New and Experienced Climbers Over 50 #16

Lori Milaswrote:

Guy. So glad you reported in.  You’ve come such a long way.  You know healing takes time.  So take it.  

You’ve been a support and cheering squad to everyone here.  So let us cheer you on!  Take your fish oil (you are taking that, right?) and tart cherry for inflammation.  You’ll be good to go. 

Tart cherry? Wonder if that helps with bursitis? I'm si k on my elbow bursitis it just keeps coming back, I really don't know what to do now... 

Guy sounds like he's keeping on keeping on... 

Hey Carl,  free advice is worth what you pay for it, so here it comes. I've had to lay off climbing due to injury before and it's not easy because my social circles are in that community, however I will say that slab climbing if you have any near by is a thing I do more of if I start trashing my arms. I sympathize dude.

Carl Schneiderwrote:

Tart cherry? Wonder if that helps with bursitis? I'm si k on my elbow bursitis it just keeps coming back, I really don't know what to do now... 

Guy sounds like he's keeping on keeping on... 

Carl, what is it with you guys?  Just a few weeks ago you told us the doctor told you to stay off that elbow for a good while. (6 weeks?)  You haven't let it heal.  You can't aggravate it like that!  But what you apparently heard was "Go back and start doing laps."   Maybe it's some kind of weird Aussie 'lost in translation' thing. You gotta give that elbow some time and love.

These physical therapists are climbers.  Maybe watch these videos and see what you think.  

https://www.healthline.com/health/food-nutrition/ways-cherry-juice-benefits-you#fights-inflammation

https://www.grassrootsselftreatment.com/collections/golfers-elbow

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It's a climbing day for me here today.  We'll be at Turtle Rock checking out one of Todd's routes on the shady wall.  I'm intrigued by this route because looking at it from the side it looks very difficult/impossible--almost overhung steep slab at the crux with no holds, a few edges for crimping. There go the fingernails!  There's always a way, I just don't see it, yet.  For sure it could be a knee-scraper, so I'll wear some long pants.

It seems the most frequent words I hear these days are "Get your hips in, Lori."  Remembering breath, hips, centering, core... and it's helped so much to watch those vids of Lonnie with his face to the wall.  

Tony may come, if he can bear to watch.  It's just a few yards from the parking lot.  Maybe he'll bring the deep dish pizza he's been threatening to make.  Or hamburgers.  It could be a party.  If anyone wants to drop by and keep him company... we should be there after 3 and until sunset.    

Thursday is the big day around here.  We go back to see the spine surgeon in Costa Mesa, with all the required MRI, CT, Xrays to get the verdict. Is there a surgery that will help, or not?  Reading Guy's words to snowman, I apologized to Tony again last night.  He doesn't complain, so I forget what he's dealing with... pain is a bitch.  I'm sorry he has to endure this.  I wish I could help in some way.  

Well, I do get him to talking about cars.  I am wanting to frame some of the most "Tony" things here in this house... so I asked him to show me his favorite car(s).  And then we spent an afternoon discussing... "if money was no object, and you HAD to have an expensive car... what would it be"?  Anyone else have a choice?  I'll post Tony's answers later.  I have my own choices.  (Another frameable pic... Tony's favorite Chicago hot dog place, Gene and Jude's.  I'm sure totally organic and grass fed.    ) 

Mclaren M8F 

Ferrari Enzo

I just found out the Jeep 4xe (plug-in hybrid) exists. That's kind of exciting! We're on the cusp of having some great electric and hybrid vehicles that are less guilt inducing, so yea!

Victor Kwrote:

I just found out the Jeep 4xe (plug-in hybrid) exists. That's kind of exciting! We're on the cusp of having some great electric and hybrid vehicles that are less guilt inducing, so yea!

Can't wait to have an electric/hybrid option that can also tow our trailer.

Williams FW11 …… room for one.

Lori- you need to surprise Tony. Go here after the Doc in Irvine.
https://www.petersen.org/ 

Good luck with the climbing. 

Carl- rest that sucker- go for a motorcycle ride. I loved the photo- history of your little town- and the bouldering spot close by. Looks good. 

Guy Keeseewrote:

Lori- you need to surprise Tony. Go here after the Doc in Irvine.
https://www.petersen.org/ 

Guy, the Peterson is great but mid-Wilshire is probably an hour 15 min from UCI.  Easier to sit in some little restaurant on route 1 in Newport Beach and watch all the very expensive cars drive by.

phylp phylpwrote:

Guy, the Peterson is great but mid-Wilshire is probably an hour 15 min from UCI.  Easier to sit in some little restaurant on route 1 in Newport Beach and watch all the very expensive cars drive by.

Oh man! I’m trying to get the hang of this car thing... have looked up every car that has been posted here so far and WOW!  There’s a string of lots in Palm Springs that have very special cars and we do stop and gaze... I’m partial to the Bentleys but Tony loves Lamborghini.  $336,000. Probably the base model.   

I’ll hold the Peterson for a day when we’re free to roam. I’ve been wanting to take him to the PS Air Museum too... love pretending I was gunnery dude in a ball turret in WW2.  

