This too shall pass

I have felt guilty these last few weeks, leaving anyone who was genuinely interested in reading the scribblings I've posted these last months.

My interest and will to publish my adventures has waned lately.  There is a lot to do here in Boulder and although I still burn some time each day in front of a computer screen, I won't force myself to write up and document my life if the will isn't there.

There may be additional posts, but for now, I'm signing off.  Looks like I only made it 78 days.  A lot of my goals have changed.  I've left some projects unfinished and I've begun some new ones.  Met a lot of cool people here and might have begun the foundation for some long term friendships.  Landed a dream job that I start next week.  Maybe most importantly, I finally get to move into the house in an official manner within the next few days.

I'm off to have an adventure.  You should go make your life more interesting too.

Back in Boulder

We drove 23 hours strait a few nights ago, getting back into town right about 10 or 11pm.  The time up in Canada was great but it's nice to be home.  Did some major house cleanup, went and got my Colorado driver's license stuff taken care of, and a got a bit more work done on our Burning Man structure.

My parents got into town Thursday with a trailer loaded down with my things.  Don't really have a place to put it all so it remains stacked against the wall in the basement for now.  Been great spending time with them riding bikes and what-not.  Josh and Dad went to climb the 3rd Flatiron this morning.  I opted out due to the still healing shoulder injury.  Would have been nice to go but I'm trying to take care of myself.

The biggest news of all though is the job interview I'm heading off to today.  I finally got a callback from the family I found on craigslist who was in search of a homeschool teacher for their two gifted children.  I did a phone interview a few days ago and am meeting them today in a few hours for an in person interview.  From what they've told me about the position it seems like a dream job and I'm very excited and very nervous.

I think I'm a perfect candidate for their program.  I have tons of experience doing the type of one on one work that that the job requires.  I'm passionate about math and science and enjoy teaching it.  I'm good at explaining things in alternate ways using language and terms that are accessible.

Toot toot goes my own horn I guess but I really do think that I'm the right person for this position and I hope they feel that way too.

Canada

I've been in Canada for a bit over a week.  On the first day of what is likely going to be a rest week.

Yesterday was awesome.  New highpoint for Trad-Lead with my first 5.10c redpoint.  Climbed most of the day with a guy from Sweden and some people from Southern California climbing at the Smoke Bluffs in Squamish.  Once the day got hot, we threw on some swim gear and headed to a local lake with a 60 food cliff jump into the water.

Turns out that was an excellent way to pull my shoulder back out of socket.  This was the first time it didn't pop back in on it's own, so my new Swedish and Cali friends got to put their first shoulder back into place.  The grinding sound was really disturbing.  Need a few days off now to get back to normal, and probably need to look into some rehabilitation since this makes two times within a few weeks that my shoulder has left the socket.

I'll be back in Colorado by the 21st to meet up with my parents who are coming up to visit.  Looking forward to having family around and getting to ride bikes around town with them.

Tower Erection

Burning Man Tower - First Erection from Aaron Merriam on Vimeo.

On the road again.

Josh and I head out today up to the Northwestern US and maybe a bit of Canadia.  Hoping to swing through Seattle and Portland and maybe catch up with a few of my friends in that neck of the woods.  Probably stop back through Index and have another go at the routes that shut me down last time.

And, I don't think I've ever actually been to Canadia.

The test run of our tower for Burning Man can be measured as nothing but a success.  Went up without too much fuss and overall was a pretty awesome day.  Video to come shortly.

This view sucks

The sunsets here in Colorado suck.

Burning Man Tower

Josh and I have begin construction on our shade structure for Burning Man.  The idea spawned from one of those tripod camp chairs.

The design is elegantly simple, yet provides a sturdy platform on the top and ample room under the upper platform and in the lower pyramid as well.

Using poles from an old tent, we've constructed a 1/6th scale model of our plans.  You can see the upper and lower platforms here, though in our final product, both platforms will likely resemble the lower one in this picture.  The upper will be a sort of crow's nest/observation deck type area with a solid wooden deck to stand on.  We've thought about making the lower one a sort of cargo netting hammock type area.

