mr.radon

Wow, imagine that, someone joins up for adventure, money and a change of scenery? That's never happened before? Hum, why did I join? I'm not saying Peacenik's aren't patriotic. They would rather make love not war. Therefore eventually loosing the very freedoms they so cheerish.

NPR had a neat bit following an Army recruiter around. They reported the military has no problems filling manpower even with the current events. They can even be picky about who they let in and who they reject. The peaceniks are just unwilling to admit that America still instills patriotic values into a majority of its populace, people willing to fight and die protect the their right to protest against them. Makes me feel proud about today's youth.

I did not know people were called up. I guess ABC news had incorrect facts, I heard this off one of their news reports about a week ago. I think I heard the same thing on NPR. I got out just before the Gulf War I and didn't get a notice. But then again, I don't think the Navy was short sub sailors.... :-) I would be pissed too, My point is I would have served, kept the griping to myself and others while smartly saluting and saying "Yes Sir". I'm proud of what I did and would do it over again given the chance.

Back in the '60s and '70s, a lot of us who fought the war were impassioned but naive, disorganized, and inconsistent. Now, we might be older and grayer, but we just may be a lot more dangerous. Ha,,,, hope your a gun nut like me too!!!! If not I have a few AK-47's I can sell you for your fight. The chance of you getting drafted is pretty low. Unless of corse we get a Democrate in office. I'd like to see your face when old junior says dad I'm going into the Army.. :-) BTW can you help me plant flags on Veteran graves this Memorial weekend or will you be too busy climbing?

The reason the militray doesn't want a draft is that it doesn't get motivated people into the service. They weren't my sisters. Re-read my post. They were two sisters, daughter's of my old day care provider. I knew them when they were only 10 or so. Weird to hear of them in the Army. I was just surprised they had a very positive experiance in Iraq. Enough so the re-enlist. Will be interesting to see how this whole affair looks in 20 years. Also, end note. Many people, I was one of them, want nothing to do with the military well before thier intial enlistment is up. So you are right, many don't want to serve but hey that is their signiture on the enlistment papers. They had a choice to sign or not to sign. All I have to say is tough luck.....

Draft? I you must not know the first thing about military service. When your enlistment is up you are still obligated to the Ready Reserve for a period of time. It's know up front when you sign the enlistment papers. It has to date never been used. However, its not even close to a DRAFT! That's like saying the when the National Guard is called up a DRAFT. There is no way a draft would work, the military doesn't want a draft either. I had my doubts about the war. Bad news all day long. A few weeks ago I visited my son's old babysitter. She has two daughters who sevral years ago baby sat my kid after hours when I went out on dates and stuff. They both enlisted in the Army. One was part of the assault. She was stationed in Tikrit (sp?). Anyway, she felt so strongly about the good she was doing over there, she extended her deployment and re-enlisted. Her sister, who is still over there also felt strongly about the good of the mission and reenlisted. Both are willing to do another tour. Their mom was showing me photo after photo her daughter's e-mailed her. These pictures were awesome. I guess feel good pictures don't sell newspapers or ferment the kinda violence the media wants to report on. Also, looking at the pictures of that sandstorm the toops had to deal with durring the assault, wow!

If I got doubts be it; ability, fate, route conditions and my head isn't in it 100% I'm not roping up with my partner because I'm not going to risk his life for my F'ed up head. I'd rather go home solve the problem and try it another day when I AM 100%. Not that I do this all the time, but we shouldn't be out there if we're not comfortable with what we are doing. And we absolutly should discuss the situation with your rope partner. Maybe he is willing to lead every pitch and drag you along. Had some friends die rock climbing near Boulder, took nearly 10 years for me to feel free and clear leading on rock again. However, all said, I think about my 17 year old growing up without me. You hear something like this if you're not thinking about stuff like that you're pretty selfish and self absorbed, it's normal.

