Today and beyond.

Today was:
Coffee
Brad and dog time
Running
Skate Skiing
Dog hiking
Good food
West Wing on dvd (love that show)

With any luck, tomorrow will bring more of the same. Maybe a Nordic race, too, just for fun.

And some climbing, because it's about time to get in shape for Kalymnos, where we're heading in March or April. I think we'll have fun there; with varied climbing grades and lots of swimming, eating and scooter-riding opportunities, it'll be a relaxing vacation for both of us. Also, with any luck, we'll go after Brad has achieved another round of Yosemite goals (they just keep coming - like white trash babies), so he'll be on the sport climbing program and not worried about El Cap or Half Dome fitness (he's always fit, though, so it's not a valid concern...kind of like me worrying about not petting Arnie enough).

But there's something else on my mind, something that's occupying as much space as Nepal did in my early twenties, wwhen I didn't know why, but I knew I needed to be there - I knew there was something in Nepal waiting for me. So I went. And I was right.

And now it's Scotland. I have no idea why, I don't know where this is coming from, but I want to go there, to Scotland, to Tomich and Lewis and Edinburgh and Glasgow. There's no climbing in Scotland (no offense to any Scottish climbers who may be reading); there's no skiing. At first glance it seems out of character, but the truth is, I don't need to take any more climbing vacations (after Kalymnos, because that one will be really fun). I'd rather go somehwere to learn something, to be shocked out of narrative (thank you, Mark Doty, for that line) by difference and culture and meeting people who've lived on the same land their whole lives, land that's been in their families for 10 generations. (Yeah, you're right, and yes, I could just go to the hills of West Virginia for that kind of inbred kitsch, but they don't have lochs in the Appalachains. Just hollers and cricks, and I've seen those.)

But that's it - that's the other thing on my list of goals for 2009: go to Scotland.

With that, I'm off to read Fodor's Scotland, Lonely Planet Scotland, Frommer's Scotland and - just for good measure - "Notes from a Small Island."