chit chat thread

patsbimmer1

We bought my son a new bike as an early birthday present. He was on a 12" Huffy that he outgrew and we're avid family riders so we put him in a 20" he can grow in to. It's a Giant XTC Jr lite from Endurance House in Delafield and he's picking up on the hand brakes and gears really well already. We easily have a few miles on it already. It's a nicer bike than I have

B C

patsbimmer1 said:

We bought my son a new bike as an early birthday present.

I got my kids onto bikes with hand brakes and derailleurs as soon as I could so they could become little shreddies on the MTB trails.
With how quickly they grow it is hard to justify getting them each a $400 Trek so I’ve tried to find the best department store bikes and upgraded things to make them a bit safer and more trailworthy.

Looks like he has a great bike! Time to try out Minooka

patsbimmer1

My neighbor has a new shed

SteelBlue

Sweet chicken coop

HipMF

I got stuck on a detour on the way to Devil's Lake on Saturday. Cruising down highway 12 at 65. Couldn't decide whether or not it was my turn coming up. It was. Decided I could still make it and jammed on the brakes hard. Let off and chucked the e34 hard into the right-hander. The rear end dutifully followed the front around the corner, despite my continued provocation. Pretty boring.

Did my first day of real climbing outdoors. The people I was with were better climbers than I am, so I didn't get the relaxing day of easy climbs that I was hoping for. I managed to get up a few climbs. Fell a few times. Pretty minor when you're top-roping. Drank almost a gallon of water. Legs are sore. Lots of bug bites. Overall a good day.

YoungCR

HipMF said:

I got stuck on a detour on the way to Devil's Lake on Saturday. Cruising down highway 12 at 65. Couldn't decide whether or not it was my turn coming up. It was. Decided I could still make it and jammed on the brakes hard. Let off and chucked the e34 hard into the right-hander. The rear end dutifully followed the front around the corner, despite my continued provocation. Pretty boring.

Did my first day of real climbing outdoors. The people I was with were better climbers than I am, so I didn't get the relaxing day of easy climbs that I was hoping for. I managed to get up a few climbs. Fell a few times. Pretty minor when you're top-roping. Drank almost a gallon of water. Legs are sore. Lots of bug bites. Overall a good day.

Does the humidity affect the climbing? Just curious if the rocks sweat at all or if the sun bakes that away.

HipMF

YoungCR said:

Does the humidity affect the climbing? Just curious if the rocks sweat at all or if the sun bakes that away.

I don't know about the humidity, but the rain that we got definitely left the rock wet and there was some water seeping out throughout the day. There was a guy (not from our group) that spent, literally, and I'm not exaggerating or being hyperbolic here, like 45 minutes to an hour lead-climbing a moderately difficult climb next to what we were climbing. He couldn't figure out where or how to place gear because the rock was wet and slippery. I have no idea how someone can just sit there hanging on to a wall for that long...

straight6pwr

agreed - good climbers have crazy strength and muscle endurance! my brother is a rock climbing guide out in utah. leading a pitch can take him from 10 minutes to hours depending on the circumstances. Difficulty, if its a new climb that needs anchors placed, novice level of the belayer that will be following, etc all come into play. Maybe that guy was also still learning so extra time was needed (which is a good thing, because planning and safety are obviously critical in rock climbing)

a story he shared with me re: safely leading a climb -

he went a climbing/repelling adventure with a friend who was visiting him near zion national park. at some point during the day they came across another group doing the same. they stopped and chatted, then took a break and watch that group repel for a few minutes. it was super clear to him they were being very unsafe and sloppy in technique, so he kindly let them know. they were, of course, young and cocky and dismissed his concerns. well, a couple hours later on his way back out of the canyon he came back across the same group in the same place. sure as shit, one of the girls in the group had fallen down their repel after he left and had broke her femur. compound fracture. in the middle of nowhere with a clearly inexperience and unprepared group leader. it was late in the day, with little water left in the group and the girl was in shock. my brother and his friend (both Marines) field dressed, splinted and proceed to carry this poor girl out of the canyon, including setting up rigging to to pull her up the repel she fell down and doing half of the rescue in the dark. injuries in hard-to-access places are the most dangerous.

HipMF

Speaking of hanging onto a wall for a long time...

I was already pretty restless last year and thinking of traveling Mexico. Still not sure what I'm doing with my life. Been reading Kerouac and looking at my old travel thread.

I don't hate my job or my life as much as I did back then, but at the same time it's felt like a crime spending my days inside sitting on my ass in front of a computer, especially now that the weather is nice. May need to make a break for it again...

Probably nothing as big or exciting as my last jaunt, but the farther you get from your life, the more perspective you have on it...

Thinking of a Wisconsin-centric trip, maybe by bicycle... not sure. Lease is up in late summer and I have twice the savings I did last time. On the fence about trying to keep my job vs walking away and starting over again. Or just keep my head down and use my savings to buy a house the next time the economy implodes, assuming that it all doesn't get inflated away in the meantime...