Josh has put together a 3D drawing using Sketch-Up and you can see likely see the scale of the final product much more clearly.  Current plans put the upper platform at about 25 feet off the ground which should provide an excellent view of the tent metropolis that will be surrounding us.

We did a lot of scouting around for proper materials to make this out of.  We ended up settling on the top rails for chainlink fence.  They come in 10 foot lengths with a 1 5/16 inch outer diameter.  We've filled each pole with concrete to add compression strength.  They're currently laying in the front yard while the concrete sets.

Plans at the time of this posting are to set it up in the field near our house this Saturday.  Will definitely post pictures of that.

Back from Telluride

This weekend was quite an experience.

Awesome hammock city in Town Park

We drove out to Telluride for the bluegrass music festival on Thursday afternoon, arriving just in time for Allison Krauss.  Josh and I didn't have tickets, but the valley projects the music a long ways and we could hear just fine camped out by the creek.

For anyone who knows me and my music taste, I don't have a lot of bluegrass in my repertoire.  I've always enjoyed the genre when it happened to come on NPR or something similar but it was never the type of thing I took the time to download.  Last week when I met Andrea and Cody, they tried to tempt me into going by pulling up the line-up to show me all the big name bluegrass groups that would be there only to find that I didn't recognize but maybe two of the twenty plus bands playing all weekend.  That said, I just downloaded a TON of new music.

The weekend was a very altering experience.  The town, the people, the group I was with,  the music and just the overall atmosphere all combined into this magical thing that yanks you out of reality.  And now that I'm back home, the decompression from all of that sensory overload is pretty extreme.

On the drive home yesterday we stopped to try and do Otto's Route at Colorado National Monument.  I remember thinking that it felt the same as when I'd get home from summer camp as a kid.  I'd just had this epic weekend that will stay in my mind for years.  I yearned to hold onto it, and every mile we drove away from the festival I felt it slipping away.  And in its wake was a pretty extreme sense of loss.  My life is wonderful right now, but going back to wonderful from the fantasy world of Telluride proved a lot to handle.

Better after a nights sleep and the distraction of another week in Boulder.  I've got some video of a really talented girl performing on the street one night I'm working on getting up.  Hoping to pull together a good group for Happy Thursday this week.  Josh and I are close to starting construction on our structure for Burning Man.  Lots of great things to keep me occupied while the festival goodness settles in.

Yellow Christ - my new project

Headed out to the hills above NCAR to do some climbing and ended up with a new project.

Cool boulder called Square Rock with a lot of problems on it.  Ended up jumping on Yellow Christ without knowing what the grade was.  Funny how not knowing something is "too hard" for you can make it totally within your range.

It starts with a bouldery start with some cool technical moves up to an awesome layback for about ten feet. Crux begins at the top of that where it moves right using a really sharp crimp, transitioning onto opposing side pulls with some cool footwork to make it work.  Going to have to figure out the top-out holds, but all in all it felt totally doable. Looking forward to going back.

Here's the video from today.  Enjoy.


Yellow Christ from Aaron Merriam on Vimeo.


I'm off to the Telluride Bluegrass Festival tomorrow.  No tickets so just going to be bumming around town listening to the music from afar.  Hopefully get to hang out with one of the many people I know who are going.

GHEA!

Flatiron Sunset

The bad weather finally broke yesterday!

Josh and I went and did $5 bouldering at the spot while the last of the clouds cleared and boulder dried off. Getting gym problems doesn't have anywhere near the same satisfaction level as outdoor climbing but it was nice to send some things that shut me down on my last visit.

Andrea met us after she got off work and we headed out and solo'd the first flatiron in time to catch a breathtaking sunset.  Lots of awesome colors shining through the clouds that topped the mountain range in the distance.  A really beautiful view.

Took a minute to snap this picture half way up.  I love doing the flatirons because of the noticeable elevation change in such a short time.  Within 30 minutes to an hour you go from being in the city you see here in the background to towering over it with an epic view of the town.

Good use of a rainy day

Headed to the BRC today with my new friends Andrea and Cody to do some gym climbing due to the ongoing in-climate weather.  Had a good day and got an awesome work out in.  Can't complain about the company either.

