Momentum

4/20/2004

When the world swirls and there are so many things happening at the same time, it is especially difficult at times to transition from subject to subject.

I had no idea I'd start out with this picture today, but it is especially appropriate since I happened to get a phone call from Bob (looking down at us from the image) very early this morning.

Bob and I have had quite a few mountain climbing adventures together, and it's about time I suppose, that we do another.

Bob is an attorney and I had consulted him a couple of weeks ago about the goings on in my former office. Today he wanted to see if things were going ok, and I told him that I was financially unhurt (so far), but I still was angry that I had been thrown out on the street like I was.

But that's not the issue before us today.

Today it's the last leg of the big climb.

Take this wall for example. I've been up it twice now, and the last time I almost walked off the mountain before reaching the summit with my daughter.

She looked at the wall, and I looked at the wall. She looked at the dark sky overhead, and I looked at the dark sky overhead, and we looked at each other. I suggested to her that is was no crime to walk off, especially since the rock was damp and any rain would make it really slick.

But just as we were about to decide to give it all up, a couple of men came down the rock face. We asked them how much further and they said, "You are right there guys. It's only another couple of hundred feet to the summit and it's all over."

A couple of hundred feed? One hundred meters?

We had already come some five thousand feet. What's another hundred and fifty?

The momentum had changed, and thankfully, so had the weather. The clouds that had threatened only moments before blew away leaving a mix of clouds and sun.

And now so it is with Arizona. The last 100 meters.

Mrs. called moments ago to let me know she had landed safely and was already on her way to our daughter's house.

The last round of interviews is set for the morning, and then one or two more on Thursday. Then she catches the red-eye back so as not to alert the folks at her current job that something is up.

When she got a call from the hospital last Thursday, I told her that the momentum had changed.

"Are all your arrangements ok? Is your rental car all set? Can we do anything to help make your stay better?"

Now that's a switch if there ever was one.

Just a couple of hundred of feet more, and we will be over the top.

(Father & Daughter - Summit Longs Peak - July 1999 - 14,255 ft - 4,320 meters)