HipMF

straight6pwr said:

agreed - good climbers have crazy strength and muscle endurance! my brother is a rock climbing guide out in utah. leading a pitch can take him from 10 minutes to hours depending on the circumstances. Difficulty, if its a new climb that needs anchors placed, novice level of the belayer that will be following, etc all come into play. Maybe that guy was also still learning so extra time was needed (which is a good thing, because planning and safety are obviously critical in rock climbing)

a story he shared with me re: safely leading a climb -

he went a climbing/repelling adventure with a friend who was visiting him near zion national park. at some point during the day they came across another group doing the same. they stopped and chatted, then took a break and watch that group repel for a few minutes. it was super clear to him they were being very unsafe and sloppy in technique, so he kindly let them know. they were, of course, young and cocky and dismissed his concerns. well, a couple hours later on his way back out of the canyon he came back across the same group in the same place. sure as shit, one of the girls in the group had fallen down their repel after he left and had broke her femur. compound fracture. in the middle of nowhere with a clearly inexperience and unprepared group leader. it was late in the day, with little water left in the group and the girl was in shock. my brother and his friend (both Marines) field dressed, splinted and proceed to carry this poor girl out of the canyon, including setting up rigging to to pull her up the repel she fell down and doing half of the rescue in the dark. injuries in hard-to-access places are the most dangerous.

Thanks for relaying the story.

One of the first questions our guide went around and asked everyone in the group was "Is rock climbing safe?". It's not safe, but neither is driving a car. If you take it seriously and mitigate the risks where you can you can tip the odds in your favor, but if you wanted to be safe you'd just stay home. That's not much of a life though, so you have to find a balance point somewhere. Everyone has a different comfort level with risk. At the end of the day if luck's not on your side, you're screwed either way. I'm not trying to promote risk-taking or stupidity. "Everything in moderation" is what the greeks said and it still seems to hold true.

HipMF

Content no one asked for. AKA, the fossil fuel bubble, AKA, the ultimate hockey-stick graph. AKA, even the greeks didn't see this on coming.

ASTROCHIMP

I’m in Cincinnati and am half tempted to pop by EAG, but I think they’d just shoo me away.

B C

ASTROCHIMP said:

I’m in Cincinnati and am half tempted to pop by EAG, but I think they’d just shoo me away.

Absolutely do it! They are cool people and it will give you insight as to why they can charge what they charge. FWIW, the rarer stuff is in an offsite storage warehouse.

patsbimmer1

I built my first garden fence! I also did half lap for the first time to build the gate and I'm pretty pleased with that new knowledge.

Bassboy3313

Today's pick-n-pull finds...

GunMetalGrey

The last job I was on satisfied the inner child in me watching cool trailers and big rolling cranes do their job.
Lifted a new section of machine (100,000 lbs) into a mill using a 350 ton crane, then skated it into the building and picked it with the 50 ton house crane.
I was playing erection supervisor / mechanical advisor for this job which is a little different than what I am used to considering this was a full tear out and replacement of the old section of machine, but it was a solid project overall.

Shortly after lifting it, the overhead crane stopped responding to all controls, with millions of dollars of equipment hanging out 15ft in the air. After an hour and a half it just started working again, so it was quickly set and that crane was not used again.

I didn't get a good photo of the finished machine, but here's one from the backside.

jc43089

GunMetalGrey said:

The last job I was on satisfied the inner child in me watching cool trailers and big rolling cranes do their job.
Lifted a new section of machine (100,000 lbs) into a mill using a 350 ton crane, then skated it into the building and picked it with the 50 ton house crane.
I was playing erection supervisor / mechanical advisor for this job which is a little different than what I am used to considering this was a full tear out and replacement of the old section of machine, but it was a solid project overall.

That's what she said.

patsbimmer1

This past weekend we had 2 of my wife's friends stay at the house with their kids and husbands. On Saturday the girls went to get their nails done and go to a beer garden in Waukesha and they took the M3. When they got back my wife said her friends need to drive the car but were "afraid" so I spent the rest of the day egging them on. On Sunday one of the girls was ready so I threw her in the drivers seat and we went for a drive. She eventually fell in love with it and spent the rest of the weekend asking to drive it anywhere so we put a few more miles on it. Her other friend drove it but it was too stressful of an event and she was done after one drive lol.

This is one of the reasons I bought a DCT. I love handing my keys to someone and letting them rip! It's even more fun when they've never really driven a sports car. With a 6 speed there is a barrier to entry that scares people away. You have to want to drive a manual trans AND have one available to learn on. The DCT is a terrible automatic but the fact it can shift on it's own takes one barrier down.

It also made me think about why these girls were "afraid" to drive my car. They kept saying they're afraid they'd hurt the car. It made me ask more then we got to the root. They know how much I love the car and they don't want to be responsible for disappointing me. Also, the perception that it's a terribly expensive car if something did get damaged scared them. I had to go above and beyond to assure them it's a car, I have insurance and they can't hurt it. I took them for a drive and they saw how I drive. They won't be harder on it than I already am.

This also reminds me that it just takes once to get someone hooked. One time behind the wheel to spark something you didn't know you had in you. It's one thing to always be a passenger and enjoy a ride but to have the opportunity to push the pedal and control the noises coming out of the exhaust pipe is a whole different experience. The friend who enjoyed it spent the rest of the weekend asking me about how to get into a car of her own like this and convincing her husband that it's do-able.

TL;DR - Don't be a dick. Share the keys.