carolyn

btw, after five, six, whatever years on this site I may finally hit 1000 posts. Maybe instead of sulking because I cant get to work, I will make that a goal for the day. Or maybe I should hop on the light rail and check out the mall of america.

I know, but it doesnt run from MY HOUSE to those locales! Geeesh! Dont you know its all about me??!?!?! Really, its fine. I only have a 5 min bikeride to either of those places. Did you go into either the Ave or MWM?

btw...how did ya get such a good photo of the train? Were you the guy that got arrested yesterday for crossing police tape to go down the enbankment?

Hell ya! and maybe they could run it out to my place of employment as well. Then I could get to work today!

Right - the Twins fans - outta towners. Indeed it is a start to alternative transportation. And I do think that this accident with the bridge will open up a lot of eyes around the topic. I live uptown area and have a few jobs downtown - First Ave and Midwest Mountaineering. I can bus or bike. cant drive now anyway cause my car wouldnt start this morning. Grrrr!!! My other jobs are outside the city (FAR away from the Mall of America) and far away from any public transportation, even though its only 20 miles out of the city. I know some people who use the light rail, because they are lucky enough for it in their neighborhood. Its pretty limited, though. Ahhhh, I dream of the days in Chicago where I could hop on a train and travel nearly anywhere in the state with ease and convenience. heck, I will be long gone and out of here by the time they develop that plan. Hope you had a good time out here tvash!

Light rail goes from dt to the airport and the mall of america. Its most convenient for visitors. Pretty much worthless for the average resident. The few miles it runs within the city I could already walk, bike, or bus.

How the hell 'da do dat?

Well hey, thanks for visiting!

I had a chance after work today to check out the area. A coworker invited me to his house which is the apt bldg overlooking the bridge that they have been talking about a lot on the news. His roommate was one of the first citizens not involved in the accident that got out there to help, I guess. They have it pretty well blocked off in every direction, so views are limited to the public. I was actually pretty happy to see that because even though there is a a bit of curiousity, I dont think I would have wanted to see more than I did. I;ve already seen enough on TV. My co-workers view out his bedroom window is that of the bridge ontop the train. He isnt sleeping at night because of the floodlights they have and the police activity on the street below. He cant easily come and go because his parking lot is marked off with police tape. Just about every block surrounding the roped off areas are polluted with media trucks and people (like me today) who are walking by to catch a glimpse. I walked down to my usual exit, which is one up from the collapse to eat lunch at a nearby restaurant. There was a cnn convention inside (not really, but quite a few of them). I overheard them say they had a flight scheduled out of here on Tuesday. I know it is just their job, but it was uncomfortable to see such a somber mood inside from everyone but them. Exactly one week ago, to the hour, I was cursing out the bridge because they had it closed and we were trying to get out to the crag before it got dark. We drove home on it that night. I used it the afternoon prior to the collapse. It was a VERY erie and spooky feeling to see such a large perimeter and the road itself completely empty. I tend to be a little overly sensitive, so my reactions may be a bit extreme. I really felt sick to my stomach and had a hard time holding my tears back. Thinking of all the fear involved on the bridge and in the community is just heartbreaking. Though I wasnt the only one standing/walking around with tears in there eyes. This city is going to be a mess once people are back out on the roads again. There are not many options to get from one side of the city to the other right now with the majority of bridges/access roads closed. I expect it will be weeks if not months before they open some of them. Other options require an additional 5-10+ mile detour, which will likely be much busier than usual. I took a few photos at one point. There is nothing spectacular about them in comparison to what the media is constantly exploiting. They are more or less realities of what myself and others in the community will live with for a long time. They represent a piece of my home and history destroyed I felt a little 'dirty' taking the photos. Yet, I also felt is was important to me and harmless to others. I may share them with others in a day, weeks, months, or possibly never. In the meantime, good vibes are continuing to flow to families who are missing loved ones, the injured, and the ones immediately affected on the bridge that day. Btw... www.startribune.com is the local paper that can provide you with more accurate and up to date information than cnn/msnbc/etc. At least thats what I've seen.

