sick

when i went to pick annie up from the airport, i was feeling like i was coming down with something. i felt better the next day, but then i got hit with another nasty bug. have been in bed for the last few days.

Cats are smarter than dogs. You can't get eight cats to pull a sled through snow." — Jeff Valez

readin

i think annie's and my IQ went up at least 10 points just by disconnecting the cable :) i just finished two books. the first is an account of the first winter ascent of mt. mickinley in alaska, called "minuse 198 degrees". yes, they actually experienced said temperature (with wind chill included). rather harrowing, as you might expect. mickinely (denali is its native name) is a mountain i have a desire to possibly climb someday (in the summer however), so it was quite an interesting read. i also just finished prodigal summer by barbara kingsolver (thanks mom). very cool book, with a lot of scientific biological perspective. anne karenina is staring me in the face from accross the room with a nasty dog-ear right in the middel, so i have to go. peace and love!

livin

you know, it's interesting. i remember when annie and i were about to get married, how we seemed to have everything planned out. how we knew exactly what rolls we would play, how we would live etc. granted, some of how we thought we would live came to pass. i'm cooking, for example. it's funny though. there's a big difference between buying cookbooks and getting big ideas; and actually learning and incorporating different skills into a lifestyle. i seem to question myself all the time concerning my education and career future. i think i'm known for being an easygoing person who doesn't worry much, but i must say i'm not always that way. i have a great desire to go into the medical sciences, in either a practicing, teaching, or researching emphasis (or more likely a combination). when i think of the road needed to be travelled and all the roadblocks that seem in my way, it's quite daunting. the uncertainty of it all. the most difficult is knowing that many of these roadblocks are there not externally, but rather were put there by me. my time at irvine valley college for example, and this move. we, as people, are so desiring of security, and i am no exception. we want assurance. but then, i go to the top of a mountain, look up and realize God is in heaven, loving me fiercly, with it all planned out with my best interest in heart, not worried about a thing, and my fear vanishes in His light. and i realize all i really every wanted to do is love Him in the first place.

hiking

annie and i went hiking on the border of rocky mountain national park yesterday. we took a short hike today up in the flatirons of boulder. had a great time both days. yesterday, we went up the st. vrain trail which i have hiked once before. last time i was there, it was midweek and there were only a couple other parties on the trail. the trail is a bit hard to find if you don't know where it is, and i was surprised to see fifteen or so cars there when annie and i were there yesterday. still, a great time. it seems annie and my ideas of a "day hike" are quite different. she enjoys mostly short little jaunts into the hills, and i tend to prefer longer, more sustained outings. i think i shall go back up there tommorrow if i can convince myself that registering the subaru isn't that important after all. we've also moved our tv and vcr to the bedroom and disconnected the cable (whoo hoo!). it's nice to have bookshelves where the tv used to be. it's wonderful to have my wife back, and we spend a lot of time reading, talking, lounging and eating barbequed chicken and corn. not quite michigan-quality corn, but still very good local organic boulder corn.

montana mountains from madison river in yellowstone

looking north, montana mountains from madison river in yellowstone
Originally uploaded by uzibear.

elk

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Originally uploaded by uzibear.

grand teton range

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Originally uploaded by uzibear.

yours truly

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Originally uploaded by uzibear.

you must read this

oh please, i'm beggin here.

"Campaigns to bearproof all garbage containers in wild areas have been difficult because, as one biologist put it, 'There is a considerable overlap between the intelligence levels of the smartest bears and the dumbest tourists'."

"In light of the rising frequency of human/grizzly bear conflicts, the Department of Fish and Game is advising hikers, hunters, and fishermen to take extra precautions and keep alert for bears while in the field. We advise that outdoors men wear noisy little bells on their clothing so as not to startle bears that aren't expecting them. We also advise outdoors men to carry pepper spray with them in case of an encounter with a bear. It is also a good idea to watch out for fresh signs of bear activity. Outdoors men should recognize the difference between black bear and grizzly bear droppings. Black bear droppings are smaller and contain lots of berries and squirrel fur. Grizzly bear droppings have little bells in them and smell like pepper."    — Grizzly bear notice.

check out gdargaud.net. one of my favorite sites ever.

