Lots of Little Stuffs

Nothing crazy or super fun to report, but I've decided that several slightly important things have happened that cumulatively warrant a blog post.

I sold Quatra, my 4-Runner, over a month ago.  I'm now trying to bike as much as possible and share Ava's car only when it's absolutely necessary.  It's going well so far.  Time will tell how long I can last without a vehicle, but it really doesn't make sense for us to have two cars when we seldom use one.

I went on another mission with Seattle Mountain Rescue to help two skiers down the mountain who were injured in an avalanche.  http://www.komonews.com/news/local/119359894.html?tab=video  This mission was more technical in nature than the previous one and, consequently, more fun.

A few days later, when avalanche conditions were lower, I went up to the same area with Dane as he passed through town on his way to Conway, WA.  At about the same elevation the skiers triggered the avalanche, we encountered increasingly unstable conditions.  We turned around here and got some decent powder turns in.

I went climbing with a bunch of friends at Vantage on Saturday.  I'll be teaching a weekend climbing course there for The Overlake School in about a month, so it was good for me to learn the area a bit since I'd never climbed there before.  A few weeks ago I taught my first course for Overlake, taking six students snow camping for a weekend up on Stevens Pass with one other instructor.  This was my first non-NOLS outdoor education experience, and although quite different, it was equally fun and fantastically short.

I'm still in the job market for an engineering job, but in the meantime I will be an employee at Recreational Equipment, Inc., selling gear to people out of the Alderwood Mall location.  I start training on Saturday.
 It's 15.5 miles each way, mostly on the Interurban Trail, so it's a pretty good ride considering it's through the city.  So, starting on Saturday, I'll technically have three employers: NOLS, The Overlake School, and REI.  We'll see how the juggling act goes.