No sport climbing in 2020

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​This looks cool... yet not cool enough to be in the olympics.  

Climbing lost out to baseball, wrestling and... wait for it... squash for inclusion in the 2020 olympic games.  Baseball is cool, I can deal with that, it's an American past time and all that.  You know... Puerto Rico is going to destroy us all in baseball... just hand them the gold now... done, NEXT!​

My two hang ups are squash and wrestling.  Is there going to be a certain brand of metal folding chairs approved by the International Olympic Committee?  Man, I'd love to have that pro deal.  C'mon, really?  In searching for pictures across the world wide web for this blog I had to look at a lot of men in tight leather underpants with tassels... THEY HAD TASSELS!  I will not soon recover from that experience.  Now I don't want to get into a back and forth over my professional athlete could break your athlete's face with a chair and all that non-sense but have you ever been to a WWF Monster Rally... whatever it is they call those "sporting events"?  It's pretty much the most ridiculous thing I've ever observed (no I have never been to one... my experience, with these events, comes from the 1.4 seconds it takes me to hit the channel up button on the remote when surfing for something to watch on a Tuesday night).  Oh well... you win my leather clad, over developed... acquaintances.  THEY HAD TASSELS... GROSS!

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​This is what squash (not the vegetable) looks like when it's played.  Wait... this might be a picture of the vegetable... I get them confused.

Oh and squash... no not the vegetable... climbing didn't lose to a vegetable it wasn't quite that disgraceful but squash the sport is still a pretty odd game.  It's played in a plexiglass box of sorts and you hit a ball against a wall over and over until someone misses and then the other person gets a point.  Don't we have enough sports that involve a ball going back and forth over and over until someone misses? ​ A las the OIC found this more intriguing than men and women at the top of their athleticism; climbing amazingly steep walls through a combination of balance, technique and strength.  Honestly who would want to watch that anyway... at least we have our dignity... and no tassels.   

​What are your thoughts?  C'mon I know I have some wrestling fans that read my blog!  Really... none?  I'm quite surprised by this.

It takes a special person

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With every adventure... we're adding to our wall.  She looks happy in all our pictures (I think she's actually enjoying the crazy things we do).

When I met my wife, I will admit, one of the things I thought pretty soon after we started dating was ‘awesome, now I have a climbing partner’ - I didn’t tell her that... but that’s what I was thinking.  We dated and did a good deal of climbing. Even now, most of the time when I bring up the idea of taking yet another trip to go climbing her response is almost always positive.  Occasionally, she’ll even bring up the idea of taking a weekend trip, which makes me think she may actually enjoy our not-so-normal hobbies.

So what exactly does true love look like?  In my case, it looks like a woman who puts up with my crazy antics and ideas.  It’s a person who stands by and rolls her eyes when I suggest we take a five day hike as a way to celebrate our anniversary.  I’ve met some women who shutter at the thought of even standing outside for extended periods of time.  My wife didn’t shower for five days while we hiked in the 95 degree heat and slept on the ground... and we didn’t get a divorce after that trip was over, to me that’s true love.  

It takes a special person to hang off the side of a cliff and still smile at the end of the day and say ‘I had a good time’.  It takes a special person to sleep outside, get up at 6:00 a.m. and walk all day, on a Saturday, when she could be sleeping in until 10:00 in a climate controlled room.  I’m 100% sure I’ve found that special person.    

We have a wall in our house with photos from our big adventures.  It’s small now... but growing.  I often times find myself standing in front of it, as a I brush my teeth at night, looking at the pictures and smiling.  We’re happy in each one of them.  I think I’ve found a keeper. What’s true love look like to you?  It’s completely different for each person.