on why the us park service gives me hives

interested in a lucid presentation of the problems with public land management in the country? look further, because this is a rant. here we go. problem number one: insane fees. wait a minute here, it's supposed to be "public" land right? so why do i have to pay $50 for a national parks pass, $50 for a national park fishing pass, $60 for a state park pass (haven't a clue what the fishing/hunting/breathing whatever pass is), $45 for a national forest pass, extra cash for fish and game lands, not to mention having to by a fishing permit just for each state i want to fish in (about $50 a state) (you think i'm making this up don't you), etc. etc. and of course all that cash is used for wonderful goals like building shopping centers, jails (no, seriously, yosemite has a jail!), rv hookups, and other ammenities to provide silly americans all the comforts of home, that weren't supposed to be there in the first place! my goodness, i'd pay good money to have these things removed). i went fishing the other day, ended up at the wrong place, bought some day pass (national forest, state park who knows?), found out i was in the wrong place, went to the right place (about 1 mile away) and had to buy another freaking pass because it was a different "public" land? the boundry lines are so vague too, you never know what jurisdiction you're in. of course we need to pay all that because we have to hire all the wonderful rangers to make sure you don't sneak in and hand you tons of brochures on how not to get eaten by bears and stuff. well, i feel better now. thanks for letting me vent. wait a minute, not done yet. want my opinion, if you don't realize that you shouldn't sleep with beef jerky stuffed in your pockets, you should probably just stay in the city.

el trip de lux

well... i went up to Grand Teton national park and Yellowstone. drove through snowstorms in wyoming, saw old faithful erupt with all the other goofy tourists (that one's for you mom), forgot my sleepingbag, slept like a baby under my dina, learned to despise the modern park service, got rained on, snowed on, hailed on, tried some fly fishing, drove to bozeman montana (very cool), almost hit some pronghorn deer with my vehicle, did hit some big bird with it, etc. etc. and had a super time. i got back tuesday night late. i think i caught something, cuz i'm feeling a little under the weather. here's some pics. i've got more, maybe i'll post more if i get begged. i'm having trouble loading the pics, i'll see what i can do.

off to montana

i'm off to montana and yellowstone for some fly fishing, hiking, and bumming. i'm cleaning up and getting ready and will probably leave in under an hour. will probably take a nap somewhere along the way in the car. thanks for the camera mom! I'll take it and hopefully have some good pictures to post when i get back. adios!

a quick mindblast

i've been reading a book on a day in the life of a neurologist called "matters grey and white." as well as a wonderful book by one of the world's most incredible moutaineers anatoli boukreev called "above the clouds." if you've read "into thin air" by john krakaur about the 1996 everest disaster, anotoli was rather villianized for him. for anotoli's rebuttal read "the climb" or better yet, above the clouds is a wonderful insight into the heart and mind of an extroadanary individual. also finishing up "prodigal summer" by barbara kingsolver, and of course reading various fly fishing deals. my ongoing list of halfway finished books is as follows (this is not a joke)

dostoyevsky's brother's karamazov (run don't walk to the library and read it)
tolstoy's anne karenina
dickens" great expectations
t.h. white's the once and future king (sorry mom, i'll get to it!)
neuromancer (what's his name again mom?) {well, mona lisa overdrive was wierd, but isn't that the idea!)
and more that are lost forever in the newport beach public libraries (due dates, grumble grumble)

one of my utmost favorite books of all time is "zen and the art of motorcycle maintenance." (thanks, dad!!) it's among a few others like lord of the rings and kerouac's dharma bums and on the road that i don't actually really ever "stop" reading. i just cycle through over and over. i'm always up to hear recommendations!

hey, i'm a little lonely over here since my best buddy is gone, so i'd love to here from y'all! email me or comment here!
(thanks liza/mom/elle/mrs. piatt/effervescent incandescent/whatever on earth else, for keeping in touch. i do appreciate it. hey, i'll just call you "you". "hey, you" that sounds good, doesn't it? :)

humor for the easily amused

before i sign off for the night, i thought i should regale you with another mindblast from my clinical head.

i was thinking, if you set a fish out in the sun, you would soon have a hoard of flies all around it. if you got out your insect collecting net to capture them could you call it "fish flying"?

i know, it's hard to be me, i assure you.

the title was supposed to be...

