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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Original Post - Aug 31, 2007 - 12:54pm PT
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My mother went into labor on Labor Day, some 61 years ago, and I was born September 3rd. It wasn't a sure thing, at times this year, that I would make it to this latest birthday, but to answer many questions on the subject of health, it has been improving. I told my wife for my birthday I want to go out to a little secret hidden canyon she and I found, with some nice looking boulders and rocks, and do some climbing. I always used to climb on my birthday but somewhere a number of years ago seem to have gotten away from that tradition. Maybe it's time to renew it. I realized how old I am, though, and far gone when my almost seven year old said sincerely the other day that she is a better climber than I. We saw something briefly on TV one night about climbing walls, and the gist of her remark was, "I could do that easy. You couldn't, dad, but I could." Even half dead I have a little memory in my bones, as to how to ascend rock, I hope. But I must allow her that sense of superiority, since it will be true enough soon.
Send all birthday gifts, sympathy cards, money, to the usual Fruita address...
Pat
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pc
climber
East of Seattle
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Aug 31, 2007 - 01:06pm PT
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Happy Birthday Oldtimer! Cool! You share a bday with Richard Gere.
BTW You really should do something extraordinary for you bday. Jumar up a tree and show that daughter of yours who's the bomb. ;)
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Aug 31, 2007 - 01:08pm PT
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You should take Bryceman out to that canyon for a solid belay.
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Jerry Dodrill
climber
Bodega, CA
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Aug 31, 2007 - 01:34pm PT
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Happy B-Day Pat!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 31, 2007 - 01:49pm PT
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Go get 'em slugger.
Those "new" crags, the 7 year old + her sister & mom, all that rich history with Kor & Dalke et al, the poetry & music, a sunrise/set or two, all your wacky new found friends here in cyberspace: it is all your birthday oyster!
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Ed Hartouni
Trad climber
Livermore, CA
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Aug 31, 2007 - 02:04pm PT
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Pat, you are the one person I can think of who will figure out the path of grace.
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spyork
Social climber
A prison of my own creation
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Aug 31, 2007 - 02:19pm PT
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Haven't met ya, but Happy Birthday!
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 31, 2007 - 03:18pm PT
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Thanks Ed, for that inspired and beautiful thought, and thanks Roy for your good energy... and thanks to others, so much in contrast to the low level of spirit that also flows in and around the world and in the near vicinity of the good people here.
Had a nice birthday gift, when my photo of my friend Jim Holloway made the cover of Climbing, and the generous pay that goes with that.
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paganmonkeyboy
Trad climber
the blighted lands of hatu
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Aug 31, 2007 - 03:57pm PT
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Happy Birthday !!!
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maldaly
Trad climber
Boulder, CO
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Aug 31, 2007 - 03:59pm PT
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Happy Birthday Pat!!! Be sure to post up a complete trip report on your birthday climb.
Mal
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Chiloe
Trad climber
Lee, NH
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Aug 31, 2007 - 04:00pm PT
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I like your sentiment in the title of this thread. Something we can all be thankful for. Best wishes!
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Aug 31, 2007 - 04:05pm PT
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bluering
Trad climber
Santa Clara, Ca.
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Aug 31, 2007 - 04:11pm PT
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Happy Birthday Pat! Hope you have fun climbing, you of all people know that's what is all about...having a good time scaling rocks in the outdoors.
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Carolyn C
Trad climber
the long, long trailer
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Aug 31, 2007 - 04:26pm PT
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"Age is not important unless you're a cheese" - Helen Hayes
Happy Birthday, Pat!
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bachar
Trad climber
Mammoth Lakes, CA
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Aug 31, 2007 - 08:14pm PT
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"Gee Pat, Happy Birthday!"
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Aug 31, 2007 - 08:18pm PT
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OK, John, you likening me to the Beave? I'll try to see the resemblance, but it will take some doing.