When can we talk about climbing?   

BTW... we stopped to look at the Bronco Sport yesterday.  Very sweet little car. 

phylp phylpwrote:

Guy, the Peterson is great but mid-Wilshire is probably an hour 15 min from UCI.  Easier to sit in some little restaurant on route 1 in Newport Beach and watch all the very expensive cars drive by.

Yes- but you won’t see the worlds first RV or a exhibit of a 1940 Hot Rod shop or Big Daddy’s original “Swamp Rat”.  Or another treat is the Air plane exhibit at Chino Airport…. They have that B17…. I could not fit in the ball gunners seat.

So Lori I do eat Fish oil, and Advil, and when I really hurt Oxy… I have never been the sort of person who thinks you must deprive yourself of the good things in life to be fit- just keep it in check.

How did the climbing go???

You'd be amazed at some of the places I could go with my 1st Gen Honda Insight.  I drove it all over the country, down many roads that were more-boulder-than-dirt, and got 70 MPG.  Yeah, I got plenty of looks, but I wanted a car that minimized my carbon footprint, and damn if I didn't get good at tetrissing all our gear/food/water etc. in there, and finding the right line on a nasty road.

Lori: F*ck anybody who thinks your car (or you by extension) don't belong.  Drive what you want to drive and let other people mind their business.

GO

Victor Kwrote:

I just found out the Jeep 4xe (plug-in hybrid) exists. That's kind of exciting! We're on the cusp of having some great electric and hybrid vehicles that are less guilt inducing, so yea!

Until your car runs on fuel cells or solar, the energy is coming from somewhere and being stored in something. So far as coming from somewhere is concerned, I don't see anyone even thinking about upgrading the power grid to handle the demand of all these plug-in cars getting charged. What could possibly go wrong?  So far as being stored in something is concerned, study up on lithium mining. 

From Friends of the earth:

“…when considering battery-powered vehicles that rely on lithium, it's important to ask where the lithium comes from.

The answer? Not America. That's not to say America doesn't have lithium, it does, but most of the lithium that America uses is imported from other countries. America's import sources are: Argentina, 52%; Chile, 44%; and China, 3%. This necessarily leads to the next question, ‘Why does America prefer to rely on imported lithium?’

Simply put, lithium, in its pure form, doesn't occur naturally on Earth. So in order to obtain it, it must be mined through hard rock or salar brines. More importantly, salar brines -- the most economical and popular way of obtaining lithium -- destroy the environment.

The extraction of lithium has significant environmental and social impacts, especially due to water pollution and depletion. In addition, toxic chemicals are needed to process lithium. The release of such chemicals through leaching, spills or air emissions can harm communities, ecosystems and food production. Moreover, lithium extraction inevitably harms the soil and also causes air contamination.”

The European Commission on Science for Environmental Policy states that "[lithium's] continued use needs to be monitored, especially as lithium mining's toxicity and location in places of natural beauty can cause significant environmental, health, and social impacts." 

So far as I can determine, the very low 3% number from China is because most of the lithium we import from China comes in the form of manufactured battery cells, and isn't counted as imported lithium. And companies which represent themselves as making their own batteries here are lying. This includes Tesla's Nevada facility. They are not making batteries, they are assembling components made in China.

Sorry to throw a turd in the punch bowl. For the foreseeable future electric cars have a big environmental impact. But for us here that impact is kept at arms length, in countries where apparently their environment is worth less than ours.

Kristian Solemwrote:

...Sorry to throw a turd in the punch bowl. For the foreseeable future electric cars have a big environmental impact. But for us here that impact is kept at arms length, in countries where apparently their environment is worth less than ours.

So what are you in favor of?

Being a conscientious environmentalist, I plan to be an activist against Argentinian lithium mining by making the 66 SS chevelle my dream car choice.

Yeah, the people that think electric cars are the alternative to fossil fuels don't understand. The fossil fuel use at the power plants will have to increase to meet the demand for the ever-increasing number of electric cars.

In a simplified view, it's just a transfer of fossil fuel use from the cars to the power plants. 

Edit: Here's the approximate breakdown of electricity sources in the US:

Fossil fuel         60%

Nuclear power  20%

Renewable  (solar, wind, hydropower)                                20%

This caught my eye at my mechanics recently! An extended Toyota Land Cruiser, very beautifully restored. Not sure what he was still planning on doing. It would be a great dirtbag mobile, if it wasn't so pretty!

In terms of electric? There's more than fossil fuel powering the electric grid. As much as it's progressed so far? I think we'll easily see considerable improvements coming. No, it isn't there yet, but purchasing now at least is a vote for it going toward more efficiency and sustainability.

And, sadly, yes, a great deal of what we do and consume in the U.S. is...well, pretty piggishly at the expense of other places. We out consume pretty much everyone, and don't even have the best standard of living to show for it. My two cents, anyway.

Best, Helen

Victor Kwrote:

So what are you in favor of?