the title of this diddy was supposed to be "i went fishing, and didn't even loss a fly!" but alas it is not to be. i went up to rocky mountain national park (about 45 min from boulder) today to fly fish the small but beautiful upper big thompson stream. the water was "gin" clear, and i saw a few trout, but they were quite small. so how did i bumble things up this time, you ask? well.... i forgot my fly box! so i ended up being out there with one fly (which was not the right one for the time of day) trying to convince the wary mountain trout that they should live a little and try something different. needless to say, they begged to differ. i hung my fly up a number of times on the high alpine grass, but managed to delicitely coax it free until the end of the day when i got to greedy and once again snapped my line. if you haven't been fly fishing, it's really something else than what i think of as "regular" fishing. which americans incidentally call "spin" fishing (the more you know). you tie a line called your "backing" to your real. tie your "flyline" to that (which is the heavy line that you cast). tie a leader to that (with a knot that was only invented to cause sunden seasures and premature baldness in those unlucky enough to have to tie it) which is transparrent, and tie a "tippet" to that. sound complicated. well, it is! at least for us humble norwegian hobunks placing nets and casting rusty lures that say "german democratic republic" on them. not to mention that your tippet has a strength weighting of five measly pounds. which means you have to be very delicate. but enough ranting, let me give you a little sensory exploration of this amazing place called the rocky mountain high country. it was a big meadow with long reads and grasses. the river cut through the middle of it, cutting through the alpine tundra. when i walked up to the river, there was a herd of moose (i think) on the other side of the river being lazy. i got pretty close to them before they moved a little farther off. high mountains with snow fields permanently painted on their sides in every direction. truly wonderful. after some uneventful fishing i took off the old shirt and jumped in the stream (it has a number of reasonable deep holes that made joly good swimming. ok, so i didn't exactly "jump." this snow melt stream where i can almost see the snow field it's melting off isn't exactly warm. i just finally decided to fall under, and came up sputtering. reminds of being in monteray bay body boarding (mom). also, i have been contemplating taken a short trip up to montana to do some fly fishing and kill some time before my wife comes home (me lonely :( may leave tommorrow and fish the madison river in yellowstone national park. on the job front, i haven't heard anything from lowe's and it's time to call, but i think i may just take a job with a local sandwich place. anyway, have a good one y'all. peace and good fishin!

well......

i'm rethinking how i'm going to organize this site. since i can't link to any other pages, i was going to set apart sections (as you see it) and add new material under each section. i think however, that this will just be a royal pain in the nether region so i'll just post whatever comes to mind as a new section and so new stuff will be put at the top always. if you haven't read all my wonderful junk yet, grab a cup of coffee (or rather half-cup for the length of what i've got) and have yourself a rollicking good time! by the way, feel free to give this site out to any unfortunate soul you know; i'm not trying to be secretive.

fruitless or just fishless?

well, today i had myself a mini-epic. in cimber terminology that's not a good thing. i'll give you the short version. went out to "cache le poudre" river for some fly fishing. tried to find the mysterious "south fork." i wore my fishing waders which (if you haven't seen 'a river runs through it") are basically waterproof overalls to fish in. forgot my socks, hiked some three miles up (and more up) and down a mountain in super uncomfortable boots, lost the trail, had to walk (read: slide) right down the mountain to get to the (wrong) river, lost two flies from fly-eating rocks, had to cut my waders off because they were imposible to get off (i'm not kidding), in the process of said action cut my thumb with my knife (not serious, you can stop worrying), bled all over myself, got down to the gas station and couldn't walk on my right leg (the boot pinched my super-wide foot from hours of rock scrambling, got lost on the drive back home, finally got to my exit and it was blocked by road work. finally arrived via el round-about method. yes, that's the short version.

mishalom

first year hebrew at the master's college was when i was given my name uzi by my professor dr. stephen boyd. we were all given names in the class. since i taught first year hebrew to annie, i decided to giver her a name. her name is "mishalom" which means "place of peace">

a daily dose of a mildly interesting or pasively entertaining nature

met someone from irvine today. how bout that? he didn't seem to think much of the coincedence. irvine doesn't exactly seem to be the kind of place people remember with nostalgia.

on life in boulder with the greatest woman on earth

my hebrew name uzi means "my strength." it is short for uzziah which means "God is my strength". but often it seems that annie is the one who should hold that title. she's gone to new york for two weeks of training right now, and it makes me realize how much i lean on her. well, they didn't used to call me "mr. forgetfull" for nothing.

for wonder

well, this is an all new thing for me. will begin posting poems, thoughts, pics and all kinds of fun stuff in due time. hopefully this will be a way for friends, family, and cronic net surfers to find out a little about what makes the "boulder bowers" tick.

on the true and living God

all my life comes down to this. the summer following my freshman year of college i was saved as i put my faith in Jesus Christ at Calvary chapel costa mesa high school summer camp up near big bear, ca. the rest is history. this is the foundation for my life and marriage. a worthy site is blueletterbible.com. i'd love to share the gospel (good news) of Christ with anyone. email me.

on neuroscience, and my great race to become a supergeek

i'm afraid i've become rather obsessed with neuro stuff. most around me know that i've been wanting to go into medicine for some time now, but perhaps not that i've really started focusing on this subject area. basically we are talking about the brain (primarily), spinal cord, and peripheral nervous system (all the little guys around your body, like the one i sliced while piting an avocado {mom}). i've since devoloped a healthy fear of said overpriced fruit (no, i'm not kidding, it's actually considered a berrry {what i learned in botany}. back to the point. i'm really thinking of the possibility of going the phd teaching/research route instead of the md route. of course first things first is finishing my undergrad work in beautiful colorado (always the dreamer, i know, but don't plan on changing anytime soon. until the great world of coloradu university library opens up i'm rather confined to the boulder public library and its ever rare neuro works. enough to keep me busy however.

