Always More Work
Posted by drew
I spent all day Saturday on the boat, sailing around White Rock. It was eye-opening; a lot of the things that I've been taking for granted will need a re-think.
For instance, there was a lot more mildew than I remembered. Mostly this was because there was a lot more *water* than I remembered, due in part to the massive snowfalls of the past two months. I think a lot of the mildew will be easily taken care of with Tilex and some elbow grease, but it's certainly changed my plans with regards to what can and what can't immediately move aboard! I've packed all my sci-fi novels (well, "all" meaning "those that have survived the massive culling") into a cardboard box, assuming that I would be moving the books aboard, unpacking them, and getting rid of the cardboard box. As it is, I'll definitely want to keep the books in some kind of plastic tub for at least the first little while, while I track down and eradicate the leaks in the roof.
Frankly there was a lot more water than I expected - I know, that doesn't seem like rocket science, but seriously - under one of the bunks there was a good two inches of water pooled up! That's just not acceptable - at least the water is coming in from the roof, and not from the hull, but with Vancouver's weather patterns I get to look forward to living in a state of perpetual damp for the next few months. Part of my original plan involved bringing my main synthesizer onto the boat, but now that I've seen the reality of the water situation, the synth's soft nylon travel case seems woefully inadequate.
There's certainly a lot of little fixes she needs - the fiberglass is cracked in quite a few places on the deck, and each place will need to be ground out and new fiberglass laid in and epoxied into place, then sanded and eventually painted. Bill, the current owner, assures me that the work is easy, just time consuming, and that she'll be a beautiful vessel once the work is complete.
All that being said, sailing was glorious! She's a huge boat, but she's in no way unweildy - she's fast and agile. I'd go so far as to call her downright nimble! We hit eight knots in just over twelve knots of wind; almost unheard of for a monohull, but no problem for my trimaran. The best part was leaving my coffee cup on the cabin roof while we hit eight knots, with no problem - a monohull would have been heeled over at four knots, spilling the coffee, but she stayed perfectly level the entire day. 
Tomorrow it's back out to White Rock to spend another full day banging away at her; hopefully we'll get some of the fiberglass repairs attended to, but I'll be happy just to learn more about her systems and get her better ready to be my new home.
hmm.
Posted by drew
Well, judging by the fact that it's been a month since my last post, combined with the fact that I'm only blogging when I'm working outside the home, it would seem that my quest is not going quite as well as I'd have liked. Turns out it's actually very difficult to get motivated to leave the house in the morning when you don't technically have to...
Well - I guess I can't really count it as a full month, seeing as eight (of a possible 20) working days were spent travelling to, partying in and returning from the Black Rock Desert in Nevada. Burning Man was amazing, as expected - really it was far, far more than that, but as our travelling crew decided on the way home, trying to describe the experience to someone who hasn't been there is pretty much futile - you come off sounding like a cross between a religious zealot and a Pigeon Park loony. The closest I could come up with was "the universe constantly astounding me with how spectacularly beautiful it can be". See? Loony.
Returning from my epic adventures, I seem to have slipped into a routine that isn't at all what I was trying to achieve - in fact, I'm a lot less productive than I was in New Brunswick. This is serving to reinforce my belief that working in an office is better than working at home simply because it's a different environment. Lately I've been getting up in the morning, making breakfast and coffee, and sitting at my desk for the next eight to ten hours, getting perhaps four to six hours of work done. This is wasting both my time and what remains of the beautiful Vancouver summer weather we've been having. There'll be plenty of time to slack at home once the rains set in. So why can't I seem to get motivated to get out and ride my bike to a coffee shop somewhere?
I guess the question becomes - is an office more productive because it's an environment tailored to (or mentally associated with) working, or is it more productive simply because it's not home? I find myself constantly distracted in my home "office", due in no small part to my being surrounded by my favourite things.
The most productive working environment so far was working in an unused meeting room in my father's law office in New Brunswick - basically a featureless white room. I mean, there were a few unremarkable paintings on the wall, but apart from that it was a table, a few chairs, and that's it.