Glad we had good weather when we did the route, even though there was a lot of freash snow on the route. Best wishes to everyone involved in this rescue. I’m glad to hear these two guys are prepared. It sounds like they are dealing with the situation as well as can be expected, only wish that in similar circumstances I perform as well as I’ve heard and read these two have. I’ve attached a picture jdog took of me around 12.3K.

I hauled my big ass Meade 140 up to Sunrise (my car did most of the hauling) the week after I did the Wonderland Trail in 2.2 days. I wanted a clear view of Mars durring its close approach. However, I found anything on the horizon above Rainier, was affected by the huge thermal sink that mountain causes. Everything over the mountain is wavy, it really disturbes the atmosphere by it's cooling effect. I had a cool time watching people on Inghram flats take off for the summit. Good view of people on the summit. I wish there was no light polution in the cities. People just don't realize what they are missing every clear night. Sad.

Go to: http://skyandtelescope.com/ I'm also sorta into the stuff.

I've had the same problems skiing that crust. The more side cut the skis the more problems you have in that crap. Don't feel bad, even really good skiers look like total tools on that crap. I think snow boards might have the advantage in that stuff. Good call on the retreat, trust those little voices.... I once called off a summit on a blue bird day in late November. Didn't think the crevasses had enough cover. Well heading back to Muir I fell into a huge gaper crossing back to Muir.

We planed to do the West Rib too, but weather sucked so we ended up soloing from 14.3K to the summit in pretty bad conditions. The length of the slog from the landing strip to 14.3K will allow you to acclimate, esp. if you are dragging 4 weeks of supplies. I would really suggest to take it slow. If you go up high fast, then have to dig in for two or three days, you'd be in a world of hurt if you aren't properly acclimated. I've been above 18K many times. Past experience really doesn't predict weather or not you will have a problem with the thin air. On one expedition I was at 18.3K for three days, the middle of the night I got real sick (AMS) the and had to make a fast descent back to 14K. Hasn't reoccurred in four years, but woke me up to the risk you take. Anyway, enjoy the trip, enjoy the mountain, enjoy life...

We our ski tracks still visable?

Ha, so well put! Makes me feel better about my descent off Fuhrer Finger Sunday. Went through the whole gamit of emotions and conditions in one awesome 9,000' descent. I thought I was a good skier coming from Colorado 7 years ago. I had heard of Cascade Cement, but never experienced it till I ski'd for the first time in Washington and got rained ON! After a few years I'm finally able to say I can get down most anything, style is what I now lack. You can totally avoid the ski areas, but you would definitely have to start on moderate BC terrain till you get some experience. Because not only do you need to know how to ski down it, but is it safe to ski on it. Someone coming to the BC for the first time may not have those skills honed yet. So if you are going to start BC skiing: Post something on CC, make a friend and ski safe...And take an avy class.

Last time I climbed the Gib chute I had an alpine start, at the time I thought this was pretty smart. To make it more interesting next time i'll do it in the middle of the day so I can see all the crap thats gonna hit me.

Don't really know exactly, but the chute gets icy and real narrow by the first week of June. I think the rocks start coming down before that. The tail of my ski caught one of those hidden rocks nearly spinning me out. I figure a few more weeks. However, you need to time it just right. Later in the day its way to mushy, to early way to icy. To late in the season, its a bowling alley.

I was with Jdog. Good time for all this weekend. Check out the pic of me coming down the lower part of the Finger. Nice shot Jdog.

Cool! We checked out the descent from the bridge as we headed out. We neglected to do this on the drive up since we were late and jamming to the tunes. I don't think it will be skiable much longer. I think you might have gotten the last run in.

That was sorta tongue in cheek. I checked the label plate, 1080RPM.

