New and experienced climbers over 50 # 25

Can weenis extend up to the shoulder area or is that something else?

Tomato pics from Maine coming, still green damnit!

Bb Cc wrote:

Weenies that extend up to the shoulders are fledgling angel wings.

I suspect the plural would be weenisses.  Weenies that extend up the shoulder, although most impressive, are a different animal.

Tim Schafstallwrote:

I suspect the plural would be weenisses.  Weenies that extend up the shoulder, although most impressive, are a different animal.

After all this silence this is your contribution to the climbing conversation?    

---

I was listening to an interview this morning with Daniel Woods, the boulderer who has been making waves the last few years.  He strikes a tender cord in me because he reminds me so much of my son Jeremy.  Anyway, he and a few friends run the climbing platform Mellow.  Listening to Daniel, I wonder how the bouldering of today compares to what many of you were doing at Stoney Point.  I wonder what Bachar would have thought of these guys and whether he would have led the pack or scoffed.  These guys are amazing.

Was Stoney Point strictly bouldering?  Could it be said that bouldering was in its infancy at that time?  Could there have been a V10 problem?  

Interestingly, this kid could boulder like crazy, but a 20 foot slab on a walk off totally freaked him out.  

-------------

I'm on the fence about writing more today but I'd like to leave this here. My best friend came and spent another week with us, along with her little dog--and this time it didn't go so well.  The dog is 'anxious' and went shit-crazy anytime someone knocked at the door, or yesterday when the solar guys were here on the roof installing, "Bunny" barked, yelped and screeched non-stop for 4 hours, while I was out climbing. (serious guilt here)  Tony kept his mouth shut.  By this morning when my friend left to go home, there was barely a good bye.  

When did she stop reading anything but Facebook conspiracy theories?  She has no TV. No music! (we lived for music throughout the 60's).  She has no computer.  Lives to scroll on her cell phone. "I'm not interested" was her most common response to anything we talked about.  Except for "What about Hunter?"  24/7 interest in that.   

So... what this has to do with being an 'Over 50 Climber" is that I don't want to be that! And I'm lonely.  I love that many of us here do Wordle.  Fish, hunt, climb, hike, camp.  Grow tomatoes.  Read.  Drive fast and listen to all kinds of music.   

There is a new series on Disney+/National Geographic channel called Limitless with Chris Hemsworth... one of the best shows I've ever seen.  He was given the diagnosis of having two sets of the APOE4 gene for Alzheimers which makes his likelihood of getting Alzheimers some 10x that of the regular population.  So he set out to learn what he could about aging, and about preventing disease. They filmed 6 1-hour shows throwing down huge challenges to deal with Stress, Strength, Memory, Acceptance.  Every moment had info for those of us who want to keep on keeping on.

Reminds me to pull out my tattered copy of the Blue Zone diet issue of NG. 

Lori, your friend is a really sad case. I'm not in as close touch with my old friends as I like, but they're all physically or mentally active or both. I have a hard time understanding that level of willful ignorance and cultural isolation. Meanwhile, in the absence of physical activity, I've gone beyond wordle to spelling bee. The bee has such a friendly smile. 

Lori, sad as it may be, your friend is more "normal" than any of us on here. We aren't the norm. And, my cynical self thinks the "system" wants it that way.

So....

It was super fun last night, when we went to see a nice little indie film called N Men. It's about the skateboarding old timers from the Sacramento area. Great movie, go if it's in your area! They opened it in Sac, won something at an LA film fest, and "opened" it in Boise also. 

Anyway, these dudes are all more or less our age ranges, and largely still skating. Their lives have encompassed all that we would expect. 

The best part?

The audience. It's the first time I've ever seen seats being held with skateboards! The age range was terrific, and very enthusiastic. Also interesting, mostly young, and old, not a lot of middle, and, young soooo stoked to be with the old people. It was all so familiar, since the closeness and support for community was so apparent. A lot like climbing, except when we crash, we die, they might get off with broken bones and colossal road rash.

Wordle, I am on a 14ish day streak. I didn't get defeated, it's better than that. Camping, where there's.....nothing. No connection to anything. I rather like that.

I'm not just wordle, but the whole little set of puzzles. Wordle, spelling bee (I resort to hints after I get most of them. Then it's a vocab test. Big fan of the companion!), the mini crossword, 3 more. That's my morning routine, once the kitty is fed and I have coffee in hand. 

I'm just home from errands, including picking up my CSA (Community Supported Agriculture) share. It's a half share, the full share, but every other week. The real winner this week are the purple viking spuds! Such a flamboyant variety! 

When they are washed up, from fresh dug, they'll also have bright pink through the purple. Look like planets, or something! Yellow flesh, and very tasty.

Anyone on here a BASE jumper? Or would consider it? I expect I'll do a tandem jump, with the right person, sooner or later, just because Perrine bridge here, is a big part of that community.