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Todd Gordon
Trad climber
Joshua Tree, Cal
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Aug 31, 2007 - 08:25pm PT
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I'm 52;...I thought I was old!...Happy Birthday!...Yeeehoooo! Enjoy. (You still got a few miles left on ya........)
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Aug 31, 2007 - 08:33pm PT
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Happy birthday, you got ten on me and I know I still have plans!
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graham
Social climber
Ventura, California
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Aug 31, 2007 - 09:33pm PT
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Happy Birthday Pat!
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GDavis
Trad climber
SoCal
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Aug 31, 2007 - 09:35pm PT
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Smoke a puff for me too an' keep it real, yo!
Jive Translation >
Enjoy your beautiful State, the warm (understatement) weather and the remainder of your little girls childhood.
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WBraun
climber
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Aug 31, 2007 - 09:50pm PT
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That means you can still cut loose.
Send one for the gripper.
Send one for you and your family.
And send one for all humanity.
Cheers brother and happy birthday Pat and many more good years for you.
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rgold
Trad climber
Poughkeepsie, NY
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Aug 31, 2007 - 10:37pm PT
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As someone who was always a few steps behind, I get to be just a bit ahead on this one, closin' in on 64 at the end of November. Since you have just a tiny taste for the lugubrious, you may enjoy the observation that this will be my last power of 2 on this earth.
Nowadays, I'm fond of Garrison Keilor's sign-off on The Writer's Almanac:
Be well, do good work, and keep in touch.
Happy birthday, Pat.
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Rick A
climber
Boulder, Colorado
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Aug 31, 2007 - 11:34pm PT
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Pat,
Great to have you here and so glad to hear your health is improving. I didn't come up with this metaphor, and I don't recall the author to give him credit, but it seems fitting:
Maybe by blowing on the embers of this virtual campire, we may be able to rekindle some of the flames of our youth.
Happy Birthday.
Rick
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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I hear tell that 128 is the new 60?
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2007 - 02:36am PT
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The greatest birthday of all is to have as many friends as I do, though many no longer alive: Chuck Pratt, Bob Kamps, Don Whillans, Pete Williamson, Jim Madsen, Baker Armstrong... to name a few. I cherish the memory of those and all my friends. Our time together is precious.
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Raydog
Trad climber
Boulder Colorado
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yes, cheers and happy birthday Pat!
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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When you figure the average 100 year old lived 36,500 days...
Happy Birthday. I feel lucky to have lived longer than Gullich or Osman...."It's a 5.10 mantle into heaven, brother"...easy enough for a pusher like yerself...
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 1, 2007 - 09:00pm PT
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a pusher? What does that mean? In chess, it's a bad player who thinks he's good. Or are you talking about pushing strength in manteling?
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bob d'antonio
Trad climber
Taos, NM
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Congrats Pat...enjoy your birthday and thanks for all you have done for climbing.
A climber, husband, father, friend, writer of words, film maker, chess player and more.
A good life...one worth living.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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I am sure that 426 guy meant "Pusher" in an uplifting way, seriously.
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Ouch!
climber
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Living to 100 might just be a cool thing to do if one still has a full sack of marbles and can get up and down to shoot them.
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Anastasia
Trad climber
California
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Happy, happy birthday! Thanks for being here to be such a good friend to all of us little people.
Sending Love,
Anastasia
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WBraun
climber
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Well you can live a 1000 years and if you don't know why you're here then you've just stood there that long like a tree and accomplished nothing!
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Ouch!
climber
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"It is a truly wise man that knows his worth"
Thorefin Ropje
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Curt
Boulder climber
Gilbert, AZ
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"A man is not old until regrets take the place of dreams."
John Barrymore--I believe. Happy birthday, Pat.
Curt
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 2, 2007 - 03:16am PT
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Werner, who says trees don't know why they're here? It reminds me of Nemerov's great poem about trees. I don't have it in front of me right at the moment, but maybe I'll post it tomorrow.
