Wowzerz! This blog has pretty much followed the typical life of amateur bloggers: they start out all hot ‘n’ heavy, with all sorts of ideas of grandeur…..and then pretty much die. That’s kind of sad (for me). If it makes you (me) feel any better, the reasons are at least legitimate, following with the theme of this site. So, what have I been up to, and why has this site all but died?
The Not-So-Awesome
Welllll, I’ve been waiting to hear from a potential employer for the past 2 months. No joke. It takes for freaking ever to hire an engineer for some reason. Needless to say, my confidence is not so high, but it still weighs on my mind and takes away some ambition for other things (like writing).
A week vacation in May. Wait, wut? How is that not-so-awesome?? Well, the vacation was spectacular. In fact, I’ve had a very lengthy blog post written about it since the plane ride back. However, it requires some finishing touches, and I haven’t gotten around to those yet. The reason I wasn’t real excited about it is that it was kind of last second. Typically when I go on a week vacation, I try to go some place with amazing food, beaches, and warm weather. I got the last part right and ended up in Arizona. It was still great to get away from work, but not what I would normally do. I’ll save the rest for the post.
I moved in May. I tried to move on the cheap this time, as well as not burden my friends and family. So, I took two weeks to move to a new apartment one Honda Civic car load at a time. It culminated with a day of cleaning my old apartment and moving the large items with the help of my family and a moving company.
All of those things were pretty high stress for me, and obviously took up a lot of my free time.
The Awesome-Awesome
A week’s vacation to AZ. (Conflicting, aren’t I?)
Since I got back from AZ and done moving in May, my weekly schedule after my full-time engineering gig has looked something like this:
Monday, Wednesday, and Friday – Personal training clients and training myself. That typically takes me to 8 pm, just enough time to get ready for the next day and relax for 15 min.
Tuesday and Thursday – Mountain biking or Climbing. Ok, I just started mountain biking this week, but I re-fell in love and plan on doing it much more often. So much more, in fact, that I bought a new-to-me, used Trek 69’er from Mat, one of the other dudes with a tent. Climbing is my new obsession (I think I’ve stated that here, no?) so I pretty much try to do that as much as possible. Sadly, I typically only get to go once or twice per week. No worries, I’m now climbing 5.11’s indoors, leading 5.9’s outdoors, and top-roping 5.10’s outdoors. This, folks, after only climbing for 5 months. Not too shabby.
Between training clients and myself, climbing, and biking, I need to find a better balance so I can enjoy them all more frequently. Riding and climbing only once a week just isn’t enough; however, it’s very difficult for me to abandon my true love of the gym. I think there might be a way for me to ride and train on the same day, which leaves two days/week for climbing (plus weekends), so I’ll be experimenting with that next week. I’m actually mostly excited about all the extra food I’ll be able to eat.
Moving on…
My weekends have been amazeballs. I have been outdoor climbing and/or camping every weekend for the past 3 weekends; I have scheduled trips planned for the next 3 weekends; and a 3.5 day weekend climbing in South Dakota in July. I’m sure my “free” weekends will get filled up shortly. It helps that there is some really good outdoor climbing (for the Midwest) within an hour of where I live. When in doubt, go climbing. If it’s raining, go camping/hiking.
Outside of that, I really don’t have time for much of anything else. I moved into my new apartment the last weekend of May, and I’m STILL not “moved-in”. There’s crap everywhere. Yes, I do have a couple hours every night, but those are spent unwinding from the wicked-sweet activities after work and/or with my girlfriend. Crazy, eh?
Can this Site be Resurrected?
I sure hope so. I still have the same big plans I originally outlined. I have a lot of weekend trips I need to blog about. I have a lot more gear I need to review. I need start giving some training tips. I have some videos of us doing some cool things I need to upload. I have way more than a metric shit-ton of photos I need to bomb you with. I just flat out need to spend more time on here. The only thing I can think of, though, is taking my laptop with me on camping trips. Sucks, yes. But if my choice is to do sweet shit or sit in front of my computer typing about doing sweet shit, I’d rather do the sweet shit. What other options are there?
Lastly, I’m sorry this post is pretty dry. I wasn’t really in the mood, but I knew I desperately needed to write something. My other, more popular website is almost equally as dead, and that’s really not good.
What have ya’ll been up to lately? Just as busy?
Glad to see that you are both out and about and back writing. This blogs got lots of potential, so don’t let it die.
Thanks, Adam. I hope so…