Failure at Tahquitz Rock

This is Tahquitz Rock in Idyllwild, California, one of the birthplaces of rock climbing in the US. People travel from all over the world and test their skills on granite mammoth, and we are lucky enough to have it right in our backyard. Well, backyard in SoCal terms means about an hour drive from home, a relative hop, skip, and jump compared to the 2 hour daily commute many endure in our area.
Jeremy and I have been training and collecting gear for a few months in order to make our own attempt on the historic rock. Our day of proving came last Saturday, and if you were thorough enough to read the title of this entry you already know that we failed in our attempt to reach the top. A little more than 1/2 the way up, we were forced to retreat back the way we came and kick pine cones down the trail in frustration.
Question: Cyrus, why are you such a wuss?
Answer: Three reasons - 1. I was totally unprepared for the amount of exposure on this rock and it really made me doubt my ability to climb, heck, being that high in the air made me doubt my ability to move and breathe without falling 1200 feet into the valley below - 2. I have only done a small amount of crack climbing and this climb was all cracks - 3. This was my first time climbing on my own protection, meaning there were no pre-placed bolts on the routes so we had to place our own anchors in the rock. These anchors look really solid when your feet are on the ground, but when your hundreds of feet in the air...well...i was a little less...sure.

This is the view from the start of the route. I know it is hard to tell from the picture, but at the start of the climb, we are already hundreds of feet above the surrounding hills and mountains. Intimidating.
The last shot is looking down from the first of 4 rope lengths up the rock. We got stuck about 2/3 the way to the top. We plan to return soon in order to re-establish ourselves as real men. Updates to follow.

My New Obsession

It is difficult for me to turn my brain down from dealing with the daily stresses brought on by fatherhood, work, and priesthood responsibilities. I have never been able to “chill out” like many men can by watching sports all afternoon some Saturdays. In the past, I have found the motocross track to be an excellent method of relaxation as it requires a significant amount of physical effort and control coupled with total mental concentration and focus leaving no spare brain cycles for the day-to-day worries. Two traits of this activity made me finally put it away for a time:

Grant has no fear. Should I be worried?

1. Expense – not just the bikes, but of all the required accessories such as a truck, trailer, membership fees,  fuel, maintenance, gear, ect…

2. Solitude – it is largely a solitary activity, meaning it was difficult for my family to participate. Even when you have several bikes, it is difficult to have conversations with your family members through helmets and over noisy motors.

Over the past few months, I have begun to love a sport I thought was just for hippies and tree-huggers; rock climbing. I have found that I get the same benefit from climbing that i used to get from motocross.

Physically demanding – isn’t it great to wake up on Sunday morning and discover your muscles are so sore your wife has to help you put your shirt on.

Mental focus – Imagine this: your 100ft up the rock face clinging to a 1/4 inch lip and you feel your feet start to slip. You thinking about work? Yeah, me neither.

Expense – Our whole family was outfitted for a few hundred dollars, now you kids might get to go to college!

Voices – One person climbs at a time, but everyone is on the wall with them. We laugh, we cheer, we tease, we push, and we all hold our breath in unison during the tricky spots.

Craig the hippie giving me some pointers on anchor set up.

A game of stratego while waiting for a turn

Charly's job is to pull the rope down when we have finished

Headed home, the easy way.

Goldilocks takes it down a notch

There comes a time in every girls life when they begin to be concerned with how they look to others and start to take a more active role in the determination of their outward appearance and grooming. Today, at the age of three, Charly decided she would no longer have her hairstyle decided for her, but would trim her lovely golden locks more they way she thought would be best. She grabbed a pair of decorative edging scissors and before anyone was able to intervene, several large chunks of yellow hair lay on the kitchen floor.

I was working on a motorcycle in the garage when Garrett came to tell me the news. Why does it happen when Dad is supposed to be watching the children? It is hard enough convincing our wives we are responsible adults without this type of catastrophe.

