Well...The world is starting to get back to normal. I am back at work full time. Ish. The kids probably aren't going back to school this year, but we have managed to work out a pretty good routine. Rach and I are doing trips, and we've already booked some things for later in the Summer/Fall as a display of optimism.

This whole thing has honestly been a little bit fun. Definitely different. I can't say it's been horrible. But I am excited for life to resume.

As for the family, here are some pictures.

First up, "homeschooling" has been interesting. I think we are doing an okay job. At least we try. It's hard to know how much is enough though. Certainly, it's not something we would be able to sustain long-term. The kids have their packets and they'll be able to finish the school year strong, but Rach and I both acknowledge that it could never be a full-time gig for us. In fact, I'm pretty sure we would just become one of those families that convinces themselves of the supposed benefits of "un-schooling," just so that we could still tell ourselves that we are good parents. We would go on lots of field trips and do fun stuff, and we'd probably be really loud about telling anyone and everyone about all the things our kids were "learning" through their "real life" experiences.

In reality though, it would just be us blowing things off, having a good time as a family, and then justifying it. In other words, thank goodness for real schools and real teachers. We need them.

This has become a regular thing in our home. A month ago, ZOOM was just an obscure but satisfying breakfast cereal. Now, the world can't live without it (well...not the cereal. The computer thing). Teachers. Family. Friends. This is how we interact now.

Field trip picnic!

Here's where Ev does her reading. Better than a classroom.

Also, we went on a family trip (but stayed pretty local). Lots of hiking. Lots of climbing. Also, our kids got to see, in real life, the difference between granite, sandstone, and basalt! See, no textbooks or instruction or anything! We just climb and hike and play and they end up learning so much! They just soak it in! These are experiences that will always be with them. (This last sentence isn't sarcastic. The others...well...)

Jackson is our rope gun

He has quite the cool head on lead.

Ev isn't too into climbing, but she loves to belay. 

Passing the torch. All I do now is sit on the sidelines and smile. The kids lead, belay, and coach each other through moves. I love it!

Here's Maren at the top of a pretty good finger crack.

And Rachel doing some slabbin'

Hiking around some sandstone pinnacles with the vineyards and orchards in the background. Beautiful morning!

We even have a cheerleading section!

Separate from our family trip, Rach and I got out to do some harder stuff. I love that we can do this.

So, that's about it. Just living and loving life.

Have a good week!

Allow me to begin with a couple of disclaimers. First, this is a somewhat rambling post and parts of it might not make a lot of sense if you are not a climber, but I do think that the lessons I learned and the emotions I express here are universal. But really, I am writing this for me, as a journal entry, rather than for you, as a reader. Sorry/not sorry.

Second, I am about to describe a climbing trip I went on, which might raise the hackles of some in this wretched environment of Covid-19. If this is you, then you can either get over it or else just don't read it. If it makes you sleep better at night, know that I lived out of my car for four days straight, with only 3 instances of human contact the whole time. All three of these were subtle fist bumps with my climbing partner after particularly good pitches. I'm not too worried, and personally, I think it's a little silly that I even feel the need to include this, as it taints an otherwise amazing trip report.

Anyway...

Before I get into the trip itself, I want to go back in time to last summer. That is when I made a decision to do something I had never done before. I was going to train. Specifically, I was going to train for rock climbing. Even though this sport has been a significant part of my life since I was a child, believe it or not, I had never actually made a concerted effort to get better at it. I have always been physically active with running and weightlifting, and with my lifestyle overall, but my strategy with climbing had always been to just go out and climb a bunch of stuff. In doing so, I got to be relatively good, and even ticked off a few hard routes along the way.

As a quick aside, this is a good place to describe climbing grades to those who aren't too familiar. Also, it is said that there are two types of climbers: Those who care about grades, and those who pretend they don't. Fact is, this is how we measure our progress, even if it is a little bit subjective. It's a brief rundown, but it might be important to understanding the rest of this post. Here is my attempt at breaking it down:

5.0-5.6; V0-V1    Beginner

5.7-5.9; V2-V4    Semi-experienced climber or fit beginner

5.10a-5.11b/c; V5-V6  The level most people will plateau at if they stay committed to the sport over several years.

