Adam L. Reiner – Splitboarding, mountaineering, and lifestyle in the Colorado Rockies

IMG_0051, originally uploaded by Adam Reiner.

I took this photo back in the spring time, from the hill below my house. In the foreground, on the far right, is Mt. Sopris.  It is 12,953 feet tall and has a larger vertical rise of any mountain thousands of miles away from the Pacific Coast.  A climb of it is a classic mountaineering experience.  I have not done so.

Of to the left in the background is the knife-shaped ridge of Capitol Peak, named for its resemblance of the U.S. Capitol Building.  I climbed it in the summer of 2007.  To the left of Capitol is Mt. Daly.

Sopris can be seen prominently from all parts of the lower valley.  From the first turn out of Glenwood Springs, the mountain is in your full frame of vision.  The snow has melted by September, but soon some light precipitation will dust the upper heights.

Bush says he’s working hard on economic turmoil

What is going on lately? The government is buying up all these companies. Yes…THE GOVERNMENT.

At the start of this week, the Federal Reserve rescued American International Group Inc., an insurance giant, from bankruptcy by granting an emergency $85 billion loan. In the historic bailout, the government gets almost an 80 percent stake in the company, a vastly far-reaching intervention.

Eighty percent? Now that the Fed. owns it, will it ever even be sold back? Possibly, if the U.S. Government ever needs to be bailed out in the future. But who will buy it then? Another Nation? China? India? Mexico? So then we will have another nation’s government controlling the insurance of all the businesses in America.

Every single immigrant worker in this country sends all his earnings back to his home country. Millions of U.S. Dollars are flowing out of the country on a daily basis. What happens when the ratio of dollars out exceeds dollars in? Pretty soon there really won’t be any more money. Its all gone, left the country.

Wildnernest Camper, originally uploaded by Adam Reiner.

This is how Vanessa and I camp in style! It is a rare “Wildernest” folding camper, which fits snug as a bed topper for my F-250 Powerstroke Turbo Diesel.

I have been burning a lot of incense lately.  During my trip to Cancun in June, I bought a small statue of a fat little man in a sombrero that read “Viva Mexico”.  I wasn’t really sure what it was supposed to do, but he had a hole at his mouth and a few drilled into the top of his cover.  Now the fat man is sitting on a shelf, smoking a long stick of Satya “Sunrise”.

I think the first time I smelled burning incense was when I was at Threshold Music store when I was 15 years old.  That is when I developed my taste for independent, used record stores.  I remember riding a few miles on my bike to the shop, and browsing many of the rare heavy metal albums, while checking out the T-Shirts and other merchandise.  When I developed enough courage, I ventured my way upstairs…to the guitar shop.

In college, burning incense was the cheapest way to “clean” my room in the fraternity house.  On thursday nights, I would gather up all the loose clothes off the floor and throw them behind the closet curtain, collect all the beer cans and empty the ashtray.  Then I made sure the mood lights were working, put some easy tunes on the stereo, light a stick of incense, and await the party.

Lately I’ve been relaxing at the house, watching football, working on the truck, and just contemplating.  The fat man in the sombrero is silently smoking away, setting the tone for a peaceful household.