"Experts said this is going to be a very busy hurricane season. To which FEMA said, 'Not for us.'"
---Jay Leno

Unbelievable weekend. Even though I had a shift at work on Saturday, I had a phenomenal weekend. Camped at Eightmile Crossing on the east side of Hood in Mt Hood National Forest. Climbed at Bulo Point. Ate some great food prepared by my lovely wife Devon and our friend Jamie. Devon climbed a couple of 5.7 rock routes. Jamie climbed technical rock for the first time ever and did great. I got on a 5.9 route and lead the climb for the first time ever. Milestone climb. Fun and scary. Great route too - grippy rock, good exposure and well bolted.

Pardon me while I bask in the afterglow.

Hmmm. Here's a bullet point for one of the proposed "improvement" the the Intellectual Property Protections proposed by the lovely AG Alberto Gonzalez:

* Require Homeland Security to alert the Recording Industry Association of America. That would happen when CDs with "unauthorized fixations of the sounds, or sounds and images, of a live musical performance" are attempted to be imported. Neither the Motion Picture Association of America nor the Business Software Alliance (nor any other copyright holder, such as photographers, playwrights or news organizations, for that matter) would qualify for this kind of special treatment.

Why exactly would the Department of Homeland Security be required to notify the RIAA of anything? Last time I checked, the RIAA used questionable tactics to recoup supposedly "lost revenues" from private citizens on behalf of an industry that pushes more and more marginal pap out as "fresh" and "innovative" entertainment. The DoHS protects us from terrorists (I know, I know, but that topic provides fodder for an entirely different rant). Two independent agendas. Sounds like someone wants to bend government resources to protect an industry that can't survive on its own merits.

Amazing day to ride in to work. Perfect mid 50's weather. Sunny. Light breeze. And I caught green on both the lights at the bottom of the Interstate hill in my commute. The extra speed I retained from coming down that hill without needing to stop shaved 3-5 minutes from my ride in.
It doesn't hurt that I cruised by the cars at the bottom of the hill doing 25 mph either.

Nate and Sue and I climbed Mount Hood yesterday (Saturday May 12th). My first glaciated summit. And we didn't climb the "easy" South Side route (not that any snow covered, glacier climb can really be called easy) and instead went up the slightly more difficult but truly incredible Leuthold Couloir route. Pictures speak more eloquently than my words can. See them here.

Score one for Craigslist. Dev got a snowboard, boots and bindings for $70 last night. Neat graphics on the board. Decent condition. And the boots fit right. Of course, the season's pretty much over right now. Nevertheless, she's very excited about the new toy.

Here's an example of how weird it is to live in my head.

I wear glasses as most of you who read this already know. I started swimming. I cannot see in regular swim goggles so I need prescription goggles. Fortunately, the swimming industry is kind enough to make these optically corrective goggles pre-fabricated in half step diopters (-1, -1.5, etc through -10). I did a little research and found a couple of brands online and got an idea of pricing ($20-$30).

Now, I like to support local business where I can. In theory this means that if I can buy something from a local company, then I will even if I don't get quite as good a deal. After all, local business dollars go back into the local economy. You can build a friendly relationship with the shopkeepers and the other customers. Just good things all over the place. Except, generally, for price. The local shop that has the goggles in stock charges nearly double what they cost online ($40).

I'm a pretty miserly guy. I grew up learning to spend my money wisely (and sparingly). Find a good price and all that. So this price discrepancy sets me back for a minute. And I put the goggles on hold for a couple of days so I can think about my options. Dev kind of groans and asks if it's really this hard to be me. She's amazed at the amount of energy that I spend talking to myself on both sides of the issue.

Now here's the thing: $20 in and of itself isn't really a big difference one way or the other. But I had to wrestle my "save money" side to the mat with my "save local business" side. And if $20 sets off this kind of internal debate, what happens when I can save $100 on something through mail order?

So there it is. Can you hear Dev laughing in the background at my silliness?

"Hey David, what are you doing on your day off?"

Scraping paint. All. Day. Long. Scrape. Scrape. Scrape. A day off to scrape paint. I am truly living the dream.

Yay.