A monkey and his key-bored: Rocky Mountain High

Sunday, November 7, 2010

Rocky Mountain High

This Saturday my postdoc bosses were nice enough to take myself and Amanda out to snow shoe/hike near Vail pass. It was great to have people who know the area take us out and show us around. Also, they had snow shoeing gear, so we didn't have to rent it. They brought their dogs along and they were very entertaining. It was a beautiful day (50ish degree Fahrenheit) and I think we were pretty fortunate we got the experience. Below are some pictures of the day. We had to push one of the cars out which was an adventure. Then we ate at the Alpine Valley Health foods store. I had the vegetarian sandwich and it was great.

Getting ready to hike

Hiking

View from trees after I went to bathroom

More picturesque hiking

P.S. taking in the scenes and a sandwich

Walking back to the car. B.S. and Sunny trudging away.


Driving home down the muddy slick road.

View out the window

More downhill driving

Mike and Abby pooped out after the adventure.

1 comment:

AnonymousNovember 19, 2010 at 7:58 AM
Beautiful scenery pictures Bill, did you get any altitude sickness? I hope not. Luv Dad
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Where am I? This isn't my beautiful life (Heads, T. 1980)!

Why the name???
One of my favorite sayings in the world is, "If you give a monkey a typewriter and infinity, he will write the Bible (you can insert any great book here as to not offend a religion)." I love this quote because it really makes several interesting statements. At it's heart it is a comment on probability. Basically saying that if you try at something long enough you are bound to succeed...no matter how deficient you are. It is the basis of science, failure begets failure, until we learn enough from failures that we are able to succeed, and I love science.

I also feel like this statement reminds us all that we shouldn't get too impressed with our abilities as a human race. We are not so far away from that monkey clunking away on the typewriter. Yes, we have invented many wonderful things. But, we have also participated in some horrible wars over odd things, excluded and hurt people simply because they are different, and created general mayhem on the environment. Despite the Parthenon, Shakespeare's sonnets, and our religious tomes we are just one small incident away from becoming monkey's chucking spears (or poop). The image should keep us all humble.

I often feel when I am authoring a blog that I am trying to create something meaningful that will, at the least, entertain people. Associated with that feeling, I often feel like I am flailing miserably. However, I shall keep hacking away, hoping some day probability prevails and I write something meaningful. In the event I do write something worthwhile, I hope I am level headed enough to remember my second point. If not, the five of you who read this blog can feel free to remind me.

And what about keyboard being spelled key-bored? Aside from the fact I utilize the English language like a dog would handle a paintbrush, bored refers to the emotion that usually precedes my writing, boredom. Get it? It is my attempt at being clever and deep.