This will be swift because I don’t have a lot to say at the moment, and I want to take a bit of a break here at Pull-ups in the Basement since it’s summer and I’m busy doing other things. In fact we just got back from a trip to SC to see friends who moved there about two years ago. July is not a great time to visit the southeast, for sure. There were a couple of days where the felt temp was over 100. We stopped at Summersville Lake on the way home to get a quick climbing day in, and thought that since the temps overnight were going to be in the low 60s we could get a few good, cool hours in first thing in the morning. A plan like this always works out in our minds, theoretically. In reality, those morning hours on the lake tend to be super-duper humid. We came away from the 3.5 hours of climbing with both our fingertips and our egos shredded. I did however, do my first outdoor lead climbs since breaking my ankle in February, which is a win.
We still hope to get outside more as the summer proceeds and are in talks of taking a trip to WY ourselves come August or September. Our 18 year old son just got back last week from a two-week, post-graduation trip to visit a friend in WY, and he climbed a bunch and sent us some drool-worthy photos, so we’re jealous. Instead of resenting him, we’re going to get some of our own drool-worthy photos.
I have started writing posts for our local gym’s blog, which you can read here and here. This is a chance for me to write more publicly than I normally do, and the publicity director at ASCEND, thankfully, thought it was a good idea. I hope it will be something that becomes regular and multi-faceted, and also that other voices might chime in. It would be great if I weren’t the sole contributor so that a sort of conversation about the Pittsburgh climbing scene could evolve. I’d also love for this to open up doors for other writing opportunities in the future for myself. I don’t know how, but whatever.
I’m also currently working on a back-to-school article about kids who want to go into a trade instead of college. I have written about this here before, but not in the wider world. I won’t say exactly what I hope will happen with this article so as not to jinx it (yes, I know that’s sounds awfully superstitious), but it may see the light of day in an actual magazine. I’ve not written much in the way of journalism ever, and I don’t know if this article will count as actual journalism, but it’s another thing I’m doing to push my writing to another level. After the air cleared since writing my depressing last post, I’m trying to find ways to grow into this vocation instead of giving up.
Now go out there and enjoy these hot dog days of summer!