Well, that is a lot of hair. After a decent spanking we surveyed the damage. See that significant portion of forehead that used to be covered up? Yeah, that is going to be a problem.

I put her in the tub and asked, “Why did you cut off all your pretty hair, Charly?” She said, “Its OK Dad, Mom and Marci will fix it.”

She was mostly correct, in that Leanne was able to make it look a lot better that I feared at first site, but I guess the Price family will have two unusual hair dos for a little while. (Leanne and I were talking about how my hair doesn’t lay the same after my horse incident.)

Trampoline is finished

Never, ever, ever let your spouse talk you into digging a hole for the trampoline in the backyard, especially in the rock-hard earth that is here in Menifee, California. One full sized backhoe, gas-powered auger, 60 pound jack hammer, pick, wheelbarrow, 3 shovels and 4 Saturdays later, the tramp sits in its new home 39 inches under ground. Now we have the problem of all the dirt that was left over from the hole.
I enjoy my job the majority of the time, however, I am often surprised at the entitlement that some people feel. I had a mother threaten to bad-mouth the company and me personally in the local news because her free, state-funded insurance is denying her son's coverage. I often give people time frames of when their items will be ready, they show up days early and become angry when I cannot give them their orders. I hope to soon be able to move away from daily patient care and more towards development. A company called Freedom Innovations has requested a resume, but I have decided not to pursue it until I am finished with school in 4 more weeks. We shall see.

The final stretch

Here it is, the last few classes of my MBA program at the University of Redlands. I have completed the first half of the first of four final classes. By my calculations, I am 1/8th the way done with my final class. Instructor is giving us a one and a half hour lunch break, so I am sitting in Panera Bread eating my chicken and bacon sandwich and oatmeal and raisin cookie. I am a lover of all cookies, but oatmeal raisin tops the list. The added benefit to having this particular cookie be my favorite is that Leanne harbors a healthy dislike of raisins and has passed this trait on to most of our children. So if one of these special cookies does make it into the house at some time during the day, chances are good it will still be there when I return home from work.
I am also indulging in a drink of soda. Why such a careless disregard for health and longevity? Because I earned it. Leanne and I ran our first "test" triathlon this morning in preparation for the real test in 5 weeks. Our 11 mile bike ride (completed in 42 minutes) was followed by a 2 mile run (19 minutes). Next Saturday we will go for the full distance by adding one mile to each event, 12 mile bike and 3 mile run.
Garrett is a very gifted child, who excels in academics, reading, gospel understanding and many other areas, but is somewhat hesitant to participate in sports because he recognizes it is something in which he trails his friends in natural ability. I am going to help John Ranes coach flag football this fall in an effort to help Garrett get a little more familiar with sports. Hopefully we will be able to help him become a little more proficient. We like to do the things at which we excel.

Leanne Kicked my Bee - you - tee - tee

As you may be aware, Leanne and I have been training for a sprint triathlon in October. I have learned that there are a few different classifications of triathlons, the sprint being the shortest, olympic in the middle, and ironman is reserved for the crazies. Ours will be held on the shores of Lake Perris a few miles from our home and the distances are: 800 meter swim, 12 mile bike, and 5K run. Recently your mother and I have been competing in the 5K run. For a few weeks, she had been trying to run the distance in under 30 minutes, coming very close a few times. On Wednesday morning, I woke her up to show her my time of 29:03. I could tell she was just a little disappointed that I had broken the 30min mark before she did.
This morning I received a phone call from my wife informing me that she had run her morning route in just over 28 minutes! She beat me by over 60 seconds and beat her old time by more than two minutes. Tomorrow morning we are attempting our first real test, bike 12 miles and then run 2. We shall see who comes out on top.

Halo Reach is comming!

