Monster

“Close your eyes,” he whispered, “and try to remember your life before I came along.” Smiling maliciously just inches away from her ear, the monster inhaled deeply of her expensive perfume and ran the edge of his knife along her shoulder.
Trembling with fear the woman obediently clamped her eyes shut and prayed he would not cut her again.
“Tell me what you see.” He demands.
I s-s-see my m-mom… She came t-to s-see my new apartment,” the woman stuttered, not sure if fear or cold was causing her to shiver. “W-we had l-lunch and AAAAHH!!!” she shrieked suddenly, as the monsters knife cut cleanly into her skin for the fourth time in as many hours. She barely feels the blood gliding down her back and bare buttocks, slightly increasing the size of the murky puddle on the hard wooden chair she had been tied to all morning. “Why are you doing this?” she shrieks, as her body tries in vain to buck foreword.
“Because you want it, need it, feeeel it…..” The monster groans, as though caught in the throes of passion. Running the callused tip of his dirty finger down this new wound, the monster pauses briefly when he reaches the small of her back and then suddenly steps away, leaving the room. The woman barely notices the dark patch on the front of his faded blue jeans.
Struggling to stay conscious, the woman studies her prison. The bare concrete walls of an unfinished basement surround her, with a single door behind her leading up a flight of stairs. Except for the chair she is tied to, and its mate witch still holds her predecessor, the room is completely without furniture. A single row of blinking fluorescent lights illuminates the room like a set for movies with scenes very similar to this.
Hearing the door open, she tries to shrink into the chair she straddles. As the monsters footsteps draw nearer, she turns and sees that he is still wearing the same pants, and he has a belt. The monster wields this belt menacingly close to her face, close enough that she can smell the curing oils in the leather. Suddenly she hears, more than feels the dry snapping sound of the leather striking her upper back. With a loud cry she rocks foreword hard enough to tip the chair onto two legs, stalling momentarily in the purgatory between crashing down on her face and gently rocking back into place. It is at this moment, the monster strikes her again, sending her face first into the blood stained concrete floor. Only the rich metallic taste of blood and the sound of the monsters heavy breathing followed her into darkness.

Awareness comes slowly to the woman. First, bringing the dull throbbing of a badly bruised body, then with light as she forces open the eye that didn’t hit the ground, the other too badly swollen to do anything but hurt. Scanning around the room she sees that she is again upright and her predecessor is gone. “At least I don’t have to look at her anymore.” she thinks, grasping for something to be positive about. “I wonder why she looked at me like that.” she wonders, thinking back to her first, and her predecessors last three hours in this room.

Stumbling, completely nude except for the bindings on her wrists, down the stairs and through the door, she sees her predecessor only peripherally at first, until the screaming started. Looking around, the woman immediately saw that the wailing was coming from a horribly beaten and lacerated young lady. “Nononononono” seemed to be all the lady could say while staring at the woman.
So entranced by the spectacle was the woman, she hadn’t noticed her hands and feet being bound to the legs of the chair in identical fashion as those of her predecessor. Snapping her out of this daze, a fire spread down her back as The Monster made a long cut down the middle of her back. “Oh my God!!” She screamed as the predecessor continued her one word monologue.
“I’ll be back for you every hour.” the monster said with a lazy smile, as he walked toward his other victim to begin the three hour series of deep cuts and brutal whipping that would drain the life and will out of anyone.
“I see you’re awake!” the woman hears the monster shout, snapping her back to the present. “Good, cuz I’ve got a little surprise for ya!” he says gleefully, as he turns and bounds back through the door and up the stairs.
Turning around at the sound of footsteps coming rapidly down the stairs, the woman feels her sanity snap back like a shade being pulled, as another woman enters the room.

