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New and Experienced Climbers over 50 #31
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Might as well keep going while we're still alive. Besides. we're just one short crux move away from solving our nation's political problems. |
Brandt Allenwrote: Which goes to prove new and experienced climbers over 50 should rule the world! |
Brandt Allenwrote: Realistically, it is more of a power endurance problem with multiple cruxes in the V17/18 range ( trad, with poor rock, X-rated and in the Alpine) but we should still keep working on it!!!! |
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It's kind of hard to believe... that this virtual campfire is still going strong. I feel like the universe has sent me some powerfully strong messages in the last few days to help me adjust my feelings of doom and gloom about aging. I don't even realize when the dread and anxiety are creeping up again, but it's a slowly sinking feeling. This may be our contribution to the understanding of aging... that we seem to be giving the middle finger to age. (Carl, included). When Tony drove here from Chicago in 2019, he was kind of a mess. (but a happy mess). Moving to Roseville, being with me, was his Hail Mary. He signed on with Kaiser in Northern California, and was immediately referred to a Cardiologist who ran various tests on him including an Echo. We were told he was in acute Heart Failure. He had an 'ejection fraction' of 30-35%, out of control Afib, a very enlarged heart. The Cardiologist told us both that his Heart Failure was incurable, not fixable, and that the BEST he could hope for was just not to get worse. That meant a stringent diet, weekly calls from a Heart Nurse, and ongoing testing. He was exhausted, pale and also in a lot of pain from his back... at 70 years old. Tony is now 75, and he just had the same heart tests as before. Everything is now in the Normal range. His ejection fraction is 55%... as good as it gets. All the markers that were low 5 years ago, especially iron, hormones, etc... are now 'Optimal" and perfect. So... age has not made him worse. Adherence to some diet and exercise rules has made him better. He was on 6 medications in 2020, some of them just made him like a zombie. He is on ZERO meds now. So... we CAN get better! ---- And getting the update on Chris Crowley who is not just active, but intensely joyful at 90, just made my day, His aliveness is palpable. He reads voraciously. He enjoys art. He skis. They travel. They have many friends and they entertain a lot. So I feel inspired to return to joy and hope. --- Guy is out climbing again! Kris has had an amazing recovery, from what I understand... is climbing again. So, personally, I've been waiting for the other shoe to drop lately and suddenly find myself old and decrepit... as expected. I know that shoe will drop, but maybe not today. Is there any reason to 'take it easy'? Any reason to reduce our climbing goals? (Last year I had four routes I wanted to climb... this year, six. ) Lastly... a total surprise, but I was paid a visit by some local J Tree dignitaries. Donette and her husband Todd Swain contacted me to swing by and buy my Hydrow Rower. I didn't recognize them until I heard the name. They've been climbing here for decades, and around the world. They told me they are doubling down on climbing and travel 'while we still have time'. They are also acutely aware of the hourglass, but it is only fueling their desire to get out there and fulfill their hearts' desires. I was REALLY impressed by this wonderful couple. It's going to take discipline and effort for me to get past all the assumptions I have about aging, and just take the days as they come without prejudice. Here's to another 1000 posts!
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I exchanged some words with Todd Swain several years ago online but I forget under what circumstances. It could've been a partner hook-up possibility or on Supertopo, I forget . Never met him face to face. The only thing I remember about him is that he was mainly into Ice climbing at the time, if my memory serves. Lori, you remind me of my sister. Her husband went through some really tough health challenges a few years back ,but he eventually came through, mainly because of her. He often admits that without her he would have folded like a cheap suit. In fact, both of them live in Wrightwood and just had to evacuate due to the fires over there. |
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Todd Berlier, Gary Thomas, Tim Bratten, my definition of "subsidized" is when a person/company is getting more money from the government than they pay in taxes. |
Alan Rubinwrote: You're probably right. I love a good project! |
Yurywrote: That's the first time I've ever heard the International Monetary Fund called green activists! OK, then!. The IMF does include, for example, the environmental/health costs of using fossil fuel as something that may or may not be subsidized. These are called "implicit subsidies" as distinct from "explicit subsidies": where the retail cost does not include the supply cost. In either case, the difference between the costs and the actual retail price paid by the consumer may be filled in by the government or maybe not. As an imaginary example of an "implicit subsidy", if thousands of people become sick and or die because the world's temps warm up several degrees from greenhouse gasses and those health care costs are not included in the prices of the coal and oil that causes the problem, then those costs would be treated as "implicit subsidies." You can disagree if that should counted as a subsidy or not. Whatever. It is true the IMF is arguing that people in the US should be paying more for fossil fuels. I doubt they'll win popular elections promoting that! |
