Anticipate the difficult by managing the easy.
– Lao Tsu
Nurture your mind with great thoughts. – Benjamin Disraeli
The person born with a talent they are meant to use will find their greatest happiness in using it.- Johann Wolfgang von Goethe
Here I am sick and wasted at Camp Two on Mount Everest having to make the tough decision that I am no longer strong enough (after two weeks of vomiting) to continue to climb the mountain.
It’s not in my nature to admit that no matter how much will you summon, no matter how much courage you express, no matter how much intelligent and complex planning you do, no matter the excruciating long hours of training, no matter the dedicated and expert individuals you choose to help you, sometimes you just don’t arrive at your destination. And somehow you still have to find the pride and the joy in your journey.
–Diana Nyad
It is not how much we have, but how much we enjoy that makes happiness.
–Charles H. Spurgeon
Wherever you go, no matter what the weather, always bring your own sunshine.
~Anthony J. D’Angelo
We are given dreams a size too big so that we can grow in them. ~Author Unknown
Do it, and then you will feel motivated to do it.
~Zig Ziglar
A promise is a cloud; fulfillment is rain.
~Arabian Proverb
Between saying and doing many a pair of shoes is worn out.
~Italian Proverb
In motion, most everything seems possible. Sitting comfortably on the couch, most everything seems impossible.
– TA Loeffler
Dear Fathers of Daughters*,
OK…not nearly inclusive enough. Let me try again.
Dear Fathers, Mothers, Grandparents, Fosterers and Caregivers, Aunts, Uncles, Teachers, Neighbours, and all other important folks in girls’ lives,
OK…better…perhaps easier said with Dear Significant Adult Persons…(SAPs)
Dear SAP’s,
Please buy your daughter* a used toaster.
Once again, not quite as inclusive as I would like…OK then….let’s just say for now that daughter* stands in for … daughter, granddaughter, niece, student, neighbour, partner, spouse, son, grandson, nephew, significant person in your life (since it would lose something if I said “Please buy your SPIYL a toaster.”)
Starting once more…
Dear SAP’s,
Please buy your daughter* a used toaster. From a garage sale down the street or a Thrift store or when yours breaks and they seem to now, sooner and sooner, give her that one. With toaster in hand, help her take it apart. (A risk management message…Please unplug it first).
Teach your daughter* to use a screwdriver. The difference between a slotted one and a Phillips. Throw in a Robertson for good measure. Teach her to line up the tip and to apply steady pressure by pushing gently with the palm of her hand across the rounded top of the handle.
Let her know that it’s “righty tighty, lefty loosey.” It so much easier that clockwise to tighten and counter clockwise to loosen. Teach your daughter* to put the screws/nuts/bolts into a tray in the same orientation to the toaster so it’s easier to remember what goes where when it is time to put it back together. When the job needs it, teach her about pliers and how they help to grip and twist and cut. Introduce her to the wonders of wire cutters, needle nose, and vice grips and when each is appropriate to use.
Help your daughter* experience the awe of the mechanism of the toaster and how it moves toast up and down. Check out the wires that electricity flows through to create the heat to brown the toast. Marvel at the trap door that opens and closes so you can clean out the crumbs. Teach her it’s okay to take toasters** apart, check out how they work, and put them back together again. Teach her that she won’t break it. And if by chance, something does go wrong or off-track, that you’ll figure out how to put it back together again. It’s OK to try.
**Toaster stands in for bicycle, car, shelf, oven, climbing system, large engineering marvels, and all things made of a sum of small parts.
Wood. Saw. Hammer. Nails. Drill. Yes, set your daughter up with a date with these. Teach her to measure, mark, and cut. How to glue, nail, screw, bolt, fasten things together. A chalk line is a miracle worker–you wouldn’t want her to miss that. Not to mention the tri-square, circular saw, and nail set. Build a bird house together. A tree house. Your house. Build something. Anything. Teach your daughter* to work with her hands and with tools (and with her heart).
Tools are cool. If you can, get her her own tools. Not the pink ones please, they never seem to be made as well. A tool box. One to call her own. One for her to work with, learn with, and most importantly develop confidence with. Give her the skills and knowledge to fix, tinker, assemble, disassemble, build, et al….
For if you do, she’ll thank you. Every day. Like I do. Every day, I thank my dad for spending the time to teach me all of the above and more. I thanked him last night when my partner and I disassembled half of her motorcycle to install a luggage rack. I thanked him the day before when I knew how to shovel efficiently. I thanked him last week when I knew how to change the tire on my car. I can’t thank him in person anymore since he passed away but I thank him every day in my mind.
And I thank him here.
