Up the wall...

Up the wall...
February 5 - 11, 2001
looking for new shoes, finally shooting again, and climbing some more (while it rains).



	Huh, the crowd is heavy today...



	Sunday patronage at Planet Granite

Somebody up there must be reading my e-mails and my journals. I was shamelessly claiming that we keep having nice weather -- and here we go -- it's been raining for four days now. Fortunately it is not the kind of Czech rain, when the sky turns dark gray and it rains and rains forever. Here, a cloud rushes in, pours a bucket of water on your head, and the sun returns to shine. Once you unbutton your jacket or turn your face up to the rays to unfreeze a little, yet again someone up there pushes the flush button. There's one aesthetical advantage to it -- I think I saw rainbows within last four days more times than ever before in my life. Of course even practical gains may come - our mountains could get enough snow for skiing and water supply could build up. Starting with spring, it will stop raining and water that accumulates till then will have to last us through the summer and fall.

Being stubborn, I maintained my original decision to purchase summer sandals, although weather tilts more towards rubber boots. I believe summer is not far away and I look forward to disposing of jeans and sweaters, and to walking around in light dresses. I thought that shopping for shoes in America would go easier than in Czech, and my first visit to a shoe store confirmed it. They had about three brands that I found comfortable, but I did not like any of them. Following attempts were even worse -- I'm so arrogant that I require sandals to lack high heels and fancy ribbons and ornaments, and to be universally useful. I found lots of shoes instead that had crazy high heels, enhanced with artistic renderings of flowers, (alternatively with golden straps blee ) - or sandals in "fashion" form -- that hoof-like heavy sole.



	Sid fighting in an overhang...

I followed various advice of various people and traveled around about half of the Valley. Considering my aversion to shopping, I would like to label it a heroic deed, but I am not sure if it was not a Pyrrhic victory (no shoes).



	... and winning

Naturally I did not spend the whole week shopping - for every store visit, I rewarded myself with a visit to the climbing gym -- I eventually managed four. Besides that, I have been with Cecilia at Tony's to change oil. Tony changed it and topped off all the other things, checked my break pads, lights, turn signals, pressurized tires, and assured me that he was kicked out of his first driving test before he could make it out of the parking lot. And that was when he still was a professional driver in Europe! But Tony did not speak much English then and when they asked him how to signal turns without lights, he did not get what they wanted from him -- to signal - MANUALLY - from the car window.
There are no technical car checkups here (only emissions checks), and you can drive whatever you want. If "it" does not have turn signal lights, you wave your hands from the window during turning (I'm not sure what it is supposed to be good for since nobody ever bothers to signal anyway, lights or no lights). Tony's story made me feel better for two reasons. First, I am not the only one who fell through the first time, and more importantly -- Tony learned about my failure from these journals. Hooray, my journals get read! :-)

On Thursday, I had to pay visit to Kren's. I stopped over for "just a moment" (about three hours :-) ), Madeleine was ill with some flu for the third time since Christmas, so Martina was scheduled to go with her to the doctor in the afternoon. But I mostly wanted to see aesthetical changed in Kren family. Madeleine had her braces removed after four years, and there must be something to this "torture of the innocent", for her teeth look so pretty and regular that you want to look closer if they're plastic. The second newly extremely elegant family member is Smudla - he got a new haircut. Poor dog, he was so unnerved that he lasted for only LITTLE OVER an hour to jump up to my head :-) , and then he fell asleep - I think that the animal "barber" had to have a rough time.



	"This is no vacation, ya gotta CLIMB..."

On Friday I took our neighbor Barbara to Twisters. She says that she only climbed once before, but I'm becoming to think that she keeps exercising every night. It's not possible otherwise.

We did not plan anything for the weekend as our weather tried to show off all its might. We thought that we would wallow around at home (on Thursday Sid threatened with cleaning up our closet, but his enthusiasm evaporated by Saturday :-) ). Leaving our closet behind, we went to a shooting range. We did not shoot since my arrival even once, I was afraid of my considerable worsening.



	... well, so this could be it ... only if I could lift myself up now on the leg .... :-)

Useless worries, I still shoot the same (I can simply beat Sid :-) ). Experts say that dispositions do not matter much (I normally shoot without glasses, which means that I can barely make out a target past some fifteen meters), and it may be some natural gift, like the colour of your eyes.

I rented a Glock, which Krouli keeps raving about, to check it out. Glock is partially made of plastic (light) and lacks right-handed safeties (being left-handed myself, I find most guns impractical), so I wondered how I would like it. Even though I carefully selected one model that fit my hand, I did not enjoy shooting it. As light as it was, it jumped in my hand and kept knocking on my left middle finger knuckle. Not to mention that it jammed several times and had such a strong spring in a magazine that even Sid could not fully load it -- but I'd credit these deficiencies to the fact it was a used, rental gun.

I also finally obtained my shoes. Sid stopped at one store, marched in and said -- so, which pair do you want? I already digested that there are always some otters when we go to the ocean, that we find huge mushrooms in the woods, that a bear came near us in the summer (there are people here who have been wishing to spot a bear for twenty years), but this story with my shoes (they had several!!! kinds, which all met my requirements) made me believe that Sid attracts improbable events. The only thing left, I think, is us meeting some E.T.s :-) .

On Sunday, we interlaced our relaxing (= Sid was programming, I was writing my journals, reading books and occasionally pulling myself together to attend some easy household chores) with climbing again, this time at Planet Granite. We took our Mavica along, so that you mothers could see that climbing is really safe, we are carefully "tethered" on a rope :-) . Naturally, Sid was complaining while climbing that he is not doing well, but I think the opposite - he just climbed out of this very green beginning and started to climb right - and even listens to what I advice him :-) .

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