The rest of the time, I do what I have to. – Cicero, The Gladiator (2000) After 8 hours at my regular job I feel completely worn out and can’t get any sleep at night. After 55 hours teaching a weekend long outdoor rock climbing class I feel completely worn out and get the best […]
After a rough week where my car broke down at the absolute worst time (yeah, I know there isn’t a GOOD time but trust me this was exceptionally bad). I wasn’t stoked for a weekend of taking a group of students caving. Fortunately taking a group of students caving is a great way to distract […]
Religious folk say suffering is good for the soul. I don’t know about that but I know that the suffering you take on yourself is good for the mind. Sometimes it’s called type 2 fun. Sometimes it’s like this: life is hard and so you make yourself suffer on purpose so the hard things don’t […]
In late Winter when I see robins I know Spring is coming. In late Summer when I see deer I know Winter is coming. This week I saw two doe and two fawns in the cemetery in Ithaca. I saw two bucks and two doe in my neighbors yard when I let the dog out. […]
Today I googled “how to deal with disappointment”. Don’t worry, I also googled “how to fix gnarly climber toenails” and “how to give yourself a haircut”. Wait… maybe you should worry after all. Anyway, googling doesn’t generally help my problems but it’s got me thinking about how my expectations are always so high and how […]
They pay me to walk around here. I mean, technically they pay me to ask people not to go near the waterfalls or towers of loose rock, but still. I get very sweaty, my feet often hurt by the end. But still. I think a lot while I walk. Today I saw a doe from […]
The gorges of the Finger Lakes area of Upstate NY were made when the glaciers receded and left eleven great big cuts in the earth behind. The cuts became the lakes, the water that feeds them became the gorges. I told someone once that I’d been to a lot of places, and I felt the […]
I had hoped to hike 5 high peaks this weekend to bring my total up to 15 instead of 12, but I only hiked 2. It seems then that this post should be about success and failure, or about learning when to turn back, when to give up, but that’s not how it felt. It […]
Driving into the Adirondacks always feels like the start to a grand adventure. Usually because it is. When the road signs turn from that manufactured green that doesn’t exist anywhere but on road signs, to brown… you know it’s beginning. Rolling into Keene Valley I felt like I was expanding, filling the space, filling my […]
This weekend I made some good choices and some bad choices… Good: Morning yoga on the lawn of Krookid Leyk Distilling with Alarius YogaBad: Mixing gin, vodka, rum, and whiskey with pretzel charcuterie board Good: Playing with my niecesBad: Letting them perform magic spells with handfuls of dirt Good: Stewarding the gorges on Cornell University […]
