Great Wall and the Halloween Wall

Again, Rick posting for Angie, still in China.

She went to the Great Wall, which has great cultural significance. There is a marriage ritual of buying an engraved lock, putting it on a chain there, then throwing the key into the abyss - symbolizing the union that cannot be unlocked. There are rituals of manliness based on some statement Mao made about a man having to scale the wall. Angie can correct me on that if needed.

She went on a Rickshaw tour, and was chased down the street by a merchant on a bike, who she chanted back to in imitation of his singsong voice, much to his delight. She bought some strands of $1 jewelry and gave them to some nice lady merchants and they loved the gesture.

She noticed over the days among the morning Tai Chi people a man doing an exercise circling a tree - probably Bagua (Paqua) Chang. I'd love to see that.

They went to Church, and were read an edict that they are not to speak any type of religious doctrine among the indigenous population, nor distribute religious literature, at risk of serious consequences.

Today I spent some time at work, and then we went up to Black Diamond, where they were having an amazing sale. Tried on some boots. Wish I'd gone up on Friday when it first started - didn't have my size in the one I wanted. Oh, well.

Then we went to Momentum to toprope the boys and maybe squeeze in a boulder route I've been working on (did a couple V0 and one V1 Friday night and worked a V1 and V2).

There is a cool route made up of owls and octopuses and ghosts and bats called "the halloween route" amazingly enough. Bren was going to do it. While getting harnesses on and bathroom visits done, Tan started gagging. Well, in the manual the first thing you do is inquire of the potential victim if they are capable of expelling whatever might be causing the disruption in breathing of their own volition or if they would be requiring assistance. As I was doing that, a lady sitting nearby started screaming "He's choking to death!" I thanked her for her suggestion and started digging around in Tan's mouth, which she did not like one bit (actually, neither Tan nor the panicked busy-body, so the indirect object does apply). Tan'd put quite a lot of effort in obtaining whatever was lodged in her throat, and now that she has some teeth, felt inclined to defend and keep her treasure. I was able to drag it out of her - a foil candy-coin wrapper. I told Bren "I told you guys to throw your candy wrappers away" and the busy-body slumped with relief. Would that she had expired amidst the excitement.

I dragged them all over to the Halloween Wall and Bren went right on up in less than a minute, resting only once on the rope. Dal decided he needed to do it, and I sent him out with the key to get his harness. Boy he's getting big now. He did it in much longer, and hung about four times, needing just a little bit of encouragement. Bren chanted "Go Dallin" over and over as his big brother topped out.

The busy-body just would not leave us a-freaking-lone and kept hassling poor Tan, and I finally pulled her away and dragged her to the bouldering area. Just as I got my shoes on some little prissy 12 year old primadona got on the route I was working, so I gathered up the boys, told them to stay put by Tan and not move, since the busy-body was focused on them now (she has to have had a subaru all her life). Tan started wailing like a banshee, her bottle was dry, her toys were boring, and the boys were restless so I bagged it.

So that was my fun for the day.

More later...