Its been years of haggling over how to fund a new Twins (baseball) stadium in the cities. I believe its costing us residents in the county somewhere around $700 million through an increase in sales taxes. They were suppose to have a groundbreaking ceremony, yesterday?!?!. Financial priorities in this state (as with most others, including the country as a whole) is probably where any monetary problems stem.

Kitty is still hanging in there. She has had a rough start in the new place. A few weeks ago I was back to spoon feeding her babyfood and prepared for it to get worse. A couple days of TLC and she was almost back to normal. Her kidney functioning has declined a bit, but not too bad. Her latest thing is to wake me at the crack of dawn yowling, playing, eating and more yowling. She is actually starting to wake my roommate up with her shinanigans! Funny story: Latte and I were sitting on the back porch. She was sticking her nose out the fence when suddenly a crawled its way up and decided to look her in the face. I screamed bloody murder and the damn thing continued up the fence into my plants. I screamed louder and it went alright....it went straight into the house! Latte causually walked briskly behind the and stopped once it jumped onto the kitchen table. The two had a stare-off for what felt like forever, but likely only lasted less than ten seconds. Thankfully the ran right back outside. Latte looked at me, a bit confused and possibly disappointed, then walked to her food dish and started eating dinner.

So Rudi and other architects, builders, etc...Can the excessive heat we have been receiving more and more over the years, especially this summer, contributed in any way? I have heard from many folks today, which is good news. So, I dont know anyone affected by this - yet. Its difficult not knowing when, how, or if they will ever be able to recover bodies. I cringe everytime I watch the news and they start interviewing someone whose friend or relative is missing, hoping its not someone I know. I have yet to get near the bridge. Part of me wants to see it, but I know it is also going to be a pretty awful and probably emotional site. I work a few blocks from the site this weekend. It is and will be quite a zoo, especially with a visit from Bush on Saturday.

Im going to try and stop gluing my eyes to the news and go to bed. Thank you Sobo for the phone call. Thanks for your continued effort to reach me. In some ways Its good to know it took so many tries to get through. Hopefully the people I have been trying to reach are having the same difficulties getting in touch with me to let me know they are okay. This is a MAJOR thruway into/outof the city as well as getting from one side of the city to the other. I was on the bridge yesterday afternoon and Saturday evening. Its about 3 blocks from one of my jobs. There will be a lot more deaths involved in this tragedy than they are currently reporting. Kudos to the media for not speculating. But reality is that it was rush hour on a major highway. There are cars which may not be found in the river for days or weeks. Cars that were smashed by infastructure. Those people have not been accounted for or confirmed dead - because they have not been found. Damn, this is crazy! And - Wayne - indeed it is a good thing it was down to one lane (on one direction). Imagine two more lanes opened during this.

As Im sure many of you have seen on the news there was a major bridge that collapsed in Mpls into the Mississippi. For my friends and acquiantances out there, Im obviously okay and fortunately did not need to use that way to get home tonight. There is not much ability to use cell phones right now and havent been able to get in touch with any of my friends. I dont know what else to say. Its really a horrific scene. Positive vibes to all involved in the accident and recovery.

WOw! Glad the kitty was found! Is this the one you recently had in the hospital (that was you, right?). About a year after I got Latte, I lost her for a night. I was working at a camp and came home during an evening off. I couldnt find her anywhere. I would leave the window open in the apt, which had no screen, because it was not unusual to see 100 degrees on a regular basis. Besides she loved to hang out on the roof and watch everything happening in the neighborhood. I refused to go back to work once I realized she was missing -until she was found. Fortunately my bf at the time found her digging around in a dumpster. It had been raining and she literally smelled like shit! She never ran away (outside, that is) again. Cats can find some crazy places to hang out in. Especially if they dont want to be found for a while.

Im sure I will someday. Ive always felt I do much better with less information. More info = more thinking, questioning, wondering. Obviously some beta can be helpful at times. This was just a good lesson as too how much beta is hurtful/helfpul - to ME. To each it's own egg!

