we hugged and said goodbye

I think i love the sight of a good beard with a cap on top....
I have neatly neglected the my facial extravanganza and topped it off with a matty friseur hidden under a patagonia patched trucker sun block.
Sipping my burning hot coffee, still smelling like campfire smoke.... Eating mini-donuts and doritos for breakfast, the night sleep being longer than expected..... I'm with sam.

The trip to him was hard... Leaving my heavy eyelids frequently half closed causing me to slap my face. Several lil naps on the side helped none... Just gave me less time to drive.

I've daydeamed of vedauwoo for the last 2 years since the first time i stuck my hands and feet deep into the dreamy, threatening and all-demanding cracks of it's hard, sharp granite.
Now, after only five hours from the hills, lots of fog and even more oreo cookies, i was with ryan.

We were at the rapell hiding our faces from the wet and cold wind hammering us. Then it thundered....
I've read plenty of stories of climbers being caught in thunder storms in wyoming and how they either escaped or got zapped tryng to... I started thinking about our fate....

Laramie was filled with students... The parking places with their empty vehicles. We kept turning.. Left, then right.... Another left followed by another.... Finally at the end of a long wet parking lot... We got out of our cars.

I left laramie five hours after arriving in vedauwoo. The conversations too good to record here...
I realized i had 12 hours before the rental was due in boise.... I had 10 hours to drive... And less than 2 to sleep. I drove outta town.

Stupid eyelids.... I thought.... Why are they sooo stupid and heavy??? My eyes kept closing automatically. I still had 4 hours of driving.
What am i going to do, i asked myself while giving myself a good hard slap in the face.
Stupid eyelids, i said out loud and turned up the music....

We took the steaks from the fire and grabbed some mashed potatoes. This is amazing we both agreed. It was a spontaneous decision to camp, but obviously the right one. Our beards shown in the firelight. The stars above like a heavy blanket.... Covering us, reminding us of a simple beautiful life.

We rapelled 3 times and got back to our packs. The wind still going strong above us but relenting further below. We spread our stuff out and opened the pumpkin ale. Walking to the cliffs end, i ask if we shouldn't pack our stuff in case it rains again... Then answered myself saying that it won't.

Packing all our wet gear away, pants wet, jackets dripping, the bill of my cap darker because of the water, we make our way through the labrynth of the vaedauwoo approach.

Driving into boise, i realized i need gas. Filling up, getting directions to the airport, returning the rental... The sun comes up. I slept 50 mins. The coffee making my stomache hurt, i pack all my stuff together, sam is here.

We exchange hugs, say our goodbyes and speak the last sentences of encouragment before we leave.
I realize i'll see them again... Maybe sooner than thought. Maybe not.

My flight is just before boarding.....

Home sweet pine

Here i am... Forcing myself to do something i love... To share my life in words.

1 week spokane...
1 week rapid....
14 hours between them...
2 glorious days in the hills.

A friend said something about the hills here being healing.
The trees, and the winds whisping through thier tops.
The granite making it's marks in the landscape.
The memories, fast changing weather and unrelenting smells of the many fragrances the ground has to offer.

I've missed it here.

Straight up... (Wanna be gangster slang for "really, i have")

And now i must say goodbye but for how long?

Tomorrow at 8: rental car
9: make sure my starbucks cup is filled by my favourite starbucks in the world.
Just after 9: drive 5 hours to vedauwoo and meet with beam for offwidths, unknown adventures and good talks.
Sometime later than 5 hours from 9 adding the time of climbing and etc....: another 9 hour drive through the night to boise to see my best buddy sam (and hopefully finds chaco sandals)
Sunday: drive with samson back to spokane
Monday: fly back to munich with hopfully a better plan or as least ideas of how to continue with life there in a creative, wise and loving manner.
Tuesday-wednesday: samson!

