Aaron's Status

5:02 pm

Adventure recap

So we did Boundless Adventures. The weather turned out to be absolutely gorgeous. It was like 35 degrees this morning and I was concerned that it would still be chilly and brought a hat and thick fleece, but by the time we got there it was in the 60s and sunny and it felt fabulous.

The kid is seven years old, which is the minimum age for the place. He is allowed to do the yellow (easiest) courses by himself, and the green ones (intermediate) with at least one parent accompanying.

We ended up doing, I think, two greens and three yellows. The yellows all pretty much went fine, but the second green that we did was the hardest green that they have (there are three), and the kid kind of broke down on an obstacle that was really tough and the swinging wood beams that you’re supposed to hold onto kept banging into his head and I think he was just a little too tired and overstimulated.

Other than that, though, we all had a really good time, and I think five courses in a day, especially for a seven-year-old, is quite admirable. When the wife and I went last year, we did every single course, and it was exhausting for sure.

Whatever else?

We are doing a family photo shoot at the school this evening, which is organized by the PTO. Then I think after that we’re going to get Indian food. I’m pretty excited to have some good curry and some garlic naan.

Tomorrow the kid has his climbing class and then after that we have a Halloween party, which will be our first chance to put on our Dr. Grant and Dr. Sattler (from Jurassic Park) costumes. You gotta love a costume that’s basically just clothes.

6:43 am

Work

My “grandboss” asked me to join a Slack huddle with him while I was out yesterday afternoon and I thought it was going to be some production problem or bad news or something and instead he gave me a raise!

When I took the job all I wanted was to be able to make a material contribution, have few meetings, and ideally avoid both politics and “grind culture,” which were things that plagued me for years at my last place. This job has delivered all of that and more and I couldn’t be happier about it.

It feels really good to be recognized for the contributions I’ve made, and I’m so grateful to work with so many awesome folks on a really complex and unique project.

Climbing

I met up with my new “belay buddy” yesterday to trade belays and get in my first third-day of climbing in a week. It has been my goal since before my injury in June to add a third day and work on conditioning my grip and endurance more.

We had a very nice climb together. We did a couple of 5.9s and 5.10s, she sent two and made a lot of progress on the other two. Then we moved over to the “lead wall,” which is really the hardest wall in the gym in my opinion, where my two 5.11 projects are.

I sent one of them, an orange 5.11, and failed again to send the “Pepto Bismol” colored one (or “Silly Putty” if you prefer), but I did make some progress there. I can feel that it will be possible with more work.

The rope felt tight on the orange one, so I think I need a “victory lap” to definitively prove that I can do it without any assist, but I’m 95% sure I can, it just felt like I had a little bit of extra safety around one body positioning change.

All-in-all, though, a really good and fun session!

Sleep

My watch thinks I slept 7 hours and 51 minutes last night, which is the longest I’ve slept in something like weeks. I was awakened around 2am or so by the bathroom light outside our bedroom door, which the kid must have left on. I got up to turn it off so then I had no choice but to do the Wordle and the Strands before going back to sleep.

Hopefully all this sleep comes in handy for our exciting day.

Adventures

Today we’re finally going to redeem our tickets for Boundless Adventures, a sprawling ropes course that the wife and I did ourselves last fall. The minimum age is seven, so we got three passes for the kid’s 7th birthday this past summer, but then I hurt my back and couldn’t reasonably go, plus the summer is very busy there.

I think the weather now is a bit colder than when we went, and I wonder how many folks will show up, but a bunch of the time slots did have bookings that I could see on the website. A few people is okay but it gets annoying when you’re always stuck behind, uh, let’s say, more tentative people.

It’s really all for the kid, though, so as long as he has a good time I think it’ll be a worthwhile outing.