Looks like I need to do a Thai stir fry soon, the share included jalapeno peppers. I have a great recipe that uses them like green peppers! 

Best, Helen

Old lady Hwrote:

Lori, sad as it may be, your friend is more "normal" than any of us on here. We aren't the norm. And, my cynical self thinks the "system" wants it that way.

Wendy, Helen... thank you for your thoughts on this.  I feel brokenhearted today.  Friends and family are SO precious.  

I keep asking... when do we get 'old'?  What is 'old'?  Is this how we lose our friends, even as they are still breathing? I really believe somehow we fulfill what we always expected--that is, my friend expected to die in her 70's, and is not fighting it.  It's the way her mom, dad and sisters went.  

I'm trying to view my friend through the eyes of compassion... maybe she's overwhelmed being alone and unhealthy.  Maybe she's afraid.  This morning on her way home her 'check engine' light came on, she pulled over and called me.  She didn't know how to call AAA.  She went to Stephens College and USC.  I took some of those classes with her.  We don't know how to google the phone number for AAA now?  

I love your skateboarding friends, Helen.  That's probably why I'm drawn to Daniel Woods and his Mellow buds.  I love their laughter.  I love their irreverence, and talent.  I really don't care what it is we do, just stay in love with life, stay connected, do something.    

I have the same routine as you every morning, Helen... Wordle, Spelling Bee (by far my favorite) the Minis. I kind of freaked out when I was so sick last year thinking my brain was leaving me.  I asked myself if I could return to my job if I had to... and during that time I couldn't have.  I couldn't add two numbers together.  I've been slowly catching up on desk work this last 6 weeks, cranking numbers into Quickbooks, firing those neurons, feeling my brain back to normal.  I think I almost 'could' go back to work if I had to.  Really nice.  

Just climbed my fourth day in a row.  Two with Steve and now Isa and I are on the road and we found a multi pitch cliff in NH with easy approach and easy but run out climbing so Isa wrapped her knee and was able to follow 5.7 ok but the one 5.8 we did was painful. We did two climbs yesterday afternoon and it was so good we came back to the same place again today. Now headed to Maine. 

Wanting our friends to live up to our expectations only leads to unhappiness.

View out the back window while sitting on toilet in my RV. Pine trees, wild flowers, granite boulders.

Lori… Bottom line, and you don’t want to accept this, at some point your body just falls apart from old age. It will not grow big muscles and will “hurt” a lot for almost no reason- it starts around age 50- remember the first time you woke up in the morning and something just “hurt” for no reason. I do.
Warming UP…. Heck even when I was 14 and started running cross country I would get a “side stitch” that hurt like hell, made me want to stop running- but the experienced older runners told me to just run it off. I think life is like that- you go until you can’t.
Gettin out climbing is way good. I hold every climb I can do to be a gift. I even have “projects” that I try …a 5.6 and a 5.9D I’m working on, I’ll keep working on that till the end.

—————————————————————-

Your friend lives in Rosemond? I have lots of experience with that town- you should visit the place- it might explain some things to you.

—————————————————————

Okay back to good stuff…. Stoney Point has climbing - everything. Have you watched the Documentary? The hardest Boulder problem there is V10 - only true bouldering people like it because it’s hard as F … the easy V10’s are found at RedRocks. I’ll post some photos- for some reason MP stopped working correctly for me as far as photos go.

—————————————————————

Wendy - most happy you came through your surgery. Heal up 

Later all- enjoy 

Phylp… so you too? Posting while sitting down. LOL

Some old time climbing stuff…. Bosch death traverse 

I've been out of circulation for a bit; friends and close family have been hit hard by health issues.  I'm fine but now have some caretaker responsibilities that---for now---severely restrict my ability to get out.  I'm managing maybe once a week for 2-3 hours in the climbing gym and an occasional short hike nearby; that's going to be it for the near future, long-term might well be a lot better but it is too soon to know for sure.  Sorry if anyone has emailed me and I didn't respond.  I'm way behind in my correspondence and don't know if I'll ever properly wade through all the accumulated spam and so get to the widely-scattered things that truly matter.

I'm not at all interested in word games. I spend a few hours a day working on math problems of varying degrees of difficulty, much of it as part of answering math questions on Quora. Most of the material is at the level of an undergraduate math major, e.g. linear algebra, so is not "advanced" for me, but I am almost daily confronted with things I don't seem to know as well as I should, and it is a great pleasure to fill in various holes in my knowledge.

My first hobby, as a 9 or 10-year-old, was photography, and I've maintained a serious amateur interest in it my whole life. With my recent restriction to the home front, I'm a little less able to visit the kind of landscapes I most like to photograph, but hopefully that will change. In the meantime, images lurk even in our garden.

