Had a great time indoor-simulated-rock-climbing yesterday at the Rhode Island Rock Gym in Lincoln, RI. They harness you up, teach you how to belay with a partner, and then let you go at the walls. I learned three things yesterday, in addition to how to harness, belay, and climb:

1.) I really like climbing, at least climbing these sorts of walls;
2.) I need to work on developing some more upper body strength;
3.) I can’t believe how tired my arms are today.

I managed to climb a 5.4 and a 5.5 wall, but had trouble with the 5.6 wall. It’s more complicated than that, though. At this gym, there were handholds and ledges and bits of simulated rock that followed multiple paths to the top of the wall. The idea is that the ones marked with green tape represent a 5.4 road, and the ones marked with red tape are the 5.5, and the ones with blck tape are the 5.6. But if you use all the handholds without worrying about tape colors, it’s probably a 5.2 or a 5.1 (I’ll have to explain about walking/hiking classification later; Brian and Steve explained it to me, and it made sense, but I have to go to Six Flags in 2 minutes). So I have to go back to this gym or another rock gym, and work on my climbing muscles in back, chest, and arms. I’ll do that by climbing the same ‘easy’ routes over and over again, and gradually limiting myself to specific color tapes. Still, I don’t feel like I did badly yesterday. I was covered in sweat by the end, my arms were tired, and I felt briefly like I was going to throw up. But I didn’t, and today I feel stronger, clearer-headed, and healthier.

W got dunked — I mean, baptized this morning. I was supposed to go, but I got sucked into a discussion/disciplinary meeting about a kid. It was annoying to be consulted about this other kid so exhaustively, knowing in advance that nothing at all will be done unless he really screwed up.

OK, time to go to Six Flags. , I love you. If I haven’t said that publicly recently, let me say it now. I love you, and I’ll be calling you once we get to S.F. later today.

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