catbirdseat

Bob had a right to be pissed off, but he went about getting his retribution the wrong way. I would have just taken a shit in the guy's pack and been off.

A motor bike riden off trail has the destructive force of many hundreds of pairs of boots. They are really bad.

The amount of energy absorbed by the screamer more than makes up for the extra distance you fall. The test results speak for themselves. Peak impact forces are reduced. Whether you want to call it energy absorption or not, they do what they are supposed to do.

To say that I am getting old is stating the obvious. I've had a shorter climbing career than many of you, so while you have been living with these sorts of problems for a long time, I'm seeing them for the first time. Thus far, knees are fine. Knock on wood.

When I do pull ups my right shoulder sounds like crinkling cellophane. It doesn't hurt, but the should its extremely disconcerting. I'm planning on seeing an orthopod about it, but any of you have guesses as to what it might be? I am thinking torn cartilege.

What I miss about Seattle is that cc.com was really good for finding climbing partners. Climbers are a lot fewer and far between down here. Probably the same number as in Seattle but scattered among a larger population. I don't think that RC.com or Supertaco fill the same niche that cc.com does in Washington. Seems like there needs to be a new site.

So where is Dolphin Chimney? I've done one called Deflowered. That one gave new meaning to 5.6.

I've already been to Joshua Tree twice and been out sailing in Newport Harbor in a tee shirt. It would be nice if it didn't get any hotter, but I am afraid it will. Soon it will be time to move climbing up to Taquitz and Suicide.

I did call the Land Manager last year about motor bikes. He said that the land on the otherside of Echo Basin is private land. I think that if you saw them on the Sunshine Wall side of the basin they were in Wildlife Refuge land and were operating illegally. I urge you to call him. He'll talk to you.

Rack Simulator?

Reminds me of Steve Martin: "I used to smoke marijuana. But I'll tell you something: I would only smoke it in the late evening. Oh, occasionally the early evening, but usually the late evening - or the mid-evening. Just the early evening, midevening and late evening. Occasionally, early afternoon, early mid-afternoon, or perhaps the late-midafternoon. Oh, sometimes the early-mid-late-early morning. . . But never at dusk. Never at dusk."

I am worse off than I was under Clinton. Wages are not going up, but the cost of living is.

I didn't think there was a third pitch. We scrambled right after the second belay. The party ahead of us was rather slow. When I started to go right behind their second, the guy up at the belay station declared that there wasn't room for more than two, so I sat and waited. By the time I was able to climb, I was cold, so I practically ran up the route to get warm.

Fun route. Pretty stiff for 5.7, if you ask me. Couldn't help but notice this cozy looking man-sized hueco to the left of the belay for the second pitch. I wonder if anyone climbing with their girlfriends have ever availed themselves of that airy little perch...

I was at JTree on Saturday and it was partly cloudy. A few rain drops spit at us in the afternoon. If I had to guess, I am sure it rained a little Saturday night and Sunday morning. Your clean up work will bound to reap rewards of good karma. You will have many fine climbing days in your future.

Here's an update. I am all settled in now. Cleaned out the cabinets in the garage today so all my climbing gear is put away finally. Went to Joshua Tree yesterday for the day. Climbed with my old buddy Jimbabwe. We did Right On and A Walk on the Wild Side on Saddle Rock. It was a fun day. Dinner with my cousin and his wife in Claremont.

Ipecac is a classic name for a route that tries to spit you out.

Same here. I was 38 when I started ten years ago. I love climbing. I'd heard that Stimson Bullit started rock climbing when he was seventy. He could climb 5.10, so they say. He still climbs in his 90's.

Even without the explosives, I'd bet you would know it if the warhead came down on your head.

His estimate is about as "back of the envelope" as you can get.

You mentioned that there were two places from which they could be glimpsed from the highway and I saw them both. I pulled out at the State Park exit and drove over past the post office to get a better look. The crags are quite impressive.

So the military says they want to shoot down a disabled spy satellite that will reenter the atmosphere in March. They say that the reason is to protect people on earth from the 1000lbs of hydrazine fuel on the satellite. I don't think that's the real reason. My guess is that they are afraid enough of the sensitive optical sensor would survive reentry to be of use to other countries. Now it may be that blowing it up would not destroy the sensor, but even if it did not, the satellite would enter the atmosphere as a bunch of pieces in vastly different locations, making it very difficult to find the part. Story

When I left the Lambone home at 9:30 am, I was still undecided about whether or not to camp another night or not. Well, passing through Shasta, I picked up a tailwind which persisted most of the way through the San Joaquin Valley. The truck was making great time doing about 65 mph most of the way. I decided to go for it and arrived in Laguna at 11:30 pm. I was surprised that I never got really sleepy like I do after climbs. I was well-rested. That, and I think I must have picked up some of Rob's positive vibrations.

It would appear that in this case, two equivalents of Grignard reagent will add across the carbonyl bond. Thus, either A or E might be the answer. The only question being, whether the oxygen resulting from the opening up of the lactone ester bond is methylated or not. I have to think about this some more.