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New and experienced climbers over 50 # 25
Carl Schneiderwrote: Do you have woodchucks in Australia? I thought it was all 'roos and man-eating crocs? |
Carl Schneiderwrote: This is great, Carl. Good for you, and for the world. I was involved in two volunteer organizations in the Bay Area before I moved down here. I sometimes feel a bit guilty that I don't do volunteer work anymore, but the honest truth is that I feel very selfish about my time now, in my "senior" years. I'm busy with life maintenance chores and body maintenance workouts and fun every day, and by 6 or 7 PM, I'm tired and just want to sit. |
phylp phylpwrote: I am so glad you wrote this, Phylp! How wonderfully you said this. I did not know what to expect of retirement, and I didn’t realize I was habitually overworking and having to take life so seriously. I have been doing a lot of inner repair work since retiring and seriously learning how to say no. It’s really time to do what we love and take good care. Any other time in the past if I had a spare moment, I would be giving it away, in some kind of volunteer form. But now I am not saving the whales, and I am not in the parks handing out sandwiches, maybe that’ll change one day. This summer has been a real lesson in dropping baggage. Roaming and just sitting and following my curiosity has allowed fun and joy back into my life. I am so proud of everyone here for living their best life. |
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I want to leave sort of a sad weird update here. Living in Joshua Tree has been quite a learning curve. It’s sure not the big city but I also don’t think our experience truly reflects all of Joshua Tree. It’s just that here you deal with what comes your way and right now this is it. On Sunday night in my hotel room, I received a phone call from our neighbor three doors down in Joshua Tree. They are a young retired military couple who I have waved at when I am out for a walk, but we never formally met. A couple of weeks ago the guy who lives immediately to their left (that would be two doors down from me) showed up at their house around 2 AM screaming and yelling and pounding on the door. When they didn’t answer the door, he tried to kick their door in. Then he went around to the back of the house and tried to kick that door in. When all else failed he stabbed at their front door with a buck knife over and over and then picked up a large stone and threw it through their living room window. I’ve known this guy since we moved in and I am not surprised that he has done this. He is a scary dude. He was arrested based upon the video that they had at their house and they were given an immediate restraining order. But he bailed himself out of jail two days later and so now we have a second maniac living on our block. I really appreciate Russ getting right back to me with a to do list. We did it all in short order, including installing a Bing system. So now I get a notification even when Tony gets in his car to go to the gym or when the FedEx guy drops some thing off at the gate. I get a notification when Tony arms and disarms the inside alarms. There’s a few more things to do, but I refuse to live in fear. Now we have a neighborhood watch, and everyone has everyone’s phone number. It just feels like rattlesnakes, scorpions, and tarantulas and murderous neighbors are just a part of the experience. Generous kind neighbors are also part of the experience.  I’m sure Ross will agree that it’s probably due to Geo pathic stress and someone’s chakras are completely out of alignment. |
Andrew Ricewrote: I don’t even know what they look like. I’m thinking a bit like a beaver. |
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Lori, so sorry you are having to deal with all this. It’s just awful. The neighborhood watch sounds like a great idea. |
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Mark it’s a roped climbing comp. TR only for my category (over 50). The routes are from mid tens to mid twenties (Aust grading system). Normally I can TR a 22 but generally not as an onsight. The routes get harder the higher up you get. My strategy is to climb efficiently down low. Find a rest and plan the route, ‘chunking’ it. Also I need to lose about 3 kilos in about 10 days. |
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I've found that living next to psychotic people can eventually rub off in a dark thought kind of way. I'm not sure what infects certain neighborhoods but its real and totally worth getting away from, especially when they get put back into civilization so quickly. Its as if the local judicial system is begging you to put them down. |
Carl Schneiderwrote: You are correct. With a normal tail. A groundhog is a woodchuck.  Re. Lori's crazy neighbors, I think that's pretty par for the course in the desert. And you live in a nice neighborhood. Imagine what it's like on the "bad side" of town. On the other hand, I live by the beach in a zone of multi-million dollar homes and someone broke into my yard twice last week to steal two bikes and leave a box of human shit behind. So maybe it's just being human... |
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They actually were well manored enough to shit in a box? That sounds weird! Did they have to shit while stealing the bikes or after they failed stealing the bikes? |