Will these all go as i wrote them above.... Better not! Haha!
Except the coffee and samson... Haha

I think what i'm getting at is this....
That conversation in custer with wilhelm ended on this note: make it happen.

Make it happen. Whatever it is, big, small.... Make it happen. Take the steps... Swallow the pride.... Do the work... Etc.... Make it happen... Because what the world needs is us to be alive before we can live out who we are.

Much love!
Stateside

Speechless in a non-stop talking society

Hi there! How are you today?
....good. Thanks.
Just looking at mugs then?!
...no. I was gonna get a coffee.
Oh ok!! Then just let me know if i can do something for you!
....ok.

Super friendly?
Over friendly?
Wonderfully friendly??

All 3....

It is great being greated as if you are special.

It beats the coldness of the german café...

But neither is my cup of coffee.


Culture shocks seems to always get the best of the first few days stateside.
My hope and wish is to be here where i'm at when i'm here.... To see that i am me and not influenced by those around me but be strong and loving and honest enough to impact my surrounds and their inhabiters positively.

Where home is for me should be defined by neither boundries nor language nor cultural barriers... But where my heart is.

Much love

throw a stone and keep going...

it was one of those days that was needed.

the rain came... the sun hid. kathy and samson when to a café.

and i stayed home.

7 am is sleeping in now. well... i don't get up earlier, but for sure not any later. so after they left, i layed back down on my mattress listening to the techno from vienna and turned the fan on.

the techno made me want to get up so i turned it off....

i think it is just as hard getting up the second time. the first time you raise with a hope of laying back down... but the second time is a hopeless rise. any tiredness you still have can only be brushed off with fresh air or drowned in coffee. but since i only drink fancy coffee and not to get my drowsyness drunk, i got on my shorts and shirt, tied my shoes and stretched.... i was off.

i started jogging.... well... because i think i need to. i suppose a part of that is to be healthy physically but maybe even more is to gather or loose my thoughts.
i wish i could type all those thoughts, i'd have blogs galore... or maybe it's better they will never be written or spoken.

i ran further than normal today. when i started jogging (it was my second time starting. the first time i started i went to far and didn't want to anymore) i was keen on keeping it short but good.
well, i didn't start yesterday but now about a month or more ago. and trying to go everyday, i could run further. it was no matter of my legs or condition... but rather a way to decypher my many thoughts.

what now....?

where is all this going? i thought to myself.

obviously, i need to think things through.

i can't just make any rash decisions...

as i kept running by thoughts passed me and eventually made laps around me.

after a while (which was probably only 15 minutes) a couple of crows starting trying to attack me. they made swoops and shot down their wet dropping trying to paste my hair...
i only threw one stone but missed. eventually they turned around and flew back to their telephone pole.

i hate crows, i said out loud.

i turned again and noticed the path was more packed than last time which left my shoes muddy.

i was over half way but still had not yet even began to touch the surface of those sea deep thoughts and have been eating my mind the last couple of days.

i think i must have stopped trying to think so deeply because all i can remember now is coming home sweating more than normal, stretched and got in the shower.

the techno came back on. but then stopped shortly later.... stupid wifi.

where to go... what to do...

the questions never got any less the entire time writing and researching.

and even now, only two emails were sent. one came back with the answer, sorry, you are too late. try again next year.

but then again... maybe this is it.

yeah, maybe all that looking and trying to find has been clouding my mind to the obvious.

nonsense. nothing comes that easy.
besides, what now? how would one even go about pursuing it?

but i suppose... asking around wouldn't hurt, right?

hmm... who knows? maybe them crows was just a parable of how life can bring you down roads with swooping, pooping flying black devils.

maybe you just need to through a stone and keep going...

Mayflowers bring septemberflights

Here i am...
Where i've been? I suppose right here... Well, trying to be.