Climb: Mount Rainier-Nisqualy Chute Date of Climb: 4/3/2004 Trip Report: April 3rd, 2004 Well hearing that the weather was to be phenomenal Jdog and I decided to head to Mount Rainier to do a little skiing. Although the weather was to be great for the whole weekend, we heard Saturday would be the best. I wanted to leave early, but there was some discussion of when the road to Paradise would be open. I called the rangers and got some good information, we planed on hitting Longmire at 7:30 AM. I told Jdog to be ready by 5:30. I was all giddy about getting to drive my re-built Subaru selective 4WD dual range five speed on a long trip. I’ve only been commuting with it and haven’t gotten a chance to get some highway miles on it yet. I attach the ski rack to the old Subaru and loaded my newly waxed skis. Got up early, had a good breakfast. Harley was disappointed when I took my pack and left him at home alone, poor guy. Arrived at Jdog’s at 5:20, he was still in bed. Got a late start, didn’t leave his place until 5:50, only to turn around because he forgot something. We make it to Mount Rainier National Park, having to pay because we both forgot our annual park passes! Lady ranger was nice, said that we could get a refund if we show the receipt and a current park pass next time we come in. Didn’t have to put the car in 4WD mode since the road was dry the entire length to Paradise. Mount Rainier looked wicked, covered in a lenticular cloud almost surrounding Gibraltar rock; huge. Hoped the winds are calm down low. Last time it looked like this the winds were unbearable even at Paradise. The sun was out so we lathered on the sunscreen and headed out. I was striped down to my shorts and long johns. Soon we were heading up the trail at a good clip. The Park Service has already graded over the inner-tube slide hill. I guess it’s already the end of sled season on Rainer. Lots of people were out today heading up with us; a virtual wagon train. Skinning went well in the softening snow. We decided to dog left before reaching the summit of Panoramic Point since we decided to ski our usual chute off the Nisqualy. We had debated crossing the Nisqualy glacier to ski from Camp Hazard. However, I don’t trust that glacier and without a rope I didn’t feel real comfortable crossing it. We also discussed the possibility of skiing down the entire Nisqualy, climb back up to the bridge and hitch hike back to Paradise. After getting even with Panoramic Point we stopped for a short break. Another person on skis followed our tracks and passed us as we got ready to continue skinning. Jdog and I disagreed as to which way to go so he went to my left. As we headed up Jdog was several hundred yards off to the left, and the other skier was several hundred yards to my right. All three of us pretty much heading up at the same pace. Soon it became obvious to all that each one of us had the same goal in mind. My wishes that the third person veer off to the right went unfulfilled. Soon we see him stop and quickly pull off the skins from his skis, put on ski goggles and head over to us. Jdog yells, “Tackle him Roy so I can get the first run in!” The guy starts laughing. We talk for a few minutes, he said he made the extra effort to get the first run in. He quickly heads down the chute in style. Jdog and I sat down to relax and enjoy the view and eat a little bit. Ripping our own skins off the bottom of our skis we head down the chute one by one. The upper steep sections were very nice to ski, but lower down it was hard work in the grippy snow. Several times I was thrown off balance as my skis stuck to the snow. At one point out of sight from Jdog I took a tumble. As I knew I was going to fall I rolled forward landing squarely on my back. Quickly I saw both skis were still attached I kept rolling with the momentum I had generated, landing on my skis perfectly; I didn’t loose a beat and continued down the slope as if I had planed the summersault before-hand! However, the baguette attached to my backpack didn’t survive the summersault intact. It was now limply broken in half and a little squished. Meeting up with Jdog at the bottom of the chute we stopped again for lunch. It was as if someone turned the heat on high and the selector switch to broil, it was warm! Since the snow on the lower slopes was wet, slow and sticky we decided against the ski to the bridge for our second run. However, someone did whiz by heading that way. Soon it was back to our skins to head up for a second go. Clouds moved off Rainier but now covered the valley below. We steadily skinned back to the top of the chute, the going was much better then I thought it would be. I didn’t feel tired at all. We enjoyed the view from the top again, but in the shade and with the steady breeze things cooled off dramatically. I quickly doffed the skins and donned my bib, gloves and jacket; no break this time. Jdog and I skied to the edge and looked down the chute again. I always get butterflies skiing this chute. The top section is not a place I want to fall. I drop into the chute though a narrow opening in the upper rock band. Doing tight S-turns on the right side this time I feel the snow letting loose and move off to the middle and stop. Jdog and I watch as large sluffs go sliding down the chute, cool! Knowing what to expect I have a great time on this run, legs are tired though. Jdog and I carve ever larger turns as we head down the mountain, what a hoot. All too soon we’re at the end again. This time however I knew I wasn’t dreaming because my fingertips were frozen and very painful. As they slowly warmed up they felt no better, the pain only got worse. All Jdog could do was watch in amusement at my painful hand gyrations to speed the warming process up. This time the temperature was much colder and the clouds in the valley looked like afternoon thunder cells in Colorado. We skinned back up to the shoulder of Panoramic Point. Jdog and I had a beat as to who would beat who to the car. I started a little higher then Jdog so I was able to gather a bit of speed as I passed him. Also, my skis were recently waxed, I definitely had the advantage. The run down was quick but hair raising in the sticky then not sticky snow. At the very end I made a mistake and shot down the wrong track to the parking lot. As I stumbled to the right access track Jdog blew by me. 10’ from the finish, what a rip. Was a wonderful day on the mountain, we ended up taking the scenic route back to town. At home I noticed a couple of things that will illustrate how sunny it was. The back of my hands which never get sun burnt were red and you could see where the ski pole straps had been. My right calf was a little itchy on the drive back, at home I noticed there was obviously a ¼” gap between the top of my socks and the bottom of my long johns. That ¼” was red and sun burned like a painful tattoo around the circumference of my leg. Also, I have a few holes in my long john, these showed up as red splotches on my upper thigh. The Subaru handled well on it’s first long drive, I was very pleased with it.

