catbirdseat

Hey, I think that was Distel's first efforts at haiku. Nice.

Here's a story about me and my dad, although not about climbing. We raced his 37 foot sailboat from Newport to Ensenada. The wind blew so hard it was a fast race and we didn't need to run the engine to charge the batteries. Finally tried to start the engine as we approached the finish line and it wouldn't turn over. Water had sucked back in through the exhaust from the following seas and into the cylinders. Even with the compression release, the diesel wouldn't turn over. We managed to sail into the harbor and drop the hook under sail like in the old days. Went into shore to find we had taken first in class. My Dad was so excited. I've never in my life seen him so elated. We partied all day on shore and forgot about the engine. After the trophy ceremony, the rest of the crew jumped on the bus and off they went, leaving my dad and I to figure out what to do about the boat. We took one of those crazy water taxis back to Cat's Paw and pondered what we should do as the other boat left the harbor for home. A neighboring boater explained we had to pull the injectors to get the water out. My dad doesn't touch engines, but I was willing to give it a try. I got the injectors out, but it turned out there were some metal rings that I could get a hold of, left in the sockets. We put a towel over the engine and cranked it and the water shot out with the rings. One of them went missing, and I couldn't find it anywhere. I poured a jigger of motor oil into each cylinder to protect them and cranked again. Well, we at least had protected the engine from destruction, but didn't have it to use. It was getting dark now and probably the smart thing would have been to hit the bunks, but that's not what we did. We caught a tow out of the harbor until the wind came up and then cast off under sail. It's something like 70 miles from Ensenada to San Diego where we figured we could find a Yanmar mechanic. Of course the wind was 20 knots on the nose. We went with a reefed main and a full 140% genoa and pounded into it, tacking back and forth hour after hour. The only dry place in the cockpit was either under the dodger or on the high side near the rail. We took turns steering through the night and arrived in San Diego in the afternoon of the next day. San Diego Yacht Club gave us a temporary place to berth for the week, since we both had to get back to work. My mom came down and gave us a ride home. The next week, Dad went down by himself to meet the mechanic. They sent a flunky down to tell my dad it would be two weeks before the new parts could be ordered from Japan. "Ah nuts", my dad thought, "I'll give you twenty bucks if you can find that missing ring". The guy crawled around for about ten minutes and finally found the thing under a flange of the engine pan. The mechanic came down and reassembled the parts and the engine ran fine. I came down the next day we motored home with our big perpetual trophy in the forward berth. I think that was about as much adventure as my dad had had since his days in the Army.

Talkin' to yourself?

It's called Level Head. It's a stiff 5.6, but probably not a 5.6MA. There is a 5.3 chimney called Rock and Roll Chimney that is a definite 5.3MA. There is a 5.7 crack climb to the right of the rap route that is a 5.7MA.

Or lame-brained? The left is the linear, analytical side. The right is the creative, geometric, intuitive side. What say you?

Does this skew the results worse than Gerrymandering?

That quote really captures the essence of Bush, doesn't it?

One thing is for sure, his replacement will be every bit as conservative as he was. He's made certain of that. The new pope will continue to preach against the evils of contraception.

Basically, Bush created a "voluntary" compliance program where polluters could reduce emissions if they felt like it. The results are ambiguous. While they are not dramatically worse, they aren't better either. They are worse relative to another city, Los Angeles. Since the business cycle has an effect on smog, comparison to LA has the effect of normalizing the results.

Do some reading and decide for yourself.

What is Bob's relationship to you?

Actually the Weisman isn't all that bad because even though it lacks symmetry, it at least seems to have a theme- some repetitive elements that make the parts appear to be part of the whole.

You can't spell even when you are sober.

The architect must have been Frank Ghery, who also gave us EMP. A lot of people like his designs. I'm not one of them. Where's that new vomit emoticon? I need it now.

Trask, go visit Houston sometime. Tell me if the air is good there. Incidently, they had a clear day on Saturday- 78 degrees and 40% made the National news. The day before it was 87 degrees, 90% humidity and smoggy as hell.

Twain, not Twight, you twat. Yeah, I know you were just making a joke.

Looks like you are on the top of the F'ing world!

I've noticed that a lot of guys climb with their kids when they are little, but they turn into teens and get really busy with college and then careers. But some of them come back and climb together with their pop again and that's so cool. Reminds me of a Mark Twain saying. To paraphrase: "When I was seventeen, I couldn't believe what a stupid son of a gun my old man was. When I was twenty, I couldn't believe how much he had learned in only three years."

I remember Tomcat telling me he climbed quite a bit with his dad. I think AlpineK used to climb with his dad. Winter's buddy Tom had his son and daughter along on Guye Peak.

I couldn't help but notice that the rock surface on which the nest is attached looks very new, as though a flake had recently cleaved off of it.

I've seen a few TRs about fathers and sons climbing together. It would be cool if some of you could tell us about climbing with your dad or son (or perhaps Mother/Daughter partners, although I'd suspect that would be less common). My dad never climbed, but we did do a backpacking trip together that was pretty special. We also did a lot of sailboat racing together. Got any good stories?

Iceguy seems to have a good source of smileys. Where is he when you need him?

I was against the war, but what is done is done. We have to do what is best now, regardless of past battles. Pulling out of Iraq now would be a grave mistake. We have to buck up and spend the money or we will really suffer later.

Peter Puget, the new Fairweather.