Busy Summer Shapes Up

I'm putting myself on a rather busy summer schedule. Keep in mind that last summer work drove me so nuts that I lost somewhere between 15 and 20 lbs just from being stressed to the 9's.  My goals for the summer are actually pretty simple.  

1) Maintain my sanity

2) Fly as much as possible

3) Get very in shape

4) Get more experience in the mountains

The first one I think I'm pretty well on top of.  As I mentioned, last summer was not good for me because of work.  My attitude towards work has shifted over the last two months or so.  I'm much more up front, much more no BS, much more take charge.  The work is no less stressful but I've become an expert at spinning plates...lots of them at the same time.  

The second one is flying.  I cant overstate my love of flying as you all know or just how bad I want to be the best acro guy up this way.  So, there is a hefty schedule of critique sessions planned with the local IAC chapter and I hope to make to many if not all of them.  Those, combined with either flyable mornings or evenings and I should be getting up pretty often.  I try to do at least one thing each day to get me closer to the goal.  Whether its flying or scheduling a lesson or even going to gym, every little bit counts.  The first contest is in July.  Wish me luck.  

All this requires that I get very in shape.  Acro is tough on your body and the better in shape you are the more attention you can pay to the task at hand as opposed to the "ouch" factor."  I've been hitting the gym again, 3 - 4 times a week and as soon as my body says its okay, I'll be kicking it up a little further.  Figuring out the right program is a little tricky those because....

I also want to go scale big mountains.  Rainier, Denali...Everest one day?  I figure with some decent time spent up in NH I could go do Rainier with RMI out of Washington.  I've never been on a glacier.  Never had to do an ice arrest with an ice axe.  Never actually even walked around with an ice axe.  So. I've got a long ways to go.  The unfortunate side of this is that it is all very pricey and all my $$$ is dedicated to flying, so I need to figure that side of things out.  I can do much of the conditioning down here with a little creativity, but I've got to get out in the hills as much as I can...without losing sight of the flying side of things.  

This all begs the question, does dedication rule out moderation?

Insight

I'm typically not one for metaphors or trying to sound like I know what I'm talking about, but I came up a with  neat idea the other day.  

I was talking to a friend of mine about the dating process.  I compared it to an impressionist painting.  I cant imagine I'm the first to do so, nor do I completely discount the idea that this was from a  movie but I couldnt tell you which one.  You go to an art museum and go find one of said paintings.  Let's use one that everyone knows, Starry Night by Van Gogh.  You see it from a distance and you can take in the whole picture.  You can see the flow of the stars across the sky, the foreground with the little town and so on.  From a distance, it is beautiful and as perfect as can be.  Now go up close.  Now you can see the brushstrokes and the genius really becomes apparent.  You can see the way it was created, how one stroke created a house, or a star.  Each individual stroke goes together to make up the whole picture, none more important than the next.  

How is this like dating?  When you meet someone you are seeing the painting from a distance.  It's only after you get up close that you get to see the details and the genius of how it is all put together, the brushstrokes.  

I took it one step further, or at least off in a different direction.   Yeah, I know but hear me out.  There are two great passions in my life at the moment.  One has been around for years and the other one is just emerging.  I love to fly more than anything, but I'm also getting addicted to the outdoors and mountaineering.  How can these two things exist in me?  I figure that they complement each other perfectly.  Flying: get to see the world from a distance, get to see the patchwork patter of farmlands, the way rivers carve out the land and the urban sprawl has to surrender to nature eventually.  What you cant see are the individual brushstrokes.  Thats what hiking gives me a chance to see.  It's all very fun.