5.11d-5.12b; V7-V8  Requires a significant amount of investment for most people. Some may never reach the upper end of this range due to factors beyond their control (body composition, strength limitations, mobility/injury issues, etc.)

5.12c-5.13b; V9-V10 The highest levels I've personally seen in non-professionals. For most people, they are putting in hours akin to a part-time job to maintain this degree of proficiency.

5.13c-5.14a/b; V11-V13 Climbing related activities probably take up the majority of their time. Either that, or else they are just very, very blessed in the genetics department. Many climbers begin to see professional sponsorships at this level.

5.14c-5.15d; V12-V16 Elite. The best of the best. These people aren't actually humans. They are a rare form of half-breed between man and god who are some of the most gifted athletes on the planet.

The grades, as describes above, would be for climbers in a very controlled environment like a gym or on toprope (meaning that if they fall, the rope catches them immediately). Things like leading, availability of protection, weather conditions, duration of the climb, rock quality, etc. can all have a major effects on the overall difficulty level of a climb. I could go on for hours about this stuff, but I think I've already strayed far enough away from my main topic.

...And I can already tell this is going to be a long post.

Back to my training. 

I have loved climbing my whole life, but something clicked and I decided to actually try to get good. There were a few motives for this, but if I'm honest, the main one was that I have reached an age where I am forced to acknowledge the ever-present toll that time is taking on my body. If I can stay healthy, I figure I have about ten more years before I plateau. After that, if I am lucky, I might be able to maintain another ten. Fact is though, that I know of very few people who can do, at the age of 60, the same things they were doing at 40, even if they are fit. That clock is ticking, and it only gives me about 20 more years to do some of the more difficult trips that are on my bucket list.

The bucket list, incidentally, that started with these two books:

What you are looking at are two guidebooks, both published in the 80s, of the two greatest areas in the country for long, serious rock climbs. They belonged to my dad, and both books contain several black and white pictures that I would pour over as a teenager, mentally putting myself in the remarkable positions depicted therein. At the time, these climbs were way, way beyond my ability, but I was hooked. It could be argued that these two books, more than any other influence, are responsible for my ongoing love for the sport. Although the list has been added to as I have discovered new areas, this is where it all started.

The most important, classic, and historic routes in these books are moderate by the standards of today's top climbers, but still present formidable challenges to us mere mortals with families and day-jobs. But I was, and still am, convinced that with the benefit of modern gear and training tactics, I too, could do these routes and experience a least a shadow (or even the reflection of a shadow) of what it must have been like for the early pioneers of rock climbing. And thus, the bucket list was born.

The thing is, it was clear that many of these routes required that I reach a level of climbing fitness that I had never before even aspired to. As of last summer, the hardest thing I had ever led, sight unseen and without falling, was a 5.11b. I have made it up harder stuff, sure, but on those more challenging routes I had to work the moves over and over again before leading the route "clean." 

This would not do, as there was not enough time in the day, on a 20+ pitch (rope length) climb, to rehearse each individual move. That would take an eternity! Also, due to the position of some of these moves, rehearsal was sometimes impossible without accepting a degree of risk that I simply didn't wan't to take. Fact is that even in the best of circumstances, falling is sometimes not an option. You either do the moves on the first try, or you face severe, trip-ending (or season-ending) injuries.

And so, the answer was clear. I would train. I would get strong, and get my climbing to the level where I could confidently pull things off that, before now, I had done only in my head. And I did. But (because I am me) I first I broke the climbs down and sorted them according to their particular styles. Some required long, powerful moves. Some, a subtle delicate feel for the rock underfoot. Some, a knack for specialized techniques of jamming or twisting body parts into cracks. Some were endurance oriented, and others required short, focused efforts on very difficult terrain. Some were simply head games, doing relatively easy moves but in very high-consequence situations. Each climb was special, and I had a particular order that made sense to me.

The way I figured it, I was most likely to succeed in my list if I got the ones out of the way early that required a lot of strength or endurance. These two attributes can be trained, especially by someone who is already in pretty good shape. They can also make up, in many cases, for a lack of perfect technique- something that would buy me precious time as I sharpened my skills. Finally, they are the first things to go when training takes a break due to injury or other life circumstances, and are sometimes hard to get back once they are gone.

