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$title = "july 28, 1999";
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This weekend was really intense. I went backpacking in the Sierras
and ended up throwing my life to the wind on a pretty regular basis.
(<i>"Oh, it's 4 o'clock, time to jump off a cliff!"</i>) The official
name of the place we were at is <b>Desolation Wilderness</b>. Geez.
It doesn't get any more hardcore than that. It was insanely beautiful.
<p>
The fun parts involved going into areas that the park rangers had
explictly advised us not to go due to extreme conditions. The first
day, we hiked a couple miles (some of them striaght up) and camped
out on rocks in the snow. "Snow in late July in California?" Yeah,
we were that high and it was that cold. That evening as the sun
was setting, clouds came whistling over the ridge some mere 100
feet above us, twisting and contorting, looking exactly like I would
imagine a curious or pissed off ghost would. Like the rest of the
trip it was viscerally intense, cuttingly beautiful, and scared
the boogers out of all of us. Our Turkish travelmate made a sacrificial
offer of a carrot top to the mountain gods. This must have appeased
them, because within about ten minutes the sun set and the scary
clouds went away.
<p>
Most of the next day involved climbing up rock slides on 60 degree
inclines with thousand foot dropoffs and rocks that started avalanches
when you sneezed and other similarly wildly perilous adventures. But
it was <b>great</b> to be out in the crazy wild open.
<p>
My book is progressing; I've officially signed my contract and have
written most of the introduction, 1st, and 2nd chapters. So much left
to do, though!
<p>
I got a new, crisp 17" monitor and a Voodoo3 2000. It was about time!
I had been using a 5 year old 14" monitor. My eyes are already thanking
me. =)
<p>
I'm seriously looking around for a car at this point, and I found an
extremely funky 1955 street buggy, big enough for two: $2500! How much
fun would <i>that</i> be?! I'm going to need to get my glasses and a
license first, though.
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