Anyhow - today I'm splitting tasks - I spent a few hours this morning working from my desk in my apartment, then showered, shaved, and responded to an emergency tech support housecall from a girl I've been seeing. Sweet! An actual excuse to get off my ass and get out of the house - and you know what? It's not so bad. I'm writing this from a Blendz coffee shop (note to self: Blendz has free wireless) on Robson Street. Robson isn't exactly the most calm, quiet street in the city, so it's been somewhat difficult to maintain focus - but at least I'm out of the house. 
(S|F)orearms
Posted by drew
A girl I've been seeing is an avid rock climber and has been taking me along climbing lately, several times to the indoor climbing gym and once to Squamish for an amazing day of outdoor climbing. It's something that I always knew I would enjoy, but I hadn't ever really had a good excuse to go.
There's a subset of climbing called "bouldering" that I got to try out for the first time this past Monday, and I learned two things about it:
- it's awesome, and
- it hurts!
Indoor rock climbing, if you haven't been, is a lot of fun. The gym is a three-or-four story building with the floors removed, with simulated rock walls studded with colourful handholds in a wide variety of shapes and sizes. Ropes dangle from the top of the wall, and each climb involves two people; one person climbs the wall, while the other handles the rope from the ground, protecting the climber from falling and offering encouragement.
The holds on the wall are each marked with coloured tape to indicate routes, which are rated in difficulty by the experts who run the gym. You choose your route and then climb the wall using only the holds that are marked with the same colour of tape. Simple, right?
Anyway - the first couple of times I ever went climbing I went to the Stronghold in Calgary, a beautiful old brick building that had been gutted and fitted with rock walls. Down in the basement, near the washrooms, was a low-ceilinged room with huge pads covering every square inch of the floor, and the ceiling was a slow sinewave of imitation stone covered with grips. A few male climbers lazed on the mats while one made his way slowly across the ceiling. I distinctly remember having exactly three impressions:
- wow, it's hot down here,
- who'd want to climb across the ceiling like that?, and
- man those guys are ripped!
Flash forward a few years, and tonnes has changed - for one, I've got forty pounds of muscle on Old Drew. For two, I don't have a pack-a-day cigarette habit, and for three, I'm hanging out with hot girls who are my unquestionable superiors on the rock walls. Still, the initial impressions stuck, and up until Monday of this week I still hadn't ever bothered trying the bouldering game.
Monday I went climbing, and pushed myself pretty hard, climbing my first 5.10d before being shut down by a 5.11a (just smile and nod). It's a helluva workout, and my arms were like lead by the time I was done - I could barely grip strongly enough to pick up my backpack! I should have been tipped off right then not to push myself any further, but since I was climbing with a couple of very experienced girls I guess I felt I had to try. On one hand I'm certainly glad that I did, but on the other hand - or forearm anyway - I probably could have taken it a little easier.
After we were each defeated by a wall, one of the girls suggested we boulder for a little while. Wow that's fun - just like climbing, but more technical and with more arm workout, and without the hassle of ropes and harnesses! The technique is exactly the same - follow the coloured tape - but the wall is almost entirely overhang. I did a few routes, but then my arms basically gave out.
I will definitely go bouldering again. Climbing in the gym is quite expensive, at $18/pop, but when stacked against going for a burger and a couple of pints the choice is pretty clear. As I left the gym though, my forearms began to throb, and my right elbow had a soreness to it that I didn't recognize - something deep inside the joint, like I'd hyperextended it or something, though I don't remember doing anything like that.
Tuesday I was fine for most of the day, but the bikeride home from work (North Vancouver to East Van, via the Lions' Gate Bridge and through the downtown core) really hurt my elbow. It felt as though I'd torn a tendon or something in my elbow, and both my forearms felt swollen and painful. I worried that perhaps it had something to do with my positioning on my bike, and still worry that climbing rocks and riding my track bike might not be compatible sports.
Tonight I will try the same ride again, and cross my fingers that I will not hurt when I get home. I believe in the "what doesn't kill you makes you stronger" adage, but that really only applies when you give yourself adequate time to heal between killing attempts!
Burning Man 2008?