The weather finally began to clear around sundown and I'm hoping it holds through tomorrow.  Weather permitting could be doing some evening flat irons.

In other news, I found this on the internet.

Crawfish Boil!!

Of all things, I didn't really expect to be going to a crawfish boil in Boulder of all places.

The food was delicious.  Totally stuffed myself on crawfish and crazy tasty potatoes.

Had an all around awesome time.  Met a bunch of new people who were all really cool.  Actually going climbing at the BRC tomorrow with a few of them.

Good food and excellent company.  Can't complain about that.

On Cars and Driving

So we've got some "Beaumont" weather up here in Boulder.  At least the rain part feels very Beaumont.  I've been using Josh's car today to run a few errands around town and it really started standing out to me how stressful driving has become.

Since I moved here, my car driving has been restricted to one or two outings here and there and for the most part I've just been a passenger.  Other than going climbing, I do just about everything on my bike.  It's honestly easier in this town.  There are bike paths that cut more direct lines to many places.  Parking for bikes is easy and free no matter where you go.  Other than the occasional stoplight I rarely have to stop at intersections.  And maybe biggest is just the nice feeling of wind in your face and the smells of the outdoors and the unrestricted view of the amazing scenery.

In contrast, I find my car rides stressful.  I'm less comfortable driving a car than I used to be (lack of practice) and so I honestly am not as proficient a driver as I used to be.  Parking is kinda easy when it comes to running your average errand, but going downtown to hang out with friends makes parking an issue at the least.  I find myself feeling inconvenienced by all the stringent traffic restrictions placed on cars that either don't apply to bikes or that bikes simply get to ignore with relative impunity.

Maybe the biggest one is a horrible fear of actually getting in a wreck.  I almost got nailed by a truck yesterday (truck's fault, not mine) on my bike and ignoring possible medical expenses, I was really only looking at a dinged up, or bent up bike.  It still could easily be a $100 inconvenience but that is the extent of the equipment damage I'm up against.  Maybe $300 when my road bike arrives.  In a car I'm looking at way more.  Deductibles and increased insurance payments and all that stuff, not to mention the possible price of speeding tickets etc.

Everyone already knows I'm a huge proponent for cycling, but more than ever I find this town makes cycling more practical than driving.  And that is evident in the sheer number of cyclists you see everywhere.  Unlike, Beaumont, a person on a bike bringing groceries back from the store is just as likely to have a doctorate and be a professor at the university as they are to be a poor guy with no car.  I love it.

Morning Climbing and Evening Activities with Friends

Josh and I got up early this morning and headed to Eldo to get some climbing in before it got hot.  Here's the tally for the day.

• The Bastille Crack - Super fun.  Good trad leading and simul-climbing.
• Sunset Boulevard - Not my first time on it but lead it clean.  It's mostly a sport route so it's very familiar territory.  Mostly an exhausting jug haul but still a great route.
• Blind Faith - This was by far my favorite and I didn't even get the send.  I've been waiting to take a bit lead fall in the wild and it finally happened today.  I blew the mantle out of the crux 3 times and took 3 pretty decent falls.  Have the blood to prove it.

Not the most impressive wound by any means.  All in all a great morning climbing.  Prepping for a game session tonight and then heading to Nora's with Josh to relax for the remainder of the evening.

Laziness and a Scavenger Hunt

So I've been remiss in my picture taking.  I've missed 2 so far and came close to missing another tonight.  I'm gonna have to buckle down and do a better job.  I've been using my laptop to snap the photos and due to its lack of battery that makes it difficult to relocated to the same location each time.  Gonna try some other options.

Onto other things...

I really would like to plan a photo scavenger hunt.  I'm not sure I know enough people here yet but I think that even just two teams of 4 or 5 would make for a really fun evening.  It might even be cool to do it as a Craigslist event of some sort and let anyone join in who wants in teams of 5 or something.  Could be pretty epic.

Climbing early tomorrow.  Maybe first time on The Bastille Crack

Josh does the nose in a day

Josh does the nose in a day


Nose in a day from Aaron Merriam on Vimeo.

