8-27-05
Looked at my watch last night and was dismayed to see that it was already eight. I was just over halfway through grading finals with at least another half day of work still to go. Judging by the mistakes I was beginning to make, it was time to quit. Now it's Saturday morning and the work hasn't gone away. It's still waiting for me and has to be done by Monday at the latest. I'll finish it today; there's no way I'll leave that hanging over my head all weekend.
  I need to start right away, but my mind is full of swirling thoughts and ideas due to all the stuff going on right now. Perhaps if I "put them down on paper" I can clear the way to actually get some work done. I'll start back on the 20th, which was the Saturday that I worked for a new department at the college. The college has a separate entity that sets up training for groups of business professionals who need to learn a specific piece of software.
     I spent the day trying to teach Dreamweaver to 15 business people who only had a day to learn the software. In the daytime college environment, I take 22 days to teach this, spread out over 6 months. Teaching it in 8 hours was challenging to say the least. Still, at the end of the day I had 5 people come up and shake my hand, telling me I'd done a great job.
    On the drive home I was kicking myself for agreeing to do it. Yeah, the money was great, but so was the frustration level. The next day, Sunday, I got up early again and went climbing with Sue, Lisa and N.D. at exit 38. I climbed surprisingly well, even leading a new 10a to the left of Continuous Bliss. The worst part of the day was getting Lisa and N.D. safely down off the 2 rope rappel at the top of Bliss. I tried to throw the rope down to the ground where Sue could watch their ends, but the wind was too strong and it appeared that both lines got hung up on ledges.
   I couldn't go first because neither had done an unsupervised rappel before. I couldn't stay and supervise their rappels because neither had ever been the first one down a rappel line. First one down is dangerous as there are often snarls in the rope that must be cleared (rappelling and clearing rope snarls both take two hands).
   I decided to try a technique I've used a few times before with beginners called the "guide rappel". I put them both on rappel, but in closed loops of doubled line. This would allow me to rap first, knowing they were safely on rappel above me. All they'd have to do is untie a simple knot and they'd be on rappel.
    As I was finishing this process, I looked down and saw that Sue was holding one of the ends. She'd been hollering up at us and making bizarre hand gestures for some time, but we couldn't hear her due to the freeway noise. Once I saw she could watch the end of at least one line I knew I could send the women down first; Sue would stop them from below if they lost control. Despite all these difficulties, it was a good day and we all had some good laughs.
   On Monday my students began handing in their finals, but I was unable to get any grading done all week due to the last minutes finishers asking questions they should have asked weeks ago. Everyone was feeling the stress but very few would admit that the reason finals week was so hard was that they had been slacking all quarter.

On the last day one of my more outspoken students expressed her dismay with her fellow classmates:

"What are you guys complaining about? If you guys had been showing up for class instead of screwing off, you wouldn't have to work so hard during finals. Where have you guys been all quarter?"

"Now, now," I said, "Just because it's true doesn't mean you have to rub it in. At least they're here now and trying to do the work." In my head I was agreeing with J.M., but there was no need for her to rub it in. Now they are all off to their summer vacations, and I need to buckle down and get some grading done.

8-18-05
Woke up an hour early having a printing nightmare. In the dream, I was back at J. L. Darling, my first real job after getting my printing certificate in 1975. I'd just gotten the job and had spent all night (graveyard of course) running this huge old antique of a press doing letterheads for the company next door. I didn't really understand the dampening system of the press and had been kept busy multi-tasking all night. When the customer showed up in the morning to look at a press sample of the letterhead, I pulled a sheet out of the 800 pound stack of paper and noticed it was ruined on one side of the sheet.
   There were 4 letterheads on the 17x22 inch sheet of paper, so two of them were good and as I handed the press sheet to the customer I commented that it was a bad sample and that he would only get good ones. Unfortunately, as I looked at the side of the stack of paper in the press, I saw that all of the press sheets had scum on at least one side, and most had scum on both sides. This meant I'd blown the job and it would have to be re-run.
   When I woke up from this nightmare, I had a huge sense of unshakeable impending doom. I tossed and turned in bed for twenty minutes but couldn't shake the feeling. Finally I looked at my watch, saw that it was five in the morning and decided to get up. I've been eating nothing but dinner for 2 days now, and forcing myself not to pig out at dinner. Yes, it's a crash diet but I had to take extreme measures because I'd ballooned up to 170. All my efforts to diet have failed miserably.
    This damn knee of mine is the problem, I've not been able to ride my bike hard for over a month. When I walk, skate, swim or ride, the damn thing hurts. I can climb without pain, but climbing is rarely aerobic. Lisa and I climbed at the gym from 7 to 9 last night after work, and I had a great time, even working up a sweat a couple times.
    Yesterday was actually a very cool day. It began with a trip down to see Rocko at "The Printer's Helper", a small business, really just a warehouse, where an old printing supply salesman sells used equipment. As soon as I walked toward the front door I saw someone else approaching the building ahead of me. Even though he was 100 feet away and I could only see his back I recognized one of the old pressmen from my last job.
     I knew Bob (not his real name) immediately by his trademark blue jean shorts and the muscular legs. The guy is 70 years old but still in perfect shape. Well, almost perfect shape, he's bald on top and has worn a horrible toupee ever since I've know him. He's got to be a little off his rocker as the crazy thing is so blatantly unreal it looks like a mop. Still, he's a great guy, always has a smile and a funny story to tell. A little weirdness is standard fare for pressmen...must be all the fumes we inhaled over the years.
    Like me, he's a long time pressman, mostly retired now, but working part time for Rocko selling old presses to under developed countries in the third world. According to Bob, a used press built back in the 1950's is considered state of the art in India and Rwanda and they can make a living shipping containers full of them overseas.
    When Rocko showed up I told him I was looking for some old letterpress type to use as a teaching aid. He walked me back into his amazing old warehouse of dead printing presses, a graveyard of printing dreams really, and showed me where the letterpress stuff was. "Help yourself" he said as he walked off to load up another truck full of dead presses bound for India.
   It's no wonder I had a printing nightmare, that warehouse was spooky. If I'd looked around, I'm certain I would have spotted one of my old presses, or cutters, or cameras, or paper drills. It was all there, every machine ever used over the last half a century in "mom and pop" printshops was in there, covered with dust and grime, waiting patiently for another dreamer hoping for a steady living.

