TUESDAY NIGHT

I just turned from the God of Technology that I was yesterday, to the God of Power that I was tonight at the gym.

I did nothing special, I mean, not in general terms, I just quickly did a yellow problem that many other regulars have done, but during the warm-up I tried a couple of tests, and I easily did two one armers, right hand, on the 2 cm edge. One on left hand.

Then I tried some dead hanging, talked into it by a friend, stop watch in hand. After a few tests one girl (!!!!!) called me from behind and said "do you want a cappuccino while on that edge?". That made me happy, and I could have easily gone home after just twenty minutes in the gym.

As prediceted, killer weather now.

I was very rude to a friend, while warming up. I was thinking loud, basically, trying to decide what problem I should try. My friend, who recently dropped bouldering for sport climbing, doing his first 8a just this past saturday, heard me talking about trying a hard blue problem on the 60° board, and he told me "what the hell, you still have to do the blues?" to which I coldly answered "yes, but I climbed my first 8a five years ago".

I feel sorry about that, but I think he deserved it.

It's not my fault if he turned to sport climbing because his girlfriend likes it more than bouldering. The other night he told me "as soon as I sport climb 8a I get back to bouldering, and I will send Out of Service before you".

Then again he said "I won't be satisfied until you top out, 'cos you can fall also after getting the lip" and stuff like that.

So tonight I said what I said.

I don't fucking care about the fucking blues or yellows in the gym. I want to do one armers on edges and not being able to remember if they were five or six. I want to measure my dead hangs just using the minutes. I want to do Out of Service during a morning break from work. I want to do "Il Signore degli Anelli", "Frank's wild years", "La pelle" and then something hard.

Goddamn.

THE LAST DAY

It still feels strange to have Mondays off, I sometimes feel like I should be working instead of resting.
Anyway, all this strangeness will soon come to an end, given that from tomorrow I'll be working everyday for a few weeks.
Naturally, and all of you climbers take note, the weather will improve, dry and sticky conditions will arrive, and bouldering areas all around will be full of happy slappers, and, I'm sure, alot of girls bouldering and desperately searching for romance.

As it may not appear from the above, I'm very pissed.
Saturday night I was tempted to go and sleep in the van in Sasso, but the last 48 hours of rain made that a bad idea. The boss will give us some spare free hours, officially to go buy shit-mas presents, and I think I'll try to have an entire morning off to be spent under Out of Service, the most recent Nemesis of my climbing.

This is the week of rest and supercompensation. Four days off, something I haven't had for months now, should pay off.

The Guru is a real professional. Yesterday night he and girlfriend were at my place for dinner, and while chatting I explained my plans, taking a morning off, going to Sasso on the 25th and 26th, and so on.
This morning, I found his e-mail, with all the new settings of the training program, tailor made on my plans.

As soon as I get the cable from the other house, I'll post some pics about some changes in my body, something dealing with...forearms.

Still, I really really suck on plastic. I'm so poor, compared to other climbers that train alot less than me, that it's depressing. Luckily, there is always the fingerboard to cheer me up.

I finally have internet on my laptop, and I feel like the God of Technology.
Heh.

SKIS, BOOTS, AND LESSONS ON HUMAN BEINGS

A big climbing and mountaineering shop in the center of a big town, with 50% discounts on everything, is a bliss for every asshole who wants to piss employees off.

I tend to get very angry when I feel someone is there just to get something he, or she, doesn't really need, but just because it comes very cheap.
Then one day I realized that, amongst all the ones who just don't care, there may be someone who really needs that 50% off.

The lesson is that I have to take time, and try to understand people, before getting angry.
So, who should I care for more?

For the middle class lady with three different gold credit cards and a Gucci bag, that at the counter asks for "some more discount" over a pair of boots, and then doesn't take them, or for the man who takes his son to have a birthday present, and the boy is shy to ask for a 30 Euro headlamp,and finally finds the courage, and just points the headlamp with his finger without saying a word, and when his father asks me to get the lamp he smiles and is the happiest person in the world?

I will always try to give the lady the worst, most expensive, most useless piece of shit we have in the shop, and will always take the boy's smile for the moments when I think this world is a shithole.