#damn mornings are not good when the temp is below 10

[torhues]

good morning torhues nation 🫶

#♡ hues'. #damn mornings are not good when the temp is below 10 #like i have to wake up at 5 for classes #tho today i woke up at 6 #still cold #ANYWAY HOW R WE DOING

[jlawrence10]

This was our summit on Thursday morning, and it was a good one. 2:30 AM, a full moon rising over boiling clouds, as climbers trickled out of the RMI Expeditions hut at 10,000 feet to come to terms with the fact that we weren't going any higher.

--------------- I have made no attempt to keep this short. ---------------

As many of you know, I was honored with an invite to join the second Climb for Clean Air Rainier Team on a summit attempt with RMI Expeditions this past week. It's a 4 day program of learning about gear, mountain techniques, and snow climbing, with a stay at their hut halfway up the mountain at Camp Muir, and one shot at the summit on Thursday morning.

I always advise new climbers not to obsess over the weather forecast, because all it does is cause stress, and there's absolutely nothing you can do about it. So as I obsessed over the weather forecast for a week prior, I could tell that it wasn’t looking good. But you've got to stay in the frame of mind that a window might open up, so you're ready for a shot at the top if it comes. That can be difficult; a few of us camped in the rain on Monday night, but for Tuesday's snow climbing class the weather was mostly acceptable. No view of the mountain, but some sun breaks, and hardly any rain at all.

I guess the rain was saving itself up for Wednesday, when we had to climb from the Paradise area of Mt. Rainier National Park, 4 miles and 4500 vertical feet with full overnight packs, weighing in between 40 and 50 lbs. As we pulled into the lot at Paradise, the windshield wipers were going strong, and instead of hopping out into the rain to gear up, our guide Win Whittaker asked the bus driver if we could pull up to the lot in front of Paradise Lodge to go inside and gear up instead. Neither Win, the longtime guide/bus driver/partial RMI owner Joe, nor 7 year guide Mike knew if there was space to turn the bus around in the lodge lot. They had never had conditions that warranted pulling up to the lodge to get geared up. I took this to be a pretty bad sign.

But gear up we did, and out into the rain we went. There's not much choice. If you want a shot at the top, you have to get to Camp Muir at a decent hour to rest up, eat, and hydrate. The hike out of Paradise and onto the Muir snowfields was... well, it was a little bit fun to be honest with you. But it was also pretty horrible. Our guide Mike would later say that it was the worst day on the snowfield he had ever experienced, and he's been guiding for 7 years. (I’m sure he says that every time it rains, but whatever…) It was basically a recipe for hypothermia. Temps hovering between 35 and 42 degrees, heavy rain, and winds gusting to probably 40 mph.

This team was amazing.

We put our gear on, put our heads down, and just took off into the clouds. At times it was just breezy and moist. At other times we were nearly blown off our feet. And at times the rain was just soaking. Our amazing guides Win, Mike, Abby, Drew, Avery and Matias kept checking in with each and every one of us. Are your hands ok? Is anybody chilled? Do you have plenty of energy? I realized later that these check ins were also our chance to bail out. Mike said that 9 out of 10 teams he has guided wouldn't have continued up into such conditions. But for this team, it never even came up. They've all raised a ton of money for the American Lung Association, and unlike many who call themselves mountaineers, they weren't climbing for themselves. They were climbing for the friends, families and colleagues who had donated to the cause. They were climbing for the husbands and wives who had held down the fort at home while they hit the trail every damn weekend since February. They were climbing, and I was climbing, for the loved ones we've lost to lung disease and fucking cancer, and we weren't going to let a little rain slow us down.

In fact, the rain sped us up. Usual time to Camp Muir on a nice day is about five hours. We did it in just over four. We didn't take any sit-down breaks, and in fact I only took my pack off once, when I decided I needed to sacrifice a valuable pair of dry gloves, because my hands were getting chilled to the point where I couldn't really use them anymore.

At about 9000 feet, as we hit a very exposed snow field with steady winds and near-freezing rain, our guide Avery looked back at us, and said, "You guys are gonna have to keep up with me. We are not going to go slow." This made me pretty happy because I knew a faster pace would warm me up. I'm not sure if all my fellow climbers shared this sentiment.

We pulled into Camp Muir, ditched our packs, and piled into the RMI hut, which is a small room filled mostly with bunks. Those of us that had any dry clothes changed into them. Those that didn't stripped down and climbed into their sleeping bag. Those that had a leak in their trash-bag-pack-liner shared a sleeping bag until the guides rustled up an extra, warning that, "It probably smells like guide."

