Status Quo

I was sitting in my chair tonight thinking about how I'd like to write a new blog entry, but had thoughts that there wasn't much to report on. Life has been going on pretty much as usual. But then I thought about what those usual things are, and realized even though they are "par for the course", they actually stand out as pretty interesting. Here's what's going on:

Gym climbing is picking up as usual as winter sets in with a tighter grip on the MN area. And since my frequency of going is increasing, so are the returns. I sent what was probably the hardest climb I've done in the gym yet the other day, and Alison did the same for herself in one night. Nice. And even though if you know me and have heard that I think grades are stupid, I'll oblige to give you the ratings- 5.11b for my send and 5.10a for Alison's. It's fairly arbitrary, as I've been up 5.11c's, and Alison has done well on 5.10c's, but the routes we accomplished recently were both bigger hurdles. It was a mean 5.11b due to the flexibility and control involved on my end, and Alison came a long way in understanding new movement techniques to send her project. Big progress. Good.

Winter biking has come to a halt recently, due to the need to replace the crankset I've been nursing for awhile. I'm not going to push it any further so as to not harm the actual bottom bracket shell of my frame. Yeah, the play in the crank got intense and I should have replaced it a while ago.

I was out for the first nordic ski of the year not too long ago. Not a lot of snow, but enough to get out on. Further southeastern sections of MN has the best snow in the state, but the Cities isn't doing too bad for being non-mountainous. I hope we get bombed with snow this year; the past couple years have been lackluster.

Running has been going well. Continuing work on the treadmill at the gym every time I'm done climbing. Still rocking the Vibrams. Getting stronger.

We have quite a bit of family holiday visiting coming up. It will be great to see everyone again. The Hovde clan is meeting several times the week of Christmas, and the Jensen's will be arriving in St Paul the week after to party. Mullet's got his dancin' shoes on and is ready for it.

Work is sucking bad. Wish I didn't have to say it but to be cliche, it is what it is. Terrible. If you think of any stories you've heard about airlines on the news in the past year, just try to think of one that has been positive. My bet is that you probably can't. Suckville. Alison is being furloughed Jan 7. My boss "resigned" today. It's walking through a minefield right now. At least we still have our travel benefits. I don't see any flying in either Alison's or my future in the next year or two, but we'll see. If you are young and looking for a career field, the only way I'd suggest being a pilot is if you absolutely love it and are willing for tons of disappointment due to a wickedly unstable industry amidst the satisfaction you get from the actual flying part. You will have issues. But I don't know that many other career fields are exactly thriving in our craptastic economy right now. Just go on a very long bicycle tour/climbing trip and wait for the country to turn around for now. :)

That's the update.