Yellow Spur 2.0 and other news

Did an evening summit with two teams of 2 last night of The Yellow Spur.  Helen teamed up with her friend Lisa from Denver to re-send the route in better style than the previous time the two of them went up. Josh and I acted as a kind of roaming video crew scrambling ahead of them to get good shots of the best portions of the climb.  Should be piecing together a good 2-3 minute video of it in the next day or two.

I definitely went up the route in better style this time.  Still pulled on some gear during the 5th pitch where it's just tiny crimps and bad feet.  I still kinda suck on lead.

In other news...  I've found the wonders of the Craigslist Activity Partner section.  I've found a guy I'm going to climb with this Saturday in boulder canyon who looks to be almost exactly at my climbing level, along with a group to play Ultimate with and a group to play some D&D with this weekend.  Makes me kinda wish I hadn't sold all those books.

In the meantime, today is house cleaning day since Josh is showcasing his El Cap movie tonight.  I'll try to get a link to it posted as soon as I can.

Water and Rocks

We headed out late morning to climb at Eldo today, but the climbing quickly turned into a lesser priority.  I don't know how well you know me but one of my greatest joys is playing with rocks and water.  Making dams in streams and diverting water flows and similar feats of engineering.  I get great enjoyment and self satisfaction out of the activity and I am likely to continue said activity until I am pestered to do otherwise.

When we set down our packs at the base of the crag it was clear something needed to be done.  A small stream of water trickling from the base of a boulder up-hill had swamped the majority of the area.  My excellent rock/water engineering skills to the rescue.  I quickly had the flow diverted and the area drying up nicely, but what kind of stream engineer would I be if I stopped there.

I totally made an aqueduct.  A handful of large leaves and some rock sand sticks for support and the masterpiece below came to life.

And some more up close shots

Guidos and Guidettes

Last night's Happy Thursday was guidos and guidettes themed.  Really young crowd this week and for a lot of the ride, I couldn't tell if people were dressed up in costume or if that's just how they dressed.  Really brought the douch-baggery out in everyone.

Those complaints aside, it was another kickin ride.  Frustrated that I missed a text to come chill back at the Co-Op until I was almost all the way home.  Sa la vi

Evening Climbing in Boulder Canyon

Headed out to Boulder Canyon yesterday evening to do some climbing.  Very cool slab of rock with an awesome 5.8 crack that went offwidth towards the top and a 5.10ish finger crack to its right.

The Naked Edge

Last week, Josh, Helen and I went out to Eldorado Canyon and climbed The Naked Edge.  Here is the video that Josh pieced together of our day.


The Naked Edge from Aaron Merriam on Vimeo.

Evening Hike

Took a great hike up the Kohler Mesa trail last night near dusk with Tim and Nora.

You can see the fields of wildflowers and the awesome night sky as the sun is dropping behind the flat irons.



Sorry to Nora for making her sound old in my poorly worded video commentary.  Here is a shot of the lookout point during daylight.  Still quite beautiful.

Quick morning update

Spent the weekend up in Wyoming climbing at Vedauwoo.  For those who've been to Enchanted Rock in Texas, the rock and type of climbing is very similar.  It's just much more dense with climbing and the climbing seems to be a lot better.  Tim and I partnered up all day and after using up all of our try-hard on an off-width 10a called Mainstreet.  Major kudos to Tim for the lead because the crux was burley.  We spent the rest of the day around the Coke Bottle climbing easy stuff and having fun.

The TM Chimney was pretty awesome.  Climbed up deep into the rock and let you look out the off width crack that Mainstreet climbs from the inside.

And despite being a 5.7, Edward's Crack was by far the best route of the day for me.  Bomber hand jam after bomber hand jam for a full 60 meters.  Wish I'd gone up a second time solo like Tim.

We might have climbed a bit harder if not for the excessive and excellent partying the night before for Lenor's going away party.  Got to meet a lot of interesting people and all in all have an excellent weekend.

TGIF

So last night was epic. I went out to do Happy Thursday and it was epic.  Probably 400-500 bikes in attendance.  Had a lot of fun on my BMX and met another guy who's new to town and is way better at me on his bike.  Hoping he can teach me a few things.