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mingus
Trad climber
Grand Junction, Colorado
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When I was in high school, skipping classes to go climbing in Eldorado, "Swaramandal" was my bible. I viewed it as sort of the climbers version of Kerouac's "On the Road." My climbing buddies and I passed it around so much that the binding gave out and there was a requisite red rubber band wrapped arount it. When ever I saw freight trains in the Great Basin I thought of you...when ever the dishes didn't get done properly in the Valley I thought of Robbins advice to you. That picture of you holding the picture of Dylan influenced the musical tastes of three scruffy kids...much to the dismay of our parents.
Happy birthday, good health, and I hope we get to meet sometime. I'm just down the road in Grand Junction. Eric M.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 2, 2007 - 01:56pm PT
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Eric,
You are a good man. Thanks for those thoughts. I have been told by a lot of people that Swaramandal was their favorite climbing book, including such notable individuals as Jeff Achey. Most of them had trouble with the binding. It was the first book published by Vitaar, and they were learning (didn't use good glue on the binding). I was falling apart in those days, so it didn't seem unreasonable that the book should be falling apart. Among varied acquaintances, I've seen literally hundreds of copies of that re-sewn or drilled with holes, with string fed through the holes, to make a kind of binder, and keep it together. A few have even had it re-bound. Come visit me anytime, or we can meet for lunch somewhere...
Werner, here is the Nemerov poem. You will understand this, I know, as well as anyone, since you are so wise and initimate with those wonderful Sierra trees...
Trees (by Howard Nemerov, poet laureate of America)
To be a giant and keep quiet about it,
To stay in one's own place;
To stand for the constant presence of process
And always seem the same;
To be steady as a rock and always trembling,
Having the hard appearance of death
With the soft, fluent nature of growth,
One's Being deceptively armored,
One's Becoming deceptively vulnerable;
To be so tough, and take the light so well,
Freely providing forbidden knowledge
Of so many things about heaven and earth
For which we should otherwise have no word--
Poems or people are rarely so lovely,
And even when they have great qualities
They tend to tell you rather than exemplify
What they believe themselves to be about,
While from the moving silence of trees,
Whether in storm or calm, in leaf and naked,
Night or day, we draw conclusions of our own,
Sustaining and unnoticed as our breath,
And perilous also--though there has never been
A critical tree--about the nature of things.
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Happy almost birthday again, Swaramandal was my favorite of yours till I had Master of Rock. Indeed the binding was a disaster, it lies in an orderly stack on my shelf.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 2, 2007 - 08:34pm PT
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When Swaramandal was being printed, I was asked to help with the coalating. There were any number of signatures (sheets folded into 8 pages), each in a pile on a round table that turned by a motor underneath. I and a woman who worked there would sit as the table moved around in a circle, and we would collect each one of the signatures, as each passed by, and create a full stack ready for binding. I kept looking over and seeing that she would miss a signature, if the table was turning too fast or she was going too slow. I'd point it out that she missed one, and she'd reply, "Oh it doesn't matter." Hmmm. Again and again, and I'd have to get her stack and go through and see which ones she missed, and it was a real pain. So a few of the books not only had bad binding but a few missing signatures, to make it all the more interesting. And all to make a priceless book...
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nick d
Trad climber
nm
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Accomplished nothing, and yet experiencing everything!
Michael
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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Love that random book collating story, Pat. Each copy unique unto itself!
Happy birthday, old man. Stay around awhile, would you? We'll all be pushing up daisies soon enough...
-Jeff
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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Many happy returns Oli. This ought to take you back.......to July 1974! Let the Amentfest begin.
