A laundry list of things learned today

Yeah, it was one of those days. So many lessons require a good explanation, so I'll actually make a real blog post this time :)

Lesson #1: Drug dealer's mean vicious dogs suck.
Lesson #2: Overdoing climbing not so good.
Lesson #3: Mats are there for a reason when you're bouldering. Not hitting them sorta sucks.
Lesson #4: About the time you put 110% faith in something, it fails.
Lesson #5: ALWAYS be focused when bouldering.

My day got off to a real kickin' start around 4:30 this morning when Jake decided he really needed to go to the bathroom. It's my fault for going to bed early instead of taking him out for his pre-bedtime potty break. In my neighborhood, I'm extra vigilant at 4:30 in the morning and it certainly paid off.

I walked outside the front door to our building and hadn't yet closed the door (good thing!) when Jake started growling and fussing. Immediately I figured something was up so I turned around to head back inside when out of nowhere these two very aggressive, very unleashed, very big dogs came running straight at us. I bolted inside and managed to shut the door right on the first dog, who got himself wedged about halfway between the door and the door frame. For what seemed like an eternity I was wrestling with the door, trying to keep this dog from wedging himself further inside, all while trying to hold Jake back so he didn't get attacked. At this point I was thinking my very life was dependent on not letting that dog get inside. Not a good feeling.

Finally I ended up giving the dog a swift kick straight to the snout, which was enough to back him up so I could get the front door closed. By this time, all the commotion and my screaming woke up my downstairs neighbor who proceeded to call 911. Yeah, good times. I woke up later today realizing how f'in lucky we both were that we didn't end up mauled or dead. Sure, stuff like this could happen anywhere, but I think I'm getting weary of this neighborhood.

Might be time to move to the eastside where my biggest concern would be neighbors calling the cops on me for not mowing my lawn or something.

Once I recovered from this fiasco, I decided to hit the climbing gym, which was not a good idea. I was already pumped out just driving to the gym and should have taken a rest day. I completed two 5.8 routes ok but things just didn't feel good and after two flailing attempts at harder routes I called it a day. Then comes lessons of the day #2-5....

I wandered over to the bouldering cave and started playing around. I did a V0, then a V0+ and didn't feel too bad, but I wasn't really focused, I was just playing around. Then I tried this V2 that had a bit of a tricky move towards the top. I had to move my right foot onto this little teeny feature and reach up and to the right for the next hold at the same time. For the first time ever, I put 110% confidence in my foot holding on to that feature and wouldn't you know ... it didn't hold. I was reaching way over and to the right and as soon as my foot slipped I fell sideways, missed the mat, and decked my shoulder straight into the ground. Pretty awesome.

The fall itself wasn't that bad and I got up thinking I was fine, but my shoulder is definitely zinged. Right next to me a girl was trying bouldering for her very first time. After seeing me fall she immediately started crying and screaming to her b/f that she couldn't move and wanted down immediately. She got really pissed he wasn't climbing up to get her, which was sorta funny. She was barely halfway up so he finally talked her into jumping off, then she went screaming and crying into the bathroom and I never saw her again. I guess I ruined her life :(

So, yeah. I shouldn't have been bouldering because I was way too pumped out and not focused. And I should have moved the mat. And now I need to work on my foot faith again because I'm sure I just knocked it back a few notches with that one. Hopefully I just tweaked the shoulder a bit and it'll be fine after a few days rest.

All in all, a really spectacular day!