Joe adjusting the carabiner setup on his slackline while Kai patiently waits to practice some more.

It's been a gorgeous last few days. I absolutely love the beginning of each season. They've each got their charm and each have their newness. Spring is great. Warm days after a chilly winter is great. Being able to go outside without being bundled from head to toe is great (although being bundled up is kinda fun too... it just gets old sometimes). All that sunny, warm weather inspired a few of us to head over the the Art Museum and set up a slackline.

For those who aren't familiar with slacklining, its kind of like tightrope walking, but springy-er and bouncy-er. The line itself is actually pretty taut, but by nature of the webbing (a 1 inch wide piece of flat rope) it stretches a bit, giving the line its bounce. The line is typically set up between two trees and the idea is to walk across it (and eventually do other stuff: turn around, sit down, stand up, jump, etc). Its a great exercise for your balance, for your core and for your legs. If you do a search for 'slacklining' on YouTube you'll find plenty of examples in action.

Joe has a pretty neat setup for his slackline. Its basically a bunch of webbing, some slings, and 6 oval carabiners. Some of our other friends have bought slackline kits that use a big ratchet to tighten the line, whereas Joe's line just uses a bunch of pulley's and brute force.

I was excited to see how quickly my legs remembered how to balance on the slackline. After 5 or so attempts, I was able to stand on one leg for a few seconds. By the time the sun was setting I was walking a 5 steps or so. I quickly was able to get back to the level I ended at last year. Hopefully in a few more sessions, I'll be walking comfortably and turning around. That'd be cool. Kai did GREAT. He started off with a violently shaking leg, and falling off within a second or two. Within the hour he was walking a good 6 or 7 steps. I was very impressed. I've don't think I've seen someone get to that stage so quickly.

Me, improving my balance on the slackline, amongst the long evening shadows of a passing audience	Joe floating in the air on a slackline in front of the Philadelphia Museum of Art.

Its always interesting to see what kind of people you'll meet when we're out at the Art Museum. From a distance it kind of looks like you're floating between the trees, so people walk over to see what you're up to. Today we met a group of college kids who were traveling around the US with a Christian Choral group. I think they visit elementary schools in each city they visit, or something. A few of them tried the slackline and were able to walk on it with Joe and I on each side, holding them up.

After they finished playing around they hung out while Kai and I practiced balancing on the line. Joe is a talker. And he had quite an audience, so talked he did. Quite quickly, one of the girls in the group mentioned that they were a Christian Choral group and asked if Joe was a Christian. He replied that he was an Atheist, but I could hear in his voice just as he said it that he'd wished he hadn't. They had their opening and were fascinated that someone didn't believe in God like they did. I kind of muted out a lot of the conversation. Growing up in Salt Lake makes you kind of immune to some of that talk. I definitely like discussing religion with friends. I find it interesting to understand what other people believe and discuss things, but I wasn't into it tonight.

It got chilly as the sun set, and my legs were exhausted, so I thanked Joe and Kai and headed back to the car. I sat down and on comes NPR. I had serious thoughts if there was some conspiracy about evangelical Christians going on. Today's edition of Fresh Air with Terry Gross was about evangelical Christians and Evolution. That's about all I caught of the show. I just wasn't in the mood. I rarely change off of NPR, but today was one of those days. Maybe I'll listen to the podcast when I'm into it.