It was about 3:00 PM, the wind kept howling outside, the rain and snow and sleet kept pounding the hut, but we were safe and comfortable for the time being, as Win and Mike came in to brief us on tomorrow's summit attempt. Win started in to his usual, "We'll wake you up between midnight and two..." but then stopped, got a sort of "fuck it" look on his face, and said, "I'm gonna be frank. It's not looking good." We'd all seen the forecast. We all had layers that were soaking wet. Some didn't have any dry gloves, and others had boots that had either soaked through, or filled up from the top. Efforts to hang clothes to dry in a hut in a rainstorm filled with 18 warm breathing bodies were mostly a kind of charade. The best technique was wringing out a layer, hanging it for a couple hours, and then either putting it in your sleeping bag (bad!) or just putting it on (worse!). We all knew the situation, and I think we all appreciated Win's honesty. He and Mike still briefed us as if we might give it a shot, and Win insisted later that he hadn't actually ruled it out until 2:00 AM because dammit he was weathered off on his last attempt too.

After a lot of hot water bottles, some bad jokes (Mike), some good riddles (Matias), some enthusiastic chatter (Charyl), we settled in for "quiet time" at about 6:30 and tried to sleep a bit as the wind kept pounding the hut.

2:00 AM had to come. I guess I slept a bit because before I knew it, Win was in there. "It's not in the cards, guys." He reiterated that winds up high were forecast over 60 mph, temps were dropping, and drove the point home by grabbing a couple pieces of hanging gear, which were still dripping wet. He knew that putting on wet gloves and wet boots and climbing into freezing winds is a recipe for disaster.

I think we all knew it. For me, it wasn't a surprise, and the disappointment had settled slowly rather than punching me in the gut. But I've been up Rainier before. And I have a good chance to go up again. For some of these folks, this was their second attempt after raising a ton of money, twice. For others, this may have been their only shot. And I was feeling pretty devastated for them. I took in the news, laid back for a few minutes, and decided that since I was up I might as well head over and use the smelly bathrooms. I put on some layers and slipped into my damp boots. I got to the door, lowered my head and stepped out into the presumably howling winds and rain. As I got out there and looked around, these words came to my mouth:

"Fuck. It's perfect."

The winds had calmed. The clouds had lowered. A full moon was rising to the south over a boiling sea of clouds that were rolling rapidly east and, as one climber later put it, "Looked alive."

I turned and looked at the upper mountain, and it was lit brightly by the moon and looked so cold and beautiful set against a sky of stars that shone strongly despite the overpowering moonlight.

I'm not gonna lie - My first reaction was anger and frustration and doubt and questioning of the decision to not climb. The night seemed ideal. But I was being a selfish idiot. Win has climbed this mountain 140+ times. Mike has climbed 35+ times. There were six incredible guides with years of experience agonizing over this decision for hours, and if I'm not gonna trust them to make the right decisions to keep us safe, then I certainly shouldn't tie into their rope and put my life in their hands at 14,000 feet. But I DID trust them to make the right decisions to keep us safe, and I would have trusted them with my life at 14,000 feet, and as they proved to us during that trip and later on in the warmth at Base Camp back in town (warmth provided by hot showers, central heating, and a few beers), they wanted that summit as much as we did. And not for themselves, but for us, and for our donors, and for our family members and colleagues and husbands and wives and girlfriends without whom none of us would be here.

But here we definitely are, trickling out of hut at 10,000 feet at 2:30 in the morning, eyes adjusting to the bright moonlight and taking in the rolling clouds below us and the bright moon above. Tears were shed. Hugs were shared. Someone brought out a decent sized flask of decent bourbon and that someone was me. Someone else went back in to the hut and whispered that if anyone was awake, they should really come out and have a look. Pictures were taken, and there was some half-joking discussion about finding a rope and going up anyway, but overall the mood as I read it changed from one of disappointment and sadness to simple and sincere appreciation for where we were at that moment. Not many people ever got to see what we were seeing, and got to be part of a team like this. We looked around at the people we had met earlier that week, earlier this year, or in some cases over 12 years ago because of this program, and we felt good about what we had done and where we were at that very moment.

Eventually we had to go back inside, grab a few more hours of sleep, and wait for the time that the rest of the world knows as morning; actual sunrise. The sun rose on a brilliantly clear morning, clouds still churning below us, as our guides shuttled enormous fluffy pancakes down from their quarters, and we started to pack our things. We descended back down into the clouds, but it was merely foggy and a little moist, nothing to worry us mountaineers.

Back in town, we had some showers and some food and some beers, and gathered for a little ceremony to get our certificate of (the carefully worded) “Participation in an ascent of Mt. Rainier.” Everyone spoke a bit about what they had learned, and watching people shrug off the disappointment and tell stories of gratitude and joy and learning and accomplishment just drove home my love and appreciation for this team and this program.

When it was my turn to speak about what I had learned, I kind of cheated. It’s something that I re-learned and that I re-learn every time I’m out there.

Signing up for some weird fundraising, mountain climbing program after hearing a radio ad in 2007… Getting out of bed on a dark, rainy February morning to do some training hike you’ve already done 17 times… Heading out to the mountains even though the forecast isn’t great and it might be too cold or wet or windy to go very high… Heading out to Ashford, Washington with a bad forecast and a low chance at a summit, and diving headlong into a cold soaking rain to slog up some snowfield to spend a wet night in a leaky hut at 10,000 feet…

What I re-learned was this: It’s always worth it.

Because you may end up with some lifelong friends.