Thanks Dad for teaching me to use tools and to fix things. Both leave me free to shop at IKEA and save me lots of money along way. Throw in lots of other life lessons from tools and fixing things and I am so, so grateful that you (and so many, many SAP’s) in my life took the time to teach me to work well with my hands (and my mind and heart, too).
So-to all of you who are still reading, put your computer down and go buy your daughter* a toaster…or take your old computer apart or rotate your tires…it doesn’t matter, what…just go take something apart…and then put it back together. She’ll thank you for it!
Put a grain of boldness into everything you do. ~Baltasar Gracián
The cave you fear to enter holds the treasure you seek.~Joseph Campbell
I would always rather be happy than dignified.
–Charlotte Bronte
Marian and I had another “time” in Twillingate. The Dictionary of Newfoundland English defines a time as a party or celebration, a spree, a communal gathering…and what a time we had. Twillingate is the perfect Newfoundland destination as it has so many opportunities packed into a relatively small area: hiking, sea kayaking, geocaching, fishing, iceberg hunting, photography, historic buildings, music, and great food. Our only frustration was not being able to fit more in during our too short weekend visit.
We checked into the Anchor Inn and Suites and could instantly see all the hard work that the new owners, Deb and Wilma had been putting in since our visit last October. The suites all received a gorgeous makeover and the new menu at Georgie’s Restaurant was divine. Georgie’s was named for Georgina Stirling, Twillingate’s opera star. After our drive from St. John’s, we were welcomed with the local Moose Diablo and Chili and Lime Seafood Pasta with a Touton Sopapilla for dessert.. Marian and I said to each other within moments of arriving, “It’s going to be hard to leave.”
A rainy day had us moving a bit slowly at first on Saturday but we found our way for mixed berry smoothies at the Crow’s Nest Cafe. Seriously yummy. We continued our culinary tour of Twillingate with some homemade ice cream and then down to the Newfoundland Chocolate Company on the wharf at Iceberg Quest. It was hard choosing along the locally inspired treats but eventually four beauties found their way into our gift box. We popped in to say hello to some folks at the Canvas Cove Cafe, had some tea, and got invited out fishing since it was the second to last day of the August food fishery.
Captain Barry Rogers from Iceberg Quest took us five woman fishing just below the Long Point Lighthouse. What an evening! We were catching cod as soon as we threw in our lines. Just as one fish got removed from one line, the other one had one. We had nine fish up in no time and soon reached the boat limit of 15. I’d only been fishing for cod once before and I was enthralled. The evening light was stunning, the sea smooth like pudding, and we shared laugh after laugh. I hauled up the biggest fish of the evening (luck of the draw) and couldn’t believe my eyes as we brought it on board.
Back on shore, hungry from the salt air, we enjoyed the seafood chowder at Georgie’s and visited with old and new friends in the Captain’s Pub. Sleep was easy to find that night and we promised to be up at going early the next day.
We decided to hike from Wild Cove to the Long Point Light as our Orizaba (highest peak in Mexico) training. Loaded with barbells and other silly stuff, we found the trailhead and were soon treated to scenic view after scenic view. The hike was 6 km in total and all intersections were well marked. A highlight of the hike was the scramble down to Horney Cove Beach-a pocket beach that would have been great to spend the day on if other adventures weren’t calling.
Famished once again at the end of the hike, we passed through the Crow’s Nest Cafe for another smoothie en-route to two new lunch favourites at Georgie’s: the Pork Belly Sliders and the Salt Beef Sandwich. The later is a Twillingate take on the Montreal Smoked Meat sandwich and I liked it very much (the sliders were fabulous as well). Needing to work off our culinary adventure, we headed just down from the Anchor Inn to launch our kayaks for a paddle around Twillingate Harbour.
It was fun to see everything we’d been visiting from water level and felt like we were doing a mini version of “All Around the Circle” and we paddled down to the small boat harbour, over to Iceberg Quest, up to the point and crossing over to Wild Cove and back to the launch. The little lop on the harbour made for good training for an upcoming sea kayak expedition.
We finished the day with a scenic drive to Back Bay, Bayview, and the old ferry crossing to New World Island but the best was yet to come! The chefs at Georgie’s had filleted the cod we had caught and pan fried it with scrunchions to perfection. They served it up with an Anchor Salad and Lime risotto and I thought I had gone to heaven. It was truly the most divine piece of fish I’d ever eaten. I savoured each bite and didn’t want the meal to come to an end. A fitting finale to a marvellous weekend get-away in Twillingate. We got up early to drive back to St. John’s the next morning already looking forward to our next visit back to T-gate as I love to call it. Thanks to all for your warm hospitality.