The Third

My alarm went off at 3:00 am and I violently slapped the snooze button as though it had offended me. Pulling myself out of bed I began the familiar routine of starting a climbing day. This, however, was going to be no ordinary climb. Today I would be climbing the third Flatiron, by far the largest rock I had attempted.
Gulping hot coffee and making last minute adjustments to the gear I planned to bring, I found myself becoming nervous. I knew I was going to have a few new experiences, and the butterflies in my stomach seemed to be turning into bats or maybe buzzards. Would I freeze up under pressure? Would I slip and fall? One way or the other I would find out.
By 4:45 am my partner, Steve, and I were at the trailhead and beginning the long and steeper-than-it-looked hike to the rock. Guided by moonlight and the dancing beams of our flashlights, we wove our way through rocks and trees until we arrived at “The Third,” as it is affectionately known. Still in near total darkness we decided to watch the sunrise over Boulder, Colorado.
By the light of the rising sun I got my first view of the route we planned to climb, and was awed by its beauty. Eight hundred feet of vertical sandstone, glowing in the reddish hue of daybreak, stood before me like some colossal dorsal fin. I felt as though I was gazing out at a sea of molten lava.
Beginning to climb, I quickly noticed two things. First, standing on a wall this big, all perspective was lost. After one hundred feet of climbing, I looked up to find the top seemingly no closer than when I started. Second, due to the nature of the rock, we climbed with none of our usual protective equipment. Although the climbing was very easy, I couldn’t help thinking about the horrendous fall potential.
Moving up the rock I could not help looking around and smiling to myself, thinking how much I pitied “normal people” who would never see or do anything like this. The trees that stood so high above me only a few hours ago were now small like some toy in one of my sons train sets. At some point I watched a peregrine falcon soaring below me, close enough that I could see the colors in its feathers shimmering in the sunlight. Even the feeling of the sun on my bare back, or the light breeze caressing my skin seemed different, as though being so high in the air made everything more vivid, more real.
Pleasant climbing, crystal clear skies, and good company had me regretting the sight of the summit. Sitting atop this massive stone, we opened our packs and had lunch. Lingering over our food, we spoke the way climbers always do at the end of an adventure. Jobs, spouses, children and bills are set aside and for a few moments, grown men would sound like boys if overheard.
“Dude, did you see that lizard?”
“Hey, check out the hawk!”
Rappelling off of the backside of “The Third” is said to be one of the highlights of this climb. Steep, dangerous, and intimidating are common descriptions in guidebooks. Leaning back on the first of three rappels, I could see why so many people seemed to find this awkward. Lowering myself down was made considerably more difficult by the angle of the rock below me, which jutted inward enough that I feared smashing my face into the upper section while trying to get my feet onto the lower section. After clearing this section of the descent I found myself dangling high above a large boulder field. Sliding down my thin rope I once again thought of “normal people” and how glad I was not to be one of them. As the weight of my body transferred from my climbing harness and rope, to my shoes and the ground, I smiled broadly and laughed, “That was so cool!”
With hiking in the dark, huge lengths of unprotected climbing, and an infamous rappel behind me, I chuckled at my nervousness of the morning. As we hiked back to the trailhead, making frequent stops to stare at the behemoth we had just scaled, I found myself looking forward to my next bout of anxiety.

Renewable energy ideas

So, today my family & I went to the museum, in part to check out the renewable energy expo that was being held in honor of Earth day. Walking around and talking to some of the people who are involved in these areas, I found my self thinking about ways to use some of thes technologies for a business of my own.
One thing that became immidiately obvious, was the focus on the heating and air conditioning of homes. Apparently, housholds makeup a very large potion of our countries "carbon footprint." With my experience and background, going back into the HVAC business seems a rather obvious choice. Selling and installing only high efficiency systems would allow me to make a living, while simultaneously making a difference in the use of our natural resources. I would, however, have to go back into working and getting dirty, which I'm not sure I want to do.
The second thing I noticed about the show, was the number of new products on display that could be used to make people more comfortable while either using less energy, or using some other type of energy altogether. This got me thinking about maybe getting into retrofitting homes with solar hot water, air mixing ventilation, solar lighting or even photvoltiacs. This would enable me to use my HVAC background, electrical and plumbing knowledge to give some of these ideas a larger market, and hopefully, help make the market profitable enough to encourage increased funding of these technologies.
Lastly, I noticed the interest of so many people on the subject of creating and using non-traditional energy sources. This got me to thinking about all the people who either havn't considered the idea, or are against the idea of change, for whatever their reason. Of these people, I am sure there are many who hold the belief that the whole global warming craze is just another fad, or maybe it's part of some liberal agenda.
I wonder, are there arguments being made for conservation that make sense to all who are involved?