And you may end up in a newly built yurt on a smooth concrete floor, as Win Whittaker plays guitar and forgets lyrics, while newly minted mountaineer Steve plays a damn good backing drum and Paul strolls in with a strong clear voice and I think a Nalgene full of ice? that sounds surprisingly good as a shaker. And he’s especially adept at looking up lyrics so we can all try and mostly fail to sing along.

And you may end up at 10,000 feet, gazing at the most amazing moonrise you’ve ever seen, feeling life in the form of disappointment and sadness and gratitude and love and awe and wonder and burning whiskey and a dull headache and tears drying on your cheeks.

[mubal4]

Time on the Trails – Mount Ord

 Over a year ago I heard about Mount Ord from some folks I run with occasionally.  A few of us were all training for a race, which was all climbing up the Bradshaw Mountains, and they were hitting Mount Ord to train.  It was a similar course, uphill all the way, good vert, Forest Road, and some elevation.  So, it took me over a year to finally get there but yesterday I went. I wasn’t planning on writing about it, since I did a Facebook Live, but I had some thoughts throughout the 6+ hours I climbed this beast………..TWICE!!!!

 The first time up is when I went live on Facebook and took the pictures.  I was soaking it all in, and as you may have seen from the video or these pictures here, it was beautiful.  The purpose of starting these lives streams back in March was to help take some of our attention away from, at that time, the coronavirus media explosion. We had such fun with them we continued them and will keep with that trend.  We have a few ideas and fun stuff in our thoughts so we want to share more; so, we will, because it is fun, and hopefully, provides some distraction.  I also, like I said, wanted to share in the beauty that we get to experience throughout this state.  

 Mount Ord, near Payson, AZ, is only about an hour drive from our house in Phoenix.  It is nestled in the Mazatzal mountain range and sits just under 7,200 feet high.  The trail head is at roughly 3,900 feet and typically is about 20 degrees cooler than Phoenix. So, it being June and temperatures hovering around 105* lately, earlier in the week I thought yesterday would be the day to get up here.  Funny however, the high temp in Phoenix was going to be 92* with morning temps in the low 70’s.  When I got to the trailhead, just after 6am it was an awesome 57*.  I don’t think the temperature got above 75* on the mountain and hovered around 65* the entire time as I was climbing.  Wonderful break from the heat and I now know where to go when we want to cool off.  One of the great things about this trek is that, as I said, it is all Forest Road from the start till about ¾ of a mile from the summit.  It starts off as a paved road for the first ½ a mile or so then it turns to dirt the rest of the way up.  I saw a couple of trucks heading up and a few ATV’s and talked to Robin when I got home about taking the family up there.  We can head up in the truck till where the gate is near the top and then hike the mile or two round trip to the summit.  Don’t want to make the girls hike too much 😊!!  But I think that is awesome to have that opportunity.  Take the afternoon to head up and watch the sunset then drive down.  It being only an hour away and that much in temperature drop, pretty awesome.  Of course, the views are amazing too.

 That is what hit my yesterday.  As you can see from some of the shots, the landscape that surrounds Mount Ord is different. You have the Roosevelt Lake, pine trees, high desert, green trees, and lava rock.  People think about AZ and they think heat, desert, rattlesnakes, and scorpions.  Drive a short hour and you will be 7,000 feet up in tall pines with some canopy overlooking breathtaking views.  It felt surreal and I felt fortunate to be able to have access to this beauty.  The 2nd time up I tried to stay open to my surroundings, taking in more the scenery.  Since I was getting tired, it made it easier.  I was able to see the back of 4 Peaks; another mountain to hike to the east of Mount Ord that is prominent even from Phoenix.  I stopped to soak in the Mogollon Rim, as mentioned Roosevelt Lake, and so many of the other surrounding mountains.  I noticed, what I believe to be 2 cabins, next to each other, on one side of the mountain.  They looked newish and in good shape but didn’t see folks around them.  I thought about living up in one of those, middle of a mountain, waking up to these views every morning.  Then I thought about getting a gallon a milk 😊.  Payson, I guess would be the closest and that is an hour drive!! Still, pretty cool.

 There weren’t many people out there yesterday. When I first got there, a group of mountain bikers, 4 totals, where getting ready to make the climb.  They passed me within the first couple miles and then I caught them off the summit as I was reaching the top. There were two guys, I would guess to be in their mid-60’s that I passed about a mile from the top.  One was a former Marine and we had a great conversation. Saw them again on the way down and then once more as I was going back up.  These dudes made me smile all three times we engaged.  It was only for a minute or two but to be able to stop, and connect over the beauty that we were sharing, was awesome.  At the top, there were 3 others, one woman and two guys that were headed back down and I passed two other dudes on the way down the 1st time and again heading back up.  All those folks where running back down the mountain after hiking.  That first group, the 1 woman two guys, had just finished up and where at the trail head has, I was making my turnaround.  It was just before 10am and I noticed they were enjoying some Corona’s, rewarding their effort. We got chatting a bit, since they were parked right next to me.  I was filling my water bottles and getting some more Clif Bars when the one dude said, “got one extra Corona in here if you want it.” Yes, yes, I did want it but said that I was heading back up.  We talked for a bit more and the other dude, right as I was getting ready to move goes, “you can still have the beer even though you are going back up.” Very true and was grateful but I declined.  About halfway back up I was wishing I had that Corona 😊!!  On that 2nd time up, as mentioned, I ran back into the Marine and his buddy and about 15 minutes later, the two other guys came running down.  Another 10 minutes after that, the two ATV’s came down off the top as well.  At that moment, I was thinking if there were any others that were up here.  No, I was the only one left on this mountain.  