Posted by drew
I first went to Burning Man in 2002, with my ex-fiancée. It was a fantastic time, great adventure with great memories - we returned fulfilled, but didn't really see a need to go back. Inside though, I told myself that if I ever found myself single again, I would return to the desert.
Last year I found myself single again, and went back - it was a completely different event, but worth every second.
Lots of people talk about making the epic journey to the desert, but not nearly as many actually make it down - well, at least not so many from Canada, seeing as it's an eighteen-hour drive. One trick that I've employed both times now which seems to work pretty well is to purchase a ticket, even if you're not sure you're going to actually go. I know, it seems so simple, but it works - just having a physical reminder of your plan makes it much easier to save the money and buy the gear.
Last year I was in a bit of a strange space - my entire world pretty much collapsed. In the span of a few months, my job of six years went away due to a corporate buyout, my relationship of eight years went away, and I thought I'd have to sell my house. Fortunately I got a large severance package from the buyout, and was able to take a few months to get my head on straight again. Burning Man was a huge reset switch for me, and made me rethink a lot of my personal comfort boundaries; specifically boundaries regarding time and scheduling, imparting to me a new desire to rid myself of scheduling whenever possible, so as to allow myself to jump on plans that sound like adventure whenever they present themselves.
The biggest example of that desire would probably be in the form of a beautiful young girl named Suzy, with whom I had a whirlwind romance that lasted months after the end of the festival. We met on Friday afternoon and danced through the weekend; on Sunday morning, returning to the campsite to get some rest, we discovered my campmates packing up to leave ten hours before our scheduled departing time. We decided that we hadn't quite had enough time together, and she suggested that I could get a ride to Los Angeles with her and her friends and that she'd drive me back to Vancouver in a few days. A road trip on the California highway with a beautiful girl in a brand new Mini Cooper sounded like a lot of fun - but having been awake for days on end there was a good chance that I wasn't thinking clearly. I discussed it with my campmates, and to my surprise they agreed that it sounded like a fine adventure. So, with my backpack and a few days' worth of clothes, we waved our goodbyes to the Vancouver caravan as it pulled away, and wandered over to meet up with the other ride "home".
Unfortunately, upon meeting the other ride we found that they didn't actually plan to leave that day, and would instead be leaving two days later! This threw a bit of a wrench in the plans, given that I had just sent all my camping equipment, water and food home in the Winnebago. We stuck around for a few hours, but after a week in the desert we were both dying to get out of there. So, in the spirit of adventure, we sent her equipment home with her friends, biked to the front gates, and began hitchhiking!
Fortune was with us, and I doubt we hitchhiked for more than two minutes before being picked up by a single driver in a Lexus SUV. He gave us beer and fresh steaks, and dropped us off in Reno at a fleabag hotel. In the morning, we wandered to a café, rented a fast car over the internet, and then picked it up and drove to Lake Tahoe where we had the swim we'd been planning for days. Then we drove through the night to Los Angeles - and a day later, I found myself attending a Cultural Anthropology class at the University of Santa Monica.
That experience cinched it for me - great adventure is out there to be had, though it won't find me hiding in my basement. I need to put myself in the way; the river may well carry me somewhere cool, but not without throwing myself into the current first.
I haven't figured out any plans yet, though I know that most if not all of the friends who went last year will not be going again this year. I do know of a few folks who are going down from Vancouver, and while they're not close friends, they're friendly acquaintances that I'd like to know better. I know that last year I spent a good portion of my time at the burn at a daytime dance club called "The Deep End", and that if I make my way back there again I'd like to volunteer to bartend or help with their soundsystem.
This could be good, or this could be bad - a part of me is very excited about the idea of going down completely alone, and the adventure that that could represent. Another part of me thinks that's crazy, and wonders how the hell I'll get seven days worth of food, water and camping supplies into the desert on my back.
...but I've bought a ticket.
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- mux: ps: all this work is great for my summer body! you're all festivals and beaches, I'm all 'wax on, wax off' and drinking milk. wait and see. July 27, 2010
- mux: officially too dark to sand the boat anymore; time for a shower, then sleep. tomorrow, same thing over again. groundhog day got nothin'. July 27, 2010
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