Saturday, June 2, 2007

The climber as a young man


Getting our son on his way this summer has been full of extremes. Extreme panic to get money in his account so the overdrafts would be limited to three. Extreme loneliness in the world's most quiet house. He's gone to Yosemite in California to work , but mainly to rock-climb. His goal is to climb El Capitan. That's the one Ansel Adams took such beautiful b&w photos of years ago. It's also the one the cable channels show people jumping off of and getting rescued from on those shows moms shouldn't watch. As a mother of two adventurous (read climbers as babies) sons, I've been exposed to lots of exciting sporting events. Also, many emergency room visits. I finally just bought a big bottle of rubbing alcohol and a big box of butterfly bandages. DIY emergency room! It fixed most of the boo-boos from skating, skate boarding, surfing, urban climbing, spelunking, snowboarding, bouldering, and adventure racing. If you are unfamiliar with any of these sports just count yourself blessed. It's kind of like when I asked a neighbor how she survived her twins' first five years and she looked at me like I was from another planet. Then she explained that they just sat on the floor and read books. At that very moment, my twins had emptied the entire contents of the linen closet, their stuffed animal bucket, and the costume trunk onto the middle of the family room floor. As they heard me coming down the hall, I overheard, "She's coming!" then they took off out the back door running. Ah, sweet memories. Maybe this quiet house isn't so bad after all.

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