winter activites

INTRODUCTION

Live in any area where cold weather is common, and sooner or later you are likely to hear someone complain about the snow. Some times, this complaining is about the winter driving, sometimes the snow shoveling, and often, it is about being cooped up in the house for long periods of time. This “cabin fever” is often felt by people who, otherwise, spend large amounts of time outside, hiking, biking, camping, or just enjoying the solitude that only nature has to offer. Counting my self among this group, I have, from time to time, contemplated the idea of moving to one of the desert states, where snow is rarely, if ever seen. Gone would be the days of looking out my window, seeing snow, and dreaming of open spaces in which I could be free to explore the worlds many treasures.
I no longer feel as though the winter weather has me, or my adventurous ambitions, held hostage. Sometime last year, I had something of a revelation. Why not find a way to actually enjoy the winter? So simple was this idea, that it actually stunned me a little. How had I let something so obvious pass me by unnoticed?
I decided then and there that, since I lived in Colorado, it only made sense to begin skiing or snowboarding. Oh, wait, that was very expensive and therefore pretty unlikely that I would do much of it. And then….I drew a blank. What does anyone do with themselves in the winter besides ski, snow board, ice fish or snowmobile? As I had already found a problem with the first two, and had no interest in the second two, I decided I had to start looking a little harder.
Having spent some time exploring the options, and trying a few of them, I have found that I no longer think of winter as something to “get through,” so much as an opportunity to see to outdoor experience from a whole different angle. As quoted by Kent and Donna Dannen (2002), Enos Mills once said, “In winter I discovered solitude, boiled down, refined, and twenty-two carat.”
Take a walk
During the warmer months, I will often spend hour upon hour strolling with my wife and son through one of Colorado’s countless trails. In the winter, we have found that this doesn’t have to change. Early this year, I and my family discovered “perhaps the ultimate winter activity for families,” according to Clair Walter (2004). Snowshoeing has provided us with a way to spend time together while still getting some exercise and enjoying the outdoors.
One thing that must be mentioned about snowshoeing is that it is, well, pretty easy. Having spent time involved in many other sports, I was almost suspicious at how quickly one can learn to maneuver with these strange baskets on your feet. With time, though, I have found that there really is no catch, it is just an easy sport that anyone can learn with little time spend thinking about technique or complicated equipment. All you have to do is dress warmly, and walk.
Even the introduction of a small child doesn’t seem to complicate things too much. I found that pulling a small sled works wonderfully. As soon as the kid gets tired from stomping around in the snow, he can sit and enjoy the ride for a few minutes, that is of course until something interesting catches his eye! The only draw backs to taking kids on snowshoeing trips are that you must, obviously, be vigilant in your observations of their well being, and often the trips must be kept somewhat short. You should absolutely familiarize yourself with the signs of frostbite and hypothermia, as well as dehydration and fatigue. Any one of these signs should be enough to call it a day and head to someplace warm for some hot cocoa.

Dig a hole
I have often thought of the irony behind people going outside to sleep in the elements, which centuries of technology, development, and instinct have taken us out of. Never the less, I have always enjoyed camping, and after having tried camping in the snow a couple times now, I am almost certain that winter camping is my favorite time of year for sleeping out doors.
Craig Connaly (2005) states that “…the best shelter for winter mountaineering, or whenever there’s movable snow, is a snow cave…They are warm, quiet, and storm proof.” To this, I would like to add that snow caves are also pretty fun to build, as long as you are prepared to get wet….Really wet! I have also found snow caves to be surprisingly warm, and according to Tawrell (2006) “a lit candle can raise the temperature to 40 degrees Fahrenheit”, which I have found pretty comparable to a tent during the fall.
While small children may not be well suited for the life inside as snow cave, teenagers may find it quite enjoyable. In fact, during the construction of our three-man snow cave, I heard my 17 year old sister on several occasions say how much fun she was having. Even during the coldest hours, she didn’t seem to have much of a problem staying warm in her sleeping bag. Admittedly, though, she did seem much more comfortable once she had a couple foot warmers on.
While digging a snow cave may not be terribly convenient, there are some aspect of living in one that make up for this. One major benefit to camping in a snow cave is dealing with wildlife. During the winter, bears are hibernating, and even the rodents seem to be dormant. For us as humans in the wilderness, this translates into greater ease in regard to food storage, cooking and eating. Just keep your food, cook, and eat in your cave. Compare that to all the hassles involving your food during the warmer months!

Conclusion

Over the course of the last winter, I have finally found a way to not only deal with the winters of Colorado, but to revel in them. By focusing this paper on activities that can be done with kids, and for relatively little money, I hope to encourage people to go out and try something new this winter. While the overpriced ski resorts continue to raise prices beyond what many families can afford, there are still plenty of opportunities to get out and enjoy some good company, and the great outdoors.






Works Cited


Connally, Craig, (2005), The Mountaineering Handbook, Ragged Mountain Press/McGraw-Hill, 376pp.

Dannen, Kent and Donna, (2002), Best Easy Day Hikes Rocky Mountain National Park, Falcon, 134pp.

Tawrell, Paul, (2006), Camping & Wilderness Survival, Paul Yawrell,1080pp.