Still there?

Surprising that you're still reading these since we haven't managed to update the site in so long. So, there are a couple of new things going on in our lives.

I bought a guitar at the beginning of August and have been playing like a fiend since then. The weather was hot, and I ended up staying inside playing guitar, a couple of hours every day. I wouldn't say I sound good yet, but I'm working on a couple of different songs, and improving steadily. Tom jokes about being a “guitar widower” because I'm spending so much time with the darned thing, but he's pretty into the guitar too and plays quite often (when I let him get the guitar from me). There is talk of buying a second guitar… or perhaps an electric piano…

I'm applying for jobs. One of the strange realities of living in Yosemite is that many of the jobs are seasonal. The one that I have right now certainly is, so I'm on the market for something to keep me busy (and financially productive) over the winter. It's hard not knowing what I'm going to be doing. I have my fingers crossed about an assistant manager position at the mountaineering school here. What a blast that would be! Alternatively, I guess I'll end up taking a few months off to visit family and then go to work for the winter as a ski instructor again. I applied for, but didn't get, a position as a trainer at the Learning Center. I thought I was pretty well-qualified for the job, and it would be great fun to do all that teaching, but I guess there was a better candidate who applied.

Tom is keeping busy with his work on the Consistory, and his various web projects. It's interesting that what started out as a hobby is looking like it might turn into a signficant money-maker.

We saw the coolest bear in the tree outside our house. It had climbed 50+ feet up into a Sugar Pine tree to munch on the pine cones. I had no idea that bears would harvest the pine cones that way, but afterward read that the Native Americans in the area used to eat Sugar Pine pitch too. I wonder if it tastes good.

Our friend Kellen came to visit us for a couple of days recently. It was wonderful having her around. We didn't manage to go on the backpacking trip that we had been looking forward to, but just hanging out and chatting was fantastic.