I don't have any friends like Lori's barking dog friend.  I  have one or two fairly right-wing friends, but they are in full possession of their faculties and know the difference between a cold soup made of raw blended vegetables and the German secret police.  A few have asked if there is any way I could get them some of my people's space lasers, but I have to confess that Soros has stopped answering my emails so there is little hope.  We stay away from politics and we're fine.  

My high-school friends are all high achievers.  Ph D's, MD's JD's, journalists, movie producers, artists, dancers, educators,  captains of industry---it's quite a crew, and reunions are an exercise in humility for all.  A few years ahead of me are some folks who were part of the climbing scene in the Gunks in the 1950's. They fell in with the Appies and I fell in with the Vulgarians, so I won that one.

It's strange closing in on 80 and seeing friends and loved ones falling by the wayside---for quite a few it's been the Great Wayside in the Sky. Among other things, even a faltering illusion of invincibility is impossible to maintain. Tomorrow, if it comes at all, could be a very different sort of day than today. One of my friends was pulling down hard in the climbing gym one day and paralyzed on one side by a stroke the next. Old age seems a bit like high-stakes mountaineering. You never know what crevasse might open up, cornice collapse, or avalanche overwhelm.

I guess this could all be depressing, but I find myself inexplicably cheerful most of the time. My recent life is an example of the old Jewish saying that if you want to give god a good laugh, just tell him your plans. For some reason, I can't help but chuckle along with god; the best-laid schemes of Mice and Men Gang aft agley. I've often thought that climbing---especially trad climbing, which is almost all I do---is about Dealing With What Is. And now old age seems to be tossing a whole new and mostly unwelcome set of What Is's at us. But it's still game on right?

Thanks for the video and pics, Guy.  I watched your video.  Just finished watching this one.  

Unbelievable strength.  My arms hurt just watching.  But true beauty there, and even a little glimpse of strategy for climbing through fatigue.  

---

Yes, my friend is from Rosamond and I've stayed with her for months at a time and got to know the town pretty well.  The place kind of depressed me, although I couldn't say why.  If you have insight into Rosamond, bring it!  Strange that two desert towns could feel so different.  For a short while I contemplated moving there, but just couldn't see it.  I think the changes in my friend started before she moved there 20 years ago... but have just continued until there is almost no way to understand one another.    

Did you know that real aliens now live on earth and they require human blood... so 'the government' has allowed all the illegal immigrants in to feed the aliens?  That's why so many get to cross the border.  It's a pact with the aliens to leave American citizens alone.  

------------

Where's Carl? 

---------

Oh, rgold.  I'm so happy you wrote!  I think we have all wondered where you are, and HOW you are.  I think you would enjoy LImitless... it's all about exactly what you just wrote.  Please stay in touch. 

Lori Milaswrote:

Did you know that real aliens now live on earth and they require human blood... so 'the government' has allowed all the illegal immigrants in to feed the aliens?  That's why so many get to cross the border.  It's a pact with the aliens to leave American citizens alone. 

Pretty common knowledge right there.  Whadd’ya, last gal on the deal team?  

Hello Rich, Sorry about your family’s health issues. I hope that things improve for everyone in the very near future.

Yes, getting old is increasingly like an ‘X-rated’ pitch!!!! I am trying to take it one day at a time, but am finding it hard to adjust to reduced performance levels.

Was the person who you mentioned had a stroke anyone I know—p.m. me if it is?

Hope you stay well.

Lori Milaswrote:

Did you know that real aliens now live on earth and they require human blood... so 'the government' has allowed all the illegal immigrants in to feed the aliens?  That's why so many get to cross the border.  It's a pact with the aliens to leave American citizens alone.  

That border wall folks keep chanting about building would turn the Freedom Caucus into the Alien Blood Bank.  Those caucus folks really do need to do their research.

rgoldwrote:

That border wall folks keep chanting about building would turn the Freedom Caucus into the Alien Blood Bank.  Those caucus folks really do need to do their research.

Thank you for the above (& Lori). A bit of humor directed at the prevailing lunatic fringe (not the 10c variety) helps a bit.

rgoldwrote:

That border wall folks keep chanting about building would turn the Freedom Caucus into the Alien Blood Bank.  Those caucus folks really do need to do their research.

Unfortunately YouTube is about as deep as they dig for information past Foxnews...

Folks may abuse social media as well with misinformation/disinformation but I still believe that it has its place and can be a good tool in the box.

I like how the news is beginning to report on "phubbing" , the act of people ignoring their surroundings in favor of scrolling their phone. Its definitely a new phenomena, its especially sad to see couples at restaurants that are both staring at their phones. I see whole families on vacation doing it too, even kids walking on trails with the screen on the whole time...

Nick, will you be coming to Acadia or Clifton? The bugs have been manageable even with the major rain. I haven't been climbing much this summer but would totally meet up one day, maybe even for a swim, paddle or a bike.