8-14-05
Was supposed to climb at exit 38 with Lisa today, but she got a better offer at the last minute and dumped me. When she asked me to go on Thursday, I wasn't planning anything for the weekend, but agreed to go since she seemed interested. By Saturday night I was planning what I would climb up there. I've been waiting for several years to get good enough to try an overhanging 5.10a roof that has beaten me in the past. This looked like my chance.
      Saturday night as I was trying to get to sleep in the heat, Sue walked in, woke me up and told me Lisa had a better offer from her girlfriend and was going swimming instead. So, instead of climbing I've been paying bills and other boring things around the house. Now I'm thinking about writing some php code for an hour...yawn. After that, I may go swimming in our lake, or, if Clint gets off early and all his preferred partners back out, he may ask me to kayak around Anderson Island. It's curious how I'm last on everyone's list...
     I'm slowly getting to know a couple people at the climbing gym. I've been a volunteer belayer there 3 times now, which pays my first month dues. They called last night and asked me to come in today, but I told them I was climbing with Lisa. I guess I could call back and tell them I was still available, but I think not. I am still trying to learn a little php as time allows. One hour won't be too boring.
   Our students are beginning to show signs of stress as finals week approaches. Big changes are in the wings at school. Two of the three full time specialty instructors have quit in the last 3 weeks. The administration is scrambling to see what can be done. The students are wondering who will be there teachers as they move into the specialty areas after completing their first year.
   The problem is that people who are really good at this business have great jobs and don't want to work for teaching wages. Occasionally we find someone laid off who is still good, but they only teach until they find another high paying job in industry.
    The college has a separate department that services people from industry who want to learn business software. Next Saturday I've been asked to teach 25 adults from outside the college how to build web pages.  The class will be held in my normal classroom, using lesson plans I've developed in the past for faculty, and it pays well. Hopefully I can find a partner for climbing on Sunday so it should be a fun and profitable weekend.  

8-7-05
Climbed up at Interstate Park cliff at exit 38 with Sue today. She wasn't able to climb yet as she is still recuperating from the shoulder surgery, but she did her usual fine job of belaying. It was refreshing not to have to beg my friends for a partner, just go with my wife, who has always been my best partner of all...well, Paul came close but he's been dead of cancer for 5 years now.
     We climbed Endless Bliss, and I had to cheat briefly by grabbing the bolt at the crux. I was a little rustier than the first time, I guess a week off does make a difference. I also seemed a little distracted, couldn't quite get in the zone, still, I did 4 climbs, two of which were brand new onsights of climbs I'd only heard about. Both of them were up at the top left side of the cliff, and both were also quite new. The last one didn't even have dirt at the belay spot, still had grass.
   One of my students got a job working part time in a sign shop. She's a very hard worker and deserved the break. I have students who are more gifted creatively, but they don't show up every day. This student has a great eye for color and design, plus she is very good with logic. Best of all, she has an amazing work ethic. This is her third part time job, and while some of my students may have more creative talent, they have yet to come anywhere close to this gal's work ethic.
   It has always amazed me how hard my students struggle just to show up everyday, never mind actually put in a full 6 hours of study. When I was a student here 6 years ago, I never missed a single day, and I was always here until 3:30 or later. This all reminds me of one of my favorite old sayings"
"It's not your aptitude, but your attitude that determines your altitude in any given company."

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