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I wasn't going to enter into this whole thing about house and personal defense, but upthread somebody asked the question about if it was really that bad in southern California. It is. It's like the wild west here. Latest thing (beside the retail flash mobs and armed thefts of taco trucks) is two cars flanking you as you get off the highway and armed robbing you. I live in an upper middle class neighborhood and the "nextdoor" feed for my surrounding neighborhoods is a constant reporting of mail theft, package theft, car breakins, car thefts out of driveways, catalytic converter thefts, scam artists coming to doors and trying to talk their way into your house or yard, people walking up to your house and trying to gain entry by testing doors and windows, (all of the above caught on video) and actual house robberies, some armed. I'm always scanning the rear view mirror as I drive into my garage, and I don't get out of my car until the garage door is closed safely behind me. My key fob has a panic button that will get an immediate police response. We have a great police department with very fast response times. Our cars are all garaged, we have a home alarm system with motion detectors and glass breakage detectors, which works on battery even when there is no power and sends the alarm to the station by radio if there is no power. Our system, like Lori's new system, has exterior cameras that report movement in real time. We never open the door to a ring from someone we don't know. This isn't paranoia, it's reality. I do not live in fear at all but I keep my eyes open. There's nothing new about being crime-aware, I was almost mugged twice in inner city Boston when I lived there 40 years ago. Unlike poor Lori, we have great neighbors all around us. No one unhinged. All the neighbors know when the others are traveling, and keep an eye out. I'm happy for those of you who live in low crime areas, but this is a way of life for some of us. One funny note: last week I was in bed reading late at night when the Lorex system told me there was a person detected in the backyard. I switched onto live view and didn't see a thing. Other three cameras also quiet. After a few minutes I was able to play back the video, and saw a spider lower itself in front of the camera. If you squinted, it looked like a person walking in the distance! |
M Mwrote: I’ve been half kidding, half serious as I come up with theories about our neighborhood. I did actually talk to a guy who not only inspects buildings for mold and toxins, but he also looks at electrical currents and EMFs and something like feng shui. It’s his belief that there can be stressors within the Earth that can influence entire neighborhoods, such as aqueducts under homes, veins of minerals etc. I asked him to do his thing on our neighborhood, and he came up with a precise location where a murder or similar tragedy had occurred. He also suggested a remedy. I truly believe you can heal an area and love is a very powerful thing. But before diving into Reiki and incantations to heal, whatever is going on – – because there are two seriously ill neighbors, living, side-by-side – – it seems the first point of business is to take care of our house, boundaries, work legally with Videos and motion detectors, and any and all other practical ways of dealing with this. It may have been Russ who originally talked about this area in terms of its lack of services and the effects of isolation on people. These two guys were born and raised here and freely admit the only recreation they ever had was drinking. One was too shy to even date. So between girls and shooting stuff and the occasional barbecue, they really have nothing. They still call our national park which is 10 minutes away “the monument” and neither has been there in 20 years. ——- Full moon on this incredible hot August night. If there’s any way to go catch some moon rays tonight at the lake, I will be there. Grandkids tomorrow! —— EDIT: our posts crossed Phylp, thank you so much for writing what you have. That makes me feel a whole lot better! I am staying in Rocklin for a week which is just outside of Sacramento and while we had occasional crime here, it just wasn’t happening like what we are experiencing in Joshua Tree. We must have the same next-door feed because that’s what I read from my neighbors! There are several people who have suggested selling our home and going somewhere else but honestly, I think there is no perfect place and I don’t mind learning how to deal with this. I have so much gratitude that we actually have a choice to stay or leave and that we are able to reach out for help. And I think our police are pretty on their job, too. apparently having video evidence is the key right now. If you can give them a picture they can make an arrest. |
M Mwrote: Weirder still. The guy broke in one night and stole one bike. He came back two nights later and broke in again by jimmying a gate WHILE ALREADY CARRYING A BOX OF SHIT. Here's the video of him walking around my yard and leaving me the fecal present. Who the hell walks around carrying their last dump like it's a pizza box? I'm just glad he didn't dump one on camera. |
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I've been through the cops blowing smoke up the wazoo, they are trained to say the same things over and over, almost always ending up with "our hands are tied" after the psychos keep getting out over and over. I do know that the east coast cities have been through many cycles of ups and downs, many neighborhoods people used to think of as nice become downright nasty, people keep moving farther and farther away from it then eventually moving back and fixing things up. The west hasn't experienced this nearly as much, the sprawl outward just keeps going and going. Some people thrive by trying to slow the downward spiral , some people thrive hiding out in their well secured fort, some people like having the doors open all night with the car keys on the floor between the seats. Andrew, that slim dude looked as if he was still looking for a nice quiet spot to drop more gifts off! |