Kids, remember Halo Reach? Wasn't that a fun game to play?
I speak to you in the future, as one from the past, having not yet purchased or played the new Halo game on the Xbox 360. It is September 8, 2010 and the newest quest to save the world from alien invaders can not begin until September 14, when the game goes on sale to the public. John Ranes is sure he has a hook-up that can get us the game a few days early...we shall see. It has been all the little boys (when I say little boys, I refer to Liam and Grant, however if their growth patterns continue at their current pace, they will be the giant boys. Both are tall for their age and solidly built) any way, the little boys have been peeing their pants in anticipation for the new game, literally. I have made them a deal, if they wake up dry every day between now and the release date, I will purchase the game for them, and they will own it.
"It will be ours?!" Liam asked.
"Yes." I said.
"And we can say who gets to play it?!" Grant questioned.
"No, everyone who wants to play it can play it, you have to share." I said.
"But, it will be ours?" Liam repeated.
"Yes." I said.
Then in unison, they both pumped their fists and said: "Awesome!"
Then Grant said: "I'm going to go potty right now!"
Now + 6 days - $60 at gamestop + rootbeer floats + late bedtime = The Best Day Ever!

I also have a deal with Marci, Garrett, and Chloe: If they have straight "A"s in November, I will take them to the midnight showing of the new Harry Potter movie and they can skip school the next day (a Friday). I hope they make it. I think that would be a lot of fun for the family.

Charly's Birthday

Here is a video I put together of Charly's third birthday. Funny baby was sure she was turning 6 years old today.


Charly's 1095th day from Leanne Price on Vimeo.

My favorite use of electricity

Hey kids, do you remember the iPhone? Do you remember how happy your dad was to get the new iPhone 4? It all seems so long ago and archaic to you now, like your father remembering his days playing video games on the Intellevision, then the TI-99, to the Commodore 64 then Commodore128 with color!

Missel command, Hard Hat Mac, Burger Time, and Mission Impossible were the newest in technology and graphics.

Now, my cellular phone has many many times more processing power than the computers that ran the NASA space programs when I was a kid. It seems funny that we will sit around someday in the future, each child with their own little ones, and laugh about how primitive our devices will then seem. It a strange way, it is a little sad to know that my prized piece of the cutting edge will be remembered as an technological dinosaur. But, right now, it is awesome, and you little monkeys beg for a turn with it every 15 minutes. Remember, your dad was cool!

School and more school

For a little while, I owned an 85mm 1.2L lens. It was easily the nicest, sharpest lens I have ever used. Here is my favorite shot I took with this awesome chunk of glass:

Leanne with the 85mm

How nice is that blur! And how sharp are the lashes on Leanne’s right eye! But, it was too expensive to justify keeping and I sold it a week ago. Someday, after I have finally finished school and make millions of dollars per week, I will most definitely purchase it again.

            Speaking of school, I am nearly finished with my MBA program at University of Redlands. I am sitting in my second-to-last class right now. This will be completed next week, and then I will be required to attend 4 Saturday sessions, each of them 8 hours in length. That will be all. Finished. Completed. Done. (I hope). The problem with all of this talk of finishing is that I have no idea if this is the real end. There is a phrase in my patriarchal blessing that states: “…Finish your education and the Lord will prepare you for important things in your life.” (That is paraphrased; I don’t have my written blessing in front of me).  I knew completing High School was no enough to satisfy the requirement. I forced myself through the last year of getting by bachelors at the University of Utah thinking it would certainly be enough. Shortly after graduation, I knew I had not completed my education but I stubbornly pushed the idea to the back of my mind. Finally, on a trip to Idaho, I gave in and promised my wife we would return to school. I remember the exact spot in the road I gave up my attitude of resistance and accepted my new future between the cities of Preston and Inkom, closer to the latter. Prosthetic school and residency was followed by Orthotics school and a complete change of scenery in Southern California. Two years later, driving the same road, near the same spot of my previous epiphany, I again gave in to knowledge that I had not yet completed my full education. Now my MBA is nearly complete. Leanne asks if this is all. I am not sure how to answer that question. I’ll tell you on the next drive to Idaho.