mount si

my god, i just saw "meatballs" with bill murray. what a great flick.
not as good as ridgemont or porky's, but if you like bill murray... jeez, what a talent. i used to love when him and gilda radner were "Tad" and whats-her-name on SNL, so funny and touching at the same time.

photos from lake merritt yesterday morning

have you climbed mount si yet? a beautiful view of snoqualmie falls, and even seattle from the top. cougar mountain is cool too. such a great journey... and me and bishop ramrod climbed it once and went all the way up to the crows nest (where the real view is). he was a little ahead of me, and when i got to the top, i didn't see him. i was like, "whaaa..??" cause there's nowhere else to go!, i looked around and then i saw on the left side around the narrow edge of the mountain, about 20 yards, was daren, climbing/clinging to the side of the mountain along a rocky, steep trail, almost verticle, about 3 inches wide and with about a 400 foot drop off..
i was trying to be calm, and so i said "daren, what are you doing?" he said, "i'm following the trail" i said, "there is no trail." he plastered to the cliff face at this time, moving about 5 inches at a time, and he stopped, looked around and was like. "oh" then i was like, "can you make it back?" he was trying to move his body slightly to start heading back, but was in such a tight spot, he couldn't do it.
i couldn't watch. i told him. "i'm not going to watch, cause i want you to be able to do what you have to do without worrying about me." but really, i didn't see how the fuck he could make it back. at that point the impracticality of me running back down, getting help, help coming back up and rescuing him in like 5 hours, was wholly implausible. he was either going to die, or make it, and i didn't see how he was going to make it.
so, i'm sitting there, stressed beyond belief, and then about 5 minutes later, daren comes down from the sheer cliff face to the right. "how the fu** did he get up there?" he said he couldn't go left or right, but saw what looked like sturdy roots above. he grabbed them, started pulling himself up, and when all his weight was on the root, it started to pull out of the ground and he felt himself falling backward...
at this point, he says he essentially blacked out, and the next thing he knew, he was up on the ridge looking down. i swear to god, i've questioned him dozens of times and that's all he remembers.

so, on the way down, we were both in shock, because we knew that he had died that day, but somehow lived. we hardly talked, not wanting to break the spell, or something..

when we talk about it, i say, "remember the day you died on mount si?"

i didnt intend to tell you this story, but mount si reminded me. it's a great hike, only takes about 2 1/2 hours or so. nothing too strenuous, but overall, it'll kick your butt a bit.

-D

also, the man with the green face that looks in the window

animated cortez conquest of the incas/aztec mezsheeka's

--
"He taught me how to walk my own way,
and every joy that he had, he gave."