I got a hang-board and a gym membership and started bouldering. At first, I could send pretty easily in the V4-V5 range (indoor), but beyond that would give me issues. I kept at it though, and I think the years of climbing in addition to the hang-board routines at home helped me to progress fairly quickly into the higher grades. Also, with this increased bouldering strength came an increase in endurance and route-reading skills. Looking back, I don't think I have put this amount of focused dedication into a single activity since I was studying for the DAT to get into dental school. Thus, I was happy to see, once this spring rolled around, that many of the outdoor routes that had previously given me problems seemed easy, and that I was able to start working regularly at a level that I had never been at before in my life.

My plan was working, and I was stoked for my first big bucket-list trip: A ten day affair at Red Rocks that I had coordinated with 4 different partners to climb with at different times. The routes I would do all included powerful moves with finger strength and upper-body endurance playing key roles. I was ready. As of a couple weeks ago, I was bouldering V9, climbing up to 5.11 in my tennis shoes, onsighting regularly at 12b, and working harder climbs outdoors into the 5.13 range. In other words, this trip was going to be a cake walk.

But then then Covid-19 happened and the world closed down. Along with it, came this headline:

Yep. The trip was shot. All of that hard work, for nothing. Well...not for nothing. I have really enjoyed the process, and I think some of the gains will be carried over into subsequent seasons, but the thing about Red Rocks is that it gets really freaking hot in the summer, so I definitely won't be climbing there anytime soon, and I don't know if I can keep my fitness at this level indefinitely. It's a bummer.

Refusing to be totally skunked, my cousin Jon (one of my original partners for Red Rocks) and I decided to make the best of things and do some local cragging at Little Cottonwood Canyon in Utah. Though there isn't anything there that I had been itching to do, I looked up some of the best routes in the guidebook and we set out to do them.

The thing is, the climbing there is completely different than what I had been getting ready for. To make an analogy, if I had been studying for the DAT, it felt as if I had walked into the testing center full of confidence, only to be given the LSAT along with a sly smile and a "good luck" from the test takers. It was the wrong test!

To make things worse, the climbs at Little Cottonwood are notoriously difficult and technique intensive for their grade, making it so that I didn't feel prepared for even simple routes. Friction slab? Yeah, I don't do those. At least not yet. They are described in one article as an attempt to "turn your hands and feet into suction cups on the smooth underbelly of fear." Yeah, that seems about right. But that fear sometimes turns over and rears it's ugly head right in your face. Taking a 25 foot whipper onto that tiny nut you placed? No thank you.

Oh, and offwidth cracks- described by Alex Honnold as "a wrestling match to the death with a cheese grater?" Tons of fun when you have never done them before. Notorious British climber, Ed Drummond, writes of his first experience with these nasty features: "My puffed and bloody knees, ripe from the night, softly exploded in crimson berries on my dirty trouserless legs." He is as poetic as he is accurate.

I think Lynn Hill, one of the best climbers of all time, does the best job of describing the intricacies of climbing polished granite. In an interview with Chris Kalouse, she makes the following observations:

"It’s a style of climbing that is not that popular in today’s world. People are into really hard routes, but they’re not into routes with no holds. They’re routes with holds that are steep and continuous.

               

So it’s  just a style I knew would be challenging. Just having the ability to climb at a high level and be proficient at all the technical, you know, placing gear…because a lot of the people I was climbing with were Europeans who didn’t know how to jam.  At all. Like, they climbed 5.14 [at home], but here they couldn’t do a 5.9!"

Alright, so hearing this from Lynn Hill helped me a little bit to piece back together an ego that was being systematically broken down by the beautiful yet ultimately cold and uncaring faces we were climbing on. What I would have given for something- anything, no matter how small- to hang onto. It just didn't exist though. We were constantly pushing, squeezing, tip-toeing, and twisting...but never actually hanging onto or pulling on any holds. I honestly don't think it would have made a lot of difference had I been wearing mittens. My newfound strength, especially in my fingers and hands, was useless. I was more than ready for Red Rocks- but these featureless lumps of white sparkling stone, grossly over-sized and dried up marshmallows?  Not a chance.

