This is the good life.

I got out and made it HAPPEN this week. I cleared a new pasture for the horses (with a tractor), I helped build a fence, I climbed a mountain (twice), I learned to play five new songs on the guitar, I started a conversation with a girl I didn't know at church, and I beat FOUR viderogames and we had a Quantum Leap season 4 marathon. I didn't work very much at all, and it was very good.

Oh and I got the cops called on me! See if I don't do things right when I think to do them, they won't get done. So when it occurred to me to vanish into the mountains for a couple hours, I didn't think to tell Dad or leave a note or anything, I just left. So when he saw my truck pulled over on the shoulder down 285 toward Denver, and the keys left on the seat and the passenger door unlocked (whoops), he assumed I'd been murdered or something. By people who leave the keys on the seat and the passenger door unlocked, I guess. So he called Morrison's finest, and they showed up a minute or two before I did; and I said I was sorry and I'd leave a note next time, and they said it was refreshing to see a concerned parent, etc. and tore off in search of traffic offenders.

And I was a little sorry. I should have left a note. But something happened! I didn't just sit inside watching the clock all day! He always got on my case about wasting my life on the computer, and I finally feel like taking his advice, and it's baffling. Kevin? Outside? On purpose? Surely not, this must be a 9-1-1 emergency. So it was a little cool not to be so predictable, honestly.

He'd be so much madder if he knew how long I was sitting at the cliff edge, occasionally glancing down and wondering what he was doing down there, and then shrugging and going back to my book. Had to have been a good hour... he said he was waiting for three hours, and it wasn't that long of a climb. But I definitely made it known the next time I went for a hike.

And the place I found is pretty much perfect. Level enough to climb without equipment, but steep and rocky enough to be scary and fun... like, you probably won't die, but you could if you weren't paying attention. And I'm still a little afraid of heights, so the peak is a rush... it's probably about ten feet square, and always windy, and you can see straight down almost 360 degrees, nothing but pointy rocks all around for a hundred yards.

So I got some good praying done (especially on the way down), and I brought my scriptures and tried to imagine what it was like before the temple, to go up into the mountain for sacrifices and prayer. I tried to study up there, but I think I'll have to hike a little farther to capture the experience. From my perch I could still see (and even hear, which was strange to me) the rush-hour highway traffic coming out of Denver into the mountains. It was even more distracting than it would have been on the ground; the loudest noise being the one you're trying hardest not to hear, I suppose. This last time I was probably a hundred yards higher, and it was still impossible to pay attention. But across the valley there's a ridge of higher, broader peaks, farther from the road. A longer climb, but probably an easier one. Will definitely have to remember a water bottle next time.

There's so much to like about this way of living. Being free to disappear for three or four hours whenever it seems like a good idea; never having to shave or wear shoes unless I want to; the scope of possibilities: like, I can have a really productive and amazing day, or I can play Xbox if I feel like it. I can wake up at 6:30 or sleep in until noon. Life is good!

--Kevin