Now We've Climbed Up Here, Did You Have a Plan to Get Us Down?

        I dreamed I was rock climbing with my brother, and for some reason I had the minicomputer we’re testing at work. It’s padded cover was a little bit dirty from the climb, but I was showing it to my brother as we rested just below the overhang of the summit.

        “Why’d you bring that along?”

        “We’re supposed to be testing it. It’s ruggedized, so I figured this would be a good test.” I opened up the system and got a wireless internet connection, brought up the topo map of the mountain we were on. “That’s where we are now.”

        “Look out!” My brother ducked back down under the overhang.

        I looked up to see several fist sized chunks of rock and their smaller attendant gravel rolling towards me. As they left the ledge and became silhouetted against the sky I put the laptop in front of my face. The stones bounced off the rubberized case.

        “Well, so much for that test.”

        I turned the computer screen so my brother could see it. “Not a problem.”

        “Wow. I wish they’d made this when my boys were still in school.”

        “I’m pretty much sold, too.”

        We planned out our final pull and managed to struggle over the ledge and up onto the sedan sized chunk of rock that passed for the peak of this mountain. Even though I don’t usually get vertigo, I found it difficult to bring myself to stand up and walk to the edge. The crumbling rocks that had rained down on us earlier had something to do with it.

        “Quite the view. Made the climb worth it, didn’t it.” I pulled out the computer and used its web camera to take shots and update my blog.

        “Very nice. Now that we’ve climbed up here, did you have a plan for getting us down?”

        “Pretty much climb back the way we came.”

        “Isn’t there an easier route?”

        I forced myself to walk the perimeter of our stone perch, evaluating other possible routes.

        “Only if you can fly,” I said. The place was pretty much a straight up mesa with lots of overhangs in every direction except that which we came from.

        “Cripes, D, we’re nearly fifty, what made you think we could climb this both ways?”

        “It’ll be easier going down. We can slide down some of the slopes, the ones where there’s a flat spot to catch us.”

        “N’s gonna be pissed if we’re late for dinner.”

        “Let’s call and let her know to take her time.”

        “That’ll work from out here?”

        I pointed across the canyon at a cell phone antenna on a nearby mesa.

        “Why didn’t we climb that one, they have a ladder all the way down.”

        I didn’t say anything, but I’d actually thought we were climbing that mesa.

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