Between learning to be a father, husband, good coworker and aspiring climber i have lost lots of contact with the stateside friends and family.
It is hard living here and there at the same time.
It really takes committment and balance. It requires loads of time. Loads of words.
And yes, it s worth it. But at the same time, with sleep being little and adventures being many, of course it is easy to be just here and not have that joint relationship with those who have helped shape my life....
But here i am.

Right here.

And maybe you can help me get there too.

There are things that need to be done and people to be seen stateside. And as of now it s looking that in fall of this year i'll have the chance to be there and get those things done, see those people.
The sad news, it'll be me and not we.
The main reason, yeah, funds.

I was/am already blessed to borrow a large chunk from dear ones that i can eventually purchase my seat in the big flying metal bird with engines, but am not yet full in funds. Hey, but what the hay....
God's never let me down and as the song from 'old medicine crow show' goes, well you want it, God's got it... He's got eeeeeeverything you need...

Be it your desire to help fund the flight there in sept, let me know. Be it your will to speak some goodness over this idea or demand that we drink a water, coffee or chill together and talk about life's many past adventures and ones to come, then please leave the carrier pigeon out of it and write me an email or sms or text.

I'm sorry i can't post any pictures this time of samson smiling in the sunny mornings, or doing one of the other many amazing stunts that he's already learned...

And i'm sorry that i can't bring kathy or samson with this time since part of the reason for coming is to get his citizenship straightened out...

But i do look forward to everyone that i may get to see and spend time with.

Questions, comments or help, write me!

Love you all!!

Men wear flannel

Hmmm, i think this is where so e clever remark comes as to why i am writing now and not last week.... Or last month ;)

But i think my head is somewhat tired due to a series of new lifestyles.

I think often about home. About pine trees.. How they smell. About how its -20 there and not even freezing here and how somehow i am not satisfied with that. About skating again. About walking downtown there and seeing people i know or grew up with. I think about the hills and conquering them. About all the tourists who come through the hills every year. I think about my dearest ones who are closer than family. About the adventures, laughs and dinners together.

I have been very blessed in my life. Have had a good number of changes and have always know that through it all, there's a bigger picture at large.

I suppose the title "men wear flannel" was mainly a thought regarding a photos kathy took of me and samson where i fit him into his very first flannel shirt... And then enlargenend to the memories of good times with sam and us hiking in our manly flannels.... And countless other thoughts where these holzfäller uniforms showed that our beards are legit and endeavours many.

But i must say that i think God may just use that to confirm my heart and start something new.
I'm talking about men meeting together and being manly in a spiritual way....

Interested? Just ask me...

Kathy has been meeting more with the other moms and there children creating somewhat of a childrens' church...

Samson is amazing. For proof, either visit us, skype with us or look at the photo(s) below.

I wish you all His many blessings and pray for His will in your lives.


much love and thanks for the prayers and thoughts,

boyce

s.a.b.

i rolled over to my night stand thinking... no way that it is already time to get up. the alarm on my broken watch went off for the fourth time and i still had just as little amount of motivation for getting as the hour before when i reset the alarm that i could go to work an hour later. 

at the time i had no idea what all would happen that day. my thoughts were... get myself out of bed. make a delicious starbucks coffee leaving enough for kathy when she got up. then i would eventually brush my teeth after a couple bowls of cereal leaving me just enough time to hop on the bike riding the 4 km to the train station catching my train in the nick of time and again relaxing on the ride to kempten.

after my alarm went off, i knew that kathy was awake due to her moving around and her soft voice telling me that she has slight labor pains.

i looked at her thinking.... ok, just normal pains. the appointment is still a good 2 and a half weeks away. no sweat.... she decided to bath to see if the pains stopped, me catching a quick photo of her before she hopped in. after that didn't do anything and we counted a steady 3 minutes between pains, we grabbed some things and drove to the hospital thinking and expecting them to send us home and me headed a little late to work. 

instead, within 2 hours of our visit, at 12:16pm Samson Anton Boyce came into the world.

much love!

only once have i loved and missed someone so much and yet have only just met them.