sobo

I'd be up for taking it down the home stretch fer ya. Thanks fer thinking of me.

Oh Mel, you scored another hit! "Huh! Ass..." "Someone's coming! Act like a cat." "Meow." "Meow." "Meow."

I thought I recognized the "112" avatar. You still working at Little Goose? I ain't holding the stand-up against you. Now, if it happens twice...

Ken, I live in the Dry-Shitties, about an hour west of you. I'd be up for some ice, if I could ever get out of the house when the timing/wife/weather cooperate. Otherwise, I'd be up for trips to Spring Mountain (sport cragging) and Lightning Dome (multi-pitch bolted/trad granite slab climbing and tons of unexplored stuff across the river) starting in the spring. If you have any contact with Walla Walla College, a chemistry prof there is an occasional partner of mine, and he gets to climb all the freakin' time because he's divorced and his kids are in college now. Plus, he's always game for taking his students out on trips. PM me if you want his contact info. He's a great guy. And so is Kurt Hicks. You should hook up with him if you get the chance. The karma from his tools should infuse you with warm fuzzy feelings. He's a class act - very positive and encouraging. Keep me in mind, and perhaps we can hook up. I'm old (48), been doing this climbin' thang for 20+ years, but I'm not as fat as I used to be (headed back to the gym recently).

Ken, The Krawarik/Martin guide sez "The climbs are on the left side of the road at 17.4 miles, but are difficult to see approaching from [the Dayton] direction because they are hidden by a small hill. If you reach the Sno-Park at MP 20, you have gone too far. Turn around and proceed 2.6 miles back down the road [toward Dayton], to where the climbs are visible, 100 feet from the road." HTH PS: Check your post in the Partners Forum.

Now that I've stopped laughing so hard, I've got to get some paper towels and wipe the beer off the monitor.

HC, I fixed your tags. Nice one. Possibly a X-POTD.

bstach, That one simply has to go into the album. Drag it out a few years from now when he brings his climber girlfriend home to meet you. You'll truthfully be able to say he "had climbing in his blood" from Day One.

It's Rammstein... Mein Teil... it's relevent to the direction the drift was going It all becomes clear to me now... I guess I don't get out enough. Never heard about this macabre act until this discussion...

I lost my colon in da trunk.

Hey, 5K, why'd ya go and kill a good thread drift with the High German? Ach!

That's funny. Reminds me of a quote from Dolph Lundgren years back... something about him being able to "crack a walnut with his butt."

Thank you, Couloir, for clueing me in on the Bugster's employment woes with respect to your avatar pics. And HUGE thanks for returning to your "standard" stash of avatars.

SWAL, TG doesn't describe the actual event in the post; he just refers to the fact that he lost his 8-year-old daughter in a whitewater rafting accident. Still, I am sorry for your personal loss. And TG's... Children should outlive their parents.

I think it was this thread...

Did I miss the thread somewhere recently wherein Bug loses his job because of Couloir's avatar pics? Can someone catch me up to speed (linky, plz) so I don't appear so outta touch? OKTHNXBAI!

Lost I cried when I saw my son for the very first time, in his crib in Saigon. Never thought for a moment I could feel that way for something not of my loins. Did it again 3 years later in Chongquing. It just goes to show... Back on topic: Haven't lost Nicholas yet (knock knock), but one time Gramma and Nick were at the schoolyard down the street from her house when he was just over 2 years old. She left him (!!!!1) at the jungle gym and walked off about 200 yards with her goddamn mutts so they could take a shit. Found out about it later when he was crying to me about it that evening. I asked my MIL about it, and she was totally clueless. MIL: "Oh, he was right where I could see him all the time." Me: "How far away were you?" MIL: "The other corner of the playground." Me: "Geezuz Christ, Joan, that's 200 yards away! That's like from the Earth to the Moon for him!" He didn't want to go anywhere with Gramma for almost 2 years after that. Just didn't trust her. For that matter, neither did I... Lost my daughter at the Seattle Children's Museum when she was about 2 years old. My wife was (supposed to be) watching her while I was taking Nick around the "ping pong ball" room (those of you that have been there know what I'm talking about). We were there with our kids' cousin and his parents. The three parents start wagging their tongues when I walk up with Nick. Me: "Hey Hon, where's Elaina?" Wife: look of absolute and sheer terror once she realizes E is not there. Me: "I'm heading for the main entrance to have them close the gate (again, if you've been there, you would know it would be no problem to walk out with a kid, especially one who thinks that everyone is her friend)! You head that way (gesturing toward the water feature that we had just been forced to pry Elaina away from)! After getting the gate closed down, I ran back and started looking in the direction that we had been heading through the museum. There's a safari jeep in there just past the PP ball room, and there she was in the driver seat, tearing across the Serengeti plain at breakneck speed. Total elapsed time of panic: 3 to 4 minutes. Time off my life: 10 years.

This prolly ain't the place to post it, but Couloir, you need to go back to your previous style of avatar pics. I'm just sayin'...

JayB, Your self-deprecation knows no bounds. BTW, thanks for the "de-tilted" pic.

Oh please, O Omniscient and Evolved One, bless us thy lowly unbelievers with your sources. Or are your sources yourself, since you are the Sole Arbiter of Truth?

Looks bomber to me! Fix the camera tilt on Pic #2 to increase the Gnarly Factor.

Cross-posted from fogguy's second thread on this same topic:

I wasn't being sarcastic or anything when I said ^^, just that I really believe you guys are watching this one pretty closely. So do you think this will cause a change in WSDOT's thinking about what elements get modeled/looked at for load ratings/limits and/or overload permits?

Yeah, Rudy, I'll bet you have...

From today's ASCE newsletter: NTSB Says Design Flaw Found in I-35W Bridge The National Transportation Safety Board (NTSB) today announced that a serious design flaw was found in some of the gusset plates on the I-35W bridge in Minneapolis, which collapsed on Aug. 1, 2007. As a result, the NTSB issued a recommendation that the Federal Highway Administration (FHwA) require bridge owners to verify that the stress levels in all structural elements, including gusset plates, remain within applicable requirements whenever planned modifications or operational changes may significantly increase stresses. This would apply to all non-load-path-redundant steel truss bridges within the National Bridge Inventory. ASCE will continue to monitor the NTSB’s investigation and will incorporate the recommendations and lessons learned into our future technical and professional policies and standards. For enginurds and those with a similar interest in this catastophic failure, there are links to the NTSB Safety Recommendation Letter and the FHWA Interim Report at the bottom of the NTSB press release.