It's amazing how attached you can feel to someone you have never met who has no idea you are alive.

I was reading this article and I was just stunned by how courageous and incredible some of these climbers are. I was thinking this guy and Colby Coombs would make an unstoppable pair. I ran a quick google search on Colby to see what he is up to these days and found this:

COLBY COOMBS WINTER HARBOR - Colby Coombs, 81, died April 10, 2004, at a Bangor hospital. A complete obituary will be published at a later date. 351445

I didn't even notice where it said this particular Colby was 81 I was jus suddenly so stricken with sadness I felt faint.

Several years ago when I was going through the initial testing for sleep apnea I had the sleep study with the cpap machine. I guess it was triggered by the mask on my face but I had this dream I was climbing Everest with Colby and he went snowblind. I was kind of disappointed that we wouldn't summit but I know how dangerous summit fever is on that mountain. But Colby said no we were still going to summit. It's just that I had to describe every single step of the way to him so he could make it. I'm good with words, right? And why would he let a little thing like not being able to see stop him? Of course I agreed with whatever dream logic was going on but oh my the sheer weight of the burden of what we faced could have broken my back.