Well, old Mr.radon here claims to have been a good machinist at one time or another. Mr.radon has been so convincing that his friend Mr. X asks him to do something simple, like shorten the shaft of his snow shovel's handle. Mr. X's snow shovel handle has never fit into the shovel very well. Late one night Mr.radon sets his little mill up to lop about .25" off the handl’s end; the handle's shaft being made of soft aluminum. Now Mr.radon has a basic mill, no auto feeder or anything fancy like that. Mr.radon gets the round shaft set up in the mill's high quality vice, selects the right bit and adjusts the speed of the cutter. Mr.radon's first cut went well. Mr.radon was happy he had selected the correct speed and feed rate. Mr.radon safely backs the cutting head up to start another cut. This cut is to lop off close to the final cut. Mr.radon runs the mill forward on the second cut, gets to the end and takes the shovel handle out of the vice without turning OFF the mill. The mill is happily spinning at 7,000 RPM while Mr.radon test fits the assembly. Mr.radon marks how much of the shaft still needs to be removed. Mr.radon, who does note that the mill is still running, says to himself, "I'll just be careful." As Mr.radon is thinking this the tip of the handle's shaft accidentally contacts the cutter. Well pure physics takes over from here. The moment the cutter gets its first bite into the end of the handle it imparts enough force to feed the handle through the vice, the second cutter blade gets more contact now, then the third, the fourth,,,, soon the handle is feeding through pretty fast. The cutter, vice and soft aluminum acting like a rack and pinion steering assembly. Around this time Mr.radon shows some reactions to the events quickly unfolding. These reactions are a bit slower then the mill's ability to accelerate the handle. First, Mr.radon's eyes get wide as he sees the shovel handle accelerate laterally very rapidly. Second, he pulls his ten, intact, digits back. Third, Mr.radon's ears note the mill making a slightly different noise as it happily feeds the handle through the vice. However, as Mr. X knows, there is a "T" on the end of the handle's tubular body. This didn't exactly fit through the vice. So physics once again takes over. As the "T" handle makes contact with the vice body, it decelerates the shaft. The plastic to metal contact also produces large pressure oscillations in the air; more commonly known as sound. At the point Mr.radon hears these pressure oscillations Mr.radon is still trying to figure out what made the handle move so fast and then stop even faster? The noise obviously wakes Mr.radon up. Belatedly, Mr.radon notes the mill is still ON and kills the motor before too much "cosmetic" damage occurs to the handle's shaft. Now Mr.radon needs to figure out how to break the news to Mr. X. Better to sleep on things like this. After further inspection of the shaft in the morning, Mr.radon notes that the handle's design has been improved upon. The texture gives extra grip to the normally slippery shaft and it reduced the weight of the part. So Mr. X, can I charge extra for the grip texture I added to the shaft of your snow shovel handle? BTW, the assembly fits together like a glove now.