on all things narritive

i have a few openended (read: barely started) ideas for fictional stories floating around in my head and some on paper (or rather hard drive). i'm not sure if i want to post what i've got, but i'm thinking about it. titles however are: time's change, the green meridian, and randall george. not that that tells you anything about them, but more on my brain children later.

on humor, the salve of the soul

if i wrote a book on how coffee helps you burn fat, i'd call it "how to french press your body weight"

will try to publish various goofy things i find online, as well as my own misguided sense of funniness...

try this on for size:

You know you’re a Dirtbag when:


1. Your idea of a “high-class” meal is one where tang is not necessary to create “flavor.”
2. Your picture is on the wall of most national park ranger stations
3. You live in a 1967 VW bus
4. You consider your occupation to be “free-spirited-philosopher”
5. You spend more time running from rangers than actually climbing
6. You painted your VW in camouflage to avoid being detected by the “smokey-bears”
7. You name your VW “freedom”
8. You haven’t had a haircut in three years, and you excuse it by saying “it’s the euro look”
9. Your idea of a hot date is any female who can belay
10. You work at whatever job you can get that is closest to Yosemite, Joshua Tree, Red Rocks, Rocky Mountain Park etc. (usually involving flipping burgers or rotating tires, or both)
11. Your hair has more knots in it than your dog
12. You firmly believe that Nalgene is high-quality cookwear
13. You regularly keep in touch with your parents by the one free phone call you get when thrown in prison (usually occurs when the VW bus is identified as distinct from its surrounding foliage)
14. You believe that if everyone climbed, there would be world peace
15. You think Osama Bin Laden is some new middle-eastern sport-climber
16. You take baths in Yosemite Falls
17. You have permanent hat-head from your beloved bennie, which you claim was once owned by Royal Robbins because another dirtbag told you so and sold it to you for $50 (usually it is necessary to use extreme force when removing from head; many times the aid of “the jaws of life” is employed)
18. You have a doormat that says “home sweet home” outside your tent in camp 4
19. You practice deep eastern meditation while sitting in trance-position on top of “freedom”
20. you practice ceremonial initiations for any newcomers to the camp 4 community
21. the only books you’ve ever read are Jack Kerouc’s On the Road, and Yosemite Free climbs
22. The only tape you own is U2’s “Joshua Tree”, and you play “where the streets have no name” ceremonially every time you enter the monument
23. You can’t spell your name, but you can recite every climb in the valley from memory

so a ham sandwich walks into a bar and says "give me a hot dog". bartender says, "sorry, we don't serve food here"

on mountains and climbing

well, it's been a long time since i've been out rock climbing, but the mountains have a stronger pull than ever and i've been spending a lot of time up there. looking to get back on the rock by next season (we have these weird things called "seasons" in colorado), but until then it will be cross-country skiing, messing around in the local hills, and desperately trying to get annie to go dayhiking with me.

take a look at this website for good mountaineering stuff and a great look at colorado:
http://www.gdargaud.net/Climbing/ColoradoClimb.html

on catering to the wind

i've begun the ever frustrating and absolutely fun sport of fly fishing. i spent my first day on the water by scaring fish to death (almost stepped on one) and casting flys fearlessly into dense foliage. this section will cater to that interest.

the price of free web posting

ahhh, i see. since i'm too cheap to pay for a monthly web posting, plus this site alows me to make a page in no time, i suppose this site will suffer the great price of over simplicity. to be honest, something i've never minded. remember emerson said, "simplify, simplify." though my mom might have some slight disagreement over his execution of said principle.

on all things poetic

i've been writing poetry for a few years now. lots of inspiration from the natural world, rock climbing, and my love of God.

here's a sample (dad, i'm not sure if i've even shown you these). should you want all my poetry, i could email it.

Light Traveler


Sack on back, only essentials
Grace in mind, true elemental
Shoes on feet, with which to fly
Spirit steady, souring high

Travel light, and leave no trace
Beneath this endless, bluest face

High of heart, and quick of eye
Light of pack, and canteen dry
Final finding found me here
Endless mercy loosed my share

Travel light, and leave not trace
Beneath this endless, bluest face

He who lives with goals alone
Who only gives with nothing owned
Who tries to find sweet reality
And leaves those behind who refuse to see

Travel light, and leave not trace
Beneath this endless, bluest face

Shall be alone, though all be near
Shall maybe find what they all fear
And maybe when that journey ends
Shall better yet, and know his Friend

Travel light, and leave not trace
Beneath this endless, bluest face

And those who embark on this special race
Will always need to see His face
Will always yearn and always call
Will always know what’s all in all

Travel light, and leave not trace
Beneath this endless, bluest face

Will always be always alone
But may find the One who only owns
And grace again will once more lead
And I swear the day shall come when I’ll be freed

Travel light, and leave not trace
Beneath this endless, bluest face

-uzi
05-04-02