 For about, I would say an hour, I was the only one that was on Mount Ord.  Sort of freaky for a second but then it sunk in, talk about solace, peace! I stopped for about a minute to listen and to look around me.

 Nothing – no noise. No distraction. Nobody.  I saw some birds flying overhead.  I can see all the way to the bottom and noticed cars driving on the highway far below.  I noticed the other mountains surrounding me. All quiet.  As I neared the bottom I stopped again to look back up to the top. It was quite a site from that perspective.  I felt fulfilled.  

 As I headed back to the trailhead, my car being the only one in the lot now I had a thought!!!  “Damn, that Corona would have tasted real good right now!”    

#TOTTAZ keepclimbing LFRF getyourvert earnyourbeer mountainpeace

[ladyclementine]

Surviving Winter in a Van

Well...My partner, David, and I have been ‘living the van life’ for the past 5 months. Funny that I finally get the motivation to write about it in the dead of winter, one of the most miserable van-life experiences you can have. So it goes...

It seems a dreamy existence - get up and go whenever and wherever you like, have all of your possessions on hand everywhere you go...Basecamp is home. But it’s not all butterflies and daydreams. We both still work full time jobs and have to spend our ‘vagabond days’ close to home, which is currently in Colorado. Unfortunately, neither of us are snow birds. We very much appreciate warm weather, and our hobbies correlate with that. While we are lucky to have such a beautiful place to call home, the winter cold can be brutal, wherever you are, and we cannot yet pack off to Mexico anytime the temps dip below freezing. So I thought it couldn’t hurt to write my first post about how we are surviving winter in the van. Maybe it will help others in similar situations, or maybe it will remind me to never do this (for an extended period of time) again. 

1. Layers. When it gets below zero we are certainly not flouncing around in our skiveys. We go to bed with our comforter, quilt, both sleeping bags, flannel pajama pants or under armour, hats, jackets, sweaters, and most recently, the AMAZING PATAGONIA CAPILENE ONESIE! I’m in love. In fact, I’m thinking of also installing a zipper in the front crotch so I can still use my pee funnel. Be prepared to slip into some cold sheets, get nice and toasty overnight, and have your heater at the ready to prep you for the morning opening of the cocoon. 

                                           Chilly Mornings

2. Be prepared, but Insulation can only do so much. If you know you will be spending some serious time in the cold while pursuing the van-life, take time and money to insulate right. However, a van is only so big and you can only insulate so much. It’s going to be cold regardless, so be ready to deal. Things to note - Windows are going to leak cold all over the damn place. Insulate them well, but you can also take the insulation out during the day when the sun can shine in and warm up your space. I read another blog where they stuffed pillows in their window spaces at night to block the cold. I wish we had put more insulation in our floor, since a lot of cold comes in from under the van and if I’m not wearing my big wool socks and oscar the grouch slippers at all time, my cold feet bring the chill in to the bone. Pieces of carpet would be good, but would get way too dirty and soak up moisture. Still pending on ideas here.

3. Get a heating element. We have solar, but electric heaters take up so much energy they are practically useless in the van. We are borrowing a Mr. Buddy heater that runs on propane. We pretty much only use it before bed and when getting up in the morning. It heats up the place pretty fast, but the heat doesn’t stick around for long. We have a carbon monoxide detector in the van for safety, and we do not run it while sleeping, even in the negative degree weather.

4. Ventilate. Be aware of moisture build-up. Though it seems counter-intuitive, given how damned cold it is in that metal box of yours, we recommend cracking your front windows at night. We noticed that we were steaming it up in there pretty heavily, and there was a lot of condensation forming on the inside of the van, which then turns into ice or mold, neither of which are ideal. No one wants to scrape ice off the inside AND the outside of their car windshield! Cracking the windows allows the air to circulate a bit, and while it doesn’t fully take care of the problem, it does reduce it quite a bit.

5. Memory foam is awesome - but it doesn't like the cold. I love memory foam, and it was very convenient to be able to cut our bed to size with a memory foam mattress, but when it is freezing out your bedding is also frozen. Get used to a rock hard pillow. You'll start to sink in once your precious body heat softens it up.

6. In fact, everything freezes. Seriously. All of our water is frozen, so no dishes can be done, which means eating out a lot more, drinking water must be used for brushing teeth, and anything else liquid is useless. Dish soap, medications, shampoo and conditioner...Laundry detergent? Make sure you have powdered on hand. Pee bottles? Go, then dump, or you’ll have a big block of piss-in-a-bottle taking up space until the spring thaw. 

