AlpineK

That's some crazy stuff, and it's amazing how much the guy was able to recover.

It's probably too late now, but you need to share more info on what you have done in the past in order for somebody here to have a clue on what to recommend for you to try this time. Have fun on the beach.

Since I won't have time to check in for a while I might as well log an update. I rode my bike from Lake City to Ballard and back and even stopped for lunch. I'm at 205.5 lbs which means I'm down either 14.5 lbs or down 10.5 lbs depending on how you look at it.

I would like to see the Mounties get to a point where they had a good program to offer, but right now they are hit and miss. I think a new intermediate student is qualified to act as an assistant instructor under the direct supervision of somebody with a lot of experience, but I wouldn't cut them loose with a crew of basic students. In a lot of ways I relate how one should progress to my experience learning to work in trees. You start out doing simple things and then slowly build your way up. I would never cut an employee loose with a saw and instructions to hurry up and cut that tree down while I look at some other work on the other side of town...btw don't drop a log on that house.

I haven't gone anywhere even if I haven't posted for this week. I have been keeping tabs and I'm steady around the weight I posted last. I don't know that I'll post next Monday as it'll be 2 days after an operation, but I am going for a long bike ride tomorrow.

This is steroid free

I'm actually starting my best approximation at real work (for me that is) later today.

All I know is first year intermediates should not be instructing basic students. I've instructed with that much experience, and I find it disconcerting that I did this and dangerous too. Look at any private pay for instruction company and you'll find that the instructors have more than 1 season of basic class and a few lectures from intermediate instructors. I'm sure there are instructors with a lot of experience, but they're few and far between.

I was trying to turn my computer upside down but I failed. I pruned trees on Saturday and went to a memorial for a long time Mountie at the Mountaineers Club on Sunday.

Most of my knowledge is from the 70s so some things may be better. That doesn't take away from the fact that the Mounties have some issues they really need to work through.

From what I heard she wasn't a hit with the bloggers, but the report said that blogs weren't the final word on politics and she might do just fine when it comes to a real vote. That should give all of us plenty of time to bitch about all of the candidates.

Obviously I have no proof. In the early days of steroids they started as a weight lifter thing though, and it wasn't till later that they caught on with other sporting types.

Hank Aaron is a real star. I wouldn't say that about Bonds; I'm not sure what he is.

I heard that when he hit his tying run there were both cheers and boos at the same time.

He's tied with Hank Aaron.

Better living through chemistry.

Please don't squeeze the Sharma.

I heard about the wreck on the radio and instantly thought about you C. I knew you were ok, but it was good to actually talk to you later on.

I was in the mounties basic class at the age of 14. You can't do that anymore, but I know a few people from back in the day that did. I signed up to climb Magic Mt. as an experience climb. I did get quite an experience. The leader of the trip got switched and we ended up with a fill in leader. We hiked to Cache Col without any problem. The next day the 12 of us headed for the route. We made it to the notch without a problem and then things slowed down since we were 4 rope teams of 3. The leader got about 2/3 of the way up the route and then came to a stop. I was on the last rope so we just sat there for hours (I am not making this up) I couldn't see him but apparently the leader got stuck at the 5.4 crux and couldn't get past it. He sat there without making any headway and even refused to let anybody else take over the lead. Eventually at about 6PM or so he decided that we had to rap since he couldn't make any forward progress. We got back to the tents, packed up, and made it to Cascade Pass at about midnight. I ended up getting home at about 5AM on the next Monday. The long and short of this is I think the mounties have some good things about them, but obviously they have some scary stuff too. I could tell you about a buddy of mine at about my age climbing Mt. Adams. I'd say your best bet is to make friends with people of about your skill level and go out and try and climb. If you can hook up with somebody with a lot of experience to take you up some routes then that's a good thing. Classes are a good place to learn, but try and think for yourself. I graduated the basic course but then dropped out of the intermediate class a few years later. I haven't done anything with the mounties since I was 16, but in the mean time I've done quite a bit of climbing.

I think you're going to find it hard to plan your trips months in advance in the PNW. Sure you can get a general idea of what you want to do, but committing to something more than a couple days in advance isn't a good idea. The mounties make you sign up long in advance of a trip.

I'm sure there will be some glaciers that continue to expand for a long time into the future, but the real trend is towards the majority of glaciers retracting. Human caused global warming is fairly well accepted among scientists but I know there are a lot of disbelievers out there. You could look at the whole thing from a different viewpoint. We're also sending a lot of our hard earned money off to the Middle East to pay for oil when we should be spending our money here in the US to come up with home grown solutions. I remember a time in the 60s just outside of Seattle when you could count on sledding every winter for days in a row just outside the house.

I'm sorry to say that a few times I've had a Prairie Fire. first up is a shot of tequila after you've got that down then do a shot of tabasco sauce. After that's down chug a beer. I've had enough intestinal fortitude to hold this down a few times, but there was this one time in Zion. One of the occasional posters on this board heard about this drink and then said, "well lets do one," I got mine down and it stayed down, but my buddy wasn't so lucky. He got his down but then he stood up and bent over and started puking tabasco colored puke. skull

All I can say is it only takes 8' on your head to really fuck you up where you wouldn't walk it off.

Hmmm. I'm not so sure. I was living in Bellevue and commuting to Seattle when the old I-90 sank. That sure messed things up, when they did get the new bridge back open they had giant tug boats tied to it driving southbound.

Here's a funny story about being stoned and saving this idiot new employee. Back a few years ago I was one of the foreman on this tree crew. As per usual a bunch of us were hanging out in the lot after work smoking pot. The owner of the company had just bought a bucket truck and he pulled up to the lot to check it out. As he showed up in the lot the idiot new guy with the pot stuck his stash in one of the tool boxes on the new truck. The owner started checking out the truck and opening the tool boxes. While he was on the far side of the truck I grabbed the pipe and pot left in the truck and shoved it in my pocket. Sure enough the owner came to that particular tool box and opened it. Of course there was nothing illegal there. After our boss left I handed the new kid back his dope and then yelled at him for being a fucking dumbshit moron.