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Yuri: The Left has legions of Harvard- educated managerial bureaucrats in Washington DC whose sole job is to pump out phony stats, fund phony think tanks, and underwrite phony " studies" by woke universities. This snowstorm of propaganda eventually find its way into the waiting arms of the mob of " journalists" that dutifully spread the lies to the great unwashed. Any kind of information that contradicts this party line runs the risk of being buried by their downstream buddies in the tech world, such as Google. Almost this entire disinformation process, on the government level, like NPR, is on the taxpayer's dime. (And to some degree is part of the on-going reason for the "replication.crisis" in psychology and sociology that began to be noticed in the early 2000s.) |
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I didn't know that Fox News correspondents posed on MP. I like it. |
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Hahaha! We’re like Fox News and MSNBC. Left AND right leaning to increase our ape indexes. Climbing note, I helped a friend get her lead certification today. 14.66 climbs. |
Li Huwrote: Good work, LiHu! For a number of years I belonged to the Flat Earth Society. They were based out of Lancaster at that time, and published a quarterly newspaper. I got to know the head of that organization... an older guy who was so cordial and friendly. I loved reading their newspaper, and the scholarly articles proving that the earth was flat, that NASA was a hoax, the moon landing was OBVIOUSLY a hoax, and that everyone was bought and funded by 'the government'. They used Trigonometry and Calculus to prove the height of the sun and the moon (60 miles above the earth, as I recall), the rotations, and various angles to prove it was all a Disneyland production. They were refreshing. The gentleman said to me "Just use your common sense. Walk outside your door and look at the horizon. Does it look round to you?" My daughter got her degree in Physics at UC Berkeley. I can guarantee she was not funded, nor bribed, to skew data. I doubt she would qualify as 'elitist'. It takes guts to remain in a field where you have poured your heart into research, know the data, and are also aware of the futility of it. I was led to some data about the number of climate scientists who have taken their own lives, or succumbed to clinical depression, because of their work. They saw the data. I'm still looking for the National Geographic article I first saw on this. So, if it's all made up... good people are jumping off of bridges for nothing. ------------ If we could digress for a moment... Donette Swain mentioned Kevin Powell, which reminded me of Count Dracula 11a. I'm not an 11a climber, but maybe I could be. I stared at that route for the longest time... took pictures. It just looked impossible to me, pure smooth granite slab that seemed vertical.  And this is proof to Colden that Vampires did indeed exist here, at Belle Campground. Maybe during an ice age. Pretty sure of this... |
Yurywrote: Straight from the Oxford Dictionary, Subsidy: a sum of money granted by the government or a public body to assist an industry or business so that the price of a commodity or service may remain low or competitive. It has nothing to do with the amount having to be greater than the taxes paid. That is a definition not used by anybody but you. The Congressional Budget Office has all the information you need about taxes and subsidies. It's a simple search. I'm not doing your homework for you. |
Donald Thompsonwrote: The right has legions of managerial bureaucrats whose sole job is to pump out phony stats, fund phony think tanks and underwrite phony "studies" . This snowstorm of propaganda eventually finds its way into the waiting arms of "journalists" that dutifully spread the lies to the great unwashed. Exhibit A en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Exxon… |
Gary Thomaswrote: I wondered about that answer as well? The money has to come from somewhere to operate and defend any country. |
Brandt Allenwrote: DEAR GOD, WHAT HAVE I DONE?!?!?! |
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Lol |
 One more  |
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There are triscuit people and there are wheat thins people. |
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Well, the bad news is that the PCT is still closed for fires in northern Washington where younger daughter Tricia and I had hoped to get back on. Seventeen years and 2,541 miles of continuous footsteps from Mexico and we can't even get to the trailhead, much less hike. I'd take even the 47 miles to Washington's Highway 20 if we could get it. And then finish the last 60.4 miles to the Canadian border from there in 2025. But our weather window is starting to close. Since I haven't been able to get on that part of the trail, I've been climbing three and four days a week. And yet it's amazed me how demoralized I've felt at times. Yes, first world problems. The good news is that I have two wonderful daughters and the older one has resumed her continuous footsteps with me. Last year we did a five day trip and this year we're covering from just behind the town of Mammoth Lakes to Tuolumne Meadows. Starting Saturday, two days from now. Imagine that, old me, hiking with a wonderful, blond, six foot tall, 29 year old who until June worked several seasons as a backpacking guide. This one is also tougher than snot and swears like a sailor. It's gonna be a great three days. |
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Phylp: the icon you posted included the phrase: "Based on a study done by Carl Douglas in 1974." Only a person our age would see that and understand that it's actually part of the joke. Nice job ;) |