                                                No Laundry Today :(

7. Drain your plumbing. We have had multiple problems with water leaks from our foot pump set-up. We use a marine foot pump with tubes connecting to our fresh water and gray water tanks. These are attached with hose clamps and worked just fine over the summer, but once the temperatures started fluctuating drastically things got a bit more complicated. We forgot to flush the system when we had below zero temps and a piece of the piping from the faucet split and now sprays water everywhere (working on currently). The attachment points at the pump itself also started leaking when the temperatures changed too much, despite our hose clamps that seem to be working everywhere else, leading to more water leakage and a fear of water/mold growth under our flooring. Eep. Needless to say - just do it manually for a couple months. 

8. Get used to less sexy-times. Just being real here. It’s freezing, you hardly want to lift your nose above the covers, much less remove all your warm snuggly clothes. So unless you have superior fort-building skillz and room for all those blankets...So if you are a couple in a van take every opportunity you can when you can. 

9. Budget to eat out more often. It’s a dangerous habit, and not something you want to get TOO used to, but you’re already saving on rent by living in a van, right? When you wake up and you can hardly bear to get out of bed, your eggs are frozen, water is frozen so you can’t do dishes...Well, you’ve got to eat something. Also, tea. Lots and lots and lots of warm, delicious tea. 

                                   Frozen Meatballs

10. Take advantage of the Holidays. Have friends in town? Family? Staying in one area long term? House sitting is the way to go. Offer your services taking care of a lonely home or pet(s) that need left behind. Fair exchange - They get free care and you get a hot shower, television, and heat. Beautiful. 

11. Laugh about the little things. What the hell are we doing? We hate cold! I love looking at and playing in snow...when I know I have a warm place to go and marshmallows topped with cocoa afterwards! But despite how miserable it can be, it is also awesome. We must be some tough buggers to stick around the Rocky Mountains in our not-so-well-insulated home. It’s a lifestyle choice, and it says something about much we want this life. We both get frustrated, but we make up for it by laughing at sharing curry right out of the pan to save on dishes, trying to figure out how to pee into a bottle (as a girl) in a onesie, and nuzzling very cold noses. We don’t have answers to everything, we are constantly learning and changing how we do things, and we certainly don’t have a fancy rig with all the perks, just like most other people out there doing the same thing. Just know that it won’t last forever, and it is making you a more resourceful and (crazy) awesome person.

#Sheexplores #wanderlust #vanlifeideas #howtosurvivewinter #winter #vanlifediaries #coloradolife #Vanlife #vanventure #advanture #vancouple #offgridliving #winterinthevan

[soundsgoodonpaper]

Panama in the pandemic

It's weird that we have spent most of our time in Panama in a pandemic. But, we've been extremely lucky to be safe, healthy and employed.    The vaccine is slower to roll out here than in the U.S. but while we wait (me more impatiently then Jeff) I'm reflecting at how much different things are now vs. a year ago.  Panama had one of the strictest quarantines in the world. The below chart (taken from a site called Our World in Data https://ourworldindata.org/) shows the level of restrictions compared to the US.

For a week there in November we were living life free and easy compared to the US.

At first it seemed like no big deal

It started out the same here as everywhere. We thought it would be over in two weeks. Here we are learning the pool was closed (or auditioning for most overly dramatic expats ever). Imagine our faces if we had known it would be a bit longer than two weeks.

Alas, the pool has closed. We are tortured.

Not sure why I cared about the gym closing since I never used it. When they started boarding up the stores we got a little nervous. Would there be looting? Riots? Toilet paper shortage?

There weren't any riots, looting, or even toilet paper shortages.

And then came Women and Men days

When they divided the week up into women and men days we became concerned. When we found out you could only go out for two assigned hours on your day we freaked out.

Wait what? Based on the last digit of my passport and being female, I had 8:30-10:30 M,W,F.  Jeff had 7:30-9:30 Tue and  Thur only. For once, being a woman came with some advantages. Men having less hours than women is probably whey they expected rioting.    What happened if you were transgender or non binary? Sadly, you might be harassed or arrested.  What happened if you were out at the wrong time or day? You could be fined or even arrested. How did they know if you were out at the wrong time? There were police checking your documents to make sure it was the correct time. If you went to a grocery store at the wrong time they would not let you inside. But if living in another country teaches you anything, it’s to be adaptable. We started having our food delivered online.

Remember when we washed all our food before it entered the house? Still never quite figured out how to wash a pineapple. Since we were only allowed to go grocery shopping during our two hours on our day/times out I walked to the grocery store, the far away grocery store. 

Remember when we thought this was a good idea? Maybe I can just wash this elevator while I'm in it since I'm already wearing rubber gloves.

Hello ladies mind if I get in line with you?

Going into a store required a mask, temp check and a foot bath. Note these are not my feet or legs but I do wish I owned these leggings.

We thought we'd get fit during the pandemic

In our spare time,  which was all the hours, we climbed up and down the fire escape. 