From Mountain 37
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 3, 2007 - 02:46am PT
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Oh my, Steve. Yes that does take me back... to one of the best times I ever had, with one of the best people I've ever known. The photo of Higgins and me standing together was actually taken by Robbins, after the three of us free climbed the Kor Book in 1968 (fall). Nerve Wrack Point came a couple years later, a really joyful, clean, sunlit route. Tom and I did Nerve Wrack again ten years after the first ascent. Some things had changed. There were a few more bolts, and the better shoes made things so much easier... Now it's some 35 or more years since that first ascent... To quote a favorite Pratt song, sung by Judy Collins, "Who knows where the time goes..."
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Patrick Sawyer
climber
Originally California now Ireland
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Happy Birthday Pat and many many more.
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Mighty Hiker
Social climber
Vancouver, B.C.
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Gratulerer med dagen!! (Now that THE DAY has arrived...)
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Hardly Visible
climber
Port Angeles
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Happy 61 Pat may you be around for many more.
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jgill
climber
Colorado
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Happy Birthday, Ol' Buddy! I have appreciated our friendship over the years. You are a true renaissance man, and I hope you continue to provide both knowledge and entertainment to our climbing community for years to come . . .
John
(one of your problems that vexed me!)
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 3, 2007 - 09:00pm PT
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Thanks to all my friends above. John, of course by "vexed" you mean you had to look at the route a few minutes before finding your best way to do it... a little swing move to the pocket above, not too much trouble at all. I wish everyone were as kind as you. What a blessing to have climbed and bouldered with you through so many years.
Today my wife, daughters, and I went up into a little secret side canyon of the Monument and climbed in about 105 degree heat, and nearly got heat stroke. I had made the assumption my wife had packed plenty of water. She always takes over on my birthdays and does everything, refuses to let me lift a finger, and usually she does everything totally right, but today she packed one tiny water bottle for each of us... to my consternation when I was already dying of thirst half way up the long walk. We had a stiff and sweltering 2 mile hike to our rocks, starting late and finding ourselves in direct sun. It took awhile to get everyone roped up properly, shoes on the right feet, chalk bags, etc., and then I promptly backed off two different climbs for not wanting to run it out on sketchy holds. Finally I saw a steep dihedral I thought I might be able to protect. I had only brought about six or so nuts, so I used most of them on the first half of the dihedral but then found a little inspiration to get moving, since my daughter Maren, very sensitive to the heat, was beginning to feel faint and acting weak and strange. I ran it out to a ledge, climbing way above my current ability level (which isn't much, but...). An eagle was soaring above and calling out. Both girls tried to follow but couldn't get past a little face move up to the start of the dihedral(they both do some pretty hard stuff in the rock gym without too much trouble, so I have no idea how tough the move is). My wife said she would try, and to my amazement, after wondering also if she could make the face move, followed the whole pitch without a whimper, stemming beautifully and using great footwork on slippery, rounded holds, wearing a straw hat with wide rim (kind of Tarbuster style). When she arrived at the belay (I had reached the small ledge with only one nut left for a belay anchor but found a good placement for a number four R.P., the only placement in sight for many feet in any direction, and one requiring some skill to make work). I tied her in and, feeling faint in the tremendous heat, and feeling a bit stupid for finding myself in this situation, but needing to deal with the seriousness of my daughter's condition and get down, I had to lead what was possibly a 5.8 face move twenty feet above Robin to a small tree, hoping I didn't pass out from the heat. I got a couple slings around the tree and set up a rappel, hoping my daughter was not going into a coma yet. I could hear whimpering in the half shade of a bush below. The younger daughter had fewer problems but was indeed heat-worn like Robin and me. I lowered Robin and made a quick swami-belt rappel, and we were all so beat it was a real effort to walk back down those two miles, step by trudging step, in that oven-like air. A lovely breeze at times came in the nick of time and cooled us. We did come across a muddy rock hole with water and doused our faces and heads to cool down, but couldn't drink that stuff. Mountain lion tracks all around, fresh ones. I would have said to one, take me I'm ready go go. Anyway at last we got to the car and drove to the first place that sold any kind of drink. I said, "Give us four cups, and we'll pay later." They could see we were in a bad way, and did what we said. We then drank until we were bloated, smiling and chuckling that we survived. The real strong one on the trip was my wife. At one point as we started the descent, one of my daughters realized she'd left her chalk bag and cap up at the base of the rock. I said, "Sorry, but we're not going back to get them." I could barely stand up from heat exhaustion. Robin said, "I'll go up and get them and will catch up." Wow, she is made of sterner stuff than I. As we guzzled our drinks at the place in town, I said, "That is what we used to refer to as an epic." Then off to our house to open presents and get ready for a birthday dinner with friends. I'm red with sunburn. That was the first time I've climbed in about a year. Should have stayed retired, maybe. But perhaps we'll all look back at this as "an adventure..." as these things always do seem years into the future.