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and that folks is why I live in the country in the northeast. |
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"TR only for my category (over 50)." Carl, that's downright insulting. Phylp, some of the same here in utopian Boulder. Reading nextdoor is a similar experience -- bike and car thefts especially. And there are camps of druggies on bike paths and in parks. We're living in a more suburban neighborhood than I ever planned (or wanted) to, but it has its perks. Our little cul de sac is pretty tight knit. Several neighbors brought food and helped out after my surgery. |
Nick Goldsmithwrote: Traddy, Hush and Shush... Being "in the country in the northeast...." is like having a "secret crag...." AND: As we know: "The first rule of a secret crag? Don't talk about the secret crag..." WHY: Because everyone from J-Tree, Boulder, Los Angeles, etc, etc, etc... will want to come here... AND: It will become like the place they're fleeing. ed "it sucks here: bugs, rain, moss, cold, taxes, Bernie, etc, etc, etc..." e ps. "Moonlight in Vermont":  pps: And we have lots and lots of rattlesnakes and copperheads.... |
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I'll admit, living in crime ridden areas of the country did have its entertaining moments, like when my perpetual criminal neighbor borrowed Lt. Nice Police officer's wheelbarrow to steal from hard working nice family's backyard while I watched from the porch. The worst was when perpetual criminal family's(another neighbor) pit bull got loose and ripped hard working nice family kid's face off or the single car street races in front of Lt. Nice Police officer's house at 3am a few times a week. It's sad that one of the common themes with the criminal crazies is they have no outlets like all of us do. We put so much focus on other ways of helping when all these folks need is a nice community center, some role models and a quart or two of water a day. |
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On this short trip to Sacramento I’ve been aware of some of the challenges of being a ‘climber over 50’… sort of a reality check. It’s been a tough road trip. I carry the image of me, as a 16 year old, with my thumb out, not a care in the world, and just going. No cell phone. Only a worn out pair of blue jeans, jacket… and GO. It’s just not that way now. Finding a hotel, making reservations, servicing my car, gassing up, packing for days, figuring out food (a big one), lugging my gluten free stuff with me because most restaurants don’t carry it… and then thinking about emergencies: diabetic supplies, which seem endless. And the ‘what if’s’.. like, the possibility of getting an infection (happened last year, and completely surprised me)… short of calling an ambulance, it’s a challenge to deal with this from a hotel room. So, I bring backup Amoxicillin, allergy stuff, a ton of things I will never use, but if I needed it, it’s there. (Ie. bring your own parachute). Water. And then, climbing gear. Water gear. Stuff for the grandkids. This is the first time that, after a 10 hour drive, I arrived at a hotel and just couldn’t manage to unload my car and get it all on the gurney and into my room. I was swearing and fighting with the damned gurney all the way. It lodged in the doorway. I was hungry. Nothing but a Big Mac (without bun) locally. And 4 different door keys didn’t work… long walk to front desk to ask for a fresh one AGAIN. It’s not fun. This is why I have repeatedly invited myself to ride along with Jan and Guy, in the trunk, and be happy to carry the 14 pound backpack and eat trout for breakfast. ——- I used to travel all the time for business, and even if I had to lug 4 kids with me, I just accepted the work. Today the thought of just ’swinging by’ Yosemite, or packing for COR is completely daunting. In moving to Josh, I wanted the dirtbag-ish experience—to be able to disappear for half-days every day, roam without any cell connection, be in my happy place, and go home to pasta. Actually, it doesn’t feel like a compromise at all. It was a totally wise decision. Tony is mostly disabled now, really hates travel except to get from Point A to B… just can’t stay in hotels. So, I’m doing what I do alone. I feel like it’s time for me to accept that, and create a new plan for having adventures. Maybe most of us just approximate our dreams, but in doing that, still live the dream most people won’t even attempt. (?) We seem to find ways of working around limits. Can’t climb outside? Climb in the gym! Can’t boulder anymore? There’s still roped climbing. And if you can’t climb at all… there’s still magnificent hiking, camping. I’m interested to hear what you all do ‘instead’ of what you maybe thrived at decades ago… how’s it for you now? —— Josh, for me, is my spiritual place, my happy place, and I will be busy a lifetime exploring it. I’m not sure how many more away-trips I’ll be taking alone. BTW… Interesting for me… this could change!… is that the whack neighbors, the bugs and critters, the heat and cold… are all FINE with me. This is home. I believe this was a secret video of Jan trout fishing.   |
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We've been living in our home north of Philly in what was ex'urbs and are now simply suburbs for 30 years. I read the experiences of Lori and others and just feel so fortunate to have had decent neighbors. While we're not close to our neighbors like we were decades ago, because we all had kids of roughly the same age, the new neighbors do watch out for each other. Did take a day off work yesterday to go surfing. The east coast is finally firing. This weekend should be good (read: no Gunks) and next week I might need to take another day. Looking forward to not running a team of young engineers in a year or two. |