Today, Josh, Helen and I went out to Eldorado Canyon and climbed The Naked Edge.  It is 6 pitches of beautiful scenery and amazing climbing.  Thanks to Josh and Helen for leading the majority of the route.  Very good day climbing.

Found out this evening that I'm developing quite the T-Shirt tan.  Need to work on that cause it's only gonna get worse.  Bare chested Merriams are likely in Boulder's future.

Otherwise, a pleasant evening in the hot tub and now off to watch the new Robin Hood movie.

Some better skate park footage

Went out this morning to the skate park again to try and get some more practice and better footage.  Here are the results.



Tonight I'm off to the Happy Thursday ride.  Hope everyone has a happy Thursday.

Bouldering Flagstaff

Went out yesterday evening for some fun easy bouldering.  Here are some shots of me up on a V0 on the Beer Barrel Boulder climbing the Southwest Prow.

Easy climbing but a lot of fun.  Been working on getting my fingers and arms back in shape so I don't burn out after 2-3 routes.

First day at the skate park

My good friend from back in Beaumont Mike just recently got into riding fixie. For those who don't know, a fixie is typically a rode bike frame and geometry with a single gear and no brakes. The crank and rear cog are set up so that you can't coast. The trade off for this is that when you petal backwards, the back wheel goes backwards as well which opens up a whole world of tricks and what-not. I'm sure I've not done the fixie community justice in this description.

Long story short, the tricks interested me, but the bike didn't. In comes BMX


I bought it the second day I was here in town, used off craigslist.  I spent hours true-ing the rear wheel and getting the brakes working and finally took it out to the park to likely hurt both my body and my pride. The result was super fun.

The video really doesn't do the skate park justice. The whole thing is still really intimidating for me but I've begun to feel a lot more comfortable dropping into the bowls and getting some air off the jumps. I promise better video in the future.

Beginnings

4 Days ago, I got on a plane in Houston Texas headed for Colorado. I've been dreaming and planning of moving to Boulder for three years now that it almost feels unreal to actually be living here. Sitting on the plane, looking out the window as the plane broke through the clouds I was nervous and excited. All my hard work was finally paying off.


My name is Aaron and here is where I'm hoping to tell my story. I have spent the majority of my life living in Beaumont Texas. Beaumont has very moderate winters and hot summers. Although the name Beaumont means "Beautiful Mountain", whoever named it that must have had a good sense of humor. I remember being excited as a kid to have a dirt mound to ride my bike down because that was the extent of terrain change you can expect there. Beaumont is about as flat as it gets.

Most people from Beaumont don't hate it so much as they just don't have much good to say about it. Listening to someone talk about Beaumont always reminds me of a girl describing her fat friend. They're careful with their words and tend to skirt around the obvious points.

There are a lot of good people there, and I've made a lot of good friends there, but geographically and culturally it is less than ideal.

And what Beaumont isn't, Boulder is. Before the first settlers moved into this area, there was an Indian tribe (feathers, not dots) that lived here. Their leader, Chief Niwot is said to have left a curse on the valley.

"People seeing the beauty of this valley will want to stay, and their staying will be the undoing of the beauty."

- Chief Niwot

It's a funny curse. This place is so amazing that once people come here they'll never want to leave. Can't say he was wrong.

So what's the point of this blog? Why write it?

I hear people talk all the time about how much they dislike where they live. Nothing to do, etc. I don't understand why these people don't move somewhere better if they hate where they're at so much. I made that choice and I want to share with people how it effects my life over the next 90 days.

I came here in good shape. I'm 5' 10", about 140 pounds with a pretty athletic build to start with. I'll be taking a picture of myself every day to keep track of changes to my physic. I've considered calling this project B90X which would be an intentional rip off of P90X which is a 90 day fitness video work out that is supposed to be amazing.

I won't be doing any weight training or working out for the sake of working out. Everything I do is going to be based on my day to day lifestyle and not a training regiment. I won't be doing any special dieting, and in fact, I will likely be eating more and possibly worse food than I did before moving here.