Oh the urge and how it is hard to combat.

So thus far the year of 2009 has been one of injury. A few weeks ago I went with my father up skiing at Alta ski resort. Now my father is working on fine tuning his turns attempting to improve so that he may be able too join his sons in their exploits. Which is fantastic we love having him. On this particular day we where riding the lift to take our first run of the day. Chatting as we rode in the 15 or so degree weather I was giving him a few pointers on how to turn without using as much upper body. He retorted that today he was going to work on his turns and just take it nice and mellow.
We slide off the chair and gained velocity as we headed down the slope. I figured he will work on his turns I will just cruise and do my thing. At one point I looked back to see where he was at. Which happened to be a little ways back. At this same moment I noticed a kicker on the left side of the run as I was on the right. Picturing myself in the air and through the trees drew me to the left. Which in turn just happened to be the moment that my father decided that he was going to b-line it and go for speed. I have never in my life hit someone so hard while skiing. I didn't even see him till I was making contact. His ski's where left ear where I stood, his poles a little farther down the slope followed by his gloves and so one till the trail led to my very stunned looking father. My first reaction was for his back. it had been tight on him the last week or two. I though that I had just crippled my father.
I merely stood up just fine and brushed himself off. We collected his belongings and off we went. This is when I noticed that my shoulder felt a little tender. I thought it was just a flare up of another injury I had had with my shoulder when I was in high school. Yet the same remedy was not working to bring relief. Turns out I have separated my shoulder and still to this day nearly three weeks later it is still very tender. I can do anything I was able to before but I am trying to baby it as to not make it worse.
Injury #2: Just a normal day climbing not doing anything out of the ordinary. Bouldering in the Momentum climbing gym circuiting and doing 4x4's. I decided to try a problem that had been spitting me off but would go with a few tries. I pulled off the ground and slid my heal in for the first heal hook and pulled. Now it wasn't a loud "I just tore something pop!" Merely a "Oh Crap, this is going to be soar for a while!" pop.
So as it stands I can ski and climb and do any of those fun things that drive me in life. And God knows that I want to yet I am fighting the urge with great diligence.

Nastalgia of music

As of late I have been visiting a lot of old places in my head. Much of the music that I have randomly ended up listening to over the past few weeks has taken me back to different moments and places. For instance I happened upon "The undone sweater song" by Weezer the other day. Now admittedly not my favorite band. Yet, that song brings back to mind one particular day. Not a special day by any means but it was when I was in 7th grade and late for school. My sister Kristen was the one that got the honor of escorting me in our old truck named "Tony the tiger." Undone came on the radio and stuck with me.
The music inspires feelings that would otherwise be lost and that is one of my favorite aspects of music.
The music that has brought these feelings the most as of late are one of my absolute favorite bands The Push Stars. Listening to their album "Paint the town" takes me back to my first year as a river guide. One evening after finishing a daily my self and a group of guiding rookies decided to drive to Telluride for the bluegrass festival. There was Carson Workman, the driver. Amy Lawsen, the Canadian. Lindsey, Carson's girl friend at the time. Carrie Porter, Carson's unbeknown st to him future wife. Lorenzo McGregor, whom is 6'7" 320lbs and myself. Crammed into Carson's Jeep for the two hour ride. Arriving after dark we proceeded to to sneak into as best we could to the concert. My first time seeing Spearhead Micheal Franti. Crashing someones campsite inadvertently. The next day cruising through the beautiful ski town in spring. Taking the chance at a hippie bath in the freshly melted snow of a creek. This is the trip that I was introduced to the Push Stars. They became the Anthem band for that summer. from beginning to end. The salmon river holds more memories of that album then any other place does any other album.