I've been doing this for years. Sometime I put so much junk in an envelope I have to tape the thing shut. I just know they have to pay extra postage since its way over weight. One time I mailed then a piece of scrap 1/8" sheet metal, the thing weighed a ton. Be careful some of the envelope have bar codes on them I don't know what they code but I black it out with a magic marker. I figure if everyone did this they would get the message. To bad you can't do this to junk e-mail'ers.

With a teenager in the house I'm glad I can support a model company like Darigold. I'll be sure to get all my sour cream, milk and yogurt from them. I'll be sure to specifically ask a union store clerk to show me where each Darigold product is.

Hey a friend of mine is going to see Oklahoma. I would go but it’s not a good play to take a first date to. Since it’s spray I guess we can get personal, but it doesn’t mean we should. It’s interesting that MaryLou has sold us her position with the union as the benevolent member who goes the extra two miles to help out the union and it’s members. If only every union worker were so dedicated. In reality she’s an extreme anomaly. Unions stand on the position that their members should be able to exercise the right of association. However, they do not consider that they prevent the same, my right not to associate. MaryLou still has not explained why unions should have the right to any of my money if I work in a closed shop. If I choose not to associate with the union I shouldn’t be forced to have them represent me. If I receive an employment offer from a company, I should have the right to negotiate my own contract with said employer. Many laws are in effect to protect the tyranny of the majority over the minority, why can’t I be protected from the tyranny of the union? If 50.1% of the employees are brainwashed into voting to unionizing, why can’t I choose not to follow these particular lemmings over the cliff’s edge? Let those 50.1% have their little union and the rest of us smart employees do what we want; like point, snicker and laugh at the union members? The huge ire Organized labor has is its totalitarian mentality. They want absolute control over everything, like the Communists. Unions should be able to stand on their own two feet, they shouldn’t be propped up by having the ability to steal money from my paycheck. If I’m not a member I don’t want to pay nor play. If I don’t pay I don’t expect representation, PERIOD. MayLou you argue the reason these non-members have to pay is to cover service the union is required to provide them? Well why can’t you and union accept the fact some people don’t want the union to negotiate on their behalf? That we don’t want your services? If there are laws on the books requiring the union to represent every worker weather or not they joined, then obviously the law is un-constitional. Anyhow, curious how you defend your position. Maybe I just need to be sent away to a Labor Union re-education camp for a few years because I just do not see what benefit Unions provide to society other then some good made for TV movies like “Hoffa”.

Kinda makes you wish for another "Great Depression" so we can get a new CCC corps formed to (re)build the roads/trails/maintenance /ect.... (tongue in cheek) Funny, when times were really bad we did so much (some of it not very environmentally friendly) with so little. In times of plenty we have a hard time doing anything? I forget, is the topography an issue in moving the road south a few hundred yards? Personally I like the small crowds on that side of the mountain. Economically it would be a huge boom for Carbondale and the county if more visitors had access to the area. Much nicer side then White River/Sunrise or even Paradise – maybe not Paradise.