with God, and he doesn't have a wonderful wife and family that love him. But he does get enough sleep.