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defrosted
I didn't have any photo's of jono's gun course or the back stock room at MEC, so I have uploaded a recent photo of Rice Lake, to show that it is not frozen any more. (It is the same lake in the 17th Feb entry.) A weekend has just passed and I have no climbing photos to show for it! :O
No talk of granite, slab, cracks or corners. No new jamming techniques to discuss. No scratches or bruises to show. How will I get through the week? Tehehe. Actually, the last time we went climbing, my newly founded love of cracks took a bit of a beating. We did a climb that I found excruciatingly painful, to the point of tears. Apparently the shoes I have been wearing (Five Ten Anasazi lace ups) are one of the worst for crack climbing, and to use MEC’s words, they make cracks “exquisitely painful”. I inherited these shoes from a friend with bigger feet than me, and I think she was doing multi pitch crack routes in Europe in them! She is obviously tougher than me. They are awesome shoes for steeper sports climbs though. I wonder whether non-climbing readers are getting bored yet? How many sentences can I write about climbing and specifically climbing shoes, before I lose people’s interest? I have never been better equipped to write essays on outdoor gear as I am now. I am learning a lot about climbing shoes, and for that matter all types of hiking, mountaineering, paddling, biking shoes and packs and sleeping bags and tents and … (sense the segway here?)
Yep, I got myself a job in an outdoor gear shop. Not just any out door gear shop, but the mecca of outdoor gear shops. MEC is a Canadian-based mountain equipment co-operative with over two and a half million members, 11 stores and a whole pile of awesome stuff to play with. It is not-for-profit and it makes a huge effort to source, design and manufacture its products in a socially and environmentally conscious manner. Plus, it donates a certain percentage of its takings to environmental courses. I know this is beginning to sound like promotional guff, but I am really excited about working for these guys. I just have to not think about the fact that I earnt more as an 18 year old waitress. I am now officially well on my way to becoming an overqualified, underpaid and underemployed climbing bum. But at least I am not being underpaid in order to make some rich fat cat richer and fatter.
I have never felt less like “the hippy” in a workplace before. Over three quarters of the storage space in the kitchen is dedicated to various recycling and compost bins. They recycle almost everything, and even do several “bin audits” a year to ensure they are not throwing unnecessary stuff into landfill. It is awesome. And that is just the start, but I will not go on any longer about it.
So, anyway, that is where I was on Sunday, and hence no climbing.
On Saturday, Jono was off learning about guns, so no climbing then either. The gun course sounded… ummm… interesting. I guess Jono’d be the best person to write about it. He needed to do the course before he goes out on the field for work. I think they all need to carry guns with them, just incase they come across an angry bear that can not be scared away by noise, and wants to attack a geologist or two. Obviously, no one wants to be in that situation. Apparently the person out there setting up their base camp to be got chased by a bear on the day he arrived. There is now an electric fence set up around the cabin/hut/mansion (or whatever it is they will be staying in). Jono really would be the best person to tell this story. I am flailing. So I will just finish by saying that once people do this one-day safe gun handling course, they are entitled to go and purchase fire arms. Any type and quantity they desire. No police check. No mental health assessment. This scares me. I incorrectly assumed that Canada had tighter gun controls than the US, but that does not seem to be the case.
Oh and, by the way, just a little interesting event worth noting: David Suzuki was the guest editor of Vancouver’s main broadsheet, the Vancouver Sun this last weekend. It was a really interesting example of the way editorial influence definitely slants the news. When the paper announced its plans to do this a month ago, the editor received letters from people in the community concerned that she was “giving over control” to David Suzuki. Her words in response were “one thing we did not do is abandon our usual journalistic principles of fairness, accuracy and balance.
“You will certainly find more stories on the environment in today’s paper than you would on a day without David Suzuki as guest editor. But you will still find the same high journalistic standards we strive to reach every day. The writers, photographers, designers and editors have done great work.
“The odd person has accused us of doing this ‘just to sell more papers.’ Well, selling papers is what we come in to work every day to do. Mostly we enjoy ourselves and we want people to enjoy the fruits of our labour. In that sense today is no different for us from any other day.
“We are honoured to have Dr. Suzuki’s participation. We have been delighted by his easygoing, professional demeanour and his sense of humour. We have learned from him. His story ideas have enriched today’s paper. He and we hope you enjoy it.”
Good on the Vancouver Sun. Maybe we could suggest the SMH has a local environmentalist as guest editor. Reckon they’d do it?
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Mum
non-member comment
Happiness is priceless!
Who cares about quals and pay scales - these are just artifacts of mere humanity that are meaningless when they are lined up in front of happiness! Glad you like the job Dahns - sounds like you might capture in learning more than what you will forgo in dollars. We heard a talk recently given by Ian Lowe - President of the Australian Conservation Foundation - an excellent speaker - just the right person to edit the SMH. By the way, when you return to Australia, the SMH will not be the traditional broadsheet size- will be shrunk to somethin smaller (not tabloid though).Love MUM