And so, we did a LOT of the most classic routes in the canyon, most of which are pretty moderate anyway, but we never did anything harder than 5.10d (even though a lot of people put some of the climbs closer to the 11b range). Truth is, it was rough. It reminded me of yet another quote, this time by granite legend Steve Roper, regarding hotshots (like me) approaching these climbs:

"Some would arrive with grandiose plans- and announce these to anyone within earshot. More often than not, these fellows would literally sneak out after a failure, not wishing to endure the smirking faces back in camp."

So, at least it's not just me. Right?

Anyway, the last few paragraphs pretty adequately describe my first day of this trip, and I went to bed in my car that night questioning all of my life's decisions and wondering if I would ever be up to actually doing the climbs on my list. Many of them, after all, would require that I not just learn, but master some of the techniques that I had been flailing on just a few hours earlier. It would be like training a rhinoceros, strong as he may be, to do ballet. Was it possible?

But then another thing happened. Because the climbing was so ridiculously different than what I was prepared for, and possibly because I had to mentally protect my own ego from collapsing under the literal weight of the stone, I was brought back to a place I haven't been to for a while. A place where grades don't matter any more. A place where climbing happens simply out of pure enjoyment and passion for the sport. 

There were no lists, no tests, no training. Just the feel of your own body moving in a vertical world. The camaraderie with a good partner who was sharing in this singular experience. The ability to stop and look around, even on something that was just a 5.10 (or even a 5.7), and consciously think about how cool and amazingly intricate the features were that you were on. The flow. I don't want to sound overly cliche or philosophical here, but the experience of climbing, just for the sake of climbing and nothing else, borders on the spiritual. Those who get it, get it. Those who don't...I hope you have something in your life that is to you what climbing is to me. 

Suffice it to say, the weekend hit a turning point, and went from something that could have been a huge disappointment and turned into something else that was maybe better than the original trip would have been in the first place. After all that training, I think I needed to be reminded of the real reasons I climb. Perspective, you know? 

As for the list...it will remain. I have a lot of years and I will be strong for a good long time. I can continue to push grades and limits even if it isn't on notorious routes. They will still be there next year...or the year after that. If anything, I now know where some of my weaknesses are that I hadn't seen before. This rhinoceros can learn to dance. One day. Soon.

And a word to that cheese grater...you're going down!

Here are some photos:

Jon on The Schoolhouse

Me leading The Coffin.

Me with a helmet and Jon without? I mean, we're standing on solid ground, so I get it, but this has to be a first :)

Cool thing about technology- kids can send you handwritten letters even on short trips! Thanks, Addy-O.

Well, these last few weeks have been very strange, but we have managed to fall into a sort of loose routine. I, for the most part, have become a stay-at-home dad, whereas Rach goes to work each day to at least keep us treading water, financially speaking. The kids are doing home school, and so far we have somehow managed to keep the house running just a small step above "Lord of the Flies" status.

As part of staying at home, I am keeping the house clean, going on daily outings, and trying my best to keep up with school for each of our 5 kids, who are all at different academic levels. Their teachers each sent home giant packets of worksheets along with pie-in-the-sky expectations of parents. I promptly took the 10% of the packets that looked useful for our kids and threw the busywork away. I also added a lot of my own content. Now, I don't want to put down the schools or anything, but I've got to say I am pretty confident that our kids will return to school far ahead (academically) of where they would have been had this whole virus thing never happened. I do a pretty good job.

And honestly, it sounds busier and harder than it actually is. We do school for 1-2 hours/day. The house stays nice. We eat nice meals together. We also get out and play a lot. In other words, we're kinda rockin' it. In spite of all this, there is still way more downtime than I know what to do with and I think I might die of boredom.

See, we are a family who runs. We are constantly on the move and "doing", and being still just doesn't fit well with our lifestyle. Personally, I have filled the time in with reading some of the more challenging books I set out to complete this year, working out in my shop, organizing the house, and practicing the guitar. I'm trying to stay productive. But I miss going to work. I miss my patients and my staff and doing dentistry. I miss climbing with friends, or just hanging out at the gym, or playing in the band. I miss watching the kids in their dance classes. I miss shaking people's hands. I miss entertaining at our house with barbecues and yard games. I miss the constant noise of the neighborhood kids playing together.

