January 2005 Archives

But first, as promised, a picture of the little KKK statue.  Tell me it isn't a clansman, go on, tell me.  Anyway.

Our first summit was 15,465 feet - just shy of the full three mile mark.  Though if you count the bulge of the earth at the equator we could fudge it to say above 3 miles, but anyway.  The hike started off with a nauseatingly bumpy ride at six AM across broken pavement, then rough cobblestone, then horribly washed out dirt roads.  After that little adventure we started off across a beautiful high moutain pasture.  a few piss breaks later - our guide Luis instructed the ladies how to do this with a minimum of embarassment - and we finally got the the rock wall.  Deciding we´d rather live to see another day we elected to go around the "easy" way across a huge expanse of shale and then scramble up the last 400 feet of trecherously loose rock.  It was a blast!  pictures are posted in the gallery here https://www.arr-the-kraken.com/gallery/view.php?gid=5 .

After giddy jokes of decapatating our fearless leader and drinking his oxygen rich blood we decided to head back down.  What took us 5 hours to summit took about 45 minutes to get down.  Another jarring ride past curious cows and dogs feircly guarding their nests of garbage we got back to town.  Nearly everyone crashed immediately but Henry and I set out to take advantage of the ridiculously low prices for hiking gear here and get me a better day pack.

Some struggles with an incompetant user at the primary cafe ("how do I copy a file?") and we arrive here.  We're meeting for well deserved pizza for dinner - the hike burned 3500 calories - then a nice leasurly night before hitting the climbing wall tomorrow.

Now that I have a cable and now where to post pictures I should be able to add more photos to the gallery, it's easier than linking to them here and we all know I am generally lazy (current excursion excluded).

Hope all are well in seattle, ireland and afgahnistan.  Peace out yo.

It's been nearly twenty four hours now at 10,000 feet and everything seems to be going pretty well.  Out of breath while climbing an impossibly steep and windy staircase to the top of a basillica and the occasional light headache but that's pretty much par for the course for us gringos.

So what's new and interesting?  Well Carnival fast approaches and we are told to expect waterballoons from children.  Some of them seem to be getting a head start - sherry got nailed in the back as we walked a market today.  Not to be out done we've picked up some ammunition for when things get worse.  When not pelting us with waterballons the children are often part of some elaborate simpathy scheme for money.  I don't think I've seen a child under 5 yet that wasn't begging come to think of it.  Plenty of teenagers though, perhaps it's just a rite of passage.

As far as actual training goes, today we got to work on our fixed line ascent.  Basically you have yourself tied to a rope in two different places in two different manners and you have to practice getting past knots or tiedown points without ever completely disconnecting from the rope.  It wasn't too hard except that they sent half of the group in one direction around the rope ring and the other around the other.  The collision mid way was fun.  We also learned what constitutes light packing for a moderate hike - and it isn't the same as what I would consider for that.  light hikes for me don't invole full goretex outerwear and your headlamp "just in case".

So yes, that means that tomorrow is our first ascent.  Wakeup call around 4:00am for breakfast at 4:30 and a departure by 5.  3 hours by van and we get to start actually treking.   This is also the only thing that is still consistant with our original schedule.  The mountains and snow have decided to have a little fun with us causing our team to have to rearrange the climb schedule.  Cotopaxi - which was to be our second summit - is now our last and one of our initial summits is now completey scrubbed.  We'll still hit 4 peaks but it's definately a schedule in flux.

No pictures right now since I forgot my camera cable and it's sunday and nothing is open (though plenty of shops should carry it).  It's rather a shame, otherwise right now you'd be looking at a bronze statue of a Klu Klux Klan's man.  If it isn't a klansman than it's a statue of a funny man holding a cross with a giant pointed hood with slits for eyes.  Not sure which makes more sense.  It was for sale on the edge of Gringolandia (gringo land, our unofficial home) so maybe it was there just to cause a stir.  Don't know.  I just thought it was funny.

Only other things to report were flying from seattle to huston with a couple in the two seats next to me that overflowed fairly well into my seat.  They had to lift the armrests so as to wedge their girth into the airline's admittedly tiny seats.  I didn't sleep very well on that flight.  Sherry was offered $200 and a first class upgrade if she was willing to go out on a later flight - but that would have given her a total of 20 minutes to change planes in texas so a no go there.

