New and Experienced climbers over 50 #22

djkyote wrote:

Thanks for stating your misogyny using correct grammar.

He may not understand the American slang use of the word. 

Carl Schneiderwrote:

Cheers. I meant ‘being a pussy’ I’ve corrected it now. 

Good lord. The pcpolice are back.  Carl, how are you feeling?  Sorry your trip didn’t go exactly as you planned.  Hopefully you are recovering and hanging in there?  Is Cindy taking care of you?  There’s always next time. Take good care. (You can write a fuck COVID poem for us!)
——

I drove into the park today, got brave and decided to walk a short way.  Just close enough to take this picture, and head back home and collapse.  I thought of Guy after his surgery walking a little further every day.   

More like the decency police.
But phyl may be right, perhaps Carl doesn’t realize how his expression comes across to a US audience.

S. Neohwrote:

Conditions were passable this morning.  Did you make good progress on SoL today, Ward?

No, I was up at the new crag.  Finished bolting a new 16 bolt route.  I thought it was going to be harder, but figured out some good beta and maybe 5.12c.  Not sent yet, but I did it in two overlapping sections. The one to the right is Steve’s project, definitely some kind of 13.  

Ward Smithwrote:

No, I was up at the new crag.  Finished bolting a new 16 bolt route.  

Wow, Ward that looks surprisingly tall. Great find!

Just got home last night from a two-week trip to Northern Cal and the Southern Oregon Coast. No climbing, just lots of driving and eating. Couldn't be in much worse climbing shape. Time to start doing a little exercising.

I caught up on the last four or five pages of this thread, and have only one comment, concerning candles: In Buddhism, there is a long history of it adapting to the times and culture in which it finds itself. In this spirit, a while back I started using battery-powered electric candles in my meditation hut. They can even be set to flicker!

Todd Berlier wrote:

that cliff looks gorgeous. so cool that even in the densely populated NE you can find places like this! 

i got pretty close on my boulder project yesterday. got thru the crux from the start for the 1st time. 

Good luck on the boulder! Working on Speed of Life gave me some perspective.  My roped new route is a jug haul in comparison.

And there is quite a bit of undone stuff here in the Northeast, you just need to be willing to hike. 

Carl, Sorry you got sick.  Any time you get to climb a few routes though thats totally worth it!  hope you feel better soon!

Ward Smithwrote:

No, I was up at the new crag.  Finished bolting a new 16 bolt route.  I thought it was going to be harder, but figured out some good beta and maybe 5.12c.  Not sent yet, but I did it in two overlapping sections. The one to the right is Steve’s project, definitely some kind of 13.  

Wow.  Looks awesome Ward.  The height is impressive.  Does a 70m allow one to lower from the top of the route?  Or did you have to stop 'short' to accomodate a 70?
I have an 80m which I intend to taake to Europe on a trip I may never take. 12c is totally above my pay grade but would love to take it to the top of this impressive cliff on a more moderate route!
So, whenever you are ready to open the place up to riff raffs like me :) 

Brandt Allenwrote:

In Buddhism, there is a long history of it adapting to the times and culture in which it finds itself. In this spirit, a while back I started using battery-powered electric candles in my meditation hut. They can even be set to flicker!

Wow. Amazing that someone else knows Buddhism does not find science treathening or antigonistic to its core beliefs!

This past July, after an absence of 2.5 years, I visited the Buddhist temple where we kept memorial plagues of my parents.
So much had changed; required masking, and incense, candles, and joystick were almost all done away with. Mostly replaced by LED fascimiles.
I wanted to light three joysticks for the occasion. As was customary since my childhood. However, the posted rules clearly states one TINY joystick per worshipper!
I lit this puny stick, it hardly gave out any smoke (that is the point!!) and burnt itself out in less than 15 minutes (which is again the intent).
As I drove away after, I was at peace and somehow knew that my parents, being socially conscious people, did not mind getting only 1 joystick from me that day!

Not only does it not find science threatening, but the Dalai Lama once said, "If Buddhism and science disagree, Buddhism needs to change."

Mark E Dixonwrote:

More like the decency police.
But phyl may be right, perhaps Carl doesn’t realize how his expression comes across to a US audience.

Sorry. Being a pussy means being weak in my country. 

Nick Goldsmithwrote:

Carl, Sorry you got sick.  Any time you get to climb a few routes though thats totally worth it!  hope you feel better soon!

Thanks Nick. Feeling a little better now. 