All over, I hear people trying to put positive spins on this whole situation, and I get it, I really do, but these attempts all seems so lame and empty. The fact is, life was just about perfect until this came along, and any positive outcomes, to me, are vastly overshadowed by all the great things that we can't have in our lives right now. I don't mean to be a downer, but really, I MISS "NORMAL."

Stupid virus.

Here are a few pictures from the last couple of weeks.

Jackson's first lead. 5.8 sport.

Here he is near the top

At least Lindsey knows how to trust the rope!

A different hike (and swim) to an island. Burrr!

Home School

This is from a trip that just Rachel and I took (Thanks, Ev!). Here's Rachel on her first lead with traditional gear. She did great!

On this hike we saw a natural "cave" and decided to improve a little :)

Yet another hike. Jackson is channeling his inner peace.

Staying out. Staying busy. Staying away from other people.

People weren't built for social distancing, but we make the best out of it!

Have a good week!

Oh my gosh I am so bored! I miss normal life. I only did about 4 hours of dentistry last week. There is at least a month left, with a good chance of this thing lasting even longer. The weather has been yucky and everything is closed. The kids and I are going nuts. NUTS I TELL YOU!!!

Rach has been great, going to work every day and being productive and everything. I envy her.

That is all.

Have a good week!

To say this week has been bizarre would be an understatement. To those who are reading these words right now, this would seem obvious. Therefore, it is not for them that I write this post, but for readers in the future after this has passed and we look back and say things like "remember that one time...?" and then we either laugh or nod solemnly or maybe don't remember at all. To them, I want to give a description of things as seen through my small window into reality, because right now that all seems a little bit topsy-turvy.

A virus has been spreading around the world with cold and flu-like symptoms. It is highly contagious, has no known cure, and carries a death rate that is around 3%, but may be has high as 20% in older or more vulnerable populations. It's advancement seems relentless as it mocks even the most extreme efforts of containment.

Initially, America's leaders downplayed the severity of this thing as they watched it coming. It was fake news. It was a conspiracy. It was unwarranted worry. When people started dying in Italy at a rate of one person every four minutes, people changed their minds real fast. Both the stock market and the supermarket were depleted overnight as people prepared for the unknown. This, in turn created a wake-up call for some and panic for others. Stores are not able to maintain a supply of even basic goods, and almost all have begun to ration things like pasta, toilet paper, and OTC medicine.

In the absence of clear leadership at the national level, governors started stepping up and issuing orders for their respective states. This has created some confusion, as neighboring states have had different responses, but it does make some sense since not all states have been hit equally. New York has a person dying every hour. My home-state of Idaho has, so far, no reported deaths and only a few confirmed cases. My guess is that in the end we will all be in the same boat, but states with larger and denser populations will certainly be affected the most. 

In some areas, people are being mandated to stay in their homes. Almost all schools have been closed. Businesses are shutting down left and right, and unemployment is rising (or expected to rise) to levels not seen since the Great Depression. It is nearly impossible to go anywhere in public without seeing people wearing PPE (masks and gloves), and there is enormous social pressure to maintain a "safe" distance from others, as a person could easily become a vector for "the virus."

The virus, it would seem, is all anybody is thinking about. Every interaction is colored by its effects as people hash and rehash what we know and what we don't, argue over "proper" emotional or political responses, or commiserate with one another about how it has affected them personally. Uncertainty seems to be the only thing anybody can agree upon, while radicals are only too happy for a growing audience of people yearning for some sort of explanation or sense of control.

Where this all ends up a month, or a year from now is for anyone to say. For many, I fear, it will prove to be devastating on some level. For others, it will barely register as a blip during the course of their lifetimes. It does seem like one of those things though, much like 9/11, where it is clear that history is being made, and I have to admit that it is (and I say this cautiously)...a little bit exciting just to realize the significance of this moment.

What does this all of this mean for our own family? Well, we haven't stocked up on toilet paper if that is the question. We are doing our best to hold it together as the kids are home from school. They still do their classes each day online, but Rachel and I both acknowledge freely that neither of us are cut out very well to be stay-at-home parents, and we steal personal time away as much as possible. Opportunities to do things outside of the house are dwindling, and I have never been so thankful in my life for "screen time."

At church, I continue to play in the band. If anything, the extra downtime has allowed me to practice more, and I have even started playing bass guitar on occasion. Services are now live-streamed on the internet to our congregation, but it is weird not to have people in front of us when we play. I am used to looking up at 300 friendly faces, and it is a little unsettling to see nothing but a camera and the 15 or so people on the staff who are running things.