Let's assume, for starters, that we humans have the ability to develop a clean energy source. Given that I think this is true, we need to do things right now that actually make sense. For example, from my front porch I have a view all the way across the San Gabriel Valley basically from N/E to S/W. The visibility varies, but more days than not  I see all the way out to Palos Verdes (35 mi). Frequently I see out to Catalina (55 mi). Remarkable, really, and not uncommon. But no matter how clear the air, the city of Long Beach, plainly with view, is always covered by a brownish gray cloud. Why? It's mostly ships sitting in the harbor. These beasts from around the world are registered to countries which don't enforce the most basic regulation, and we let them park off shore for days or longer, running their boilers the entire time, burning shit oil. LB is also a rail-trucking hub. But from where I sit I can see it's the ships. Evidence, from my vantage point, is that the pollution sources/carbon emissions in the Long Beach/L.A. Harbor area are far greater than all emissions across the rest of the valley. 

Industry will wail that we're driving up the cost of goods, and indeed we might, but when it comes to carbon emissions there are a number of elephants in various corners. Areas/activities producing gross pollution need to be brought to task. You don't want to clean up the emission from your ship? Clean up your burning process and scrub what comes out the stacks? Find a way to shut down your boilers while in port? An APU of some kind? Then stay out of our territorial waters. Take away their ability to transact business with the busiest port on the planet and they'll figure it out. Fast. 

Another elephant is to see carbon emissions on a global scale. India and China. If we develop a clean energy technology, they'll need to have it too, or it's all a moot point.

That's one of many examples. One thing we must learn from the Covid episode is that tele-commuting works. My wife hasn't driven downtown to her office in more than a year. We got rid of her car. That cuts our automotive carbon foot print by well over by half. Why go back to the old normal of masses of office workers travelling to and fro? 

So what am I in favor of? Going after the gross polluters. Then, and we're already doing it, come up with doable bridge technologies to get us to the finish line without wrecking our economy at the same time. In order to innovate ourselves out of fossil fuels, we will need a robust and healthy economy, an environment where people and companies can feel driven to take risks again. 

One example of what I refer to as a bridge technology might be Freevalve camless engine. 

So, the reviews I've seen of the Jeep 4xe has it performing exceptionally well off road, due to the availability of full torque from zero rpm. Another point made was that. because it is effectively silent, it's very easy to hear your spotter. Sounds great on its own terms. I've also had my eyes rattling around in their sockets from the acceleration in a Tesla 3. So, one might want an electric car because they are awesome.

Personally, my engineering hero was Colin Chapmen, and his Lotus credo "add lightness". That is not a thing anymore, unfortunately. My gas powered dream car is a Super 7. Now I'm starting to ponder what you could do with an electric power train in that car.

Kristian Solemwrote:

Let's assume, for starters, that we humans have the ability to develop a clean energy source. Given that I think this is true, we need to do things right now that actually make sense. For example, from my front porch I have a view all the way across the San Gabriel Valley basically from N/E to S/W. The visibility varies, but more days than not  I see all the way out to Palos Verdes (35 mi). Frequently I see out to Catalina (55 mi). Remarkable, really, and not uncommon. But no matter how clear the air, the city of Long Beach, plainly with view, is always covered by a brownish gray cloud. Why? It's mostly ships sitting in the harbor. These beasts from around the world are registered to countries which don't enforce the most basic regulation, and we let them park off shore for days or longer, running their boilers the entire time, burning shit oil. LB is also a rail-trucking hub. But from where I sit I can see it's the ships. Evidence, from my vantage point, is that the pollution sources/carbon emissions in the Long Beach/L.A. Harbor area are far greater than all emissions across the rest of the valley. 

Industry will wail that we're driving up the cost of goods, and indeed we might, but when it comes to carbon emissions there are a number of elephants in various corners. Areas/activities producing gross pollution need to be brought to task. You don't want to clean up the emission from your ship? Clean up your burning process and scrub what comes out the stacks? Find a way to shut down your boilers while in port? An APU of some kind? Then stay out of our territorial waters. Take away their ability to transact business with the busiest port on the planet and they'll figure it out. Fast. 

Another elephant is to see carbon emissions on a global scale. India and China. If we develop a clean energy technology, they'll need to have it too, or it's all a moot point.

That's one of many examples. One thing we must learn from the Covid episode is that tele-commuting works. My wife hasn't driven downtown to her office in more than a year. We got rid of her car. That cuts our automotive carbon foot print by well over by half. Why go back to the old normal of masses of office workers travelling to and fro? 

So what am I in favor of? Going after the gross polluters. Then, and we're already doing it, come up with doable bridge technologies to get us to the finish line without wrecking our economy at the same time. In order to innovate ourselves out of fossil fuels, we will need a robust and healthy economy, an environment where people and companies can feel driven to take risks again. 

One example of what I refer to as a bridge technology might be Freevalve camless engine. 

I can't dispute any of this but all these efforts to promote the use of clean energy are only confronting the little elephants.  The daddy elephant is our insatiable appetite for energy - clean, dirty or in between.  We  need to reduce that.  How about no private vehicles?  Period.  But even that is ignoring the grand daddy elephant - overpopulation.  Until that is (drastically) reduced all these little measures won't change things much.   But I bet mother earth has something up her sleeve - I suspect Covid is just a warning shot...