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Crimpergirl
Social climber
St. Looney
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Happy Birthday Pat! Sounds like a day you'll get to relay to others for years to come.
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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So, Pat, this sounds like the adventures of Fatman and Robin...
Just joking, of course. But it's true that women are better survivors than men.
Glad you and your family had a memorable - and ultimately safe - time together.
All the best, Jeff
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 4, 2007 - 04:27am PT
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Don't rub it in, Jeff. Yes I do need to trim down. After my gall bladder came out, I started eating uncontrollably, having for five years not been able to eat any saturated fat... I was like a kid in a candy store suddenly, inhaling pizzas and blocks of cheese... Now I am, as you saw in Ogden when we gave our shows last, quite a bit on the overweight side. I've been walking, though, and trying to eat right again. My wife is a bit of a slave driver and makes me take hikes with her up into the Monument sometimes before she goes to work at the school... I huff and puff up those trails, heart about to burst out of my chest, trying futilely to keep up. That's in the cool of the morning, though, whereas today it was the full heat of the sun turning us into burnt offerings... In my worst shape, though, I can outclimb these whimps like Kevin Worral, Mike Graham, John Bachar... (can I pretend, just for fun?)
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Jello
Social climber
No Ut
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It was just a joke, Pat, but of course you know that. I've used the same one on myself when I named a route that Pete Takeda and I did ten years ago, Fatman and Robin. If you know Pete, you know he's not the one I was referring to as Fatman. I've also gained at least 25 pounds in the last five years, for lack of exercise and unwillingness to count calories. Like you though, I can still outclimb all those wimps you named...in my dreams!
Glad you had such a memorable day, yesterday. Here's hoping for many more for you.
All the best,
-Jeff
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426
Sport climber
Buzzard Point, TN
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Pusher's a compliment for the record.
Hardly anyone can do one hand (stands) for 23 seconds anymore. Nor one arm mantles.
I only got 13,000 days left if I make "the average"...
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Steve Grossman
Trad climber
Seattle, WA
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As JB would say,"dream on, sucka!"
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 4, 2007 - 10:41pm PT
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It reminds me of an old aphorism I once heard.
They thought it couldn't be done,
so he tackled it with a smile,
and he couldn't do it.
Or,
Always be sincere, whether you mean it or not.
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WBraun
climber
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Yes
When I did Shield with Merry she never placed pins before.
She asked me for a prep talk on her first ever lead placing pins up there.
I said: "Stick em in and stand up"
And that was all folks, all that was needed.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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Who did the first solo of Athlete's Feat?
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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I dunno Ron,
But man, that mantel is funky; I had to use my head against the rock to stabilize before I could turn my palm for the press.
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Toker Villain
Big Wall climber
Toquerville, Utah
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No.
I don't consider what I do particularly daring. At least thats not why I do it.
Its fun.
People who climb to impress others are missing the right audience.
People who claim climbs to impress others are poseurs.
Roberts has an interesting take on the subtexts behind frauds.
