Out There

Thank you all. I feel very blessed today. Good Life Good family, Good friends. Good climbs and it's way past midnight and I'm still not a grease spot

I wanted to be a full time professional rock climber - Hey, thats what I am now. I guess we can be what we want to be

Mr. Lindner - there are two great threads you should read. they are both at the top of the page of the about the way area and both are pinned. Perhaps a little enlightenment is coming your way. By the way, I prayed for you today

Skip Wood was there when I went down for the first time. He requested that I come down early my first year in Res because I was a guide and a member of the American Alpine Club. We were talking about me getting away from the group for a few days so He and I could climb a few things he wanted to go up and also talk about the program. Just before I went all the .... hit the fan concerning VPW's dog which I understand Skip shot so skip was fast tracked out of there and we never did get together - bummer. He was a Rainier guide and I really wanted to do a few climbs with him. Ellen Wood did come up on our group and taught about foods which was really nice. David Dewald was my leader that first tine there and did a great job. It was my last year in-res that the giant butthole rose up out of the ground and tried to swallow us up.. So I do think some folks were great down there but some needed to have thier heads screwed on a little better. I was reproved very harshly my final year because I told Kevin that he shouldadd to his climbing rack some equipment that was standard for climbing but he did not know anything about. I was told I was too prideful when it came to knowing about climbing gear (huh?) Jonny, thanks for the tip on Steve Armstrong. I will definately look him up

I am goiung to start playing Banjo again after a 25 year break from it. My style was clawhammer. Anybody know any good websites to help me start again. I haven't even picked up an instrument in 25 years

Gladtobeout I was a rockjock then and still am (I am a professional Rock Climber for a living - All I do is rock and Ice Climbing to feed my family) . I was a certified guide before I went into the corps. I mentioned to Kevin Smyth some safety problems I saw and suddenly I was blasted for being full of pride. I had a good time there but I hated how the staff ran things. To tell you what a rock jock I am I competed in the World Cup 10 years after I went to BLEAD (came in 60th and I ranked 30th in the US). So it wasn't being a rock jock that gave you a good evaluiation it was your ability to be a rock jock and really suck up.

Is anyone having a Michigan Hot Dog Roast this year? We should figure out how to do an annual get together

BLEAD was a psuedo-christian Outward Bound program that was operated in the mountains near Tinnie New Mexico. The Corps had to hitch hike from various locations to the outback town of Tinnie in a specified amount of time or they were sent back the moment they arrived and then hitched back to the locations then had to come up with the money to go again. Safety went out the window at BLEAD and never did I ever see a group come back without someone having been injured in some way. WHen you went you backpacked, Rock Climbed, went out on a dou (You and God. as opposed to a solo that they did at outward bound). hiked to the top of some peaks. while some interim corps people exercised all the muscle they had over you. It was a fun but very dangerous experience. Usually youe evaluation at the end focused on what they thought were the negatives you had in your life and it was one of the most humiliating moments anyony in the corps was subjected to (unless you were a pretty, sexy woman who was on the willing to give it up list). If BLEAD were operating today it would be shut down in a heart beat because of their dangerous practices. They never should have been allowed to operate.

WOW Eagle, I don't think it sounds anything like me

Gosh, this thread could take on a serious tone to it. Too bad because whenever I see a game of Boys vs. girl brewing I always hope it turns into a game of shirts and skins

How about so nuts he's like a caveman. If I said so wishy washy he's like a watered garden I bet you'd say "well, that wouldn't make sense" Wait my phones ringing Lets just call him a blooming idiot (Sorry, I don't know whjat I'm saying today - lots of pain meds)

WG- Please don't soil my good name. WHy don't you say something like "so stupid, only a way guy could do it" I'm 'Out There', I have met KS before and having any association name or otherwise with him gives me the creeps.

Boy Jonny. I wish I could say that that kind of thing happened to me every night, sometimes with two or three young Italian American girls and sometimes a few swedes thrown in. Not only that but while I was walking a few female security officers stopped me and wanted to whip out there handcuffs and give me a demonstration of how they worked. But I can't You were cool though for turning it down. I give you my thumbs up.

Dooj - I'm asking also Please Please. I am growing Romas this year for the first time in about 28 years. I love pasta and good sauces

I can imagine what it was like for those kids in some ways as my first days in the corps I wondered when in the hell horizontal hour was. I also remember the disappointment when our long awaited saturday became a work day which really meant stooping down and picking up rocks. No child should ever have had to go through what kids went through at the way vatican. Pope Bob and his host of Archbishops had their heads wedged way up their butts. I am turning 50 years old a week from today. I am also an epileptic. I have Grand Mol Seizures now an average of once a week. I am thankful that I never had this problem when I was in the way because surely I would have been marked as a possessed corps person (The worst kind of possessed person). Emotionally dealing with this is hard enough but to have someone say your possessed with a devil spirit would have probably broken my heart at the time. I've learned how to deal with my sickness over the past 18 years and what I can do and what I can't. but that poor child, what he went through is unforgivable. Pope Bob if you are reading this - You are a pompious, self righteous, self serving, Idiot who never should have been allowed to go near any of Gods children. You were a wolf in sheeps clothing. You disgust me.

Dear Dipsy or shall I more properly and politically correctly utter "Temple Lady" The collective intelligence of any one community has proven never to increase the baseline of intelligence more than the highest sum of it's average. In other words. I'm getting BORGed with all our proper pronunciation of the ostrich's actions. Now what are we talking about??

What was they said on Seinfeld -- It looks like dry heaves with legs

WrdsandWrks - You are very sweet.

Groucho I have been to Black Hole Parties before. They go by the name of TWI Sunday Night service

Roy, I can tell you have a nice heart to be thinking about this stuff and writing it down. Keep your thoughts on things above and see where God leads you next.

I have my employees wear a company staff shirt when they work. This way the customers know who to go talk to when they need something. My original idea was that our head wall supervisor on duty (I own an indoor rock climbing gym) would wear a red shirt. that way in case of an accident, people are psychologically wired to be attracted to red. Most mass casualty teams have the man in charge wearing red because people will look for and go to someone in red. I'm a ski patroller in the winter and we wear red jackets. So there is reason to my madness. Also I think our polo staff shirts look really sharp and give a professional image to our customers.

Hey There Delilah Its on my brain today

They really need a liability waiver for anyone watching that video. Something like" I accept any and all responsibility for damage I cause by laughing my A$$ off while watching this video __________________________________________________________ Sign here and press real hard. You are making three copies

I think maybe climatic changes caused them to die off. Darwins idea of the survival of the fittest isn't that far off. They were probably a very strong animal, well suited to the cold but changes in the atmosphere was probably too much for them. A few years back Rhienhold Messner went out to search for the Yeti's and supposedly found them and observed their community but I think his life long aspiration for hypoxia may have caused him to dream the whole thing. He wrote a book about his search. I know him from climbing as we shared a rope together years ago. He is a strange guy but he swears the Yeti live.

I was just imagining what it would have been like had I been a child in the WTF. I would have stood up in the dining hall and yelled somthing like PH&*K at the top of my lungs just to watch 200 spoons suddenly come barrelling down on me.