Climbing has also come to a near stand-still. I try to stay in shape, but with all the gym closures and social distancing policies, I fear my season will not be what I had hoped for. Already, I am anticipating the need to cancel an "A-list" trip next month to Red Rocks (though I haven't yet), and many of my spring-time projects have been postponed due to travel restrictions. This is one of the first years that my skill level, my equipment, my partners, and my time available have all lined up to allow me a realistic chance of reaching goals I have had since high school, and it is a little bit frustrating to see this window of opportunity closing.

At work, I am limited to seeing patients only for urgent needs. This is as much for the sake of "flattening the curve" as it is for the inability we have of keeping employees safe given the nature of our jobs. As a general dentist, this cuts off about 90% of my patient flow, and consequentially, about the same percentage of my income. It's not just dentists either- the entire industry has been hit hard. Livelihoods will be lost.

For now, in Idaho at least, limiting work is only a "strong recommendation" from multiple sources, but has yet to become a mandate. The truth is that nobody really knows how to handle this situation, and responsibility keeps getting passed from agency to agency. "The situation is fluid" is the most common thing to hear. Nobody wants to shut down dental offices entirely, as they do a LOT to divert traffic away from an already overtaxed hospital system. On the other hand, nobody wants them to be in business either since they sit at the very top of the risk curve for contracting and spreading this virus. In short, everyone is wondering what to do, and it looks increasingly likely that the answers we do have are coming from nothing more than a magic 8 ball.

A few days ago, our neighboring state of Washington enacted an actual law requiring all dental offices to restrict normal operations until May 18. Some states have been talking about even longer suspensions. Things seem to be completely up in the air (no pun intended), and there seem to be no answers. The way things are looking, this state of generalized anxiety and uncertainty looks like it will last much longer than just a couple of weeks.

Given this information, I think it is important to say to those who might be concerned about our family's welfare- don't worry. We are fine. In fact, we are far better off, probably, than the majority of people during these uncertain times. We might go bonkers with boredom, it is true, but if that is the worse of it then I think we'll be okay. That is all.

As for Rachel, she gets to carry an official card with her to work in Washington because she is considered an "essential worker...integral to the infrastructure...etc." It seems almost dystopian to think she could ever actually be stopped and asked to produce "papers" allowing her to roam free in her own country, but I guess that is where we are at now. In fact, things have, if anything, been busier than ever for her. I imagine that for the next little while she will be the main breadwinner for our family, a role which she is almost too happy to fill given the alternative of preparing meals, homeschooling, and solving the endless variety of childish tiffs that seem endemic to daily life in our household.

She has also spent and increasing amount of time with CDAide- a local charity that she works with for the benefit of hospitality workers. She recently took on additional responsibilities in this organization at a time where the need has never been greater. I am not clear of all that she does here, but if anyone wants to talk to her about it, I'm sure she'd love to fill you in.

Meanwhile...

We do our best to keep it together. We have tried to establish some sort of structure to our days, and things really are running pretty smoothly. We got a pickleball set, and the weather is starting to be nice enough to go on family walks or bike rides. Maren has been saving up her money and surprised me a few days ago by purchasing two small rabbits that live on top of her dresser (apparently her and Rachel had been keeping this plan a secret from me for some time). The kids and I managed to get into the library just hours before it shut down and the kids stocked up on books to read. Spring cleaning is underway, and by the end of all this our home will either look like a magazine cover, or a disaster zone. Things could really go either way. 

In short, we are staying busy and staying positive. As our kids learned at camp this last summer- "Life can be crazy, wild and amazing." Never were truer words spoken.

Have a good week!

Baby bunnies make everything nice :)

We went and saw Cabaret. Fun night out and a good show...and probably the last we will be going to for a while. 

What a surreal week it has been! It seems like the whole world is shutting down. The kids don't have school and all of our usual hangouts (gyms, pools, ski resorts, libraries, museums, etc.) are closed. If this bug doesn't take us out, we might take each other out due to cabin fever.