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 5, 2007 - 02:29am PT
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For those who want to know the facts, when I was about 17 or maybe 18, still pretty insecure and young for my age, Mike Stults approached me one day in front of a couple other climbing friends and said, "I hear you soloed Athlete's Feat." He started raving about what an accomplishment that was. He often put people on, and I thought he was doing so again. So I played along and said, "It was scary in places. I really had to stay focused..." or some such. I didn't know how else to react, at that moment, and I didn't think I needed to deny it. To my horror, in a day or so one or two friends congratulated me. I realized I was in over my head. Then, to my shock, I got a letter from Royal complimenting me on the greatest solo in America. Layton approached me in the Sink (our hangout beer joint near campus) and confronted me on it. He couldn't believe anyone could do such a thing. I had to tell him it was something started by someone that had gone very wrong. I hadn't lied but rather been a bit stupid. I wrote Royal and of course told him the same. He appreciated me telling the truth, especially since he had felt utterly outclassed by such a solo. In fact I had done the climb several times, and it was not all that far-fetched that I could have soloed it. I had done the first pitch entirely without protection one day, and the third is mostly runout, and the fourth pitch I could have soloed, I think, but I wasn't quite ready for the second pitch solo. Of course little gutless enemies, the actual frauds, through the years have always enjoyed warping and distorting that little happening... as though it had any significance, really, whatsoever. Only in their minds. If I had in any way been a fraud, I would not have had the enduring friendships of Rearick, Robbins, Pratt, Higgins, Kamps, Frost, and others. Any good spirit will know (and somewhat based on their own experience, as well) that growing up is a process...
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 5, 2007 - 02:42am PT
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Kevin, I don't have any regrets at all about drifting away from climbing. I am fully absorbed in life, with my three girls, music, poetry, art, and other things. I did every climb I ever desired to do, and many of them many times. If I have the urge to climb, I go out and do a little. Climbing will always be a part of me. I have endless numbers of cherished memories. I can look at a rock and climb in my heart and mind. I can see a face and know how I would go about it. I can visualize and imagine, and most of the time anymore that is perfectly satisfying, and the actual experience of getting on the rock is sometimes less "actual" and a bit of a let down by comparison. I did many thousands of climbs and even more boulders through the years, and I feel no more compulsion than to remember and appreciate, and to look up there where my soul still resides in many respects... with all those good friends and in all that light and beauty. My son and I did a little wall we discovered about a year ago or so. I was totally out of shape, and he was training in the rock gym, fit and strong. Just on experience I climbed this wall my first try, and he couldn't do it. It might have been around 5.11 or something. I don't have even one tenth of the strength I once had, but I have other kinds of strengths, such as the mental training one gets from years of karate, or the technique that one has practiced for years on rock and that distills in front of you suddenly when you need it... I no longer view myself as a climber, though, and haven't for a few years, though people call me one and I don't deny it...
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Good Morning, Pat.
Happy Un-Birthday. Maybe a better opportunity, 'cause it's just another day, not freighted with specialness, to step to the open dooorway and breathe in the sunshine. Mine just came. Bare feet chill on the stoop, those odd little rainbows glance off a stray eyelash.
More interaction with you this last year than ever, thanks to this Taco Stand. I like that, thanks.
Last night my daughter Kyra wanted to take a birthday card to her friend Sage. Mom pushed dinner (not quite in either the chess or the mantling sense), then it was twilight. Kyra got on her unicycle and I gulped down my urge to also ride (on two wheels) and followed in the car. Dirt road, pavement, traffic, hills. Half a mile to Sage's house. Her feet were spinning, down the creek road in the headlights.
I can hardly believe what a confident little athlete she has become at eleven. Half a life ago she was much more whine and can't. It's the local 'hippie school' she shifted into. Goes to school barefoot. They let the kids climb trees, jump off roofs, take real risks. Getting hurt is OK. Unicycling in the Circus Arts class. Self confidence heads the curriculum, trumping 'rithmatic.
