Here we go

Well, I'm just about to enter the tail end of summer stretch of busyness. This weekend I for the most part took it easy. I met my Burning Man ride share buddy and we planned our logistics. We were sitting at a large table at The Cup coffee shop in downtown Boulder. By chance there were about three other burners within ear shot, one of whom has camped with my camp Astral Headwash in previous years, so I got a few good insider tidbits. I stopped by Listen Up in Boulder to shop for a home theater system. I've been planning this for a while and I have somewhat elaborate requirements, so I was anticipating lots of components and complexity and don't-work-so-well-togetherness but it turns out a decent receiver these days does most of everything and you basically strap your inputs and outputs to that and you're done. So that's a nice surprise. Hopefully I can get that thing going soon. Mostly I have to decide on in-ceiling speakers verses just leaving them on the floor or just mounting them on the wall up high with a bracket.

Oh gosh I had to come back and edit this in. I got up so goddamn early on Saturday I suffered memory failure. I awoke at 5am to drive to Gray's Peak, an easy 14er (kind of an oxymoron, I know) with a buddy from my hiking group. When we arrived around 7am or so the four mile road between I-70 and the trail head already had cars reversing back down because the lot was full. So we had to park and change our planned 8 mile round trip hike into a 16 miler. So we hiked up to the trail head, started out on the trail, got maybe 1/8th mile in and it started rainy steadily with no signs of letting up. So we donned rain gear and hiked back down to the car in defeat. So much for my first 14er. Too risky to be up that high if there's any chance of lightning.

I also tried the new climbing gym in Boulder, Movement Climbing + Fitness. Pretty nice and very big. We're now up to four indoor climbing gyms and they are all pretty busy.

Then I spent some time planning a crude shade structure and buying parts at Lowes. I have it assembled in the back yard now. I think it should hold. Probably. Maybe. We'll see.

So the rest of the summer is going to go like this: today I switched projects at work to a major overhaul of my primary feature, so I'm digging in to that with both hands. I've been wanting to do this for over a year, so I'm going gangbusters. My parents arrive Thursday for a long weekend visit. Friday I am having a house warming BBQ and then hanging with the rents over the weekend. That leaves only one more full weekend for final Burning Man packing and preparation, then it's off for a week in the desert and by the time I get back on Labor Day we'll be knee deep in September. Thus ends my first summer in Colorado.