Rest day(s)

Because I am not good at heel hooking since I have the flexibility of a 2x4

Last Chance Canyon and the Solstice Cave, two hours later I was running from a cougar

Sunset between the Ranch and the Tanks

North Mountain and the moon

Tom Seymour on probably my favorite climb thus far Babyface v7

The past two days have been pretty uneventful, atleast in the sense that I am used to. I have not been climbing after climbing 10 of 12 days. My body felt like it was tossed off a cliff, not too high of one, just one high enough to hurt me pretty bad, then if I were to get up a semi came and hit me, but not square, because that would probably kill me, but maybe it just nicked me going probably somewhere between 30 and 40 mph. So these two rest days were a must. Talk about having nothing to do. My typical rest day consist of waking up around 8:30 and lounging for maybe an hour after drinking a pot of coffee. I then would make three plate sized pancakes with the burst of caffeine fresh in my system, maybe with bananas, or some other desert delicacy, but most definitely pouring close to a pint of syrup on them. After the pancakes, regardless of the liter of coffee I just drank, I get pretty sleepy. Instead of sleeping though, I usually resort to sitting there mindlessly until I have enough motivation to start reading. After roughly 90 minutes of reading, Ill probably take a shower. By this time it is usually not even noon. Yesterday I was lucky enough to grab a bunch of groceries in the community food box (usually food that people left when leaving the ranch). Along with the staples of oatmeal, corn, and cous cous, I found a couple real gems. At the bottom of the oatmeal box was two little debbie sweet treats, which I quickly devoured with no sense in saving one for later, which later I regretted. I also found a gallon of half sweet tea half lemonade, the ole Arnie Palmer, kind of like finding liquid gold when water and wine is all I have been drinking for the past month. Most of these rest days consist of thinking about food until I muster the energy to eat. I was able to do all my dishes yesterday which led to the satisfaction of not cleaning dishes before the pancakes this morning. Other than reading and eating, I will usually just walk around while the ranch pack of dogs roam with me. Some of these dogs I absolutely love and some of the I just want to kick. These ones are the ones that will constantly bark at you. If you ignore them they usually bark more and if you yell at them they usually bark more. I have not figured out how to handle them, Im no Cesar Milan.

As for climbing, Im extremely psyched on the next few days. Im feeling well rested and am finding the people that I really enjoy climbing with, which is really half the battle. I climb best when I am in good company. My camera is fully charged, and my body is getting ancy to get back on the rock. These rest days are just as important as figuring out how to do a climb. They are a necessary evil, necessary for obvious reasons, and evil because of the pure boredom and lack of climbing. But I am learning to appreciate them because of the total lack of anything to do. Its not often in life that you simply have nothing to do, and what better place to have nothing to do then in the middle of the desert outside of the booming city of El Paso.

Here are a few pictures that are on facebook, but I figure I would put them up here too so atleast there is some eye candy and not just me ranting about boulder problems and boredom.