What’s new — a nod at climbing, yoga and biking — maybe a year remembered.

I’ve not posted in a while and, apparently, infrequent, inconsistent posting is a sin in this new world of constant news feeds, tweets, status updates, etc. I have to remind myself that comments, thread responses, and status updates on Facebook are not going to make me a better writer. So, here I am after wrestling with a WordPress cookie issue that would not let me into my dashboard via Firefox so that I might throw more words out into the ether.

Hopefully, I will finish this and actually post it – I’m not impressed with the number of drafts I see sitting in my drafts folder. To be fair, some of the posts are a bit negative and I ran out of energy and motivation trying to beat them into something that would add to the ongoing conversation of life. I had a question answered recently that’s been in the back of my head every time I started typing for at least a couple of years now. I was watching Into the Storm and a remark by Sir Winston Churchill to President Franklin Delano Roosevelt caught my attention. When questioned about his faith, Sir Winston, who dealt with the same doubts that I deal with, replied to FDR,  “Whether you believe or disbelieve — it is a wicked thing to take away a man’s hope.” So, I feel somewhat justified in keeping my skeptical mouth shut even though I’ve wanted to weigh in on the big question. As it turns out, someone can convey with humor an opinion I share, but would have no doubt fumbled with heavy-handed cynicism. I am also inclined to excuse my reticence with a comment a friend shared a while back, “If you cannot improve upon the silence, keep quiet (STFU).” But now, it’s time for me to ramble a little, as if I haven’t been already.

2009 was a great year. I never thought I could be  happy in a state like New Jersey – don’t get me wrong, I’ve got my complaints – but oft times I feel like Calvin in the Calvin and Hobbes strip when his dad forces him to play in the snow. Calvin, realizing that he has been playing and having a great time in the snow, panics and asks his tiger buddy, Hobbes, how much time has passed. He then runs back to his dad to complain on principle. I miss home, miss the South, but have to confess the friends I have made both at work and away from work have made this a significantly enjoyable time in my life, and I’m glad to be here. Ashley and I thought we’d been dealt a bum hand when we learned we wouldn’t be staying close to home, but we’re richer for being here. By the way, if your head is swelling as you read this, remember I’m talking about other Jersey friends. You? You’re just Facebook inventory!.

So, in case you failed to notice, I feel I’ve grown a great deal in the last year.  Working at a major metropolitan hospital in Hackensack as a Systems Analyst, I’ve been part of a great team dealing with every single system issue that could rear its ugly head in a hospital. Be it cash registers not able to deal with credit cards during a busy lunch hour in the cafeteria, or a heart imaging system not wanting to send its images properly to be read — we encountered and handled some interesting issues and helped keep the hospital running. And we did all this while preparing for a major change in the way records will be handled at HUMC. What an experience! Oh, and I learned the words “truculent” and “obstreperous” and a lot about Windows profiles all from the same guy.

Away from work I’ve tried to keep myself on the bike as much as possible. As much as I love the road, I’ve found myself less and less capable of dealing with all of the assholes who find cyclists to be such an annoyance that they would let go of any sense of humanity in order to teach us a lesson. Keep in mind I’m not surrendering to you jerks, I’ll still ride the road when I want, but I more easily find my peace on the trails, regardless of whether or not the overzealous environmentalists have political power in my town. Don’t get me wrong, I love nature, but I don’t care too much for people who think I shouldn’t have fun in it. The amusing thing to me is that these are the folks that don’t want the government to be allowed to make laws controlling their bodies, but want them to pass all kinds of laws to control everything else. Accept my apologies for the tangent, please.

What I’ve grown to love about cross country cycling in New Jersey is the challenging terrain. There’s a lot of technical, rocky, shift-your-weight-on-the-saddle-just-right-and-blast-it-up-the-run kind of stuff on the trails here that has made me a better rider than I ever thought I could be. It feels good to grow more competent and capable. There is something deeply satisfying about going back out and riding a section that I had to walk my bike across the previous ride. It is both physically and mentally rewarding.

The riding friends I’ve made have of course encouraged me and I’m grateful to them. And when the weather changed and made it a bit harder to find the motivation to ride, my friends, Luke and Aaron, took up climbing and encouraged the rest of us to check out the local climbing gym. I’m afraid of heights, so I was reluctant, but recognized the opportunity to get out the house during this miserable time of year and started climbing.

I’m learning and improving and realizing that the fear of heights can be dealt with. It’s frustrating to watch so many others who are better than me at this new-found hobby, but I’m wise enough to compare myself with where I was when I took this up back in late November. I’ve built up strength climbing on the lower stuff, bouldering as it is called by climbers, and am gradually getting used to the high climbs. A lot of it has to do with trust — trusting your body and trusting your belay partner, and observation — watching those who are good at it, listening to advice from folks who watch you climb a route they know. There’s a metaphor for life in there I’m sure.

Now, I’m going to rush a finish off and post this otherwise I will never post this. And I’m going to leave it fairly raw, because I end up leaving a lot of words in a state of infinite editing.

I’ve been promising Ashley that I would take up yoga for years. Finally, after biking and climbing made me increasingly aware of how much my inflexibility affected my ability to have fun (I’m having fun, I just feel like it could be more fun if I wasn’t so tense) I decided to make good on that promise. So, I’ve taken up yoga and was immediately humbled by what the human body is capable of — well,  other human bodies — not mine — not yet. But the important thing to me is: I’m getting more flexible and stronger and may very well be more fit as I approach my forties than I was while serving in the navy. That’s a good feeling.

That’s it. I may revisit this post, but for now: click, it’s out there.