My cat hates me. There are no mice in the new place - at least yet. So she has nothing to sit and stare at for hours. The other cat tried to jump through the screen door we put up seperating the up/downstairs as Latte came in from the back porch weeks ago. Now she wont leave my room and hides in the closet all the time. Her latest lab tests showed everything was completely normal (which is an absolute miracle!!!!). I think her bones are hurting her. She often runs from me when I come toward her because she thinks Im going to poke her, even though Im only giving her sub-q's 1-2xs a week. She is eating well and other bodily functions are performing fine. I hope she comes around. It sucks to put so much into a being only to be shat apon. Gaurantee she will be up at 6:30 am laying on top of me. *sigh* oh- and I will post new photos as soon as she comes out of the damn closet!

I find it interesting that this was my first multi-pitch ever (as someone following). Since then, everytime I have been in lworth I have considered leading it, but wind up elsewhere. I still think it would be nostalgic to lead the entire route. Yet, all this discussion freaks me out. It makes me wonder how much information is helpful - to ME.

If the phone company sends you a note thanking you for their service, asking you back, and asking why they havent gotten their final payment, yet you STILL have service, what do you do? They were given my new address, yet I dont get anything directly - I get mail fwd weeks later and just received the letter today. I know, honesty is the best policy. But the deep, dark side of me wonders - how long can I get away with service? And, how much will it cost me in the end?

hey, I got it! It was a long process - and now I feel kinda dumb. Thankfully it is saved on my computer and looks good. I will put it on a disc tomorrow for the family and others. I wont be able to get the music in unless I download some random converter for it - and then its a big maybe. For now, I will leave it be. Maybe at some point I can find someone who can convert it easier, and turn it into a DVD! Thanks nonanon and others who offered help!

maybe one of you computer savy folks can help me figure this out. Im in the midst of making a slideshow for a funeral on Saturday. Not only is this extremely difficult emotionally, Im started to get crazed with the the technical aspects of it. My computer isnt the best, but its not bad. I tried using Power Point, but once I got too many photos on it, it just kept freezing my computer. So, I redid it using windows movie maker, which claims to be compatible with windows media player - that is until you try to open it with media player. There is some sort of codec used in the moviemaker that media player says is not compatible. Honestly, I dont think I can redo this slideshow again without going crazy. Not only are the photos difficult to look at, the music (which I cant put in it because I bought it online/copywrite issues) is driving me bonkers - mainly the barney song. Yes, the funeral is for a child. I really wanted to get it together with the music and put it on DVD. Second best would be putting it on a disc to give to the family after the funeral. I can do that, but they wont be able to play it because of the format. Any knowledge on the program I used or suggestions on other programs? I may just have to take another day off work to get this done in time.

I used to be that way. I especially hate(d) - I guess I still do - climbing in the gym or crowded crags because I felt distracted. I learned it benefited me greatly, as a person and a climber, to work on my concentration and focus by not avoiding those situations. Though I dont enjoy being around a lot of people when climbing, I have definately increased my tolerance and improved how it affects my climbing/concentration. I also didnt mean to imply reading was a worthless way to go while learning. For me, and those who may have a similar learning style, reading - then understanding/doing, just doesnt work well. I have to read/do/read/do/do/do/read/do/etc. Im a much better visual and hands on learner. Im also curious how your trip to smith went.

Amen to that! Me too!!!! I made some kick ass crocheted chalk bags (or ipod holders - ahem!), that is if you didnt keep them on your harness while bushwacking! I excel at dealing with chaos. Im also really good at procrastinating - possibly the best!

Makes me think about one time when Kurt and I were climbing. He took the first lead. I was on the ground with our packs fending off the snaffles from getting into our packsv(literally). I managed to hang the packs from a small tree, knowing it wasnt really going to help. A couple hours later we got back down to the base and found the top of kurt's pack unzipped and his peanuts (or something like that) gone, as well as his apple. They just cut a hole through the top of my pack. They were kind enough to leave half of my luna bar. Anyway, after a bit of disgruntled discussion, we looked up and sitting on the first ledge of the climb was a damn snaffle with a shiny apple in his mouth, staring at us. Kurt gracefully whipped a rock at the damn thing and out fell the apple.

If I only lived closer - and/or wasnt already committed to a job this summer. Youthink they could change the camp to the end of August to accomodate me? hehehe