Then an email went out to the entire building saying no one was allowed out on the fire escape unless it was a declared emergency.     No problem, we had long hallways. a parking garage and balcony .

Who wouldn't want to workout in a parking garage in 90 degree heat? And it was only 38 times back and forth on the balcony to equal a mile. I even bought a Door Gym. 

This worked great we used it every day and got super fit. hahahaha. Not. I tried it once, was afraid I'd break the door and poke an eye out.

We only went a little nutty

Soon we found that exercise was overrated. There is some research that shows that exercise helps to alliviate stress, but we seemed to be just fine.

What do you mean I shouldn't turn my video on during a work zoom call?.

I did not throw this monitor at this tree, only because I didn't have a computer monitor.

Do you think that bird on the balcony will be my friend?

This bug will be my new pet. I shall name him Clyde and cherish him forever. Buying these highlighters were probaby the highlight of the pandemic for me (excuse the pun). I spent an entire day doing a photo shoot with them.

They're so pretty.

Alcohol was completely banned

Worst than not beling allowed out of our apartment building? Alcohol sales were banned throughout the country.  Yes, banned!  Why? We think they wanted people to spend money on food not booze, and it would help keep people from getting drunk and breaking the quarantine laws.

Shoplifting never seemed so appealing. After our wine and gin was depleted we had to go into stealth mode. The local mini mart still had a healthy stock of liquor.   Sure they had signs saying they couldn’t sell it. But Jeff is nice and good at Spanish. He talked them into selling us a secret bottle or two.   In theory you were not even allowed to drink alcohol in your own home.

That was one law we had to break.

We had friends to break the alcohol law with

Lucky for us, the only friends we have in the entire country, happen to live in our building. We could hang out with them without breaking quarantine.

Rolf and Samuel were friends before the pandemic, but in the last year they have become like family.   We have spend countless evenings, holidays, and many bottles of illegally purchased alcohol together.   

Can you see all my teeth or should I smile more?

Their balcony is way windier than ours. Not only are they great people they are fantastic cooks and hosts.

Dinner at their apartment includes champagne, beautiful table settings and professionally plated food. Dinner at our apartment is a more informal affair.

Oh wait you need a fork? Yeah we don't have any clean ones. As things got better, parks opened up. I was able to walk out here on women's day. I was also lucky that my assigned time was early in the morning before work started and before it got too hot outside.

Finally, after months of only being outside seperately, they lifted men and women days and we could venture out together.

Shery: Why are you standing so close to me? Jeff: Really? Another selfie? So yes, we came to Panama and then were in lockdown for a year. But, we've stayed healthy and employed, been able to Zoom with our family and friends, and have friends here.

You would think I wouldn't complain now that the pool is open again and I can just sit here while I wait for the vaccine. But I do complain...a lot. Restrictions have lifted but the vaccine is slow to rollout . Currently to be eligible you have to be sixty and above.

What's next

We are venturing out slowly and safely. And to answer the question of what's next? We really don't know. Our #1 priority is to get vaccinated and see our families. After that we hope to return to Panama and do the trip we planned pre-pandemic. So we'll see. In the meantime we continue to wait for the vaccine here in Panama City

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Jeff: Look at this view. Enjoy it and be patient. Sheryl: Hurry up with the damn vaccine already!!!!!!! Read the full article

#covid #Panama #PanamaCity #Panamaex-pat #pandemic #vaccine

[adventurouskiwi]

Norway

Every time I talk to someone about my time in Norway I get emotional. It's such an indescribable feeling to be on this current high. I have so much gratitude. I can't write about this without being filled with so many overwhelming emotions. This year has been a roller coaster but I wouldn't trade any moment for anything. I have gone from complete isolation and a dream job in the hills of Vinstra only surrounded by animals, to my first van trip which ended up being a lot tougher than I imagined. On new years I watched the fireworks from a rooftop in Oslo with a bunch of deep strangers. I spent some hard weeks looking for a job in Oslo and battling through one of my lowest mental points. Then I traveled North to start an awesome new job and met more great people and animals. I got to show my parents this country with all the pride a person can feel and now I face some very hard goodbyes which just cement how much of my heart this country has. I feel so damn lucky right now, I have just had the craziest year and am ending on an incredible high. I'm unsure how things got this good for me, it all feels very dreamlike. Extremely sad to be leaving this beautiful place but my heart is as full as can be. I am sitting here writing this at 11:30 pm with the most beautiful pink mountains out my window and a sky that never goes dark. I just can't believe this is my life; this has been my life, this is what I made it. This one might be a bit of a read but I want to get everything on the page so I never forget it. So I remember in hard times to come, how bloody special life is.

