A few weeks ago I realized my YouTube subscriptions had started to run a little stale. With the exception of Kiri most of the people I was following on YouTube had either stopped posting, or were basically posting the same videos over and over.
So I went exploring, and was pleased to find Mr. Ben Brown. His videos of exploration, and adventure have a tendency to make me smile. Further his musical selections for his YouTube videos are often great pieces of music that I have never heard before.
This evening I was watching this video where Ben and his girlfriend Nicole go on a romantic hike and discover a beautiful waterfall. Not only did I love the cinema-photography, but the music was spot on!
So I did some exploring, and discovered that the music was by Sam Garrett. Now I will confess I was a little disappointed to discover that none of his music is available on vinyl, but that hasn’t stopped me from listening to his playlist for the last hour or so.
The state of mind which enables a man to do work of this kind is akin to that of a religious worshipper or lover. The daily effort comes from no deliberate intention or program, but straight from the heart.
and
Sometimes it’s a little better to travel than to arrive.
Last Thursday I drove out to Utah. I had some scheduled client meetings in Salt Lake City on Friday, so on Thursday I found myself at the rental car agency looking for a mighty steed to take me to Utah and back.
“Well, I have two options for you.” The man behind the counter said “I have a very sensible Kia with good gas mileage and pleaty of leg room, or you can try out the brand new 2014 Chevy Camero” My heart skipped a beat as I considered my options. Sadly I decided to be an adult and go with the Sensible Kia, and after I signed my soul away to Enterprise-Rent-A-Car I was off. Now if you have never driven from Seattle to Slat Lake you might wonder what you will see on such a long drive. Allow me to enlighten you, and feed your ever growing curiosity. You will see nothing. I’m not kidding. There was nothing but open road, trucks, and fields as far as I could see for 98% of that drive. Luckily I had book 11 of The Dresden Files on audio and by the time I had arrived in Slat Lake I had completed the novel, and was ready for the next.
My meetings in Salt Lake went well, and I was pleased to finally meet some clients who I have spoken to on the phone for months. Hopefully we can continue working together far into the future.
Saturday my brother and I decided to go skiing at Snowbird Ski Resort. Now James and I are not huge fans of Snowbird, but he had a gift certificate there, so we thought we should be responsible adults and not spend money where we didn’t have to. So we headed up the canyon and arrived at Snowbird just as a large snow storm hit the mountain. Since James and I were unfamiliar with Snowbird, and to manly to consult a map, we took the first lift to the top of the mountain. At the top of the mountain the storm was even worse and visibility was around three feet, but James and I made our way down the mountain. I can even say we made our way down the mountain well. None of our runs would have made it on a Warren Miller film, but our skill held and we got to the bottom.
On our second run up the mountain we decided to take a different lift, and were joined on the lift chair by a very talkative and merry Russian. He was drinking vodka out of a nice custom made flas
k with the old Soviet Union Secret Police emblem engraved on it. As the chair ascended up the hill he talked to us, and pointed out all the areas of the trail with trees, rocks, cliffs, and called them “playgrounds”. He encouraged us to try them out, but suggested we go slow because there are rocks and other items along the trail that could kill us. He then asked us whe
re we had been skiing all day, and told him we just came down Peruvian. He seemed impressed and showed us a map pointing to the top of Peruvian and asked “You skied that?” That was when James and I realized that all the trails coming down from Peruvian are double black diamonds. I couldn’t help but feel a little pride in myself, and my skill when I realized that I had not only made it down the mountain on double black diamond trails, but I had done it well.
Later that night James, Kindra, Jennifer, and myself decided to go play Laser Tag at a local spot near their apartment. James and I reluctantly agreed, because we are Laser Tag snobs, and if its not Laser Quest we have a
hard time feeling excited. But we went, and played Laser Tag with Phaser like packs (Those of you who have played Laser Tag at a Laser Quest are feeling my pain right now), and we had a good time.
The night was finished off by watching the movie Hook, which I had been wanting to watch for some time.
Overall it was a pleasant trip to Utah for both business and personal reasons, and I look forward to the next time I can visit.
