Joe Crotty

It’s been a whirlwind three plus months. My apologies to regular readers for the lack of recent posts. A recap is in order as to what exactly I have been up to. March 15, 2010 or so my wife and I decided to launch a hastily planned attempt to buy our first home.  We went down this same route in 2004 and abandoned ship when it became clear that the housing market was awash with over priced homes. Invigorated by the thought of an $8,000 federal tax tax credit that would apply only if we could get under contract by April 30, 2010 and close by June 30, 2010 we charged forward forcefully. After a lot of looking, researching, showings and a few false starts we found a great house in Broomfield, CO and closed May 13, 2010 and moved in May 15.

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I live in Westminster, Colorado a growing suburban area northwest of Denver. It’s a mixed profile of semi-industrial areas, quaint residential neighborhoods, parks, schools, and the the usual sprinkle of hustle and bustle that accompanies suburban life. Having lived here for ten years I know a thing or two about some of the local urban legends. For example, “air guitar master” Mark who makes infrequent rounds on Federal Boulevard in the Federal Heights region in retro ’80′s metal rock garb hammering out licks to his walkman.  I hope to highlight him in a future post, but today’s feature character is the “sign dancer.”

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Two months ago in early November 2009 Heather, my wife, and I attended our Church’s annual school auction to support Holy Trinity School.  The auction concluded with a hat drawing for the grand prize – an all expense paid cruise to the Bahamas. To our utter amazement we won!  After a few talks with the travel agency we decided to go on our four day cruise January 10-14. Our only expenses would be round trip plane tickets to Orlando, a rental car and a few nights in hotels.  Our grand plan was to fly to Orlando January 7, 2010 rent a car and spend one night in Orlando.  Then drive up the coast to St. Augustine and visit with my wife’s uncle Phil for two days and tour America’s oldest city and by most accounts settlement.  Then drive to Port Canaveral and board the ship for the four day cruise and take a shuttle back to the airport for the return flight to Denver, CO.

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Ah, the summer that was not how I long to kiss you good bye.  One would think that my being laid off March meant the start of a prolific new period of athletic activity wherein I would dip my toe feverishly into every pool of enjoyment that had been denied me these past five years of toil.  But alas I was stricken physically nearly from the beginning.  A very intense two month training period indoor rock climbing set the stage to emerge from what was a three year string of injuries and all around poor performance.  Turning forty had been a boon to my mental and work skills, but I suffered physically like never before. On my last day of serious indoor training at the end of April I managed a brilliant .12c red point and then two routes later it began – that nip of pain in my right elbow that signaled things were not well. I took two weeks off and the pain resumed slightly abated as I launched into a first ascent project in Eldorado. No sooner was the project complete then I left for a two week non-climbing vacation/pilgrimage in Europe with my lovely wife.

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My wife, Heather, and I just returned last week from a two week vacation (see the slide show) to Southern France and Northern Spain to celebrate our fifth wedding anniversary.  The trip concluded with a five day pilgrimage to Lourdes, France site of St. Bernadette’s 18 Marian apparitions in 1858.  The main reason for going was to experience Lourdes, but with Heather getting two weeks off and me being unemployed we figured the chance for a lengthy trip of this nature might not come along again for a very long time.  We splurged on a car rental which in hind-sight was great as it give us the freedom to play the travel game at our leisure.

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Heather and I are on vacation for Christmas in Missouri Valley, Iowa staying with her Mother.  The weather has been cold in general, but every few days the sun pokes out and it warms a tad and feels like sunny Colorado ever so briefly.  Our days are spent visiting family members at various Christmas related activities which has been a great blessing.  Particularly, it’s been wonderful to see her 96 year old grandmother who is the rock of the family and witness to Christian living.  May God bless her.  Anne, Heather’s mom, as usual is a great host and has bent over backwards to make us feel at home.  I am feeling just shy of a stuffed turkey food wise.

Tuesday we leave for Colorado.  Can’t say I am excited for the nine hour haul, but it will be over before we realize it.  Maybe when we get back the weather will warm up for some outdoor climing with my friends Rob and Steven.  I am anxious to assist them on Practice Climb 101 in the send quest.  Also, the Holy Trinity web site project needs more time – a few more months and I am sure it can be wrapped up.

Just updated the site to the latest version of WordPress and figured a shout out to everyone was in order.  Climbing has resumed as my finger injury from late summer has healed and Rob, Steven and I are hooked on trying to send ‘Practice Climb 101′ .12c S on the West Ridge in Eldorado.  A few more trips up to it and I think I might be able to send.  It’s very hard and would be a great accomplishment.

The Holy Trinity website project took a back seat the last few months as a long overdue home firewall wall upgrade has been in progress sucking up all free time that climbing doesn’t already consume.  Another week or so and I hope to have that wrapped up and back working on the website.

Heather’s Mom, Anne, was in town for ThanksGiving and it was great to hang out with her and Heather.  We will most likely be visiting her in Iowa for Christmass.  Gotta run.  Peace and blessings to all.

Sept 6, 2008 Mike Carr, Rob Woolf, John Bissell and I rode Monarch Crest Trail/Rainbow Trail loop utilizing our own automobile shuttle to cover the gap from Poncha Springs to Monarch Pass.  The ride of roughly 35 miles and 2,600′ feet packs a tremendous amount of beautiful natural scenery and variable terrain into what is in reality a low effort given the long distance and lack of any major vertical climbs (e.g., no single hill climbs probably exceeds 200′).

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I am going to give PollDaddy a test whirl here to see how it behaves before I post up a poll to MP.com thread. Have wanted to give this thing a try since seeing it a few weeks ago on TechCrunch.

About six weeks ago I decided as long as my summer was a wash climbing wise due to my ongoing elbow injury I might as well sign up for a mountain bike race. I was initially interested in the Leadville 100, but you have to put in your application for the race lottery draw six months in advance of the race. Given my mediocre conditioning at the time it was logical that I enter the Leadville SilverRush 50. I emailed Rob Woolf and the rest of the mountain bike crew about the potential impending race and within a few weeks six of us were signed up. The night I mailed the application I was a mental wreck as it dawned on me I had never been in any sort of race and my training regime would need to be stepped way up.

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