Ice, rock and liquid

I'll start with a liquid. After a couple of weeks of thinking about it, I finally cracked my bottle of FuZion, a wine I first tried in Fernie and fell in love with. I came across the Alberta Liquor Guide and found that it's quite readily available (about $12/bottle). Apparently when it first came out one couldn't find it anywhere as it got top reviews for being more like a wine in the $20-$30 range. So, Bb finds another deal. I even went as far as going to IKEA to get the same type of glass that I drank it in at the restaurant - a wide, low glass, not the typical stemmed wine glass. It goes perfectly with a piece of red meat. Sinful.

And more liquid. I feel like part of me is missing if I don't get a big hike in on a weekend, and this past weekend's outing to the Cascade Amphitheatre didn't satisfy my craving. It rained. At least I got to try my OR Highpoint cap, which worked wonders and I finally have a solution for keeping my glasses dry. It made it so much more pleasant being out in crap weather.  But, with crap weather come shitty photos.  I really don't know why I even bothered hauling my camera around all day.  But, don't they say that if you have a shit photo it would look good in black and white?  I don't think so.

At least the Drake Effect was good.

It had been a bit of an odd weekend, and within two days I was in Banff three times: first to hike, then to check out the Banff Mountain Festival, but it closed before I could check out the books fair, and then a return to the Banff Mountain festival to actually do look at books that were for sale.  This was where I got inspired.  Nestled inside the little Reading Room were the (few) books that were entered in this year's competition.  These are the books I saw on my visit no. 2 to Banff.  Nothing really stood out, most of the stuff you can get at MEC, but there was this one book that grabbed me.  Canadian Rock.  I don't climb, at least not outdoors, but have been thinking about it.  Well, the full-page colour spreads of all the local climbing spots - Ha Ling, Grassi, EEOR, Saddleback, Lake Louise, and the like - just grabbed me.  I love colourful guides with all kinds of useful information and I wanted this.  I think it'll let me plan for some summers ahead.  It's still beyond me how climbing routes get named though; they just have the most obscure names. 

Canadian Rock: Select Climbs of the West

(High Col Press, Canada, 2010, $39.95)

Also on my third time to Banff I seemed to score biggest.  I entered draws for Icebreaker shirts, backpacks, sleeping bags, and a bunch of other outdoor goodies.  A woman from Parks Canada approached me to volunteer for parks.  Not sure what made her come to me out of all the people out there ... maybe it's the 'outdoors' clothes?  (I wore my Arcteryx jacket and Icebreaker shirt).  I'll listen to what they have to say.  Maybe it'll be an opportunity into a little job on the side down the road.  Also spoke to a guy from Yamnuska about outdoor rock climbing, then ice climbing.  I just need to grab a buddy or two and they'll take us wherever we want.  I want to give it a go!  Chic Scott was also there, though I didn't bother to stop to chat.

And with the via ferrata discussion that is now going on with parks, I've been motivated to try that.  It's still biggest in Europe, but there are a few routes in Canada, the closest one being out by Nordegg and accessible through Canadian Outdoor Education.  The Petzl catalog that I got in Banff also has special harness attachments for it.  So much gear, so many outdoor activities, but never enough time for it all.  It's a long weekend coming up, and I'm really wondering if I shouldn't just head out to the Nordegg area for a night or two.

Yesterday was also a day that made me a little uneasy.  I've had a summer of things from my dreams manifesting themselves in real life, so I've become a bit superstitious in that regard.  I believe it's bad luck to go into all the details, but  suffice it to say that I woke up after having a dream (nightmare) that something happened to my mom.  12 hours later her temperature had skyrocketed.  Fever is very bad when you're on chemo as your immune system is down, it can causes sepsis (shock) and very quick organ damage, so it had me on high alert.  I took her temperature obsessively every half hour throughout the night.  It's still elevated, but stable.  They called her in for an immediate blood test today, and 20 minutes later called to say counts aren't good enough for chemo tomorrow.  So that's delayed.  Isn't this crazy injection supposed to make those things better?  What a ride.

Apart from that I've also spent the weekend pondering life and what to do.  Tonight I'm taking a break from thinking and just enjoying my glass of wine.  I missed DAK's call, but he sent me picture of S. with her little adopted R.  She is just glowing.