Feb 19, Two thousand whatever . . . .

I ease my '95 Isuzu trooper onto Baseline Road in third gear. I'm tired of shifting. It's just one more drop in the bucket of what's become an exhausting day. There are to-do lists that grow with every blink of an eye and I've spent more than I wanted to . . . again. Seems that the simple life is a pretty complicated goal for this mind. My head hurts just enough to annoy me, but the pain is bearable. My appetite has been gone for two days, ever since I bit my tongue. The little canker sore at the very tip makes me loath food and anything else that would upset his delicate little world. He thrashes and burns whenever something disturbs his slumber. He's definitely best left alone.

It always smells like cows as I drive down Recker. It's a wonder that anyone lives in a town like Gilbert, Arizona. It's a wonder that it's constantly expanding, or at least that the new houses haven't driven the dairy farms away. The houses are like mistletoe on an old oak tree. They'll soon suck all the available resources away, and the dairy farms will have to quit spreading their rank manure on the land. People won't stand for it on their lawns.

There are so many lights. Each one of them burns into my retinas like battery acid. There are so many lights. Even the reflectors that mark the lanes send the light from my corrosive headlights back into my mind, reminding me that I'm contributing to the horrible pollution that blocks out God's little decorations in the sky. Oh well, it's a full moon. At least that's visible. My old friend, my one-time answer to a prayer, my half-month salvation in the wilderness.

I hit next . . . wait a second . . . next, next, next. All the songs sound the same. Wait . . . what's that one? I don't recognize this. How in the world did that get on my Ipod? I like that song, but I need something new. Nothing is quite new enough, nothing that I've added recently. I should really be content with the old, the classic, and the faithful. Smashing Pumpkins seem to be making a strong stand against the new. Maybe the new just won't cut it. Maybe the talent ran out in the early 2000s.

Things are about to get good though. Things are going my way. Ha! There are a lot of stop signs in this neighborhood. The subdivision just south of this one doesn't have any. Do they have more wrecks? I doubt it. I'll justify it that way as I roll through one. I haven't seen the sheriff in the black SUV that patrols my streets in a little while. He's just waiting for me to roll through a stop. It's his evil scheme. There he sits, rubbing his fingers and hands together, up and down, like an evil witch on some old Disney cartoon. Nope, not tonight, but soon.

So now . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . home.

This is for all the lonely people . . . who like to climb mountains.

Not really. I'm actually in a pretty good mood, and despite recent events, I've been meaning to write up this blog for some time. Emily gave me the fortune that she got out of a cookie when we were up in Idaho.
"Finding true love is like climbing a mountain. You must keep climbing until you reach the summit."
I was immediately reminded of this picture:
Let me talk a little bit about how finding love is like climbing a mountain, and how it is not. I'll try to use pictures to illustrate my main points.

You don't have to keep going until you reach the summit. Sometimes it's just plain unwise. In the photo that you see, Two Jasons and a Joe are looking in great disappointment toward the summit of the Grand Teton. There was a snowstorm blowing in and we had to turn around just a couple hours from the summit. If we had kept going, who knows? We could have been killed, or had to call Harrison Ford to come rescue us. Sometimes it's best to examine the situation that you are in and decide to keep going or turn around.

Some of the most amazing mountains are far far away and yet to be discovered. There are beautiful mountains that I've seen in Chile. You can drive clear up into the tops of them. Honestly, a lot of mountains these days have roads going up them, so it's not that hard to get to the top. On some of the biggest mountains in the world you may have to hike, but you can pay Sherpas to pack all of your stuff up for you. Wasn't it the Beatles who didn't think that money could buy them love? Silly Beatles. So here's a picture of me on top of a little mountain in Chile.
Some mountains are really photogenic. Some are really easy to summit. Mountains and love. They're so similar.

So how are they different? Well, you don't necessarily want you and your friends trying to "summit" the same girl at the same time. That just makes for hard feelings. Most mountains can be best enjoyed in the company of your companions.

If you climb more than one mountain in a month you don't get in trouble. It's not just your guy friends who think it's cool, and the mountains don't ever get pissed. They're rather ecstatic for you if anything.

If you get to the summit or true love with a girl, you should do your best to stay there. With a mountain, it's usually best to get a few pictures, enjoy the view for a bit and then head down before the weather rolls in. Hmm . . . I guess the same could be said for some relationships. That one could be similar or not.

You can climb the same mountain years later. The trip can be as enjoyable as the very first time. I wouldn't recommend that you do that with your relationships.

So really, do you need to work toward the summit? I'll just keep enjoying the hike and let you know when I get there. I'm not going to guarantee that the summit is any better than the saddle or the canyon, or even the meadows.

Price