Not much else really, today was mostly a reconoitering day, getting used to the city and the people.  Getting used to haveing to consume 4 to 6 liters of water a day to properly counteract the altitude (this is including the diamox) and finding out which restaurants serve gringo friendly food.  More to come I'm sure.

walking the dog... walk, walk, walk... lovin' the fresh air

Yo that is whack - ain't no way I'm doin' that!

well this aught to be an interesting conversation to hear...

Ain't no fuckin' way I'm working no part time job and goin' ta school. Ain't no way!

Why not? I do, and I play sports!

And you earn what? $100 a week. That ain't enough to cover your insurance premium. If you can't pay your car insurance with what you earn by using your car to go to work you're actually losing money. It's a dead end job, yo!

Hmm, astute little thug.

Look, I earn $250 a week, I pay my premium and I save the rest dawg. I gots enough saved up so when I take a honey out I shows her a good time.

Aww yeah, I hear that!

....

And that's basically word for word the little one act play performed for me tonight entitled Playa Economics. I half expected to hear "Their P/E Ratio is shit yo! My benjamin's belong in T-bills". Or something like that at least. I live in a strange neighborhood.

I like the line "you have been measured and found wanting". Maybe I'm mixing it up a little but that's the basic jist of it. Tony told me once where it came from but I've since forgotton. Anyway, it seemed applicable yesterday since it was another round of interviews for a new hire.

As lead dev I get to try and do a quick technical assesment of whoever shows up. Sometimes chad helps, sometimes not. Anyway the process is the people get dropped off at my office for about a half hour then my boss comes and gets them, sends them to his office then quickly comes back for a "score" before conducting his half hour interview. Yesterday there was one fellow denied that second part.

Boss came back for the quick score and I just shook my head. He was shown the door. I felt bad, like I'd just turned my thumb down and ordered him to be eaten by lions - not quite that bad but still. Hmmm... nope, no employment for you. I didn't really enjoy the sensation, no rush from a power trip or anything. Makes me think I could maybe manage, uh, managing people - the delegating work part - but when it comes to firing people I don't really have it in me.

Unless you're a pissy tile layer who cuts everything crooked and then insists nothing's wrong. Then your ass gets hit by the screen door on the way out.

I think I'm ready for my trip, training wise at least. Yesterday was another climb of mount si wearing 45 pounds. No real problems though we did have to turn back after about 2 miles because of ice and snow. I'll be climbing in ice and snow but I'll have crampons then, plus no point risking injury this close to leaving.

It still seems kind of surreal. Most of the times I've travelled before I've had some vague itinerary for the city or cities I'll be in. If nothing else a checklist of things I want to do and see. But we won't really be in any cities, it'll just be climbing. There will be stops after each climb in the cities and I think that we actually spend a majority of our time in the company of other humans but my mind hasn't really wrapped itself around that. Just sort of an odd sensation.

I still hold out hopes for finding a massive Incan carved woood table for like $30 at some flea market, but more than likely it'll be at a shop or gallery. I've got to find something with a big face carved in it so I can name my table "Senior Extopolopoketle".

And to wrap up the last thread - dreams of new car ownership are temporarily on hold since I got a quote from my insurance company saying one of the cars I was looking at would cost me $1400 every six months to insure. nearly three grand a year just to drive a car seems a little excessive. Now I think I just need to find a little commuter car. maybe a mini. Then I can sup it up, steal some gold, and go on a wild chase through downtown.

It's going to be sweet.

Hi, I'm Alex Scherman, I'm here to look at the escape hybrid...

Hi, I wanted to take a look a the Matrix. My name? Brian, Brian James.

Kyle, here for the Tribute... Sam, I'd like to see the Vue.

I hate looking for new cars. Actually I don't mind looking for new cars, I hate dealing with salesmen. You don't really care what I do or how my family is (I'm not telling and I don't have one) - your job is to get as much of my money as possible and my job is to give you as little as possible. Normally giving your name and no other contact information is fine but with a last name like Birkenbuel it's fairly easy to track me down. I should know, a Jeep dealership did it a few years ago.

But it was a successful haul, I got three 2nd tier brochures - the ones that have more than just pictures and come with actually handling characteristics and specs. I've ruled out the mazda and all but the escape (hybrid is still acceptable) because they're rediculous looking and have just as bad of gas milage as I currently have.

Still, the whole process makes me wonder. Could I go up to a car salesman and say "look, I don't want to buy anything right now, I just want to see the inside of the car. You can save us both a bunch of time if you just unlock the car and don't make me come up with fake contact information". Think it would work?