To change one’s life, start immediately. Do it flamboyantly. No exceptions. – William James
The road to success is dotted with many tempting parking places.
~Author Unknown
To be interested in the changing seasons is a happier state of mind than to be hopelessly in love with spring.
~George Santayana
Often while traveling with a camera we arrive just as the sun slips over the horizon of a moment, too late to expose film, only time enough to expose our hearts.
~Minor White
Perseverance is not a long race; it is many short races one after another.
~Walter Elliott
The difference between perseverance and obstinacy is that one comes from a strong will, and the other from a strong won’t.
~Henry Ward Beecher
When you begin to touch your heart or let your heart be touched, you begin to discover that it’s bottomless, that it doesn’t have any resolution, that this heart is huge, vast, and limitless. You begin to discover how much warmth and gentleness is there, as well as how much space.–Pema Chodron
Rest in peace Oma.
I was so lucky to have you for so long-you are my rock, my mountain, my inspiration. I miss you so much already but glad you’ve been reunited with all those who’ve passed before you. Hope the roladen is good up there 🙂
I often announce my next climb with a guessing game. It’s pretty fun and I’ve enjoyed having folks become detectives to decipher my clues. My summer’s been pretty tough, filled with grief in losing my precious Oma and having a knee injury knock out a long-planned expedition for my five teammates and I.
I feel like I’ve just begun to dig myself out of a pretty low place and am finding small threads of energy to devote to training for my next climb. What I don’t have yet is the creative energy for my usual “new climb delivery method.”
So I’m just gonna do it…let the cat out of the bag…spill the beans…announce it…and you already likely already know, given the title of this post, just say it!
Orizaba. In October. Orizaba in October for Oma. Three O’s. Those of you who know me well, know how much that alliteration pleases me. O cubed. Orizaba.
El Pico de Orizaba. Its name comes from a nearby town and valley, located approximately 200 kilometers from Mexico City. It was originally named Ahuilizapa in Aztec (Place of the Playing Water) and the name in Spanish, became Orizaba. Orizaba at 5,636 meters (18, 491 feet) is the highest peak in Mexico and the third highest in North America.
The peak has also been called by its Aztec name, Citaltepeti, which means “Star Mountain.” Orizaba is a dormant volcano that last erupted between 1545 and 1566. It is the highest volcano in North America and thus part of the “Volcanic Seven Summits.” It is also the highest peak in the world between 10 and 20 degrees north latitude. Who knew…
I was first set to climb Orizaba in 1986 at the very beginning of my climbing career. That climb came off the rails for various reasons and I look forward to being back in that part of Mexico and sharing the climb with Marian, who in a moment of weakness, consented to come on the climb with me. This morning as I hauled us both out of bed at 6:30 to climb up the South Side Hills in our plastic mountaineering boots, I think she may have been regretting her decision to join me.
As we beat our way uphill in an already hot day, sweat streaming down our faces, I had the thought, “Orizaba for Oma.” I want to honour Oma’s presence and influence in my life by climbing Orizaba. Oma had to start her life over and over again and as I am starting training having been sidelined from physical activity for quite some time, I feel as though I am starting over. I’ll draw on Oma’s fortitude and perseverance and I dig out of this hole of a summer and re-gather strength, power, and endurance for the daily and big climbs ahead.
Some may remember that in 2010, I climbed Everest with Oma in mind and raised funds for a student award here at Memorial University called the “Mountain of Learning Award.” It’s been awarded twice since then and I’ve been touched by the impact it has had in the students’ lives. I’m inviting everyone, and specifically all who has been touched by Oma’s life, to make a contribution to the award in the hope of being able to grow it to greater benefit. If you are comfortable donating online, you can click here (make sure you click “other” to designate Mountain of Learning Award on the designation line so it gets to the right spot). There are many other ways to give-this page explains them all.
Training has begun in earnest this week and I’ll keep you posted on how we are getting physically and mentally ready for the third highest peak in North America. Thanks, as always for your support; it will be great having you along for another climb.
You are the sky. Everything else – it’s just the weather.
― Pema Chödrön
Without new experiences, something inside of us sleeps. The sleeper must awaken.
– Frank Herbert
The artist and the photographer seek the mysteries and the adventure of experience in nature.
–Ansel Adams
The word listen contains the same letters as the word silent. –Alfred Brendel
I always say don’t make plans, make options.
Jennifer Aniston
Have patience with all things, but chiefly have patience with yourself. Do not lose courage in considering your own imperfections but instantly set about remedying them — every day begin the task anew.
–Saint Francis de Sales
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TA Loeffler's Adventures that Move 