Honestly I thought at first that this was a lot of knee-jerk panicking and I sort of rolled my eyes at it all. The more I learn about this virus, however, the more I think all the shutdowns and quarantines and social distancing are exactly the response that is needed. It's not panic- it's action. Pretending that things are less serious than reality is akin to putting one's head in the sand and is not helpful to anyone.

Needless to say, things have affected us quite profoundly. As of today, I have closed the office to all but emergency patients. It's a big move to make and will end up being a very expensive decision, but more and more dentists are doing the same thing and I feel strongly that it is the right thing to do given this environment. Right now we are planning on running things this way for three weeks. I also think it is very possible that it will last longer than that.

Things are nuts. Crazy.

*****

On a lighter note...

This is Lindsey. She doesn't need to be in a wheelchair, but she is. This was all before the schools shut down and the story deserves to be told.

About a week ago she decided to "jump off our deck." Now, I don't know exactly what that means because I wasn't there, but our deck is pretty high and I'm sure if she actually took that kind of a plunge that the damage would be much worse. She did, however, hurt her foot enough for us to take her into a doctor. Turns out she has a minor sprain. It will heal itself, but she will favor that side for a while. No biggie, right?

Well, the next day the school called both Rachel and me while we were at work. "We need you to come and get Lindsey. She can't put much weight on her left foot."
"Yeah, we know. It's been checked out and she is fine."
"No, we need you to come and get her."
"Right...Why don't you just keep her in school until I can come get her."

...I picked her up 30 minutes before the final bell. She was smiling and happy. A little gimpy perhaps, when she walked, but otherwise she was perfectly fine. Definitely not something to get a parent out of work for.

The next day, apparently, Rachel got in an argument with the school. They didn't want her. Even though she was getting along just fine on her own, the school wasn't comfortable watching her limp. "A teacher would have to hold her hand," they said, and "they simply didn't have enough people available to watch out for her."

"Wait, what? Since when did you turn children away from school because they couldn't walk very well? Do you turn kids away in wheelchairs too? They need ten times more assistance than Lindsey! She is fine, and we have other responsibilities we need to take care of. It's not like she's contagious or anything."

They wouldn't budge. So...We borrowed a wheelchair. I am assuming that this is a much larger burden on the school than having her limp along by herself, but they legally can't turn her away now. So there!

But it doesn't matter anymore because school is closed anyway. Joke's on us, I suppose.

For what it's worth, Lindsey is doing better every day. She is now walking almost normally, and even went rock climbing with us a few days ago. She isn't about to jump rope anytime soon, but she doesn't seem discouraged at all and is handling recovery quite well. What a trooper.

*****

Well, that's it for this week. If anyone is wanting to go climbing or anything, it looks like I might have more free time on my hands than I know what to do with. Give me a call.

And have a good week!

I am constantly reminded of how in love I am with the area we live in and with the lives we have built here. This weekend was one of those times.

On Saturday, we went climbing at Vantage. Kids did well. I am climbing better than ever- especially with trad stuff which is a goal of mine this year. Rach led a sport route too, and did a really good job with that. It was an amazing day with beautiful weather.

The next day started out by me playing in the band and then skiing until the resort closed. Two things here: First of all, I am loving my new guitar. Seriously, it makes a huge difference. Picture driving a Chevy your whole life, and then switching over to a Ferrari. Even if your driving didn't change that much, and the roads were the same ones you've always been on, the experience would still be completely different. It would also probably motivate you to drive more often and to learn some more advanced tecniques. Well, that is like my new guitar. It is a Ferrari and I love it.

The second thing is the quality of skiing this weekend. I spent almost the whole day with Jackson, and I can honestly say he is the best ski partner I have ever had. His goal was to do all the hardest runs (double blacks) at the resort in a single day without ever falling- and he did it! I was the proud dad, and found myself in a state of euphoric flow on many occasions that day as we carved turns around each other, whooping, hollering, and bantering the whole way down the mountain. What a day!

Also, how cool is it that we can have back-to-back perfect climbing and skiing on two consecutive days? Oh yeah!

And then on Monday, with all the kids in school, Rach and I had our traditional breakfast date. We also spent a long time at the climbing gym together. All told, I climbed 25 pitches this weekend, all ranging from 5.10 to 5.12. Some of that was inside, some was sport, and some was trad, but either way, that is some good mileage for me.

It was a good week :)