February 9, 2009: Talking Shop

So Today I hosted a meeting at work. I sat near the front of the room and gave my Powerpoint presentation and paused after each slide for comments. All the conversation that took place after I stopped talking was in German. I was in the dark. I really had no clue what was going down at my own meeting. My boss filled me in with the summary of the discussion after each slide, but it would have been nice to join in. I need to learn some more German.

I left work at 16:10 because I showed up at 6:20. I took the bus then the S-Bahn to the climbing wall and was surprised that it was relatively empty at 17:30 on a Monday. I cringed as I saw the lone staff member teaching two teens how to belay using a Münter Hitch. The instructor was 5’4” and she was pushing the 190lb barrier, not a climber. I went upstairs to get away from the bad climbing karma downstairs. It turned out that the people upstairs were also only belaying using Münter Hitches. I shed a single tear.

Later I met up with a climber named Frank and we talked of climbing in the south of France and types of belay devices. He had the coolest climbing accessory that I have ever seen . . . climbing periscope glasses. These were glasses that had two mirrors that changed the angle of your vision from in front of you to above you. He really looked like a dork, but the concept was sweet. He could watch me climb above him while looking forwards and not straining his neck by looking up.