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I'm taking a day without a harness today. Dropping the monkey suit, cleaning some clothes, joining civilization for a spell.

Not to worry, I'll regress soon.

Canopy

So the grand opening for the canopy tour is tomorrow.
At the least I can say that, much like the Death Star, it is fully operational. I will from now on abstain from using Star Wars references on this page, no matter how appropriate. Since returning form the wedding (Memorial Day weekend), I've had one day free, which wasn't by choice; it was simply that my body refused to move. Since returning, I've worked as in the NHL playoffs. The past four days have entailed raising the platform at the bottom of the long zipline and involving the self in tasks that turn a white shirt brown in 20min. Today entailed making a trail and a platform for the long zipline (my nemesis, my baby). As is usually the case, all things were working against me on the run-up to the finish. The damned wasps decided to sting my hand, my wrist, my lip, unprovoked. Whereas one sting has removed any memory of my knuckles, the other has failed to reproduce the Duck. The gash persists on the other hand from when the wall gave way, and there exist countless other scratches, bites and abrasions.






One more week of work and everything will be done.



Coming soon: A completely sober and serious look at my day to day life here. And, I promise, at some point, I will post photos of the canyons.

MTY

I was charged last night with taking out the trash, which had been accumulating for weeks, from the office at 6:40AM this morning, before the arrival of the trucks. It can't go out the night before, of course, because of the wild packs of stray dogs that have taken over most of the city. So last night I put it all on the front stoop, which is gated. I woke up to some sickening smell of putrescence and noticed that some ferric-colored liquid had leaked under the front door into the office. The worst part was that it was from the most recent trash bag from the kitchen. I don't know what everyone was eating here in my absence, but I fear it might be another contributor to the rising sterility levels among males in the world. I'm going back to the mountains. Up there, one good side of their ethic of throwing their trash anywhere is that I don't have to move it around.

Back with Cold Showers.

Except on those rare days where the sun warms up the pipes. No matter, I actually find myself enjoying it at this point - refreshing.


Finally got to run Hydrophobia, a 'non-technical' canyon with plenty of fixed ropes, but a good number of jumps and slides. I nearly tied my record for oldest client (72 y/o) with a couple from Texas (71 and 57). I warned them out the outset, but I believe they thought I might be being age-ist. After the four hours of walking through a rocky stream bed after the canyon, they retracted their statements that fitness would not be an issue. No matter, no one got hurt, we made it. I was somewhat reminded of an episode from my childhood while hiking with a family friend on our property near Fort Loudon, PA. Good times, Good times.

Back working on the canopy tour. I've challenged my nemesis to another flight tomorrow after toying with its lower anchor for a couple of days. Usually, I can set-up and rig a zipline in a day or less. My nemesis and I have been dancing off-and-on for two months. Damned laws of physics.