Lori Milaswrote:

Good lord. The pcpolice are back.  Carl, how are you feeling?  Sorry your trip didn’t go exactly as you planned.  Hopefully you are recovering and hanging in there?  Is Cindy taking care of you?  There’s always next time. Take good care. (You can write a fuck COVID poem for us!)
——

I drove into the park today, got brave and decided to walk a short way.  Just close enough to take this picture, and head back home and collapse.  I thought of Guy after his surgery walking a little further every day.   

I have to stay in my room, which is now starting to become very boring as I’m feeling slightly better. Cindy leaves my meals outside my door. 

Carl Schneiderwrote:

Sorry. Being a pussy means being weak in my country. 

Carl, it means being weak and/or being frightened here too. But the original use of the word pussy to describe a cat, was then extended to describe women who were sweet and affectionate like a cat. Then it started, hundreds years ago, to be used as slang for a woman’s vagina or vulva (I believe Australians use “fanny” in a similar way, which has a different meaning in the US.  Here fanny is slang for derriere. )

Some  women have reclaimed the word but it still is loaded culturally.  No parent would teach their child to describe a body part that way  

In the US, in the 40s, “ you are a pussy” started to be used by men to describe other men who were weak or cowardly. In other words, have characteristics associated with women, “the weaker sex”.  So when you say, you’re a pussy, you are saying, you are a weak little girl.  

I have gathered from your posts that you do not think of women in that way at all. Have a good day, hope you are feeling better. 

Carl - what a drag to get sick in the middle of your road trip.  Very sorry to hear it, and I hope you feel better soon.

I had a great weekend up in Rumney.  My family rented a condo with another climbing family.  Weather was pretty good, though we did get rained out toward the end of one day.  I climbed reasonably well, and my wife sent a project of hers.  But the real highlight of the weekend was climbing Clip-a-dee-doo-dah.  

The climb is a two-pitch 5.3.  My wife led it, and I had my five-year-old daughter Roz clipped in near the end of the rope, with six feet of slack and then me tied in to the end to help her.  I then trailed a second rope, which I used to bring Roz's four year old friend Everett and his dad up in a similar fashion.

Here's a pic of Roz and Everett:

And in this photo, my wife (can't be seen through the foliage) is belaying from atop the first pitch, while Roz and I are a third of the way up pitch one.  We are at the end of the really easy bit, considering the rock as it gets steeper.  You can also see the rope I'm trailing for Everett and his dad.

We have climbed lots with them in the gym, and a fair bit outside, but have never done anything approaching this height or level of commitment.  I have to say, in retrospect, I think it was a great experience for them, but I'm not completely sure.  For both kids, it was about 1/3 fun and excitement, 1/3 pure terror and horror, and 1/3 a mix.  Both kids did most but not all of the moves on their own.  I learned by near the end of the second pitch that my daughter felt a lot of security if I just kept a hand on the small of her back, and was able to climb much more on her own with just the "power-spot" of feeling viscerally that I would catch her if she slipped.  But before that, in a few spots she got too scared to even try, and I had to carry her a couple of times.  I know that at the time this was very distressing to her, and she felt like a failure, though she pulled it together again after each of these moments.

In short, while I hope it was a chance for her to experience that she could do something she never thought she could do, with a little help from mom and dad.  That she could push through her fear.  And that her dad would always support her and help her, even when things got too scary.  But perhaps she just learned that her parents sometimes make her do things she doesn't want to do, and when she's bigger she'll be able to keep that from happening?  Who knows.  

One thing I'll say is that the next day she did want to try to climb something, and she did great, and didn't get scared.  So I guess even if it wasn't a fully positive experience, she's pretty resilient, and must have felt that climbing something smaller could still be fun.

Another highlight was the view from the condo we stayed in.  The last morning we woke up to find the whole valley below us socked in.  Roz and I wandered out as the sun was just rising, to see little islands poking out of an ocean of fog below us.  We both thought it looked truly magical.  Here's a shot from later (when I had my camera) as we were heading out, and the fog had started to break up.

GO

Well, I feel like I am being a pussy... but am waving the white flag and hoping my doctor will admit me to the hospital today.  I'm just not getting well, they haven't found the right anti-protozoal drug yet, and I'm wasted.  Tony folded his arms this morning and said "You need to be in the hospital, in bed, on an IV for days."  I don't know if they do that anymore.  But we're on our way to find out.  

I'll keep you posted.  

Oh, no. I hope they figure it out soon, Lori. Sending you healing thoughts.

Sorry to hear it's been going so badly Lori. I hope they can find the right drug for killing that little sucker -- and soon!

Best to you Lori