Catching Up

Absorbed by projects, activities or the sweet sounds of silence I have a tendency to drop completely off the radar screen for extended periods of time. Sometimes there's nothing much to say but only things to do. It doesn't mean I care any less about people and all the wonderful personalities we know, I simply experience difficulty coming up with things to say in a coherent fashion- especially over the internets. That, and my grammar isn't the best and I don't take much time to edit before getting distracted and moving onto something else. Although not ultra-keen on public exposure I still try to maintain this blog for several reasons: one, I read a lot of blogs and find them to be a great and unique source of information and experience; two, it's a good way to keep folks alert of our movements en masse; and three, moving into the van is probably the first thing Susy and I have ever done that everybody else seems to think is an awesome idea and claims to wish they could do themselves. With Australian real estate hovering at historically outlandish levels (median house = 8 x median income, up from 3 in the 1960's) we can only encourage more people to do the same and ditch the stationary box!

After Fred cleared out of town Susy and I leapt right back into work mode and preparing for the upcoming shift out of our apartment and into the mobile lifestyle. In November, Susy's mum went into the hospital with a minor stomach complaint and was subsequently moved down to Melbourne for an extensive series of tests. We couldn't leave her dad, Luciano, home alone in Shepparton so he came down to stay with us in the City where he could hang out with Ede daily and we could manage him while still getting work done. As it turns out, all he really needs everyday is a book of Italian crossword puzzles, 100 grams of food and a glass of wine. Unfortunately, after ten days or so Ede's doctors determined that she necessitated open heart surgery which, ultimately, was a quad-bypass. While these things are considered "routine" these days it's still quite an affair for everybody involved. I was moving a thousand miles an hour trying to work, rebuild the van, manage Luciano, move out of the apartment, as well as doing a massive amount of work preparing a friend's large block of land for his upcoming wedding. Susy, between her jobs, was almost always at the hospital entertaining her mum.

So it was a hectic couple of months but now we are again sailing in relatively calm waters and getting out a lot more. Fully mobile, we have the whole outdoors to call our home and it has sure been liberating. With mobile internet connectivity I'm making full use of it by blogging directly from the Gorge parking lot on Mt. Buffalo right before I chuck a rope over the cliff and resume monkeying around the rocks and basking in some solitude. I'm going to post van mods and some recent climbing stuff separately, maybe today after I get a couple of pitches in. Then again, maybe not.