Real Men and Bouldering

Last weekend, I went bouldering at Joshua Tree National Park. If you are unfamiliar with what exactly bouldering entails, let me enlighten you.

Bouldering, by definition is “a style of rock climbing undertaken without a rope and normally limited to very short climbs. It is typically practiced on large natural boulders or artificial boulders in gyms and outdoor urban areas. However, it may also be practiced at the base of larger rock faces.” Thank you Wikipedia for that one.

In the simplest of terms, bouldering is basically just walking around, up, down, over, and under a bunch of big rocks. Rocks like these:

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Valentine’s Day Revamped: Old Traditions, New Ideas

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With Valentine’s day just around the corner, more than a few of you might be getting a little anxious. There is often big pressure to do something special for the day and a lot of the old ideas seem outmoded or just plain over done. Here are some new ideas with the old traditions:
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Flowers

buy soma with saturday delivery Pro: They’re beautiful.
soma pharmacy COD saturday delivery Cons: They can be expensive, they don’t last long enough and some people are actually allergic!
Doctor shopping for Soma prescription Solution: Origami flowers are beautiful, as affordable or expensive as you want them to be, and last as long as you want them to. Make your own, or if you’re less crafty buy a bouquet online.

Candy
Pro: Everyone loves a treat!
Cons: It can be seen as impersonal and sometimes too commercialized. Go to any store around and you’ll see hundreds of the same candy boxes over and over.
Solution: Bake a treat of your own, cupcakes perhaps. If you’re not comfortable in the kitchen you can pick up some cupcakes locally, with so many flavors available you’ll be sure to find something special.

Stuffed animals
Pro: They’re cute.
Cons: They take up room, collect dust, and are generally useless. Also, they have the same problem as candy, they’re mass produced.
Solution: If they’re an animal fan take them on a date to the Oklahoma City zoo, there is free admission on Mondays in February. If a zoo trip is not optimal donate to a charity in their name.

Date night
Pro: Quality time is a great way to celebrate your love.
Cons: Sometimes you just get stuck in a rut.
Solution: Try something new like date night at The Plaza district. Events on February 11th (Friday night) include everything from free Salsa lessons (starting at 9pm followed by a Salsa Social) to art shows to live music to open mic night to an 80’s themed prom complete with karaoke, something for everyone – really!

Bottom line, think outside of the box to make this holiday one to remember. Your special sweetheart will thank you for the effort and you’ll feel like a superstar for doing something extra special for them.

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Our Troubadours of the 21st Century

There is a small magnetic whiteboard on my refrigerator.  The white plastic apparatus, clinging by electromagnetic magic to the fingerprint smudged stainless steel veneer, catches my eye every time I turn on my lights in the morning.  The whiteboard has become a beacon, a challenge, and a reminder of things to think about I didn’t know I should consider.

Why?  Because my future son-in-law puts quotes on the board and leaves them there.  Sometimes I see him writing them.  Other times I’m surprised with a new message.  But they’re always powerful; they’re full of the angst and strength of young lovers and budding poets and young men and women discovering the world.  They remind me of the troubadours of the High Middle Ages.  And, they remind me that humans are passionate…that I should take care with the souls of those whom fate has placed in my family on Earth.

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2011 Ranch Hand Guide: #5. You Can’t Keep Trouble From Visitin’, But You Don’t Have To Offer It a Chair

The country life is so different from the life I lived in the city.  The one thing both places have in common is they both have their own kind of trouble. Some of it just shows up and is hard to avoid, yet there is that certain kind of trouble that we bring on ourselves.  I guess I need to rely on one of our former presidents Teddy Roosevelt for some help with this one:  If you could kick the person in the pants responsible for most of your trouble, you wouldn’t sit for a month.

The Seed

One of the worst situations I can recall since I’ve been living out in the country happened the summer my dog, Mae (Pay It Forward), made her appearance on our front porch.  It never occurred to me that a mean dog could show up as well.  One rainy afternoon, a full-grown pit bull appeared in our backyard.

We called the police (it’s a small town…that’s what you do), and the policeman told me that they had recently passed a law banning pit bulls in my county unless the owners complied with the provisions stated in the resolution; I lived on the county line, and the policeman guessed that someone had just traveled there to get rid of the dog to avoid the $100,000 liability insurance required to keep it.

The policeman stated that the dog appeared to have been abused and was a trained fighter.  I was scared and sick to my stomach when I heard the gunshot in the dark.  The policeman guessed how upset I would be.  He came in and told me how sorry he was that he had to put that poor stray down in my yard.  It had attacked his partner. Trouble visited that night, and it was something that I could not control.  (Note:  I have nothing against pit bulls.  This dog just happened to be one of the many unlucky pit bulls that had a heartless owner.)

Germination

My dog, Mae, spent her first summer with me as an outside dog, but because we don’t have a fenced yard, we decided to kennel her when I went back to work.  We still spent lots of time outside, so when she took an interest in the farm road in front of our house, I saw how Trouble was interested in visiting again.  My dog was great, but she was stubborn and would not come when I called her.  She thought it was a game and would run away…sometimes down the middle of the road.  I can’t tell you how many times I would have to stand in the middle of the road hoping the cars saw me just so I could protect her.  I know.  That was stupid.  I realized I was offering Trouble a chair by continuing to overlook this flaw in my dog.  No.  It was a flaw in how I trained my dog.  This was my fault because she was my responsibility.

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Silent Sunday: 2/6/11 ~ Images From Other Oklahoma Websites We Like

Zach Gray is a really special asset to Oklahoma. From Ada, he currently resides at Stillwater. Both his blog and Flickr site are something else. If you'd like to see photos of the Bedlam game that have a great perspective (as good or better than some of the major sports outlets), visit his Flickr site by clicking this photo. If you'd like to visit his blog, you can get there by visiting his Flickr profile. Zach, your work is beautiful!
We've not yet introduced you to Dee Nash and her "Red Dirt Ramblings" blog about her garden. This photo caption from her site mentioned that she and her watering can were waiting for Spring. Click this photo to visit her site and her "Ramblings." Dee does a great job and we're glad to have her as part of the Red Dirt family-hood. (We've added her onto our blog roll today so you can find her if you want to go there from here.)

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Showcasing Red Dirt culture ~ authored and managed by contributors with connections to the great state of Oklahoma.