She had climbed a bit at your daughter's age, but not much. Now she's asking to go, and we're about to take her whole class for a weekend trip to my favorite Wamello (Fresno) Dome south of Yosemite. Beginning of the school year bonding and all that. It works such wonders for how cloyingly cute 'team building' sounds. Kyra will help teach her classmates, and get to encourage them, just like she did when she made me dust off the Jumars and set a rope on the playground. (Just realized how much her whole school is play-ground.)
One of her older buddies Zev who rides an off-road 'mountain' unicycle and who caught fire so much on climbing (he's 13, go figure) that I've been teaching him to lead, will also guide with me on that trip. So will my son Tory; he did the classic South Buttress with me at 9. Seven pitches (5.8 ***, I might have put it up 35 years ago guiding for Royal -- nobody seems to recall. Or care.) Tory will tear himself out of the surf for that trip; he still digs to climb...occasionally.
Well, I got off onto spinning out my life and my kids, but you triggered me Pat with the stories of your daughter and your son. Thanks for that, a gift from you on your birthday. what a cool life, a gift to/from our kids.
Keep it above ground,
Doug
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 5, 2007 - 12:22pm PT
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Doug, thank you for those images. That kindred sense of family life swallowing us up... and our enjoying it... I can hear T.M. making some joke about it. I remember when he was raising Tommy and going off on his role as a father... Our children... Yes their very lives are gifts to us... beyond understanding. Kallie, thanks for that vote of confidence. I would happily make peace with all my enemies if they didn't find so much enjoyment in their hate... If they can't remove themselves from the "discussion," then certainly I can and have done so. The latest ruse is to represent me as saying I was in the C.I.A. Too funny, really. I have never said a thing on the subject, not one word, though Bryceman, the Joshua Tree giant, I understand asked the question, innocently, wondering out loud. That being utterly distorted now comes to us as my saying something like I was in the CIA?! Well I did train extensively in California with my friend Tom Muzila, one of the greatest martial artists in the world (has had his photo on the cover of Black Belt magazine about 8 times), and he was, at one time, a noted CIA operative. That's the closest I can say I ever came to having any connection with that organization... no connection at all, really. Distortion of what I say, distortion of the facts, distortion... that is the best way to describe the onslaught. My friend John Gill keeps reminding me that I should not care, that everyone who matters knows the truth, and you know, more and more I don't care. To have even just Doug Robinson as my friend is enough to elevate my spirits all day long.
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poop*ghost
Trad climber
Denver, CO
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Pat -
You share the exact birthday (year as well) as my father. Happy b-day to you sir!
Jason
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Tarbuster
climber
right here, right now
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Keep it goin' Pat.
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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Hey DMT,
I always loved that line about Gill boulders: "I could grasp the holds, but not the problem." He's floating above us, for sure.
Was it Pat who wrote that?
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Doug Robinson
Trad climber
Santa Cruz
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DMT,
Orchard School, 60 kids grades K-6. Grounds were once a commune, hence carrying on a fine tradition. It's in Aptos, where I live. Santa Cruz County, so I usually just say I'm from the Cruz for a quick hit. I'm up Aptos Creek, on a ridge looking across at redwoods and down a mile at what the realtors call "a peek of the ocean." Kyra's school is 2 miles further inland, up Trout Gulch, another tributary. Before there were hippies it was an old apple orchard. They're getting ripe. Come over and check it out if you're interested.
Cheers,
Doug
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Oli
Trad climber
Fruita, Colorado
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Topic Author's Reply - Sep 5, 2007 - 06:31pm PT
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Thank you Roy and Steve, and Doug, and Kevin, and Dingus, and everyone...
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Jaybro
Social climber
The West
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Sep 11, 2007 - 05:05pm PT
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also happy Birthday Sunday, to my mon and to Lev Tolstoi, though only one is above ground.
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| Messages 1 - 71 of total 71 in this topic |
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