Norway. The place of grass roofed wooden houses, of picturesque fjords and vast valleys. Where people are quiet but friendly and hard to meet. The place of overpriced chocolate but pancakes for dinner. Where getting drunk takes on a new meaning and everyone stays living where they were born. The place where Winter is as real as it gets with snow stories thick. Where you learn that anything below negative 10 degrees is just fucking cold and frozen hay bales become your worst nightmare. Where the sun controls how you feel, keeping you awake in the summer and something you yearn for in the winter. It's untouched beauty, small cities and summer cabins in the middle of nowhere. Where everyone has a good quality of life and don't quite realize how lucky they are. Where farms have 20 cows, each with a name and farm dogs that sleep on your bed. The place you need winter tires to drive on roads encased by 3 meter tall snow walls. Where reindeer are feral and farm animals roam free in the summer. Land that comes with surprises at every turn and a hike into the mountains is as accessible as walking out your front door. A country you feel safe enough in to leave your car running while you do your grocery shop and where you don't think twice about spending the night alone in the mountains. There are so many amazing qualities of this country and I am so glad I have been immersed in it for the last 12 months. It would be fucking hard to find a place to beat this.

In the summer I would drive the tractor to the very end of a gravel road in the middle of the mountains where my little log cabin with a fire heated spa on the deck awaited. Surrounded by only mountains and animals and experiencing the most happiness I've ever known. Being able to step outside and venture into the mountains almost daily made me think I had found one of the most perfect spots in the world. My dogs would come everywhere with me, whether it was to the grocery store or on a 3 hour road trip to one of our many hikes. Road trips that always filled me with awe as the most breathtaking scenes were found literally around every bend. Then painting murals in the animal shed as I consumed far too many energy drinks and wondering how the fuck I was being paid to do something I loved so much.  When winter came so did darkness but with more beauty then I can describe. A van trip that pushed me more than ever before, one that brought new lessons as I climbed new peaks. The emotions of witnessing the aurora which is by far the most magical thing I've ever witnessed. Countless nights staying awake as my fingers went numb, waiting to see if the sky would come alive. Moving North to old cute stables where I would greet 20 horses in the morning and put them out in the snow. Where you could chuck some snow shoes on and walk into the mountains to find a lake, ready to drill a hole in and go ice fishing. Where bonfires with burnt sausages became a common activity and at night I'd walk outside to watch a dancing sky as my fingers went numb. Meeting travelers from around the world to trade stories with and if they were brave enough, to get in the arctic waters with. Riding beautiful warmbloods in the snow and chatting to friendly horse owners as we watched the most picturesque sunsets. Going running beside the water in such cold temps that my body would be numb, giving me the ability to run further than I'd expect. Waking up to scenes that some people don't even know exist, unsure of how I'd become this lucky.

My little mate Tussi, she deserves her own paragraph. Fuck, she deserves her own book. That dog has been an overwhelmingly precious part of Norway. I can't begin to think of what this year would have looked like without her. She has been there in my hardest times and she has joined me for almost every peak, usually just the two of us, stunned every time by what our eyes were seeing. We became inseparable from the beginning and there was no where I would go without her. I didn't know a dog could become so much of me but she has really been more than I can explain. I hope that I remember every quirky thing about her (and her little tongue). How much she made me laugh, how she stuck by my side wherever we went. She came fishing with me, hiking, camping, skiing and gave me cold night van snuggles when my mood was low. That dog touches every one she meets. Always so excited to get in my car and was so gentle when meeting new people but explosive when she knew you. The biggest attention seeker ever but full of an unmatched amount of love. So many of my moments were shared with her and made better by her being there. I got so incredibly lucky to find myself on a farm with such a precious dog that very quickly became the best shadow. I'm so grateful I will get to spend my last few days with her and although leaving her is fucking hard, she is in a home full of so much love and a place I know will always be my home too. I only wish she knew what she has done and meant for me over the last year.

When I hopped on that plane 1 year ago I had little expectations and just a big yearning for adventure. Well that was the best decision I could have made because fuck it's been a good ride. I have experienced 4 crazy seasons, been left speechless by the northern lights, unable to sleep by the midnight sun, ridden in snow, skied and camped on beautiful mountains, surfed in the arctic waters, fallen in love with every animal I've met, gone on so many road trips, painted numerous murals and just lived. This is it, this is life and it's fucking incredible. I feel like this year has it's own little place in my heart. I cant believe the amount of pinch me moments I have experienced. To wake up almost every day with an unbelievable view no matter where I am. To feel so happy in these vast mountains but to learn my limit of time alone. I've pushed myself in new ways and now have a whole new relationship with my brain. I mean, I'm a couple of glasses of wine deep and reminiscing the shit out of the last 12 months right now but I couldn't be happier or thinking more positively. To leave a place when I'm at my highest point just leaves me so grateful to be alive, so grateful to be able to do the things that I've done, to have had all these new experiences. I can't wait to go home, to see all my favourite people and to return the best version of me yet. I can't wait to create fresh dreams and to continue growing. Last time I travelled I felt like I grew but this is something completely different, now I feel like I know my place in the world, like I know who I am and I belong here. I'm fucking ready to spread every ounce of positivity I have and to see just how much more I can achieve. I have a good sense in how I want to live my life and the level of experiences I can have. Norway has opened new doors of possibilities in my brain. I want to remember this, I want to get this down in words as best I can, I want to remind myself in the future that life is what you make it and these euphoric moments exist. I want to continue being fearless when chasing any crazy dream my brain can imagine, because fuck living any other way. I want to remember it all, to pack it into a snow globe and be able to return to this exact feeling every time I shake it. Norway, the land of so much more than any words I could write.

[huckurns]

bean salad date: Wed, Apr 10, 2019 at 10:14 AM

yeah ill be the first to fucking scream it i aint a hand washer okay yeah its gross whatever, but yeah i wish i had stronger backing to why i dont wash my hadns its it could allign with the whole not washing fruits and veg is good, bc bacteria is healthy and thats all fine, but i never liked washing my apples bc i didnt feel like drying them off and a wet apple doesnt compare to a nice dry waxy apple. btu i do wash my hadns when i work somewhere that has a sign that says employees must wash hands, yeah they guilt the hell out of me and i have to take some pride in being called an employee where ever i can so i tend to follow those signs to a tee. most sinks i encounter are like well below standing heigh so i have to like arch my entire body to get my hand s unders the faucet, its insane im arching my back and bending over to get my hands washed, kitchen sinks are the right hieght why the hell are bathroom sinks below waist line, even hand blowers are way too low you have to bend ur knees sometimes to have ur hands get under there comfortably, ITS VCALLED ERGONOMICS and i think the paper towel dispence may be the only public bathroom feature that is at a propper height, you reach up to about head level and crank down on a lever thing and then boom paper towel at chest level you extend your arm fully straight out and then boom the paper towel is in your hand then you bend the elbow and it will rip off a nice slab of paper towel. so there i was morning before work waiting for my oatmeal, with sweetened vanilla almond milk and cranberries cool offl, 2 minutes in the nuke and its way too hot to eat for at least 2 minutes, maybe thats a formulla for microwave cooling that i should try an get out there, try and get it out there to the nukers to those hot pocket liovers who,m cant wait for their hot snack to cool off, mayeb its jus thte cooking time, maybe the cool off time is equal to the cooking time, well huh maybe i guess but actually FUCK MICROWAVES, some lady at the garden center place i used to work told me that she helped her kid with a school project where they tried to grow beeans using normal water and another setup using microwaved water, and guess, what, the hell, happened, her kid got an A on the project her star child hre favorite daughter got an A on the paper and recieved praise from the entire faculty of the private school that gets funded by parents whom want to see good grades on their childrens tests. So microwaved oatmeal was still cooling off and then i was thinking about lunch, i hadnt even had the oat meal yet and i was wondering if the massive tub of bean salad that had been sitting out in the kitchen since sunday was still good, i mean what the heck would go bad im not really sure and the more you think about it the more i am sure you can find reasons not to eat the salad, but this is a massive tub and the guilt, similar to the empployees must wash hands sign... i made that bean salad i paid for that thing to feed a whole crew, so i filled up a tub to bring to work, a test almost to see if the bean sald had gone off or to test the quality, since aparently i made way too much for a 15 person crew for 2 days. I had also realized after the weekend i ahd forgotten to add corn to the whole salad so this time, this time it had corn so maybe thats what everyone wanted corn. at work i told myself i was going to order a half of a sandwich, a melted cauliflower melt, and have it with the beans. i choked, well not a choike at all i just really wanted a fully sammy so i preteneded like i forgot my order when the lady at the register asked what i wanted and i said after a long pause " oh i forgot what i wanted," then looked up at the menu, then i thought to myself that nearly every week at least once i place an order with this lady and out of those times during the week most of the time i indulge in a rotation of a few bangers a few god damn slappers of sammys, so me looking up at the menu was funny to me since i had only started looking at that thing recently to see the summer specials they have , WHICH ARE ALL ABSOLUTE TRASH, so then i look back down to her and say "a full cauliflower melt please" the fast that i said full threw her off, but it made sense to me since i was havin the internal debate over the half  and beans or what have you. i eat the sammy fast as hell, usually i like to pick up the little fallen pieces of cauliflower and eat them with my fingers, but today i was less picky if they were too tiny i dindt even bother, after the sammy i was full, but i carried this bean salad down here so i cracked it open and went to town, wolfing that shit down... I couldnt really make a dent I WAS REAEALLY FUll, but i told myself hey now you wont be hungry for so long itll be worth it itll be worth it, i pounded back some more bean salad made with 4 pounds total of 4 different beans, the fava beans soaked with the black beans so their color looked like a smokers lunch and they didnt soak long enough so there was some bite to all varieties of beans, heck yeah it isnt my best arrangement of this salad i have done it better before. I couldnt finish the whole salad which is fine i was walking like a door back to the office, like a door being pivotted from one corner to another, like the card guys in alice in wonderland. i get back to the office and go to the bathroom and yeah, and YEAH i washed my hand WITH SOAP i soaped em up and then when i lean in to wash my hands i throw up in the sink, nothing major but mainly alarming. the salad is fine, ill stand by that, what the heck can go wrong with room temp beans, the salad is fine the sink height is the issue, the sink heigh i nearly the same height as a urinal, i just checked. ReplyForward